<< Our Photo Pages >> Borrowdale Stone Monument - Standing Stones in England in Cumbria
Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 08 June 2018 Page Views: 3224
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Borrowdale Stone Monument Alternative Name: Serpent StonesCountry: England County: Cumbria Type: Standing Stones
Map Ref: NY235125
Latitude: 54.502024N Longitude: 3.182819W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Anne T visited on 12th Jan 2020 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Borrowdale Yews and the possible stone monument: Our first trip out for several months, and a way of escaping the windy and wet weather here in Northumberland. However, we arrived in a Cumbria that had experienced very heavy rain over recent days, and the small stream were swollen and many of the roads were flooded, although still passable.
We parked in the small car park near Seathwaite Farm, which is also a camping site and walked through the fields to the two bridges crossing the river(s). There are also a number of other streams to be crossed between here and the yew tree enclosure; at times of dry weather these would be easy to cross. On this occasion, a bit of balancing on convenient ‘stepping stones’ was in order!
The slope up to the yew tree enclosure was very slippery, so I sent Andrew up with the camera to explore. He came back saying the stones are definitely aligned in what seems to be a row, although I remained very sceptical, as there are a huge number of other boulders (large and small) on the hillside. Looking at the site from the south of river, by the car park, there seems to be the remains of the lower half of a double stone circle to the south west of the yew tree enclosure, although this could also just be coincidence.
This area was very heavily mined for graphite from 1555 onwards, and the remains of some of the industrial buildings can still be seen.
Sorry, but I remain unconvinced this is a stone row or alignment – there were so many other short rows of seemingly aligned stones on the hillside, this seemed like coincidence to me.
StevieV visited on 1st Oct 2019 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 5 Access: 4
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.5 Ambience: 4.5 Access: 3.5
A further visit in 2012 tended to confirm her impression that this was a lost stone monument, and subsequent investigations have further corroborated the findings, allowing her to illustrate geographical and astronomical alignments which correspond to findings at the nearby Castlerigg monument and other Neolithic monuments. She considers primary astronomical and geographical alignments, and relationships between the new monument and the names of local geographical features. Internal (secondary) alignments, relationship to the ancient yews and apparent symbology in the layout of the stones have been investigated and interpreted by the second author.
Work by both authors has been done in searching old texts for references to the site.
The stones investigated here, at O/S Sheet 90 Grid ref. NY235125 look randomly scattered at first glance, and seem untouched by tool marks. They cover an area of approximately 3500m² and are situated on a south facing slope at an elevation of 150m above sea level. More stones exist outside the area studied which may also relate to the monument as alignment outliers and avenue remnants, but investigation of these is precluded by resource limits.
Key to the assertion that the stones are deliberately placed is the finding that at least two appear wedged into place on the slope with large flat rocks. The stones are a local concentration with placement features evident in their layout on the ground and so were not left in situ by glacial deposition as their smoothed form suggests. Likewise they are unlikely to be the result of
rock fall. On this slope such large rounded objects would continue at speed once moving, and they would not stop before reaching the base of the incline.
Conversely, if the rocks arrived naturally in the positions described below the circumstance is perhaps stranger than the idea that their layout is the result of deliberate placement.
Read the rest here
A previously unknown stone monument in Borrowdale, Cumbria. (PDF)
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