Nor can I omit to mention, as one more example of stone circles in the parish of Halifax, a ring of stones, which is not altogather destroyed, in the township of Bankisland. The stones of this circle are not now erect, but lie in a confused heap, like the ruins of a building, and it is probable that many of the largest have been taken away. It gives the name of Ringstone Edge to the adjacent moor.
Gentleman's Magazine Library
Edited by George Lawrence Gomme, FSA.
Archaeology Part II
1886
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from an article entitled Folk Games at Silbury Hill with details provided by Mr John Goulstone
An account in The Gloucester Journal on 9 November 1736 describes how a dinner was served on the summit while between 4000 and 5000 people sat at the foot of Silbury and on a facing eminence, all of which was made a very agreeable appearance. A bull was baited at the top and bottom of the hill and:
There was also backsword, wrestling, bowling and dancing. The same diversions were repeated on the 2nd day, and also running round the hill for a petticoat. The 3rd day the bull was divided by Mr Smith amongst his poor neighbours on top of the hill, where they diverted themselves with bonfires, ale and roast beef for several hours...
Folk Games at Silbury Hill and Stonehenge
Notes and News
Antiquity
Vol. LIX No. 225 March 1985
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In the parish of Millum, in the same county, there did exist the remains of a Druidical temple, which the country people called " sunken kirk," i.e., a church sunk into the earth. It is nearly a circle of very large stones, pretty entire, only a few fallen upon sloping ground in a swampy meadow. At the entrance there are four large stones, two on each side, at the distance of 6 feet. Through these you enter into a circular area, 29 yards by 30. The entrance is nearly south-east. It seems probable that the altar stood in the middle, as there are some stones still to be seen there, though sunk deep in the earth. The situation and aspect of the Druidical temple near Keswick is in every respect similar to this, except the rectangular recess, formed by ten large stones, which is peculiar to Keswick.
And I am informed that there are other remains of stone circles in these northern districts, where there yet exist so many popular superstitions and customs. Indeed, we find in Camden's account of Westmoreland allusion made to the ruins of one ancient round structure, which has always been considered to have been a temple dedicated to Diana, but which i now known by the name of Kirkshead. Many such instances will be found in the ancient monuments of Scotland. Sometimes there are two circles of stones, at others three circles, having the same common centre.
From the general arrangement of the stones, one of the largest having a cavity, at the bottom of which there is a passage for any liquid sacrifice to run down the side of it, nothing can be more evident than that the triple circle of stones was intended as an heathen temple, where Pagan priests performed their idolatrous ceremonies ; and what is most remarkable is, that most of these singular structures are still known by the name of chapels or temple stones.
By
J. T. Blight
From
The Gentlemans Magazine
1843
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Hep, Hepe, or as now 'tis called Shap, a small Village, once famous for a small Monastery, of which we shall hereafter in its Place particularly speak, but now of no Note, save for certain great Stones in the Form of Pyramids, (some of them nine Foot high, and fourteen thick) almost in a direct Line, and at equal Distances for a Mile together. They seem intended to be the memorials of some Action or other, but Distance of Time hath made it impossible for us to find out the occasion, having no history of this county.
Magna Britannica et Hibernia.Volume 6: Westmorland
by Thomas Cox
1731
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On the southern bank of the Eamont is an intrenched amphitheatre, called King Arthur's Round Table, in ancient times used as a tilting-ground; and near it is another relic of antiquity, named Mayburgh, which is supposed to have been the Gymnasium, where the wrestlers, racers, and others of the humbler class performed their exercises.
From: 'Eachwick - Earnley', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 121-124.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50933.
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"A third circle of stones, of the same kind, called the Grey Yawd, is described by Nicolson and Burn, as being on the summit of the fell called King Harry, in the parish of Cumwhitton, consisting of about 88 stones, set in an exact circle of about 52 yards in diameter; one single stone, larger than the rest, standing out of the circle, about five yards to the northwest "
From: 'Antiquities: Roman', Magna Britannia: volume 4: Cumberland (1816), pp. CXXVIII-CLXXXIX.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50671..
