Castlerigg

The Circle and Its Setting

Thirty-eight stones stand in a field east of Keswick, set in a rough circle about thirty metres across. They were put there around 3000 BC — roughly 4,500 years ago — and inside the ring is a rectangular setting of stones that appears nowhere else in Britain. This is Castlerigg Stone Circle, a little over 1.5 kilometres from Castlerigg hamlet.

Castlerigg is a small hamlet of scattered farms on the rural fringe east of Keswick. The stone circle sits separately on an open plateau to the north-east.

A Ring of Fells

From the plateau, the view opens out towards Skiddaw, Blencathra, Helvellyn, and the fells running the whole way round the horizon. It is one of the most dramatically sited stone circles in Britain, and it does not have to work hard at it.

The stones are free to visit during daylight hours. English Heritage looks after them, and there is no ticketed entry. It is the most visited stone circle in northern England, which on a quiet morning you can almost forget.

Stones, Sunrise and the Way In

In the mid-eighteenth century someone ploughed the surrounding ground and shifted at least one of the stones, which had stood undisturbed until agriculture caught up with it. A midwinter sunrise alignment has been proposed, though the people who set the stones left no note explaining themselves.

The Vale of Keswick spreads below the plateau. High Rigg is a separate walk in St John's in the Vale; Keswick Tourism starts its 5.2-mile circuit at Legburthwaite Car Park. From Castlerigg hamlet, the stone circle is about one mile away in a straight line, and the walking route is longer. Check current access and travel information before setting out.

A Visit Measured in Millennia

Most people walk out, go once around the ring, photograph the fells behind it, and head back into Keswick for lunch. The stones have watched them do it, in one form or another, for four and a half thousand years.