Castlerigg Stone Circle

Castlerigg was raised around 3000 BC, which makes it one of the earliest stone circles in Britain, before Stonehenge in its present form. Thirty-eight stones remain of perhaps forty-two, in a slightly flattened circle about thirty metres across, on a natural plateau with fells on every side including Skiddaw, Blencathra and Helvellyn, and the siting is clearly deliberate. Inside the eastern side is a rectangular setting of ten stones called the Cove or Sanctuary, which has no parallel at any other British circle and no accepted explanation. Stone axes from the Langdale quarries have been found nearby, suggesting a link to the axe trade that moved Cumbrian stone across Britain. The circle is unfenced, free and open at all hours, unusually for a monument of this importance.

What you actually see

• The thirty-eight stones - a flattened circle about thirty metres across.
• The internal rectangle - a ten-stone setting unique among British circles.
• The fell surround - Skiddaw, Blencathra and Helvellyn ringing the plateau.
• The open access - unfenced and free at any hour of day or night.

When to go

Year-round and at any hour; sunrise and sunset are the reason to time it, and the site is often empty at dawn. Winter with snow on the fells behind is the most striking. Midday in summer brings coach parties.

Honest expectations

Roadside parking is a small lay-by that fills quickly and the lane is narrow. The field is muddy and grazed. The circle is small and the visit is short; the setting rather than the stones is the point.

Nearby

Keswick and Derwentwater are two kilometres west; Blencathra rises north.