"Arbor Low consists of a circular platform, 167 feet in diameter, surrounded by a ditch 18 feet broad at bottom, the earth taken from which has been used to form a rampart about 15 feet to 18 feet high, and measuring about 820 feet in circumference on the top. (These dimensions as well as the plan are taken from Sir Gardner Wilkinson's paper in the ' Journal of the Archaeological
Association,' xvi. P. 116, and may consequently be thoroughly depended upon.) The first thing that strikes us on looking at the plan is that, in design and general dimensions, the monument is identical with that called "Arthur's Round Table," at Penrith. The one difference is that, in this instance, the section of the ditch, and consequently that of the rampart, have been increased at the expense of the berm; but the arrangements of both are the same, and so are the internal and external dimensions. At Arbor Low there are two entrances across the ditch, as there was in the Cumberland and Dumfriesshire examples. As mentioned above, only one is now visible there, the other having been obliterated by the road, but the two circles are in other respects so similar as to leave very little doubt as to their true features.
The Derbyshire example, however, possesses, in addition to its earthworks, a circle of stones on its inner platform, originally probably forty or fifty in number; but all now prostrate except perhaps some of the smallest, which, being nearly cubical, may still be in situ. In the centre of the platform, also, are several very large stones, which evidently formed part of a central dolmen."
From [i]"RUDE STONE MONUMENTS IN ALL COUNTRIES; THEIR AGE AND USES"[/i] BY JAMES FERGUSSON, D. C. L., F. R. S, V.P.R.A.S., F.R.I.B.A., &c
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Image Credit: Sir Gardner Wilksinson
Posted by slumpystones
15th March 2007ce
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NB: Unless otherwise stated, this image is protected under the copyright of the original poster and may not be re-used without permission.
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