Castlerigg Stone Circle

(4th day)

In the car, I'd tried my best not to doze off so that I could keep KS a company. But thinking back, there is a void in my memory so I guess I wasn't quite succeed in my attempt.

I remember in order to stay awake, I grabbed the traveler's book and looked for the recommendation about local foods and beverages. And all that could go into my mind is fish & chips, pastry, English tea, ZZzzz....From time to time, I heard KS mumbo jumbo about driving along the Hadrian's wall; where we would stay for that night...ZZzzz...

Didn't know how long time had passed, suddenly I felt myself in a total consciousness again. And just then, I saw the signboard pointing to "Castlerigg Stone Circle". KS asked if I wanted to go to take a look of it? Sure I want, though he said it was nothing but just a circle of stones. Well, he said the same thing about the world's famous landscape, Stonehenge, too. (rolled eyes)

Anyway, since it's just a few kilometers off the highway, there is no reason why we should bypass it, right? Within 10 min time, we were there. I woke up William who had been sleeping on my lap the whole journey. Feel my right leg was so numb and that part of my jeans was wetted by his sweat and saliva too.

Castlerigg, 2.5 km from Keswick, is one of the most beautiful stone circles in Britain. It is set in a splendid position, in an open field crowned by the Lake District's mountains, 213m (700ft) above sea level. It is thought to be one of the earliest circles in Britain, and it dates from around 3000 BC. (wow, 5000 years long ! )

The original motivation behind the construction of Castlerigg, its subsequent use and how this may have changed over time, is not known for sure.

The site is under increasing risk from erosion. Therefore, visitors are requested to avoid entering the roped area to allow the recently seeded areas to established a permanent grass, hoping to reduce erosion and limit the loss of soil.

38 stones are placed in an slightly oval shape of 30m (100ft) in diameter.

A further 10 small stones are arranged as a rectangular enclosure on the south-east side of the ring. This is a feature unique to Castlerigg, nothing similar being present in other stone circles.

Every stones are in diferent sizes and shapes.

There is a tradition that it is impossible to count the number of stones within Castlerigg. Every attempt will result in a different answer. This tradition, however, may not be far from the truth. Due to erosion of the soil around the stones, caused by the large number of visitors to the monument, several smaller stones have ‘appeared’ next to some of the larger stones. Because these stones are so small, they are likely to have been packing stones used to support the larger stones when the circle was constructed and would originally have been buried.

Differences in opinion as to the exact number of stones within Castlerigg are usually down to whether the observer counts these small packing stones, or not. Some count 38 and others, 42. The ‘official’ number of stones, as represented on the National Trust information board at the monument, is 40.

I'd asked Vincent and William to make a count too. Vincent reported 46, and William reported 48. I've tried to count too, but I'd lost my concentration somewhere around 20 something, hehe....

The largest stone of the circle, not far from the enclosure, is 2.5m (8ft 3in) high and it weighs about 16 tons. Wow, hard to believe this stone is actually that heavy.

Most of the others, much smaller, are 1 to 1.5m (3-5ft) high.

See anything special about those stones? Or just as what KS said : well, it's nothing too special, just a circle of stones?

Anyway, to the boys, they are definitely more than just a circle of stones. And I think the stones and the people can compliment one another to create a more beautiful picture than standing alone.