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"British Antiquities. — Of the rude memorials of the early inhabitants of this island, a considerable number occur in the county of Cumberland, the largest and most complete of these is the circle of stones called Long Meg and her daughters, in the parish of Addingham, on the road from that place to Little-Salkeld; this circle is 350 feet in diameter, and consists of stones of various kinds, and of unequal height; some above nine feet high, and others hardly appearing above the surface of the earth; on the south side, at the distance of about seventeen paces from the circle, stands a single upright stone, eighteen feet high, from which this monument derives its name, and between this and the circle are two others of smaller size, forming a sort of square projection from the south side of the circle."
From: 'Antiquities: Roman', Magna Britannia: volume 4: Cumberland (1816), pp. CXXVIII-CLXXXIX.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50671.
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According to Tom Clare in his excellent new book, Prehistoric Monuments of the Lake District.
"in the nineteenth century they were variously referred to as Crummack Stone and Cromlech Stone; the latter suggesting that they were considered to be the remains of a tomb."
Prehistoric Monuments of the Lake District
by Tom Clare
2007
Tempus Publishing Ltd
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TO ORKNEY.
Land of the whirlpool,—torrent,—foam,
Where oceans meet in madd'ning shock;
The beetling cliff,—the shelving holm,—
The dark insidious rock.
Land of the bleak,—the treeless moor,—
The sterile mountain, sered and riven,—
The shapeless cairn, the ruined tower,
Scathed by the bolts of heaven,—
The yawning gulf,—the treacherous sand,—
I love thee still, MY NATIVE LAND.
Land of the dark,—the Punic rhyme,—
The mystic ring,—the cavern hoar,—
The Scandinavian seer, sublime
In legendary lore.
Land of a thousand sea-kings' graves,—
Those tameless spirits of the past,
Fierce as their subject arctic waves,
Or hyperborean blast,—
Though polar billows round thee foam,
I love thee!—thou wert once my home.
With glowing heart and island lyre,
Ah! would some native bard arise,
To sing, with all a poet's fire,
Thy stern sublimities,—
The roaring flood,—the rushing stream,—
The promontory wild and bare,—
The pyramid, where sea-birds scream,
Aloft in middle air,—
The Druid temple on the heath,
Old even beyond tradition's birth.
Though I have roamed through verdant glades,
In cloudless climes, 'neath azure skies,
Or pluck'd from beauteous orient meads,
Flowers of celestial dies,—
Though I have laved in limpid streams,
That murmur over golden sands,
Or basked amid the fulgid beams
That flame o'er fairer lands,
Or stretched me in the sparry grot,—
My country! THOU wert ne'er forgot.
By David Vedder 'The sailor-poet of Orkney'
Taken from
The Voyage of the Betsey by Hugh Miller.
http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/miller/c_betsey_10.htm#XV.
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Mark the concentered hazels that enclose
Yon old grey Stone, protected from the ray
Of noontide suns:-and even the beams that play
And glance, while wantonly the rough wind blows,
Are seldom free to touch the moss that grows
Upon that roof, amid embowering gloom,
The very image framing of a Tomb,
In which some ancient Chieftain finds repose
Among the lonely mountains.- Live, ye trees!
And thou, grey Stone, the pensive likeness keep
Of a dark chambers where the Mighty sleep:
For more tan fancy to the influence bends
Where solitary Nature condescends
To mimic Times forlorn humanities.
William Wordsworth
Miscellaneous Sonnets
Published 1815.
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The Valley of The Black Pig
THE dews drop slowly and dreams gather:unknown spears
Suddenly hurtle before my dream-awakened eyes,
And then the clash of fallen horsemen and the cries
Of unknown perishing armies beat about my ears.
