Peace and quiet

Far too lovely a day to stay in sorting photographs (me) or marking (Gordon), so off we set for a place I have had planned for a while – another stone circle – Swinside, near Broughton-in-Furness.

I don’t know why I have never been before, as it is one of the best stone circles in the country (some say in Europe) and in an idyllic location amongst the hills, especially on a sunny day like today. And best of all, it is peaceful. Very few people know about it and even fewer find it.

And why is it so little visited? Well, it is located in an out of the way place for a start. Look on the location map and you can see how far the Furness Peninsula is from anywhere. Then you have to find a single track road (unsigned) and follow this until you find another, even narrower, road (unsigned). You then have to look out for a track on the left (helps if there is a friendly postman in his van to help you out!). Having found the very, very limited parking by the side of the narrow road, you walk for a mile on a track that is very steep at times. Eventually you find the stones (unsigned) in the middle of a field. There is no sign, no information – just stones in a field.

So we had the place to ourselves and we could wander amongst the stones, stand in the middle or sit on a bank that overlooks the whole circle and just dream and wonder . . .

The crowds at Castlerigg would be so envious. Look large and you are almost there.


Some facts
The circle is about 28 metres in diameter
There are 55 stones making an almost complete circle, 32 are still standing, originally there would have been about 60 stones.
The tallest stone is about 2.3 metres.
The stones are made of the local metamorphic slate.
The stones are unusually close together, which is a characteristic of many of the earlier circles.
Strangely, all the stones that have fallen, have fallen inwards.

Age is late Neolithic – early Bronze Age, about 3000 years ago.

It has an alternative name of Sunkenkirk, because of a legend that the stones were to be used for the building of a church, but every time they tried to build the church, the Devil caused the stones to sink into the ground. Just love that name.