{"it":{"id":"BRI-003","kind":"site","sub":"British Isles","name":"Castlerigg stone circle","place":"United Kingdom","lat":54.603,"lon":-3.098,"date":"Castlerigg is generally assigned to the late fourth millennium BC, often around 3200 BC.","mat":"earth;granite;tuff","nfacts":15,"tags":["Britain","Megaliths"],"sum":"Castlerigg stands on a hilltop near Keswick, ringed by the mountains of England's Lake District. Usually dated to around 3200 BCE, it is among the earliest stone circles in Britain.","why":"An early, well-preserved stone circle whose date, layout and inner rectangle are all less certain than they look.","src":[293],"nsrc":2,"yt":"Does the mountain setting itself explain why it was built here?","rel":["STO-HEN","BRI-002"],"hook":"Castlerigg's largest stone may weigh 16 tons. Nobody has dug there since 1882."},"S":{"293":["Wikipedia: Castlerigg stone circle","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlerigg_stone_circle"]},"rec":{"id":"BRI-003","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"stones are set in a flattened circle measuring","a":"width","v":"32.6","u":"m","o":"The stones are set in a flattened circle, measuring 32.6 m at its widest and 29.5 m at its narrowest.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0948"},{"f":"measuring 32 6 m at its widest and","a":"width","v":"29.5","u":"m","o":"The stones are set in a flattened circle, measuring 32.6 m at its widest and 29.5 m at its narrowest.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0949"},{"f":"heaviest stone has been estimated to weigh around","a":"mass","v":"16","u":"tons","o":"The heaviest stone has been estimated to weigh around 16 tons and the tallest stone measures approximately 2.3 metres high.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0950"},{"f":"16 tons and the tallest stone measures approximately","a":"height","v":"2.3","u":"metres","o":"The heaviest stone has been estimated to weigh around 16 tons and the tallest stone measures approximately 2.3 metres high.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0951"},{"f":"outlying stone was erected by a farmer approximately","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"90","u":"m","o":"In the early 20th century, a single outlying stone was erected by a farmer approximately 90m to the south west of Castlerigg.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0952"},{"f":"observed another Celtic work very intire it is","a":"diameter","v":"100","u":"foot","o":"...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 stones, some very large.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0953"},{"f":"Length of inclosure within the Keswick stone circle","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"22","u":"feet","o":"Dover's report: Length of inclosure within the Keswick stone circle, 22 feet, east and west; breadth, 11 feet, north and south.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0954"},{"f":"stone circle 22 feet east and west breadth","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"11","u":"feet","o":"Dover's report: Length of inclosure within the Keswick stone circle, 22 feet, east and west; breadth, 11 feet, north and south.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0955"},{"f":"Length opened out","a":"length","v":"18","u":"feet","o":"Length opened out, 18 feet to 19 feet; breadth, 3 feet 3 inches, with two cross cuts of about 2 feet.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0956"},{"f":"Length opened out 18 feet to","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"19","u":"feet","o":"Length opened out, 18 feet to 19 feet; breadth, 3 feet 3 inches, with two cross cuts of about 2 feet.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0957"},{"f":"opened out 18 feet to 19 feet breadth","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"3","u":"feet","o":"Length opened out, 18 feet to 19 feet; breadth, 3 feet 3 inches, with two cross cuts of about 2 feet.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0958"},{"f":"18 feet to 19 feet breadth 3 feet","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"3","u":"inches","o":"Length opened out, 18 feet to 19 feet; breadth, 3 feet 3 inches, with two cross cuts of about 2 feet.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0959"},{"f":"3 inches with two cross cuts of about","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"2","u":"feet","o":"Length opened out, 18 feet to 19 feet; breadth, 3 feet 3 inches, with two cross cuts of about 2 feet.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0960"},{"f":"soil to where the yellow undisturbed soil appears","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"14","u":"inches","o":"Depth of dark superficial soil to where the yellow undisturbed soil appears, 14 inches, with the exception of a small portion at the west end where the black soil mixed with stones continued to a depth of 3 feet.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0961"},{"f":"mixed with stones continued to a depth of","a":"depth","v":"3","u":"feet","o":"Depth of dark superficial soil to where the yellow undisturbed soil appears, 14 inches, with the exception of a small portion at the west end where the black soil mixed with stones continued to a depth of 3 feet.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381881046 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0962"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"They are often interpreted as later Bronze Age additions inserted into an already ancient monument, although a 2021 re-examination of Benjamin Williams's 1856 description has suggested that one mound may have contained a Langdale tuff axe, raising the possibility that at least some burials within the circle could belong to the Neolithic.