The stone circles of Cumbria, a blog post by Richard Abbott

Great Britain is full of ancient stone circles, and Cumbria is especially rich in them - over fifty of varying sizes and degrees of preservation. Some go back to the Neolithic Age - starting a little over 5,000 years ago - and others to the Bronze Age - starting about 3,500 years ago. Most of them are older than the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt.

Avebury - The Cove - oriented to midsummer sunrise

Each of the Cumbrian circles has its own unique features and qualities. Perhaps the best known of them, and certainly the one closest to regular tourist destinations, is Castlerigg, just outside Keswick. It is one of the oldest stone structures in Europe. Together these monuments should be providing a rich source of cultural wealth. However, except for Stonehenge and Avebury, way down south, little attention is drawn to our English stone circles, and this is especially true of Cumbria. Many are overgrown: most are not marked with any kind of sign or description for the curious traveller. It is as though we don't really care about this aspect of our own history. Eire does a much better job of interpreting her own ancient relics for modern visitors.

Castlerigg, looking towards Skiddaw

Part of the problem is that we have no certain idea what their purpose was. Some have astronomical significance - the solar patterns at Stonehenge are well known - but for most, the arrangement is not so apparent. But even where we are reasonably sure of deliberate alignment with the sun or moon, it is hard to know what significance this alignment had. Were the astronomical alignments there for the purpose of predicting future events like eclipses? Or were they for celebrating ongoing events - perhaps a midsummer feast? We might imaginatively reconstruct what happened around or on the stones, but we lack solid information.

Again, a fair number of the Cumbrian rings appear to mirror the peaks and dips of the surrounding hills. It is hard not to believe this was deliberate. But why? Were they seen as a kind of miniature echo of the land around, invoking some sympathetic magic? Or was it for visual artistry? Or is it simply that a ring of stones will always look a bit like a ring of hills?

Castlerigg, looking down towards Helvellyn

We struggle even more when we try to decide on their purpose, and there is a bewildering variety of explanations proposed. Sacred rituals, processions, magical acts, trade negotiations, regular marketplaces, animal slaughter or exchange, treaty affirmations, collective marriage sites - all of these have been suggested, along with many others. We simply don't know for sure, and the artefacts found alongside them do not help us to decide.

So that is one reason why here in England we don't make much of our stone circles - we can't fathom their purpose, and without a story to tell, it is hard to put up compelling interpretive boards and visitor centre displays! They do not yield their secrets with a quick visit, but invite longer interaction. People often become fascinated by the enigmatic face they show. Perhaps a longer span of contemplative time is called for than most of us make room for in our days.

Castlerigg, looking towards Clough Head

Another reason is the relative inaccessibility of some circles. Up in Cumbria, climate change over the last few millennia has meant that the green and pleasant upland areas where people used to live are now boggy and uninviting moorland. Hardly a pleasant family ramble. Most are well removed from today's preferred routes. Castlerigg, and Long Meg and her Daughters (near Penrith) are both easily reached, but many others are not. I have been going to the Lake District for over 40 years, and yet have rarely walked anywhere near some of the more remote places, despite my steadily growing interest in the ancient things of this country. Ironically, however, some are within a stone's throw of the entirely modern creations of the M6 motorway and Sellafield nuclear facility.

Long Meg and (some of) her daughters

So, what do we know about them? Well, they mostly use locally available stone, often making creative use of contrasting pieces of moraine brought there by Ice Age glaciers. They would have required extraordinary efforts by local communities, probably over many years. Maybury Henge, near Penrith, consists of millions of stones taken from the river and piled into a circular bank up to 5 metres high. Even today, moving so much stone would be a serious proposition. For an ancient culture to invest so much time and effort tells us that extraordinarily powerful motives were at work here.

Many of the standing stones have geometric or abstract patterns cut into them, a practice typical of northern England and southern Scotland, though less common in the south or the extreme north of the country. Most are located on ancient trackways - though this naturally raises a chicken-and-egg question. The Romans usurped this idea when they arrived, so Roman roads often lead you straight to one of the circles. Many of these structures were over 3,000 years old when the Romans first saw them, and you have to wonder if they were as mystified as we are by their origins and purpose.

Location map - www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone

Finally, the geographical distribution is far from even, which perhaps tells us something about the priorities of the people who built and used these monuments. There are a lot down the Eden Valley corridor, between the Cumbrian fells and the Pennines. Presumably this was a major transit route then, just as it is now. There is another cluster in the southern Lakes, apparently arranged with the Old Man of Coniston as their focal point. This hill is certainly not the tallest of the Lakeland fells, but it stands in a commanding position, with long views down towards Morecambe Bay and the Lancashire coast. Perhaps it held an equally prominent place in the symbolic or spiritual life of the communities of the time.

So, Cumbria's many stone circles have thus far kept their secrets. I'll certainly be exploring them for a long time to come. If you're up in that area sometime, drop in on one or other of these atmospheric places and choose your own response to their enigmatic faces!

We'll finish with some of William Wordsworth's lines about Long Meg...

Speak Thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn

The power of years--pre-eminent, and placed

Apart, to overlook the circle vast--

Speak, Giant-mother! tell it to the Morn

While she dispels the cumbrous shades of Night;

About the author:
Richard Abbott is one of the reviewers at The Review, and lives in London, England. He writes science fiction about our solar system in the fairly near future, and also historical fiction set in the ancient Middle East - Egypt, Syria, Canaan and Israel.

When not writing words or computer code, he enjoys spending time with family, walking, and wildlife, ideally combining all three pursuits in the English Lake District. He is the author of In a Milk and Honeyed Land, Scenes From a Life, The Flame Before Us - and most recently Far from the Spaceports. He can be found at his website or blog, on Google+, Goodreads, Facebook and Twitter.