7 of Britains Lesser-Known Stone Circle Sites

Callanish Stones, Scotland / Photo: Donald Macleod

Marc Latham steps beyond Stonehenge to point out alternative mill round sites which competence be of interest upon a longest day of a year (or anytime, really).

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE in a UK applaud solstice during Stonehenge twice a year, though this is only a single of over 1,000 mill circles in Britain.

Maps of antiquated Europe show how Stone Age humans traveled opposite a channel from mainland Europe in to what is right away southeast England, as well as afterwards widespread out to a north as well as west. The Megalithic as well as Beaker cultures dominated Britain dual thousand years later, as well as they built a great mill structures which still grace a islands today.

Trips formerly described sites in a Stonehenge as well as Avebury area. Just in time for Summer Solstice 2010, here have been 7 of a most appropriate of a rest from southwest to northeast.

1. Greywethers, Devon

Traveling southwest of Stonehenge to a Dartmoor National Park wilderness, youll find a mount in ring site of Greywethers.

The mill circles mount underneath Sittaford Tor, in in between tributaries of a North Teign as well as East Dart rivers, as well as a undeveloped vicinity concede you to imagine a cultures which used a mill circles for reasons mislaid in a centuries which have since passed.

There has been some restoration work upon a circles, which have been roughly joined, with 49 grey granite stones altogether: twenty-nine in a southern round as well as twenty in a northern. The stones have been 3 to 4 feet high, as well as both circles have been only over 100 feet in diameter.

Photo: Le Petit Poulailler

2. Merry Maide! ns, Corn wall

Farther southwest, towards a tip of Lands End, a Merry Maidens is a round of nineteen well-preserved, four-foot-tall stones in a 77-foot-diameter undiluted circle, only off a B3315 road.

A legend, maybe proposed by a early Christian church to control paganism, claims a stones have been women punished with petrification for dancing upon a Sabbath. The Merry Maidens have been additionally called Dawns Men, suspicion to be a source of Dans Maen, or Stone Dance in Cornish.

Out of sight to a northeast have been dual more 12-foot stones which have been a pipers of a legend, while a fiddler mill is manifest from a round to a west.

3. Rollrights, Oxfordshire

Northeast of Stonehenge, in in between London as well as Bristol upon a Oxfordshire-Warwickshire border, have been a Rollrights.

Seventy-seven stones have up a 103-foot undiluted round in a clearing in a woods. There is additionally a King Stone as well as a Whispering Knights funeral chamber. These have been pronounced to be part of an additional petrification legend, involving a magician who tricked a King as well as incited him as well as his army in to stone.

The King Stone is only over 200 feet northeast of a circle, opposite a highway as well as a limit with Warwickshire.

Photo: alancleaver_2000

4. Castlerigg, Cumbria

Beyond a rolling green hills as well as alternative important areas of antiquated wake up in a north, Cumbria has dual important mill circles. Within a Lake District as well as surrounded by broad mountains is a Castlerigg circle. Its suspicion to be a single of a first mill circles built in Britain, as well as has space upon a northern side for what might have been an entrance.

There have been 38 quite vast stones (the top is about 7 feet) formulating a round with a 90-foot diameter, as well as an additional 10 stones formin! g a rect angle inside of a circle. Theres additionally a mound inside a circle, substantially for funeral purposes.

The site seems strategically placed to get a most appropriate perspective possible, as well as sitting against a single of a great stones upon a balmy evening, I enjoyed a perspective south to a long flat mesa of Skiddaw as well as north to a sharp rise of Blencathra.

Photo: Joccay

5. Long Meg, Cumbria

Long Meg is a second superb site in Cumbria, as well as a round is a third largest in England (after Avebury as well as Stanton Drew) during 359305 feet.

On a hillside nearby Penrith, in a village of Rudston, Long Meg is an outlier mill station 238 feet southwest of a circle, aligned with a mid-winter sunset. It is twelve feet tall as well as overlooks a up to 60 daughter stones which form a circle.

Long Meg is additionally done of a different substance than a others red sandstone as well as has numerous Bronze Age turn carvings manifest upon it.

6. Callanish, Outer Hebrides

Continue north by Scotlands Highland mountains as well as opposite Loch Roag of a Outer Hebrides as well as youll come to a stones of Callanish, upon a horse opera side of a Isle of Lewis.

They mount in a cross shape rather than a circle, though this has zero to do with Christianity, as they predate Christ by dual thousand years. An middle round has 13 large stones, with a largest twelve feet high, as well as a small chambered cairn.

Then there have been about 40 alternative stones divided in to 4 paths which yield approaches to a core from a principal directions.

Photo: goforchris

7. Brodgar, Orkney Mainland

Scotlands alternative islands have be! en home to a Ring of Brodgar as well as a Stenness Stones, dual circles facing each alternative opposite Loch Stenness.

Brodgar is a loyal ring of 27 stones station up to 15 feet tall upon a skinny promontory in in between a Harray as well as Stenness lochs. Its 340-foot hole gives it exactly a same size as Aveburys dual middle rings. The stones have been set inside of a circular embankment about 10 feet deep as well as 25 feet opposite which was dug out of plain bedrock.

The surrounding area has most interesting sites, together with a Stones of Stenness. Although only 4 stones have been left station out of a original circle, they have been most bigger than those during Brodgar, with a top about nineteen feet.

For a extensive listing of ancient mill sites in a British Isles as well as Western Europe, check out a Stone Pages.

Community Connection

If youre up in Scotland chasing stones, you could additionally try Hunting a (Other) Loch Monster in Morar, Scotland, as well as Boozing Through 5 Whisky Distillery Tours In Scotland. Their stargazing is ostensible to be good, too.