Though Stonehenge is the best known stone circle in Britain, with the largest individual stones, there are many circles around these isles. Castlerigg certainly gets my vote for the most dramatic.
The circle sits on the flat top of a high hill above Keswick. On one side, the landscape drops away toward town, though the urban view is blocked by trees. On the three other sides, valleys and higher hills stretch away into the distance. It could be into infinity, considering the mystic sense of isolation you get up here. If the producers of Lord of the Rings hadn’t flown to New Zealand to film, this certainly would have been a candidate. It’s that sort of mythic landscape.
The circle is an amazing 5,000 years old. It’s about 30 yards in diameter and contains 38 stones. These range in size. Some have been worn down to stool-like stumps, others are still close to six feet. Unlike Stonehenge, these haven’t been squared off. They’re still in their natural form, albeit worn smooth by wind and rain. To me, there’s something much more interesting about these shapes.
Another major difference from Stonehenge is that you can wonder in amongst the stones. Touch them, sit on them, appreciate how they’re set off by the dramatic backdrop. I find that this kind of proximity causes me much more wonder about how they actually built the circles. Get that close, sense how huge and heavy the are … even the small ones … and you just can’t conceive how people could have quarried the stones and dragged them all the way up that hill.
I find this both a peaceful and an oddly disturbing place. It depends on the weather. I’ve been here in sunshine, when it’s simply a magnificent setting and I think about the technological achievements of Neolithic man. And then I’ve been here in cloudy weather, with mist and cloud swirling in the valleys below and the skies looking ominous. At those times the circle is a bit threatening, mystic, magical. You could almost believe some of the wilder stories about druids, time portals and the like. Fortunately, after you give yourself a little scare you can wonder back into Keswick, where there are plenty of fine pubs to help you recover the 21st century.
(NB: You can get a similarly intimate stone circle experience at Avebury in Wiltshire. The largest circle by diameter in Britain, it’s so big there’s a village inside it. Like Castlerigg, you have free access to the stones.)
From journal A Lazy Woman's Lake District