Oddendale concentric stone circle

Reasons for Designation

Stone circles are prehistoric monuments comprising one or more circles of upright or recumbent stones. The circle of stones may be surrounded by earthwork features such as enclosing banks and ditches. Single upright stones may be found within the circle or outside it and avenues of stones radiating out from the circle occur at some sites. Burial cairns may also be found close to and on occasion within the circle. Stone circles are found throughout England although they are concentrated in western areas, with particular clusters in upland areas such as Bodmin and Dartmoor in the south-west and the Lake District and the rest of Cumbria in the north-west. This distribution may be more a reflection of present survival rather than an original pattern. Where excavated they have been found to date from the Late Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-1240 BC). It is clear that they were carefully designed and laid out, frequently exhibiting very regularly spaced stones, the heights of which also appear to have been of some importance. We do not fully understand the uses for which these monuments were originally constructed but it is clear that they had considerable ritual importance for the societies that used them. In many instances excavation has indicated that they provided a focus for burials and the rituals that accompanied interment of the dead. Some circles appear to have had a calendrical function, helping mark the passage of time and seasons, this being indicated by the careful alignment of stones to mark important solar or lunar events such as sunrise or sunset at midsummer or midwinter. At other sites the spacing of individual circles throughout the landscape has led to a suggestion that each one provided some form of tribal gathering point for a specific social group. Concentric stone circles comprise an arrangement of two or more stone rings set within one another. The diameter of the outer ring may vary between 20 and 330 metres, this ring comprising between 20 and 97 stones. They occur in clusters in Wiltshire, Derbyshire and Cumbria with outliers in North Yorkshire and Dartmoor. The best and most complex examples of this type are Stonehenge and Avebury. Of the 250 or so stone circles identified in England only 15 are of this type. As a rare monument type which provides an important insight into prehistoric ritual activity, all surviving examples are worthy of preservation.

Despite limited antiquarian investigation of the central cairn, Oddendale concentric stone circle survives in excellent condition and appears little disturbed

Details

The monument is Oddendale concentric stone circle. It is located 580m south west of Oddendale Hall Farm on an escarpment of Carboniferous Limestone within a few metres of the ridge of the watershed of the Lyvennet and Lowther valleys. The monument includes an outer circle 26.3m in diameter of 34 pink granite boulders and an inner circle 7.5m in diameter of 23 smaller boulders of the same material. The inner circle forms the kerb of a small cairn up to 0.3m high from which earthfast stones protrude. Between the inner and outer circles, in the south west quadrant, are several smaller stones. Immediately north of the outer circle is a small group of associated outlying stones. Limited antiquarian investigation of the central cairn located evidence of burning.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

22450

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Simpson, , Trans Cumb and West Antiq and Arch Soc. Old Ser in Trans Cumb and West Antiq and Arch Soc. Old Ser, Vol. VI, (), 178

Other
SMR No. 1576, Cumbria SMR, Stone Circle 550m SSW of Oddendale, (1988)
Bowman, A., MPP Single Monument Class Description - Concentric Stone Circles, (1990)

End of official list entry

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