We who still labour by the cromlech on the shore,
The grey cairn on the hill, when day sinks drowned in dew,
Being weary of the world's empires, bow down to you,
Master of the still stars and of the flaming door.
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
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On Harberwain Rigg is a remarkable mound occupying a very elevated position; its diameter is fourteen yards, and surrounded by eighteen large boulders. It was carelessly opened a few years ago, and in the south-west side was
found a human skeleton of gigantic proportions; but whether he had been in a cist of how laid was not noticed. Along with the bones were found portions of the horns of the red deer. The mound is called Iren Hill, doubtless a corruption. Half way between it and the stone circle was found in a cleft of the rock a bronze dagger blade, thirteen inches in length and four inches broad at the hilt. It is of very good orkmanship. Whether it is coeval with the mound is doubtful; but it is a good specimen of the weapon which supplanted those of the stone age, and in the hand of the Briton opposed the advance of the Roman legions.
From
The Vale of the Lyvenett
T.S. Bland
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'I should also like to comment on the 'road' across Wheeldale Moor, which you illustrated on the front cover. This structure is often referred to as one of the best surviving instances of unaltered, though robbed, Roman road construction. However, apart from being roughly on a line drawn between Cawthorn Roman camps and the Roman fortlet on Lease Rigg, it has none of the characteristics of a Roman road. It is restricted to Wheeldale Moor, and follows a sinuous course. It is also broken by watercourses. For some time I have suspected that this monument is in fact a Neolithic or Early Bronze Age boundary line'
An extract from a letter from the Archaeologist Blaise Vyner published in British Archaeology, no 29, November 1997
The full letter is here
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba29/ba29lets.html
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White-raise, a large karn of stones, and near it are the remains of a small circus, ten stones of which are still erect. A little further on, are the vestiges of a larger one of 22 paces by 25. All the stones except the pillar are removed. It stands on the south side of the circus, and the place is called Moor-Dovack
A Guide to the Lakes.
by Thomas West.
Published by 1778
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"Penhurrock, the highest point by the road leading from Crosby to Orton, was a large mound of stones, but it has been removed and broken up for road metal, with the exception of a few boulders of granite. Its diameter was about twenty yards, having in the centre a cist surrounded by an irregular circle of stones about eleven yards across; the boulders are only very small, and have been covered up in the mound. A quantity of bones was found, some of them of gigantic proportions: and what is rather curious, in a small cavity on one side were found a quantity of ashes, remains of the fire by which the bodies had been consumed. As no account was kept of the deposition of its contents, in what position the entire skeletons were found, or where the ashes of those consumed had been placed, we can form no decided opinion respecting its age; but from its mixed contents it was probably used as a burial place by different succeeding races."
From: The Vale of Lyvennet
by J.S. Bland
Published 1910
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"To the most ancient inhabitants many authors ascribe the origin of the various stone circles to be found in different parts of the country. There are two remarkable ones in this district, one in Gunnerskeld bottom, and another near Odindale Head. The former is situate on a level area elevated a little above the bed of the stream. It is a circle of large granite boulders eighteen in number, some of which are still standing upright seven feet high, while many have fallen one way or the other. The circle is thirty-eight yards in diameter; and within it is another formed by thirty-one stones much smaller in size and eighteen years in diameter; within this has been apparently a mound, most of which is removed for the sake of the stones and the earth has been thrown into a heap outside; there are still some large stones left and three in the centre are situated as though they may have formed part of a cromlech. There is no record of anything having been found, and the word Gunnerskeld is of too modern a character to throw any light on the matter.
