The Great Circle of the North
19.09.2025
I had just come out of Scotland and was eager to visit somewhere I had read and heard accounts of for many years. It would be the most northerly stone circle in England I had visited to date and a visit long over due.
Long Meg and her Daughters is not straight forward to get to. The country lanes to the east of Penrith are narrow with twists and turns that take you through the villages like Great Salkeld and Lazonby and over the River Eden. With the help of some discreet signage I found the road that eventually leads to the circle and then dissects it’s eastern half. I parked up under a large Oak tree on the perimeter of the circle and scanned the wonderful scene before me. The scale of it was a surprise as were the number of stones that all seemed to be standing in close proximity to each other. I waited for a break in the weather and then ventured out to walk around it in a clockwise direction. This was always the direction of choice for aligning one’s energy with the stones.
As I arced around the south west section the standing stone of Long Meg stood waiting to my left, but for now I would concentrate on the circle itself. The stones were truly megalithic and had the stature and presence of those at Avebury and Stanton Drew, the only circles bigger than the Daughters. Formed of granite, some had fallen inwards and outwards giving a zig zag effect to the curve of the circle. Their surfaces were varied, with some of the stones rounded and smooth and others cracked and fissured with a white crustose lichen covering the upper surfaces. I moved inside to find the centre and scanned around. Like at the Rollrights the lean and angle of the stones seemed to suggest movement and competition between them.
The circle is one hundred and ten metres across with two mature trees inside it where the road cuts through it leading to a nearby farmhouse. I left the daughters and walked over to Long Meg standing outside the circle to the south. At four metres high and made of red sandstone, it leans towards the circle and takes on a humanlike profile when viewed from the east. I scrutinized it’s surface and found the spiral marks I had read about at about head height on the eastern face.
I walked back across the circle and took a footpath through a wood emerging onto a track that would get me to the cairn of Little Meg. It was positioned adjacent to a low wall and disappointingly in a rather disheveled state. It was infact on private land and technically I was trespassing. This was not the first time but I knew from the condition of Little Meg I wouldn’t be hanging around long. There amongst the brambles and long grass were gathered a jumble of medium sized stones that were positioned in no obvious pattern for a cairn. They had clearly been moved and reassembled in a hap hazard fashion closer to the wall to free up land for ploughing. The only positive from the site was the discovery of spirals and cup marks on one of the fallen stones.
I walked back to Long Meg and her Daughters and decided I would stay overnight in the hope the weather would improve the following day. This was a circle that deserved to be savored and given time to have an affect on you. I stayed under the Oak tree for the night as the nearby car park didn’t allow overnight stops. As the light faded and the stones became silhouettes I remembered the spooky tale of Meg Meldon and her coven of Witches who were turned to stone by a wizard.