A video drone has been used to try and unlock the secrets of a mysterious 200 million year-old Nottinghamshire landmark.
The Hemlock Stone at Bramcote Hills Park is part of The Three Stones project, which aims to uncover the history of some of the county’s more unusual historic attractions.
Experts from the scheme are trying to determine whether the 28 ft high structure was created by water erosion or if it was man-made.
The stone has already been scanned with a laser, but this couldn’t reach the top of the structure, so the team asked for help from the firm Ocuair, which supplied a drone.
By carefully analysing its surface, it is hoped experts will one day be able to say for definite it the stone was made by nature or carved by our ancestors.
The project is being helped by the University of Nottingham’s Geospatial Institute.
Richard Gill, the Ocuair’s operations director, said: “We were asked to help with the project by the students at the Geospatial Institute, and we thought it was an excellent opportunity as we hadn’t done anything like this before.
It was quite nerve-wracking at times
“While flying the drone it was quite nerve-wracking at times, as there was one point we had to fly the drone through a one-metre gap.”
The drone was used to capture high angles of the stone, which would otherwise only have been accessible by using a scaffold.
Video: Watch the incredible footage captured by the drone of the monument
It took the drone 20 minutes to complete the scan and half a day to process the information, which is undergoing further analysis.
The University of Nottingham’s Geospatial Institute are also trying to get permission to scan two other historic landmarks in Nottinghamshire – the Druid Stone at Blidworth and Bob’s Rock in Stapleford which, it’s believed could be linked to the Hemlock Stone.
Video: A computer-generated 3D model of the stone
