<< Our Photo Pages >> Shapbeck Plantation - Stone Circle in England in Cumbria
Submitted by stu on Saturday, 17 July 2004 Page Views: 7755
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Shapbeck Plantation Alternative Name: Shapbeck Stone CircleCountry: England County: Cumbria Type: Stone Circle
Map Ref: NY55261886 Landranger Map Number: 90
Latitude: 54.562980N Longitude: 2.693405W
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 2nd Apr 2017 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Shapbeck Plantation Stone Circle: Our first stop of the day, whizzing off the M6 southbound at Eamont Bridge and travelling on the A6 through Clifton & Hackthorpe to Shapbeck Gate. There, a side road leads to a bridge across the River Leith, but there was no parking to be had. We turned back northwards up the A6 and parked in a layby some ¼ mile north of the footpath leading up to Shapbeck Plantation. We took our lives in our hands walking back to the footpath, with cars and motorbikes travelling fast along the road, and the verge was lumpy and bumpy and difficult to walk along.
Finally reaching the footpath, almost opposite the road leading to Southfield and Stonygill Bridge, we turned west over the fields towards Shapbeck Plantation, I was glad I had worn my wellies, as the gates into the fields were deep in muddy water. Careful of the stock in the first field, we crossed through the gate into a second field, where the footpath vanished – it had been ploughed out. Following the dry stone wall line up the hill towards the plantation, it was only when we had almost reached the top of the field that a fenced off area to the northern side of the field came into view.
Walking towards this, it was clear the farmer had been using this area as a dump for old metal items and other stones, although an inner and outer circle were clearly visible. It looked as if the circle had been built on a slight mound, with a ditch around the outside. At this time of year, there wasn't much vegetation, so it was possible to see lots of the stones.
Without the plantation, there would have been views 360 degrees around the site. Even today, this area was busy, busy, busy, with the A6, M6 and West Coast railway all intersecting and intermingling in the valley below. Walking across the fields, many of the smaller stones poking out of the earth had a very distinctly green tinge.
Definitely worth braving the traffic to visit this site.
A very overgrown site where few of stones remain upright. Other stones in the circle look to have been disturbed and may not be in their original positions. An internal cairn (with large kerbstones?) looks to adjoin the circle's southern edge.
Update 3rd April 2017: This site is recorded as Pastscape Monument 875536, which tells us that this is "a previously unrecorded stone circle discovered during field walking in 1985 and subsequently excavated. The circle comprises the plough-damaged remains of 3 concentric rings of stones, surviving up to 0.90m above present ground level. The outer ring has 28 surviving stones and a diameter of c20-50m; 18 form the second and 7 the innermost. A small cairn, possibly added at a later date, overlies the second ring of stones at it's SW limit: no funerary evidence was found with it. Other small stones, particularly noticeable close to the NE edge of the outermost circle, may suggest cobbling similar to that observed at Birkrigg."
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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
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