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England
OddendaleStone Circle
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10 posts
Oddendale Cairn I Cairn(s) |
1 post
Oddendale I Stone Circle |
1 post
Oddendale Multi-Phase Ring Cairn (destroyed) Ring Cairn |
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3 posts
Oddendale Standing Stone Standing Stone / Menhir |
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Fieldnotes |
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I had a mooch about the circle last week to see if I could find the small ring to the north of the main circle. The ring is featured in Hob's post of T.Blands 1850 sketch of the circle http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/38165 and was also recorded in John Waterhouses survey of the circle for his wonderful book 'The Stone Circles of Cumbria'. The ring is visible as a low mound with a few small stones barely poking through the soil. It's a case of feeling for the stones rather than looking for them. It's interesting that both the nearby White Hag and Castlehowe Scar circles also have satellite features. |
Posted by fitzcoraldo6th July 2005ce Edited 6th July 2005ce |
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This is one of those times when I wish I had read the fieldnotes of others before visiting! I set off up the right-hand path, believing this would offer the best route (or so my dodgy reading of the OS map led me to believe). Ended up walking for AGES thinking "where the bleedin' hell is it?". Mind you, I got to see some amazing scenery and it was a warm and sunny day... Follow the directions given by the others below and you shouldn't go wrong... and be prepared for the fact that it is low-lying and not overly visible until you are almost on top of it. |
Posted by Vicster31st May 2005ce Edited 3rd June 2005ce |
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Sunday 29 June 2003 We parked atthe bottom of the hill where the road turns left into a tree-surrounded farm. Following the path south up onto the moor, there’s a nice bit of particularly ‘old-looking’ (if you see it you’ll know what I mean) limestone pavement off to the right. Walk past this and still looking right, you’ll very quickly see various lumps of rock, including 2 ‘erratics’ that are noticeably bigger than anything else. Wait until these 2 biggest stones line up with each other and strike off the path towards them. Walk straight past the erratics, perhaps a couple of hundred yards keeping in as straight a line as you can. This should lead you to a point where you can’t miss the Oddendale circle, if not to the circle itself! And we’re back in Gunnerkeld territory – a double circle, but this time under a really, really HUGE sky!!!! On such a sunny clear breezy day it really was like standing on the roof of England!!! Burl’s description of Oddendale calls it (and by implication, Gunnerkeld) a ‘composite ring’ and likens it to some on Dartmoor that I don’t think I’m familiar with. His description makes it sound almost like it was originally like a ‘mini-Clava Cairn or something…. The actual stones here are generally fairly small – smaller than Gunnerkeld, anyway I think. Otherwise, again Fitzcoraldo’s said it all! A beautiful place, though pretty inhospitable in bad weather and boggy a lot of the time, I suspect. Liked it a lot. This post appears as part of the weblog entry Such a nice Shap!
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Posted by Moth2nd July 2003ce Edited 15th July 2003ce |
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This is a beautiful concentric circle. I was inspired to come here by a lovely aerial photograph that Stubob sent me of the site. Photography on the ground is difficult due to the size of the circle (30 metres) and the flatness of the site. The inner ring is 5 metres across and is described by Burl as a paved ring cairn. This must have been something to see in it's hayday. You can see the factory chimneys of Shap quite clearly from this site which implies that the shap complexes would have been visible back in the day. There is a stone between the outer and inner rings which forms an alignment with the cairn to the east, the circle and Shap. There are also three aligned boulders to the north of the circle. In summary, an intriguing site, well worth a visit. |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 21st February 2003ce |
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Always a highlight of a visit to the Shap area...The size and shape of the stones are just perfect. The limestone pavement you cross to get to the stones has some great formations in it, as it's weathered thru the years. Make sure you see this circle. Keep an eye out for Ironman's Oddendale Cairn I on the way up to the circle. |
Posted by stubob20th January 2003ce Edited 21st January 2003ce |
| The Oddendale circle is completely surrounded by modern intrusions - the Shap cement works, the M6, a railway line, a quarry and a regimented plantation surround this site on all sides. However the site itself is in pretty good condition and is a great example of a concentric circle. The site is close enough to plenty of other sites (Iron Hill, Kemp Howe, Castlehowe, Gunnerkeld) to make it worth the visit. |
Posted by IronMan13th May 2002ce Edited 16th December 2002ce |
Miscellaneous |
