I got to the circle from Loadpot Hill to the south – it’s no easier to find from that direction! The OS map shows it at about the position listed on the scheduling notice on MAGIC i.e. NY4571 1908 but I agree with fitzcoraldo’s GPS data i.e. about 150 yards to the NNW. This might not sound much but it could make all the difference tryng to find these recumbent stones in the tussocky grass.
The scheduling notice describes it as a slightly oval arrangement of approximately 81 fallen stones with an external diameter of 20m by 17m. Taking these figures and fitzcoraldo’s estimate that the stones define 60% of the circle leaves only about 45cm of the circle for each stone. Therefore if they were all originally standing, they must have been touching or overlapping.
The whole place felt pretty weird to me – a strange jumble of stones in what could have once been a circular arrangement in a pretty dull place. Why did they bother?
Why bother?. Take a look around. Blencathra, the devils mountain, named after the god of the underworld, is the only range visable in any direction,
framed as if by the fingers of an artist. Whilst looking at Blencathra, in the immediate foreground, you will see an extensive boggy area. This is where
Swarth Beck springs up, a place that would have been regarded as sacred
by the Celts, and those before them. Swarth Beck starts here as a bog, then forms a stream that cuts a huge gorge on its way down to Ullswater.
So we have the god of the underworld, giving birth to this short but magnificent mountain stream, but we also have his mountain looking on.
What a beautiful place to erect a stone circle, with permission I would re-build it myself!.