Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

If they had built open air monuments the Devensian glaciation would have destroyed them unless they were in the less megalithic areas free of ice in the south and south east .
There is no reason to believe they were incapable of building stone circles but there is no reason or evidence anywhere where they were found to believe they did .

Neanderthals were living in Britain prior to the onset of the last ice age . Latest dates for them in Europe is approx 24,000 BP but they are believed to be extinct in Britain by 30,000 BP , this may or may not have been due to the worsening climate or homo sap . If they had built open air monuments the Devensian glaciation would have destroyed them unless they were in the less megalithic areas free of ice in the south and south east .
There is no reason to believe they were incapable of building stone circles but there is no reason or evidence anywhere where they were found to believe they did .
The chronology between even accurately dated deposits and the building of a monument is not that straightforward . Most stone circles are unexcavated so much of the dating is based on association and typology .Those that have been excavated can provide dateable material that may help in more accurate dating particularly if there is a clear stratigraphic relationship between the monoliths and the interior as has been found at sites like the Clava cairns (which have stone circles ) , Temple Wood , some Aberdeenshire RSC 'S etc .
A date from the ditch at Stenness was 3100-3000 BC .

A very interesting thread, thanks all. Tiompan, could I just ask about this sentence "Neanderthals were living in Britain prior to the onset of the last ice age . Latest dates for them in Europe is approx 24,000 BP but they are believed to be extinct in Britain by 30,000 BP". I thought the oldest remains found were the Red Lady of Paviland in a cave on the Gower Peninsular - homo sapien though. Have any Neanderthal remains been found anywhere in the British Isles, if so, do you know where? Thanks!

Well, because it made me think and it made me laugh, both of which are things I like in a good forum post.

I must admit that I hadn't really considered the Picts and the Scots to be distinct, in much the same way I wouldn't think of the Cornish/Welsh as being distinct from the Celtic people who were here before the Romans and Saxons (Sais) arrived. And then there's the question of what is "Roman" anyway, most of the legions were cobbled together from an enormously disparate group of peoples. It seems unlikely that a much larger pre-existing populace would simply disappear or move out, much more likely that they would continue much as before with different overlords (who might be more or less beneficent, who knows?). It is true that Saxons and Vikings did settle more extensively, rather than just a few elites, so the make-up of the eastern parts of Britain (especially England) has a bigger mix of those. But lowland Scotland, if anything, appears to have been extensively settled by peoples originally from Wales, so perhaps the lowland Scots are in fact Welsh? :-)

Swanscombe (wo)man is considered to have Neanderthal characteristics but is very early at 400,000 other than that there are no Neanderthal remains from Britain that I can think of , other than the teeth from the cave at Pontnewydd .Their presence is only recognised from their distinctive diagnostic Mousterian tools .