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"The one near Odindale Head is similar, at first sight inspires a truly Ossianic feeling. It is situated on a hill of "dark brown heath," it is formed of an outer circle of thirty stones not so large as those at Gunnerskeld, twenty-five yards in diameter, within which is another circle of twenty-one stones closely packed to each other seven yards in diameter; within this are a number of other stones irregularly laid, similar to Gunnerskeld. It was opened in presence of Rev. J. Simpson, but nothing was found excepting a small portion of black carbonaceous matter. A peculiar feature is that there is an upright stone placed outside the inner and within the outer circle on the south-east side. On the north side about seven yards distant is the remains of another circle, fourteen yards in diameter, having another within of four yards, but many of the stones have been removed. Respecting the origin of these circles authors differ considerably, some considering them to be the temples of the Druids, within whose mystic bounds sacrificial rites were performed; while others attribute them to a later people, the Pagan Saxons, Angles or Danes. Odindale, like Gunnerskeld, is a name significant of the latter people. Odin was the one great god of the Gothic nations, from whom they all claimed descent, and to whom, of course, their greatest honours were paid." The Vale of Lyvennet J.S. Bland Published 1910 |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 6th June 2007ce Edited 6th June 2007ce |
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Shap Granite is very distinctive and easily identified by the large pink feldspar crystals contained within it's matrix. Shap granite is a very popular building stone and can be found used in buildings all over the UK. |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 3rd September 2002ce |
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Megalithic WalksImages and description of the site. |
Posted by IronMan 1st March 2002ce Edited 30th July 2003ce |
Latest posts for Oddendale |
Showing 1-10 of 15 posts. Most recent first | Next 10 
Oddendale Cairn I (Cairn(s)) — Images (click to view fullsize) |
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Posted by faerygirl22nd June 2010ce |
Oddendale Cairn I (Cairn(s)) — Miscellaneous |
| Visited yesterday with archaeolgoy tutor who confirmed that this is indeed a later addition and not prehistoric. A nice touch though! |
Posted by Vicster 23rd June 2009ce |
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In his 2007 book, Prehistoric Monuments of the Lake District, Tom Clare states that, in 1972 the author was assured by a resident that he had not built it. However thirty years later the story has changed. |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 16th December 2007ce |
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"One other local site should be mentioned in this context, the "miniature" stone circle at NY59281334, adjacent to the entrance to Oddendale hamlet. Although it seems to have existed beyond local memory the monument is unconvincing, the stones not earthfast. It was probably made in the spirit of waggishness, perhaps in imitation of the true Oddendale stone circle, within the fairly recent past. See Cumbria Sites and Monuments record, number 1575." A Prehistoric ritual sequence at Oddendale, near Shap P. Turnbull. TCWAAS vol XCVII 1997 |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 29th January 2006ce |
Oddendale Cairn I (Cairn(s)) — Images |
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Posted by fitzcoraldo 27th January 2006ce |
Oddendale Multi-Phase Ring Cairn (destroyed) — Miscellaneous |
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This monument was excavated by Percival Turner and Deborah Walsh in 1990 prior to the destruction of the site by the extension of the Hardendale quarry. The site was interpretted being a focus of ritual and burial during the Neolithic and Bronze Age which was constructed in four major phases. "A third millenium monument consisted of two concentric circles of timber posts was demolished and the tops of post-pits sealed by substantial settings of boulders. This in turn was succeeded, in the Early Bronze Age, by a simple ring-cairn to which was later added a rectangular platform of boulders with a feature like a facade on one side of the ring-cairn". A Prehistoric ritual sequence at Oddendale near Shap. P. Turnbull TCWAAS vol XCVII 1997 |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 30th May 2005ce |
Oddendale Cairn I (Cairn(s)) — Images |
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Posted by fitzcoraldo 25th February 2003ce |
Oddendale Cairn I (Cairn(s)) — Fieldnotes |
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This lovely little cairn circle is just beside the entrance to the village of Oddendale. It is situted on a bridleway and close to the path to Shap. It has the feeling of a small shine possibly to protect the village. As I spent some time here a bloody great buzzard flew overhead and seemed to lazily check me out. The circle is only 5 metres across with 12 outer stones and 3 inners. Someone had scrawled a notice on a slate informing any passers-by of the fact that this is a 'stone circle' This site is probably not prehistoric. See Misc post |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 21st February 2003ce Edited 29th January 2006ce |
Oddendale I (Stone Circle) — Fieldnotes |
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Perhaps a mile further along the limestone pavement is a ruined circle, it stands on a small mound and although it is ruined its circle of low jagged stones are still quite impressive. And it is a pleasant walk here from the double circle. The ' I ', I added to the name is just to differentiate from the double ring circle. |
Posted by stubob 20th January 2003ce |
Oddendale Standing Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Images |
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Posted by IronMan 13th May 2002ce |
Showing 1-10 of 15 posts. Most recent first | Next 10
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