Birkrigg Common Stone Circle

Of the roughly 250 stone circles known in England, only 15 are classed as concentric, formed of both an inner and an outer ring. The most celebrated examples are, of course, Stonehenge and Avebury.

Less famous, but striking in its own right, is the Birkrigg or Sunbrick stone circle, also called the Druids’ Circle. It stands on Birkrigg Common above the Furness coast, looking across Morecambe Bay. Its origins lie between 2000 and 1240 BC, placing it in the Late Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.

The monument consists of two rings. The inner circle, about 8.5 metres across and made up of twelve stones, is the one in the photograph. The outer ring, measuring 24 metres, once held around twenty stones. The stones themselves are carboniferous limestone, none more than a metre high, though several have long since toppled.

Excavations in the early 20th century revealed cobbled pavements within the inner ring, one laid over another. Beneath the lower surface were five cremations: three placed in pits, one laid directly on the cobbles, and one covered by an inverted urn. A later dig unearthed a handful of small artefacts, including what may have been a pestle, a palette, and a fragment of red ochre, suggesting the site had a ritual purpose as well as a funerary one¹Historic England. List Entry Number: 1013501 https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1013501.

• 1
  Historic England. List Entry Number: 1013501 https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1013501