Can anyone tell me what this is?

Berwick Law 1

Image by BigSweetie

BigSweetie Jun 7, 2011 22:19:13

We were up Berwick Law a few weeks ago (only just got around to sorting out the photos) and on the way back down I spotted a "circle" of stones.

There are about 6 or 7 stones, definitely arranged in a kind of elongated circle, on the south-east flank of the hill. They are overlooking a terrace below covered in hut circles.

Some photos:

From above, the hut circle terrace is the flat area beyond the stones.
From above again.
Looking through the "circle" to a human yardstick for scale.
The southern half of the "circle".
View from the other side.
Looking up the hill to the ridge, one stone is visible in the middle of the photo.

This is a Google Maps link to the approximate location, although I don't think the stones can be seen on the aerial photo, so I'm not 100% on how accurate the position is.

Any opinions? There's nothing on CANMORE for this location. Am I seeing things?

tjj Jun 8, 2011 07:49:45

Replying to BigSweetie

BigSweetie wrote:

We were up Berwick Law a few weeks ago (only just got around to sorting out the photos) and on the way back down I spotted a "circle" of stones.

There are about 6 or 7 stones, definitely arranged in a kind of elongated circle, on the south-east flank of the hill. They are overlooking a terrace below covered in hut circles.

Some photos:

This is a Google Maps link to the approximate location, although I don't think the stones can be seen on the aerial photo, so I'm not 100% on how accurate the position is.

Any opinions? There's nothing on CANMORE for this location. Am I seeing things?

Hi Big Sweetie
I'd like to offer an opinion but it is only that. I was up in the Lake District a week or so back and came across a lot of craggy outcrops of rock that sometimes seemed to be circular - also random sort-of-circular rock falls. I think perhaps I have a stone circle imprint on my brain - one evening whilst looking across one of the lakes (next one along to Derwentwater) I spotted something that looked like a small circle on the side of the opposite fell. I took a photo with my zoom lens but as you can see it is a rocky outcrop; perhaps these places that occur naturally are what inspired ancient people to build their circles - so keeping close to the earth.

Lovely photos btw.

tjj

StoneGloves Jun 8, 2011 13:01:26

Replying to BigSweetie

"Any opinions?"

Don't get over-excited. It doesn't seem like a stone circle, because of the location - backed into a hillside. Go back there and look at it many times. See how it fits in the landscape - look at the prominent hilltops, if it were an artificial circle they would be included, somehow.