John Burke's Curiosities Stone Circles |
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  The Merry Maidens, CornwallThis circle is near the village of Lamorna on the road between Penzance and Lands End. Local legend has it that the stones are the petrified remains of young girls who were turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday. Stones nearby are said to have been the pipers. One is easily seen in the right hand photograph, another is in front of the farmhouse. |
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Long Meg and her Daughters, Cumbria Long Meg is the monolith shown in the photograph right and has ancient carvings on the side facing the circle known as Long Meg's Daughters. The circle is bisected by a road. |
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King Arthur's Round Table, Cumbria This earthwork henge is in a field on the side of the A6 at Eamont Bridge. A side road has cut into the structure on one side and a stone wall across the surrounding mound to the west. The southern entrance to the circular henge is shown with the ditch clearly visible. |
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| Mayburgh Henge, Cumbria Follow the directions to King Arthur's Round Table Henge (above) and take the road leading west that cuts across the structure as described above. The road leads past a farm entrance and then curves 90 degrees to the right. A large hill will be to your right which is the henge. On climbing the hill there is a hollow interior with a single standing stone in the centre. When I visited with Marlene in 1997 the stone was extremely warm to the touch. The entrance is to the south east and there were other standing stones there originally. The structure of the henge with its hollow interior and standing stone makes for a wonderful atmosphere. |
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Castlerigg Stone Circle, Cumbria Signposted from the A66 from Penrith to Keswick turn to the left shortly before Keswick. Follow the signposts and the circle is on the left of the road. The circle has an oblong enclosure, seen here, made up of several stones at one point on its perimeter. Remains of cremations were excavated there. The setting is magnificent. |
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| Avebury, Wiltshire Whilst more visitors head for Stonehenge, to me the most magical place in the whole of England, on a par with Glastonbury, is Avebury. The earthworks are staggering. A huge embankment, ditch and stone circle surrounds the entire village whilst other stone circles can be found within. |
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It is interesting to count how many people venture inside the inner circles. Whilst
some people are unaffected by any 'atmosphere' I have always found that the majority of
visitors prefer to walk around the perimeter of the inner circles.
On my first visit, my daughter then aged around 5 refused point blank to enter the inner circle. (This has been the subject of several emails - I didn't feel anything and she was too young to explain.) |
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| Stonehenge, Wiltshire Stonehenge is without doubt the most spectacular prehistoric monument in Europe. Unfortunately so much of it was being chipped away and taken home for souvenirs that for many years it has no longer possible to walk amongst the stones which I remember doing in my early teens. Now there are plans to open up the monument to visitors once more - which means it will soon be impossible to take photographs like this! |
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The Rollright Stones, Cotswolds Supposedly the petrified remains of a king and his knights, there is a circle, a group and a single stone in the area. |
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