Mayburgh Henge

Mayburgh Henge stands on a small hill near Eamont Bridge in Cumbria, close to where the Rivers Eamont and Lowther meet. It is a circular earthwork built mostly of river cobbles, with a single large stone in the centre. The bank rises up to four and a half metres high and measures about one hundred and seventeen metres across. English Heritage now looks after the site, which is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. A second henge, King Arthur’s Round Table, lies four hundred metres away along the same ridge. The henge’s position at a natural river crossing made it a meeting place for ancient routes from Shap, the Eden valley and the Petteril valley. Archaeologists think it may have been a centre for Neolithic axe trade from Langdale. Finds of stone axes near the site support this idea. The entrance faces east, framing the rising equinox sun, and the view from inside points to the ridge of Blencathra. A spring between the two henges was noted by the 18th-century antiquary William Stukeley. Inside the bank visitors see the single standing stone and the slightly domed centre. The surrounding landscape holds other monuments such as the Shap Stone Avenue and Long Meg and Her Daughters. A modern granite obelisk marks the year 2000 nearby. The combination of pink, grey and white stones would have created a striking effect for ancient visitors.