Banniside

Nearest town:
Ambleside (12km NE)
OS reference:
SD286968
OS sheets:
96, 97
Latitude:
54° 21' 41.26 N
Longitude:
3° 5' 56.12 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Banniside (Stone Circle) by The Eternal

Banniside Stone Circle in its landscape. Taken from part way up Coniston Old Man. The obvious track is the Walna Scar pass.

Image credit: The Eternal
The Eternal
The Eternal Apr 30, 2005
Image of Banniside (Stone Circle) by The Eternal

From elevated position in NE looking SW into the circle (in the foreground).

Image credit: The Eternal
The Eternal
The Eternal Apr 30, 2005

Articles

Banniside

The Eternal
The Eternal Apr 30, 2005

Excavated in 1910 by W.G. Collingwood (ref. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, Original Series, 1910, vol. 10, p 342). Included in “The Stone Circles of Cumbria” by John Waterhouse (ISBN 0858335663).
Described as an embanked circle, the stones are only 2 feet high at best. It is hard to find, due to its lack of presence. From a distance it is hard to believe there is anything there other than grass and bog.
The first time I visited was many years ago, when great, grey curtains of cloud were sweeping across the site. A steady drizzle added to the misery, but the site held a presence all of its own under those conditions. In my mind I peopled it, and tried to imagine the rites enacted there.
Today it was spring-like,and a totally different atmosphere pervaded.
Pottery found there dates it to the early Bronze Age, and it held several cremations. Also found were fragments of calcined bone, charcoal, urns, a flint scraper and a bead of white-ish-grey porcelain. Fragments of skull found are thought to be female. Also, attached to one of the urns was a fragment of finely-woven woollen cloth.
Some of the finds can be seen in the Ruskin Museum in Coniston (see link).
Roughly 100 yards ENE (ish) of the circle, I found an old cairn, very overgrown, and composed of boulders. I couldn’t help wondering if it was related to the circle in some way.

Sites within 20km of Banniside

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