Ewden Beck Stone Circle View all content for Ewden Beck

I wasn't expecting much from this site but was pleasantly surprised. Set on a gently northeast facing slope framed by Ewden Beck to the north and one of its tributaries to the east English Heritage record this as being a ring cairn rather than a stone circle. It's difficult to tell exactly what it is as it's quite overgrown and rooting around in the bracken and heather turns up many half buried small stones that formed part of a bank which the Morgans reckon is about 2-3 metres wide, the whole circle having a diameter of about 20 metres. There are 4 or 5 largish boulders that could be said to be standing together with a few slab like fallen stones, the rest of the larger stones are towards the northern, northeastern and southeastern edges of the ring while those to the west seem to be mainly packing material from the bank. I'm sure there are many more stones that I missed. The northern entrance seems well defined but I couldn't quite decide which stones formed the southern entrance although what could be a fallen slab outlier could provide a clue. The site has some decent views from the northwest round to the southeast but it's the Salter Hills to the east that really draw the eye. There's also a few interestingly named places close by - Stone Moor, Bolsterstone, Midhopestones and the wonderfully quaint Wigtwizzle.

Posted by Chris Collyer 4th August 2008ce

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