 The stone circle in 2022 | |
  Swinside Location in England, United Kingdom | |
| Location | England,United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 54°16′57″N3°16′26″W / 54.2824823°N 3.2738449°W /54.2824823; -3.2738449 |
| Type | Stone circle |
| Diameter | c. 26.8 meters |
| History | |
| Material | Slate |
| Founded | c. 2100 BC |
Swinside, which is also known asSunkenkirk andSwineshead,[1] is astone circle lying beside Swinside Fell, part ofBlack Combe in southernCumbria,North West England. One of around 1,300 recordedstone circles in the British Isles and Brittany, it was constructed as a part of amegalithic tradition that lasted from 3300 to 900 BC, during whatarchaeologists categorise as the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages.[2]
In this period, theLake District – a mountainous area in which Swinside is located – saw particularly high levels of stone circle construction, with other notable examples including theCastlerigg stone circle andLong Meg and Her Daughters. The original purposes of these circles is still debated, although most archaeologists concur that they were built for ritual or ceremonial reasons. Constructed from local slate, the ring has a diameter of about 93 ft 8ins (26.8m),[3][4] and currently contains 55 stones, although when originally constructed there probably would have been around 60.[3] An entrance-exit was included on the monument's south-eastern side, which was defined by the inclusion of two outer portal stones.
In the Early Modern period, localfolklore about the stones held that they had once been used in the construction of a church, but that theDevil continually thwarted these plans, creating the stone circle in the process. Archaeological investigation into the monument began in the early 20th century, with an excavation taking place in 1901.
The stone circle at Swinside is located in the south-west corner of theLake District in the ancient district of Millom, 5 miles north of the town ofMillom (map referenceSD171881).[3] There is no visitors centre or car park at the site, which can only be reached by travelling on foot.[3] To reach the site, the visitor must get to Crag Hall, where there are limited places for parking, and then walk along a rough track for 2¼ km (1¼ miles) uphill towards Swinside Farm, where the megalithic ring lies to the right of the path.[4]
Megalithic specialistAubrey Burl called Swinside "the loveliest of all the circles" in north-western Europe.[5] In his study of the stone circles of Cumbria, archaeologist John Waterhouse commented that Swinside "can be compared only to Castlerigg and Long Meg and her Daughters in its visual impact; but its charm – for great charm it undoubtedly has – is greater even than theirs."[4]
"After over a thousand years of early farming, a way of life based on ancestral tombs, forest clearance and settlement expansion came to an end. This was a time of important social changes."
During the Late Neolithic, British society underwent a series of major changes. Between 3500 and 3300 BC, prehistoric Britons ceased their continual expansion and cultivation of wilderness and instead focused on settling and farming the most agriculturally productive areas of the island: Orkney, eastern Scotland, Anglesey, the upper Thames, Wessex, Essex, Yorkshire and the river valleys of the Wash.[7]
This period was also signalled by what archaeologists have interpreted as a change in religious beliefs across Britain. Communities stopped building the largechambered tombs for the dead, and instead, they began the construction of large wooden and stone circles.[8] The prominent megalithic-specialist and archaeologistAubrey Burl (2000) argued that the change from building tombs to building open air rings signalled a change in religious belief for the peoples of north-western Europe. As he noted; "There was a change from the cramped, gloomy chamber or a tomb to the unroofed, wide ring, a change from darkness to light, from the dead to the living, from the grave to the sky."[9]
Exactly for what purpose prehistoric Britons originally constructed stone circles is a question that continues to elude archaeologists. Despite this, many suggestions have been put forward, most of which argue that they were a form of a church.
Based on his study of those examples found atOrkney in northern Scotland, the archaeologist Colin Richards suggested that the stone and wooden circles built in Late Neolithic Britain might have represented the centre of the world, oraxis mundi, for those who constructed them,[10] an idea adopted by fellow archaeologist Aaron Watson as a possibility in his discussion of why Late Neolithic peoples constructed the great ring atAvebury in southern England.[11]
The stones used in the construction of Swinside wereporphyriticslate collected from the adjacent fells, and are of the type that was known locally as 'grey cobbles' by the 20th century.[3][4] The ring has a diameter of about 93 ft 8ins (26.8m),[3][4] and currently contains 55 stones, although when originally constructed there probably would have been around 60.[3]
Swinside's builders included a "well defined" entrance, 2.1 m (7 ft) wide, at the south-eastern side, which was signalled by the placing of two large portal stones outside the circumference of the circle.[3] Such portal openings can also be found at other stone circles in the Lake District, such as Long Meg and Her Daughters.[3] These features are also found in stone circles inDumfriesshire.[12] In particular, Swinside has a number of features in common with theGirdle Stanes.[12][13]
Local folklore holds that at night, the Devil would pull down the stones of a church that was being constructed in the daytime, in the process creating the stone circle; it is for this reason that the site has also been called Sunkenkirk.[4][14]
In the 1930s, it was recorded that there was a local belief that it wasimpossible to count all of the stones.[15]
In 1901, theCumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society sponsored the first archaeological excavation at Swinside. Under the direction ofCharles DymondFSA andWilliam Collingwood, the dig lasted from midday on Tuesday 26 March 1901 through to the evening of the following day. Two crosstrenches were dug, each 18 inches (45 cm) wide, covering just over one-thirteenth of the interior of the site. The excavators reported finding a lump of charcoal and a piece of decayed bone as well as some modern coins in the turf layer.[16]