From: The Vale of Lyvennet
By J. S. Bland
Published 1910
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"Towards the south end of the village of Shap, near the turnpike road, on the east side thereof, there is a remarkable monument of antiquity, which is an area upwards of half a mile in length, and between 20 and 30 yards broad, encompassed with large stones (which that country abounds) many of them three or four yards in diameter, at 8, 10 or 12 yards distance, which of such immense weight that no carriage now in use could support them. Undoubtedly this hath been a place of druid worship, which they always performed in the open air, within this kind of enclosure, shaded with wood, as this place of old time appears to have been, although now there is scarce a tree to be seen (Shap Thorn only excepted, planted on top of the hill for the direction of travellers). At the high end of this place of worship, there is a circle of the like stones about 80 feet in diameter, which was the sanctum sanctorum (as it were) and place of sacrifice".
From: The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland
By Joseph Nicolson, Richard Burn
Published 1777
Available via Google Books
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Near this vill (Eamont Bridge) are two curious monuments of antiquity. One on the south side thereof called Maybrough Castle, almost the shape of a horse shoe, having the entrance on the east side leading into an area 88 yards in diameter. It hath consisted of a single rampier of stones, of which the rubbish now lies loose in ruins, partly grown over with wood. Many of the larger stones were taken away in the reign of King Hen. 6 for the repair of Penrith Castle. Near the middle, towards the western part, is a large stone, upwards three yards in height: formerly there have been several others. It seems to have been, like many other circular inclosures, a place of worship in the times of the ancient druids.
The other is at the south east end of the village, by the side on the left hand going to Penrith, called the Round Table; being a round trench, with two entrances opposite to each other at the north and south. The diameter of the circle within the ring is about 120 feet. It seems to have been a justing-place. The country people call it King Arthur's Round Table, and perhaps the knights, after justing and exercise, might dine here.
From: The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland
By Joseph Nicolson, Richard Burn
Published 1777
Available via Google Books
I suppose it is worth noting that Nicholson makes no mention of the Little Table.
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"Behind the scar, opposite to Raisbeck, about half a mile on the east side of the way as one goeth towards Asby, is a place called Castle Folds , in a situation exceeding well contrived, whereunto to draw their cattle in case of sudden inroad of the Scots, of which notice was immediately communicated by the beacons. In which place the cattle would be secure, until upon the alarm given, the country might rise against invaders. It is a solitary place, not likely to be sought after or found, and situated in a large tracts of naked rocks, the soils being washed off by rains and not accessible. The place hath been strongly walled about, and contains an area of about an acre and a half; and at the highest corner there hath been a fort, about seven yards square within, by way of shelter for the keepers, and as a kind of citadel to retire to, if the outworks should be taken."
From: The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland
By Joseph Nicolson, Richard Burn
Published 1777
Available via Google Books
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"In the high street, leading from Kirkby Stephen to Sedbergh, near Rathey Bridge, is a circle of large stones, supposed to be a monument of druid worship."
From: The History and Antiquities of Westmorland and Cumberland
by Joseph Nicholson and Richard Burn
Published 1777
Available via Google Books
THE PARISH OF ST. OSWALD, RAVENSTONEDALE.
ANTIQUITIES.
In this parish we have a Stone Circle near Rawthey Bridge.
From: 'Parishes (East Ward): St Oswald, Ravenstonedale', The Later Records relating to North Westmorland: or the Barony of Appleby (1932), pp. 214-26. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43514.
The ancient Briton, who were here, have left behind them but few traces of their occupations, but in the Fell End Angle, the south-eastern quarter of the parish near Rawthey Bridge, there are megalithic remains of a stone circle.
From: A Tour In Westmorland by Sir Clement Jones, published 1948
http://www.fivenine.co.uk/local_history_notebook/A%20Tour%20in%20Westmorland/chapter_6.htm
Rawthey Bridge
Little is known about this site. Nicholson and Burn place it by the road from Kirkby Stephen to Sedbergh near Rawthey bridge, i.e. just on the edge of the Howgill Fells. They describe it simply as a circle of large stones, supposed to be a monument of Druid worship.
The Stone Circles of Cumbria
John Waterhouse
Pub. Phillimore &Co.
1985
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