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"The one here represented is of the first, or simple class, and consists, at present, of about forty stones of different sizes, all, or most of them, of dark granite,— the highest about seven feet, several about four, and others considerably less; the few fir-trees in the centre are, of course, of very modern growth.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[],"dat":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"Castlerigg is generally assigned to the late fourth millennium BC, often around 3200 BC.","dm":"[see dating_excerpt; method not extracted]","lab":"NO: inference only (style/context/king list/textual)","weak":"no direct lab result on the structure in our records; date from stylistic, contextual or textual inference","unesco":"","dens":"CENSUS"},"co":{"lat":"54.6028366","lon":"-3.098384","src":"Wikidata P625 only + curated wave0 value agrees","agree":"agree","b":"V","note":"two independent sources agree; max delta 0.0000 deg (~0.00 km)","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/32973419"},"src":[{"id":"S0278","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castlerigg_stone_circle&oldid=1381881046"},{"id":"S0454","t":"Wikipedia: Castlerigg stone circle","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlerigg_stone_circle"},{"id":"VBRI-003-3","t":"English Heritage: History of Castlerigg Stone Circle","u":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/castlerigg-stone-circle/history/"},{"id":null,"t":"Historic England, Castlerigg stone circle and two bowl barrows, official list entry 1011362","u":"https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1011362"}],"sum":"\"The mountains stand one behind the other, in orderly array,\" wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1799, \"as if evoked by and attentive to the assembly of white-vested wizards.\" He had come with his friend William Wordsworth to see a ring of old stones on a hill a mile and a half from the town of Keswick, and what struck him was not the stones themselves but the way the whole landscape seemed to have gathered around them to watch.\n\nAnyone who stands at Castlerigg today feels what he meant. The circle sits on the rounded top of a hill in the Lake District of north-west England, at the centre of a natural amphitheatre of fells. From inside the ring you can see some of the highest peaks in Cumbria: Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Grasmoor, Blencathra. The hilltop is placed so that the nearby ground falls out of sight, leaving only the distant mountain skylines. It is as if the builders chose the one spot where the land itself becomes the outer wall.\n\nThe circle is made of 38 large stones, though counts run as high as 42 depending on whether you include the small packing stones that erosion has exposed at their feet. They are glacial boulders, chunks of volcanic lava and ash carried here by ice and dumped across the surrounding fields, so the builders did not have to haul them far. The tallest stands about 2.3 metres, a little more than a tall man, and Historic England allows that some reach 3 metres. The heaviest may weigh 16 tons. English Heritage says that dozens of people must have been needed to move it, which implies a fairly large community gathering on this hilltop to do the work. There is a wide gap on the north side that seems to be an original entrance.\n\nThe ring is not quite round. English Heritage gives its width as between 30 and 33 metres; other measurements give 32.6 metres at the widest and 29.5 at the narrowest. English Heritage thinks the builders wanted it to look circular to people standing on the ground, rather than to be geometrically perfect, which is itself a telling choice: a monument made for the eye of a participant, not for a plan drawn from above.\n\nHow old is it? No one can be sure, because nobody has excavated here since 1882, and there is no laboratory date. English Heritage says the ring was probably built about 4,500 years ago, in the late Neolithic, the age when people in Britain had begun to farm but had no metal tools. In 1976 the archaeologist Aubrey Burl proposed a much earlier date, about 5,200 years ago, which would make Castlerigg one of the very first stone circles in Britain. English Heritage says the evidence for his theory is not strong, though the earlier date, around 3200 BC, is still widely repeated on the strength of the circle's style. Recent survey hints that the ring may sit on top of an even earlier circle of bank and ditch.\n\nThe earlier date matters because of what had been happening in these mountains. A few valleys away, at Great Langdale, Neolithic people quarried volcanic stone and shaped it into polished axes, work that recent dating suggests had ended by about 3300 BC. The Langdale \"axe factory\" produced around a third of all the polished stone axes known from Neolithic Britain. Across Britain, stone axes have been found deliberately buried, as if they meant far more than tools. Some archaeologists see Castlerigg as part of that world, a gathering place where trade, travel and ritual met. In 1856 a man named Benjamin Williams described what one of the mounds inside the circle held; a 2021 re-reading of his account suggests it may have been a Langdale axe. One stone, number 13 on the western edge, bears the only carving at the site: a single lozenge, a diamond shape that some link to the passage-tomb art of Ireland.\n\nThe first written record came in 1725, when William Stukeley passed \"on an eminence in the middle of a great concavity of those rude hills.\" He counted forty stones, \"some very large,\" and noted something else: \"There seemed to be another larger circle in the next pasture toward the town.\" No trace of that second circle has ever been found.