I don’t know if this truly has to do with the stones. But there are so many stones round here. And the very name Kirksanton suggests the sort of sacred nature of the spot. So I don’t know where this refers to exactly.. perhaps you do. But I inflict the story on you in the interests of landscape folklore – and that there are circles like Sunkenkirk with a similar sunken story, and also barrows like the Music Barrow where you must listen to the earth.
Another tradition associated with West Cumberland is that at Kirksanton. There is a basin, or hollow, in the surface of the ground, assigned as a place where once stood a church that was swallowed up by the earth opening, and then closing over it bodily. It used to be believed by the country people that on Sunday mornings the bells could be heard far down in the earth, by the simple expedient of placing the ear to the ground.
In ‘Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland’ by Daniel Scott (1899).
There are a lot of "sounds beneath" legends in Cumbria. The most well-known are of the drowned villages of Mardale and Wythburn (pronounced Wye-burn), which involve the sound of the church bells being heard below the waters of the reservoirs in times of storm. Funnily enough, the buildings were demolished before the valleys were flooded. Maybe the traditional story continues through the generations. Interesting stuff, Rhiannon, you font of all legendary stuff, you.