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Castlerigg Stone Circle is in Keswick, Cumberland, North England Stone Circles.
Avebury by William Stukeley. Castlerigg [Map]
We continued our journey through this rough country, and passed half round the bottom of the famous Skiddaw, a high mountain named from its fancied likewise to a shoe (ysoyd.) Penruddoc, a town near it, with a Welsh name. These desolate and hilly regions were the retiring places of the Britons from the power of the Romans; which perhaps is the reason of the great number of temples scattered throughout the country; for a mile before we came to Keswick, on an eminence in the middle of a great concavity of those rude hills, and not far from the banks of the river Greata, I observed another Celtic work, very intire: it is 100 foot in diameter, and consists of forty ftones, some very large. At the east end of it is a grave, made of such other stones, in numfer about ten: this is placed in the very east point of the circle, and within it: there is not a stone wanting, though some are removed a little out of their first station: they call it the Castles, and, corruptly I suppofe, Castle-rig. There seemed to be another larger circle in the next pasture toward the town.
1772. Thomas Pennant. "A tour in Scotland, and voyage to the Hebrides, 1772": Castlerigg Stone Circle [Map]: "In the course of the descent, visit, under the guidance of Doctor Brownrigg (the first discoverer) a fine piece of antiquity of that kind which is attributed to the Druids. An arrangement of great stones tending to an oval figure, is to be seen near the road side, about a mile and a half from Keswick, on the summit of a pretty broad and high hill, in an arable field called Castle. The area is thirty-four yards from north to south, and near thirty from east to west; but many of the stones are fallen down, some inward, others outward: according to the plan, they are at present forty in number. At the north end, are two much larger than the rest, standing five feet and a half above the soil: between these may be supposed to have been the principal entrance; opposite to it, on the S. side, are others of nearly the same height; and on the east is one near seven feet high. But what distinguishes this from all other Druidical remains of this nature, is a rectangular recess on the east side of the area, formed of great stones, like those of the oval. These structures are considered in general to have been temples, or places of worship: the recess here mentioned seems to have been allotted for the Druids, the priests of the place, a sort of Holy of Holies, where they met separated from the vulgar, to perform their rites, their divinations, or to sit in council, to determine on controversies, to compromise all differences about limits of land, or about inheritances, or for the tryal of the greater criminals1; the Druids possessing both the office of priest and judge. The cause that this recess was placed on the east side, seems to arise from the respecy paid by the antient natives of this isle to that beneficent luminary the sun, not originally an idolatrous respect, but merely as a symbol of ths glorious all-feeing Being, its great Creator.
Note 1. Cæf. de Bello Gal. lib. vi.
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1819. Castlerigg Stone Circle [Map]. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (age 46): "a Druidical circle [where] the mountains stand one behind the other, in orderly array as if evoked by and attentive to the assembly of white-vested wizards" (1799) and Keats "Scarce images of life, one here, one there,/Lay vast and edgeways; like a dismal cirque/Of Druid stones, upon a forlorn moor…"
Cumbria and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. Castlerigg Stone Circle [Map]. It has been the fashion to class this with the temples of the prehistoric ages. The magnificence of its site, and the rectangular inclosure on the eastern side,—which has been thought to be an adytum, foreshadowing the chancel of a Christian church,—have lent strength to the idea. In the present imperfect state of our knowledge on this subject, it is, however, well to refrain from using technical terms which involve the advocacy of premature theories; and to confine ourselves to such as are simply descriptive of that which meets the eye. Nothing now remains to show for what purpose this chamber was constructed. If it once contained a barrow, all traces of such an object have disappeared. A shallow circular trench, shown on the plan, within the stone-ring, but outside this chamber, at first sight looks like the remains of a barrow; but as the field was ploughed little more than a century ago, and, perhaps, continued to be for many years, it is probable that this trench is still more recent.
Cumbria and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. ART. V. Some recent Observations at the Keswick Stone Circle [Map]. By W. D. ANDERSON. Read at Carlisle, July 2nd, 1914. The various prehistoric structures which have been generically termed "Stone Circles" may be conveniently divided into three classes:-
(1) Those which have been built for sepulture, such as the Circles at Eskdale and Muir Divock;
(2) Those built for strategic purposes, such as the Circle at Carrock, Mosedale;
(3) Those which seem to have been built primarily for astronomical and religious use.
The Circle on Castlerigg [Map], near Keswick, seems to belong to this last class, and its old name, "The Druid Circle," may be a rational designation. Most authorities are agreed that these Circles date from pre-Celtic times, and many think that the Druids belonged properly to this period, but the Celtic-speaking peoples called their priests "Druids" and there is evidence to show that the Circle at Keswick was used for religious purposes in Celtic times.