\n\nInside the ring lies Castlerigg's oddest feature: a rectangle of ten stones, about seven metres by three, set against the eastern side. Nothing like it is known in other British stone circles. Stukeley took it for a grave. Early archaeologists named it the Sanctuary and thought it might be a burial chamber. A trench was dug in it in 1882; it found nothing, and the soil layers that a modern excavator would study were thrown aside. Recent analysis suggests the Sanctuary may not be prehistoric at all, but the remains of a medieval shepherd's cottage or sheep pen. If its stones were taken from the ring, the circle may once have had 50 stones or more. Two low round mounds, each 3.6 metres across, sit just inside the entrance. They have never been dug, but they look like burial mounds of the early Bronze Age, around 4,300 years ago.\n\nThen there is the sky. In the 20th century several archaeologists proposed lines between stones in the circle and outlying stones that would mark where the sun or moon appeared on key days. English Heritage sees serious problems. Many stones were shifted slightly between 1790 and 1850, and in prehistory the hill may have been thick with trees that hid the view. One outlying stone, about 90 metres away, was set up by a farmer in the early 20th century after his plough kept hitting it; whether it ever belonged to the monument no one can say. The best case is midwinter. From between the two mounds, the sun on the shortest day would in theory rise between the tallest stone and a fallen partner. But that works only on a flat horizon, and Castlerigg's horizon is mountains, which push the real sunrise further south. English Heritage says most archaeologists think such lines were symbolic rather than precise.\n\nThe mainstream picture is therefore modest. Castlerigg was a ceremonial enclosure built by a farming community with hard work and local stone, a place for gathering, ritual and perhaps exchange, set in a landscape that made it unforgettable. Historic England notes that some circles may have marked the seasons and others served as meeting places for a group, and Castlerigg may have done both.\n\nAnd yet the questions stack up. A ring built to look round from the ground but not from above. A setting where the hills seem arranged for an audience. A circle that may be among the oldest in Britain, born in the same mountains as the axe trade, with a lone Irish-style carving on its western stone and a vanished partner circle in the next field. Without a modern excavation, there is no date and no record of what happened inside it.\n\nColeridge thought the mountains were attending a meeting. What were the people who chose this hilltop gathering to witness, and why did they want the mountains to watch?","qs":["Was Castlerigg built for one morning a year?","If the Sanctuary is a medieval sheep pen, what else at old sites might be younger than we assume?","Why would builders aim for a ring that only looks round?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Castlerigg_before_a_storm_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg/1280px-Castlerigg_before_a_storm_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castlerigg_before_a_storm_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg","title":"Castlerigg before a storm - Adam Morgan Ibbotson.jpg","lic":"CC BY 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0","by":"AdamMIbbotson","cap":"Castlerigg Stone Circle with stormy skied approaching"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Castlerigg.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castlerigg.jpg","title":"Castlerigg.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Gjoseph at English Wikipedia","cap":"Castlerigg Stone Circle, Apr 2005. Castlerigg Stone Circle."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Castlerigg_A_Outlier.jpg/1280px-Castlerigg_A_Outlier.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castlerigg_A_Outlier.jpg","title":"Castlerigg A Outlier.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Thisisstupid","cap":"Outlying stone at Castlerigg stone circle showing possible damage caused by ploughing."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Castlerigg_Aerial_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg/1280px-Castlerigg_Aerial_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castlerigg_Aerial_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg","title":"Castlerigg Aerial - Adam Morgan Ibbotson.jpg","lic":"CC BY 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0","by":"AdamMIbbotson","cap":"Castlerigg Stone Circle as seen from the sky to the north, looking towards the Thirlmere Valley"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/Castlerigg_Rock_Art_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg/1280px-Castlerigg_Rock_Art_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castlerigg_Rock_Art_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg","title":"Castlerigg Rock Art - Adam Morgan Ibbotson.jpg","lic":"CC BY 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0","by":"AdamMIbbotson","cap":"A lozenge carved into stone 13 of Castlerigg Stone Circle"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"16","u":"t","h":"Heaviest stone, by estimate; the tallest is about 2.3 m","s":[48]},{"v":"10","u":"stones","h":"An unusual rectangle of stones set inside the circle's east side","s":[48]},{"v":"3200 BC","h":"Castlerigg is generally assigned to the late fourth millennium BC, often around 3200 BC","s":[48]},{"v":"Earth, granite, tuff","h":"Made of","s":[48]}],"hs":{"48":["Wikipedia: Castlerigg stone circle (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlerigg_stone_circle"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/BRI-003.webp","w":1280,"h":720,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Castlerigg_before_a_storm_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg/1280px-Castlerigg_before_a_storm_-_Adam_Morgan_Ibbotson.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}