Mysterious North Of England
Inspiring Castlerigg ‘on top of the world’
For writer and astrologer Kevin Rowan-Drewitt, the Castlerigg stone circle near Keswick in Cumbria is by far his favourite ancient site, and he has been to many - Stonehenge, Bryn Celli Ddu, Newgrange, Callanish and Avebury, to name but a few.
He has visited Castlerigg, also known as The Carles and the Druids’ Circle, more than a hundred times in all seasons, in all weathers and at all times of the day and, he says, it never fails to move, inspire and impress him.
“Standing majestically atop Chestnut Hill, surrounded by the North Lakes mountains and fells, Castlerigg makes you feel you are on the top of the world!” said Kevin, who has written a guide to the monument, where he is pictured, right. “It has to be the greatest free attraction in England.”
Castlerigg was built by the Beaker People 5,000 years ago in the Neolithic period, the new Stone Age. “Using just ropes made of twisted bark and levers of tree branches, these people were able to move local boulders weighing many tons to build a circle of about 40 stones (an accurate number can't be said as some have been removed) 107 feet in diameter in a (using Professor Alexander Thom's classification system) flattened-A type shape,” said Kevin, a school laboratory technician who is also a Reiki Master, a Wiccan high priest, a runemaster and a Tarot reader.
Castlerigg was built by the Beaker People 5,000 years ago in the Neolithic period, the new Stone Age. “Using just ropes made of twisted bark and levers of tree branches, these people were able to move local boulders weighing many tons to build a circle of about 40 stones (an accurate number can't be said as some have been removed) 107 feet in diameter in a (using Professor Alexander Thom's classification system) flattened-A type shape,” said Kevin, a school laboratory technician who is also a Reiki Master, a Wiccan high priest, a runemaster and a Tarot reader. “Thirty-eight 38 stones remain today, 33 of which are still standing. In the east quadrant is a feature called The Cove (pictured below), consisting of 10 stones, all about three feet tall in a rectangular shape. No-one can be certain what purpose The Cove served. It is aligned due east so could have been something to do with the equinoxes, but my theory is that perhaps it was a sort of ‘holy of holies’ where only the senior members of the tribe gathered.”
An outlier three feet tall lies 296 feet to the south-east of the circle, although the authenticity of its location is in question. “However, it did play an important part in the discovery of the amazing alignments that are built into the circle for, when Prof Thom visited the site, the first alignment he found was one from the centre of the circle to the outlier, and that inspired him to look for other alignments,” said Kevin.
“Prof Thom found that from the centre of the circle, three stones marked three of the extreme rising and setting positions of the moon. A gap between two of the stones marked the fourth position, the extreme northerly rising, and aerial photography reveals that a stone once stood in that gap. “The moon takes 18.61 years to complete its cycle so the circle builders would have had to make observations over a period of at least 57 years to know their stones were in the correct position! That the Neolithic people knew of the 18.61 year cycle of the moon is also shown by the inner bluestone crescent shape at Stonehenge which consisted of 19 stones.”
Six more stones in the eastern quadrant, the side that is flattened, are aligned via the centre of the circle with the sunrises on the eight days of the Celtic fire festivals: Samhain, October 31, Yule, December 22, Imbolc, February 1, Eostre, March 21, Beltane, April 30, 21st June 21, Lughnasagh, August 1, and Mabon, September 23.
Six more stones in the eastern quadrant, the side that is flattened, are aligned via the centre of the circle with the sunrises on the eight days of the Celtic fire festivals: Samhain, October 31, Yule, December 22, Imbolc, February 1, Eostre, March 21, Beltane, April 30, 21st June 21, Lughnasagh, August 1, and Mabon, September 23.
“Many ancient sites are aligned with the solstices and equinoxes, but it is unusual to have alignments with the other four festivals in what is known today as the Wheel of the Year,” Kevin added. “Castlerigg also stands on a ley line which starts at the site and runs for 24 miles to the north-east to the wonderfully named Fiends Fell. On the way, it passes through two other ancient stone circles, Long Meg and her Daughters, which is also Neolithic, and Little Meg, which is Bronze Age. Also en route are a Roman road, a Roman camp, several old halls, a crossroads and a possible ford, among many other features.”
The Rowan Guide to Castlerigg Stone Circle, by Kevin Rowan-Drewitt, is available at £7, inc p&p, from Kevin at 14 Ball Street, South Shore, Blackpool FY1 6HL, cheques payable to K Rowan-Drewitt.
McDonald's magical mystery tours
Who better than Neil McDonald to be cast in the role of megalithic "ambassador" for the North of England?
Neil, pictured, from Preston, Lancashire, launched Megalithic Tours just after the millennium, the company having grown out of three tours which he had organised to the stone circles of Cumbria for a local questing group, New Horizons. "This was the first time I saw Long Meg," he said. "I just went 'wow!' and that's really where it all began - the whole thing took off from there, and I started to advertise trips to ancient, mystical and historical sites."
Neil hadn't had an interest in megalithic culture before. "I'd been on a spiritual journey for many years, in the western mystery tradition," he said, "But I had never associated it with ancient sites - apart from cathedrals!"
What was it that had captured his interest? "Originally, it was the 'wow' factor. The first time you see these things, it's 'what's going on here?' - all the 'w' questions: who, why, where and what for."
Neil regularly runs tours in the North of England - for example, to Castlerigg, Long Meg and Mayburgh Henge in the Lake District; to the Thornburgh Henges, Rudston and the Devil's Arrows in Yorkshire, and to Arbor Low and Nine Stones in Derbyshire. His favourite site anywhere in the country, he says, is the Swinside stone circle, near Broughton-in-Furness in Cumbria.
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Megalithic Tours also go to Stonehenge, Avebury and Glastonbury, the Scottish Highlands and Islands, the Orkneys and Shetlands, Wales and Ireland, Brittany and Cathar Country in France, and to Malta. In April, Neil launched the Mysterious Earth conference at Windermere in the Lake District where I was pleased to be among the speakers, along with Andy Thomas, Ross Hemsworth, Celia Gunn, Anthony Thorley and others. Next year, the conference will be held in March, at the time of the spring equinox.
Among Neil's future plans are writing a series of regional guide books to the megalithic sites of Britain and Ireland.
Ancient marvels: From top - Long Meg, near Penrith, Cumbria, with a close-up of the prehistoric spiral carved on it; Neil McDonald's favourite ancient site, the Swinside stone circle near Broughton-in-Furness, Cumbria; the Devil's Arrows, near Boroughbridge, Yorkshire - the tallest of the three stones at this site looms at more than 22ft; and the 12th-century Ireby chancel near Cockermouth, Cumbria.
Left, the 26ft Rudston Monolith, Yorkshire, next to the parish church of All Saints, and below, another view of the Castlerigg stone circle, in its sublime mountainous amphitheatre near Keswick in the Lake District.
