The walk from the only realistic car parking space was not hard, maybe 20 minutes at most, and if you know what you’re looking for you can see it as you pass over the first cattle grid, but I could not, despite Moth’s insistence, “look, woman, it’s there!” For me it was more of a ‘slow reveal’ and a thrilling one at that. As we got closer, its distinct shape came into view and I become more silent, gobsmacked by it’s beauty.
Imagine the Rollrights, and now combine that vision with Castlerigg... yep! you have Sunkenkirk. Over fifty beautiful stones, some fallen, but predominently still standing, enclose a wonderful space somehow of a human scale. I walked round, pausing to admire the craftsmanship in each carefully dressed stone: the snooker-table flatness of the dressing, the sharp edges where the flatnesses intersected... oo-er, but this is a blinder! Something about its completeness is utterly alluring. The rise in the land just at the back of the circle affords views of its entirity, which you just don’t get at other circles.