Castlerigg stone circle

Castlerigg stone circle stands on a low hill east of Keswick in the Lake District National Park. It is one of many Neolithic stone circles built across the Lake District, alongside Swinside, Gamelands and Long Meg and Her Daughters. Most archaeologists believe these circles served ritual or ceremonial purposes, similar to earthen henges. The stones are glacial boulders of volcanic rock from the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, set in a flattened circle about thirty-three metres wide. A gap in the northern edge may once have been an entrance, and within the circle lies a rare rectangular setting of ten smaller stones. Archaeologist John Waterhouse called Castlerigg one of the most visually impressive prehistoric monuments in Britain. Every year thousands of visitors come to see it, making it the most visited stone circle in Cumbria. From inside the circle the highest peaks of Cumbria—Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Grasmoor and Blencathra—rise above the surrounding fells. The site sits at the top of a natural amphitheatre, so nearby land falls away while distant horizons dominate the view. Inside the circle the ground shows signs of later additions. Nineteenth-century antiquarians recorded low mounds they thought were burial cairns, and one may have held a Langdale tuff axe. Erosion from footfall has exposed small packing stones that once stabilised the larger uprights. A single outlier stone stands ninety metres to the southwest, scarred by a plough before being re-erected. The circle’s position frames the skyline, though no single astronomical alignment has won general agreement.