After Stonehenge and Avebury this is probably the most visited stone circle in Britain, with plenty of parking places, three, count ‘em three entrances into the field, all with their own information board, (all with a model of the circle with directional pointers to distant places) and close enough to Keswick to walk there, popularity is always a given for this stone circle.
Today was no exception with popularity, there must have been at least twenty people here, not since Stonehenge have I seen so many people at an ancient place, even though it was around tea time. Ten of them were all together, Indian in appearance, they seemed more intent on photographing each other climbing the stones. A few were obviously tourists killing time, some had big cameras and could have been me in ten years, one bloke had a tie died shirt, a flask of something and a book, he sat quietly reading looking up now and then with a bemused look to him, and there was Eric and me.
I’ve not been here for ages, not since the Leonid meteor shower at 2am, and before that some foggy equinox over a decade ago, I didn’t know til now but I’ve missed Castlerigg, it isn’t in my mind the best stone circle ive seen, Brodgar, Swinside and Callanish are my favorites, but in all the sites I’ve seen this is the best placed anything ever. They could’ve built a shed here and still they’d come.
I wandered over to the lonely stone by the wall, hoping that at least the Indians would soon tire of the stones, they didn’t, as I walked back some little bugger was chasing sheep around, shit, that’s my little bugger, erm I mean lovely little boy, what’s he going to do next climb on the stones, oh god Eric get down.
Time to go!!!
"in all the sites I've seen this is the best placed anything ever"
Some claim, but very hard to argue with.
It is, but I cant think of any where better, i'm willing to entertain other claimants.
In terms of location Castlerigg will take some beating - let me have a think about it................
A guidebook I had many years ago to ancient/historical sites said something along the lines of 'it's only when you stand in the middle of the circle that you realise why it's where it is'. Up there with the best even if it's not as remote as some of us prefer.
'it's only when you stand in the middle of the circle that you realise why it's where it is'
I think we really realised why it was where it was when seen from both Blencathra and Lonscale Fell. The circle is obviously carefully placed seen from those tops, on a little rise and in the centre of everything.