The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Castlerigg

Stone Circle

Fieldnotes

An astounding site. And yes, the setting is all. I went up there on a warm, clear night alone with Eno's 'Appollo' on minidisc to listen to, and had a eeriely wonderful time star-gazing.

The very first impression I got from the site was that it was placed with a genius for psychogeographic accuracy. Photos of the place obviously emphasise the majesty of the surrounding mountains. But what struck me is how humanised and pastoral the area immediately around Keswick is, and how at the circle you feel like you're on a platform that is part of, but above and beyond this landscape, reaching for the sky. I assume the lowlands round here would have been populated in Neolithic times as well. Castlerigg feels like a bridge-point between the human landscape and the mountains that touch the stars. Sitting there under the moon, I gained for the first time an insight into how hills on the horizon may have inspired the creation of stone rings - so people could "pull the horizon in" and humanise it - circles of stones standing for hilly horizons - presumably as something against which to measure the turning cosmos above.

A great place - go!
Posted by gyrus
27th August 2000ce

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