Research has revealed that Stonehenge’s monumental six-tonne altar stone, long believed to originate from Wales, actually comes from northern Scotland.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. It is believed that construction on the structure began 5,000 years ago, with changes and additions being made over the next two millennia.

It consists of an outer ring of vertical standing stones each topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Lying in the centre of this stone circle is a ring of smaller bluestones.

The largest of these bluestones, known as the altar stone, is a 50cm thick sandstone block measuring 5x1 metres and weighing six tonnes.

It was believed that this stone, along with the other smaller bluestones, hailed from the Preseli Hills area in west Wales and was one of the first stones to be erected at the site.

As the altar stone’s origins have remained an open question, a group of researchers from Aberystwyth University, University College...