Scientists say remains suggest Stonehenge started as graveyard
LONDON — British researchers have proposed a new theory for the origins of Stonehenge: It may have started as a giant burial ground for elite families around 3,000 B.C.
New studies of cremated human remains excavated from the site suggest that about 500 years before the Stonehenge we know today was built, a larger stone circle was erected at the same site as a community graveyard, researchers said.
"These were men, women, children, so presumably family groups," said University College London professor Mike Parker Pearson, who led the team. "We'd thought that maybe it was a place where a dynasty of kings was buried, but this seemed to be much more of a community, a different kind of power structure."
Tale of two Stonehenges
Parker Pearson said archaeologists studied the cremated bones of 63 individuals, and believed that they were buried around 3,000 B.C. The location of many of the cremated bodies was originally marked by bluestones, he said. That earlier circular enclosure, which measured around 300 feet (91 meters) across, could have been the burial ground for about 200 more people, Parker Pearson said.
http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/10/17259834-scientists-say-remains-suggest-stonehenge-started-as-graveyard?lite
= new reply since forum marked as read
I can check that on 4oD. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/secrets-of-the-stonehenge-skeletons/4od#3493817
(probably not viewable outside of the UK)
Since you mention the Orkneys - see also from last year :
'Discovery of a lifetime': Stone Age temple found in Orkney is 800 years older than Stonehenge - and may be more important
A 5000-year-old temple in Orkney could be more important than Stonehenge, according to archaeologists.
The site, known as the Ness of Brodgar, was investigated by BBC2 documentary A History of Ancient Britain, with presenter Neil Oliver describing it as ‘the discovery of a lifetime’.
So far the remains of 14 Stone Age buildings have been excavated, but thermal geophysics technology has revealed that there are 100 altogether, forming a kind of temple precinct.
Until now Stonehenge was considered to have been the centre of Neolithic culture, but that title may now go to the Orkney site, which contains Britain’s earliest known wall paintings.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2081254/Stone-Age-temple-Orkney-significant-Stonehenge.html#ixzz2NEQWsWeO
There's a documentary on that too which from memory discusses the possibility that those who built that later shipped off south and then built stone henge. 
"The seeds of our destiny, are nurtured by the roots of our past." - Dru & The Ids
