The SRP team found that its solstice-aligned avenue sits upon a series of natural landforms that, by chance, form an axis between the directions of midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset.
This statement requires serious scrutiny. What is meant by "chance" ? Are they saying that such an alignment could not possibly occur elsewhere, or, if there was something like this elsewhere, wouldn't that make it an obvious candidate as a site for Stonehenge?
And even if the landform axis is "natural" how can we be sure it's down to chance?
The late Gerald Hawkins noted that if Stonehenge had been built further north than Oxford or further south than Bournemouth then the rectangle made by the four station stones would need to become considerably distorted for them to maintain their astronomical significance. (see Appendix C,
Callanish, a Scottish Stonehenge in
Stonehenge Decoded by Gerald Hawkins). He says that Callanish and Stonehenge "are both at critical latitudes".
So is it coincidence that this landform axis occurs within the critical latitude bracket?
Ian