Welcome to Litsy!

All the stories in this collection are interesting, and many of them are excellent, so a strong 4⭐
As supernatural stories of unease, leaning into horror, they present the ancient sites as dangerously unsafe, and those who worship/ed there as being monstrous or satanic, which is a distorted Christianised view of the Pagan and Wiccan worldviews, so there's that. However, from an environmentally-informed perspective, the metaphor of the ⬇️

"I suppose panic is when the subconscious breaks loose and everything in your head dashes screaming out."
- Minuke, by Nigel Kneale (I've had those days!?)

A 1949 story by the writer of Quatermass, and an interesting take on the "modern house built on an ancient burial ground" poltergeist trope (anybody know of an earlier example?).
Strange and then stranger things happen, and local property prices are definitely negatively affected! ??️?

"Tongues of fire leaped & danced & twisted tormentedly to the sky, writhing into grotesque shapes of evil... horned shapes curdling into yellow smoke which billowed and blew towards the bog, where they seemed to pause and quiver, in a stygian green radiance before the screams came..."
The Dark Land by Mary Williams has a painter of possessed landscapes, Julie Carrington, who seems inspired by surrealist Leonora Carrington: perhaps just suggestion.

"Lisheen" by Frederick Cowles, set in 17th century Cornwall, tells of a young parson's damnation due to his obsession with the Satanically-fathered girl he adopts (that bit is icky, but then feeling uncomfortable is part of the effect, I suppose).
There is a stone circle, naturally, where pagan fires flame on the nights of the old festivals, a lost city, and the presence of the Horned Man, who exacts a price for the gifts he bestows on the unwise.

Algernon Blackwood never disappoints: TheTarn of Sacrifice is a story of reincarnation set in the Lake District just after WWI. Veteran, John Holt, seeks the balm of nature to soothe the horrors of war, Blackwood making trenchant comments about the political hypocrisy of that conflict. Hearing the legend of Blood Tarn, Holt discovers his immemorial connection to both the myth & the strange man & his bewitching daughter who live at the tarn's side.

The introduction to H. R. Wakefield's 1940 story, "The First Sheaf" says it's an early example of the folk horror genre, and there are definite vibes of the films The Wicker Man and Hot Fuzz (without the humour), set in an isolated farming community in darkest Essex.
Told as a reminiscence of a childhood incident, the feeling of oppressive threat is well handled.

The third story, "The Spirit of Stonehenge" by Jasper John (pseudonym of Rosalie Muspratt), covers a little of the terrain traversed by Benson in the previous story, though not as skillfully. It's still an interesting tale, atmospheric but no physical shivers with this one. John didn't build up the tension quite so well, but I'm happy to give it 3½ ?for locale and mention of occult histories ?
I should, perhaps, mention a CW for suicide in both.

The first story is an extract from a novella, "Ringstones", by Sarban, which is really just a taster to set the scene for the rest of the stories, but it has piqued my interest to track down the complete tale.
The second is by the magnificent E. F. Benson, "The Temple", set in a rainy July (so exactly fitting my reading circumstances!) and it gave me gooseflesh more than once!
The narrator and Frank take a too-cheap-to-be-true holiday let in an ⬇️

#BookmarkMatching ?
Hmm, I don't have many megalithic/Neolithic themed bookmarks as the sites tend to be in isolated muddy fields without tourist gift shops (obviously a good/bad situation), but I'm pleased to have the ones I've got. La Hougue Bie is a fantastic "passage tomb" on Jersey, the others speak for themselves ?
I've decided to use the Stonehenge one for this book - I mean, it's the Guvnor isn't it?! ?

I bought this in Kendall on May Day 2024 following a visit to Castlerigg Stone Circle: a collection of weird stories featuring British ancient monuments. Probably should read it at a solstice or equinox, but never mind: I'll consider it an early samhain read!