Commondale Stone Circle View all content for Commondale (19 posts)

This lovely circle is just over 10km from the front door of my house, it also may be the only true stone circle on the North York Moors. I haven't posted any field notes about it apart from a few notes written in 2000 saying that I couldn't find the place. Today I decided to remedy that. It was also an excuse to check out my GPS after Hob had showed me how to use it correctly (it had previously sat on my shelf for over a year after being binned for being constantly wrong). I usually get up to the circle once or twice during the summer. Me and the kids park the car close to the Sleddale Beck Bridge on the Commondale to Kildale Road and then walk up the hillside to the circle. This can be a bit of an arduous route when the ground is wet but it has the advantage of taking you through the lovely stone outcrops of the western edge of Wayworth Moor. The moor has recently been fenced so you can no longer walk directly to the circle without encountering the fence. If you walk up the hill to the keeper's road you will come to a gate in the fence. Once through the gate, turn left and follow the fence downhill. The circle is about halfway down and about 50 paces in from the fence. Your best guide is to look out for the modern cairn on the margins of the ring as shown in Alirich's lovely photo http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/5190 The circle itself is a good size with many erect, albeit low, stones. There is a possible outlier to the circle 20 paces to the east south east. The GPS places the circle at NZ 63766 10848 which tallys with the map. As for why the circle is where it is, when you get there just look to the south west. You will be looking through the Kildale gap, which was possibly the main route between the North York Moors and the Vale of Cleveland and beyond. The view through the Kildale gap includes the Northern scarp edge of the Cleveland Hills and on a good day you can see over to the Pennines. Moving around clockwise from the Kildale Gap you can see Brown Hill and Percy Ridge to the west on the other side of Sleddale and then Great Ayton Moor with the peak of Roseberry Topping to the north west followed by a glimpse of the distant communication masts of Eston Nab visible through the gap between Cod Hill and Hutton Moor. Moving clockwise from North to south it's the the ridge of Commondale Moor and then views across the northern moorland plateau that dominate the skyline. It is possible that this circle unites a number of elements. Many of the prehistoric moorland and hill communities of this northern corner of the North York moors are visible and accessible from this site. It is also close to a number of possible ancient trackways, these two combined would have made it an excellent meeting point. All in all it's a lovely circle and well worth seeking out.

Posted by fitzcoraldo 27th May 2005ce Edited 29th May 2005ce

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