Stone circle

A couple of weeks ago, I went out for a walk with my friends Bob and Rich. We stopped at Ruskin's view, which has a plate showing the names of all of the hills on the horizon. It also highlights a 'stone circle' just above Casterton. I've heard this referred to occasionally over the years but I've never actually been up to see it.

This afternoon, though, having recorded the radio show, I had a couple of hours on my hands and decided that I would go up and see it. Ideally, I'd have walked there from home but there wasn't enough time, so I drove over to the other side of the valley and parked on the lane up to Bull Pot. From there, I took a steep path up the fell, counting off the fields to my left until I reached the fifth one.

Then it was through the gate and down the hillside, watching my step on the boggy ground, until I reached the far corner, where I found the stone circle. Initially it's quite underwhelming, just seventeen stones peeping up out of the ground. But the longer I stood there, looking both at my immediate surroundings and also the stunning view down the Lune valley, the more I felt a sense of place. The town across the valley was easy to ignore, lost in the enormity of the landscape.

I wondered what had happened within that circle in the past, what ceremonies might have taken place, what momentous occasions had passed, lost to history but, actually, still there eternally suspended within the giant crystal of four dimensional time and space. 

Eventually, I set off, taking a different route back, walking down through the fields. Looking back up gave a different perspective on the circle's location: I could see that - coming from this direction - the climb up to the circle was quite portentous. This is the route I'll take when I come back.