The Great Stone Circles – How they Work Part 7 Cumbria

Submitted by JACKME on Wednesday, 03 August 2005 Page Views: 5522

Country: England County: Cumbria Type: Stone Circle

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Castlerigg - The Sanctuary and the Moon

Before I continue with this next article, I must remind people that during my research I have worked entirely upon my own observations and not on mathematics, most of which I have forgotten since taking Higher School Certificate many years ago! I have also been taken to task for failing to mention Professor Thom’s work on the Moon Major and Minor Standstills, but like many others I was unable to follow most of it. So far I have shown how the ancient people used to mark the annual steps between the Major and the Minor standstills at Swinside, including some completely new concepts. All I can say is that before dismissing this lot out of hand, go and have a look at Castlerigg for yourself, and you will see what thousands of people must have looked at, but never noticed. Your observations will add to the pool of knowledge.

Some years ago I noticed at Castlerigg that the mounds on the horizon on Latterigg could all be lined up with the outer circle stones and from those in the Sanctuary by stepping sideways. This surely could not just be down to chance, so what were they for?

When I was beginning to solve the Swinside moon movements, on the 19th September 1996 I witnessed the moonset at Swinside through the triple 6, 7, 8, over Stone 38, a large pointed stone. The following night I saw the moon do the same thing at Castlerigg from the triple 2, 3, 4, over Stone 29 again a pointed stone on over Robinson (a large hill at NX203169), and was most disappointed when it failed to flash in the valley. This provided the MMiSMSS with the sector running from the Great Stone (Stone 21) acting as the MMaSMSS marker (see diagram here for stone numbers.

Following this observation I then made many daytime visits to try and resolve the rest of the moon sectors at Castlerigg. Fairly quickly I discovered that the southern moonrise sector worked from the junction of Stone 38 and Stone 1, similar to that at Swinside, but I am still yet to view any moons in this sector thanks to the often-present cloud on the top of Helvelyn!

I also soon learnt that Castlerigg simply did not work like Swinside in the northern sectors. Having seen the Midsummer sun set over the mounds on Latterigg, it seemed logical that the moon would also have utilised these same mounds. Upon walking along the skyline I could see that the mounds were formed from bedrock, which could have been ‘enhanced’, although there was no obvious evidence for this. As I walked away to the east I ‘felt’ that I was on a serious line with little to show on the ground except perhaps the remains of a grassy mound, which was so slight that I discounted it at the time. Now that I have been using a theodolite from the Sanctuary, the telescope clearly shows this up on the skyline as the 5th mound, and from this I deduce that the ancients constructed a series of marker mounds along this crest, continuing down the slope to the west, judging by the wavy skyline.

On 20th February 2005, I observed the moon setting from between Stones 43 and 44 over Stone 36, which confirmed to me that the stones on the north side of the Sanctuary were put there as back sights for the northern moon markers. The position of the row being determined by Stone 40 (a bun altar), which lines up with the Midwinter sunrise past Stone 14, and Midwinter setting sun shadow from the Great Stone (stone 21). Due to the high skyline over Helvelyn in Midwinter there is no way that shadows from Stone 14 could ever reach across the circle. There does not appear to be anything similar to the Sanctuary at Castlerigg, except perhaps at Ballynoe in County Down, Northern Ireland, which could perhaps have a similar feature, but I have not had chance to return there since working this out.

There are two stones on the south side of Sanctuary group, for which I have yet to find a use. All erected stones everywhere have a purpose, so there must be one for these.

This diagram explains the photos below. The black lines are those shown in the photos. The yellow line is as seen on the 20th February 2005. MMaSMNS would be from Stone 43, a triangular moon shape over Stone 36 to the 5th mound on the horizon. The green lines indicate the Invisible Moon sets with Invisible MMaSMNS going to Skidaw. This series of photos shows the alignments of the stones with the 4th mound, 3rd mound and 2nd mound.

Without the knowledge of how the moon movements are indicated at Swinside, it would have been very difficult to unravel the system at Castlerigg. Similarly without the knowledge of the Castlerigg side stepping system, it would be virtually impossible to work out how the moon movements are indicated at Stonehenge. This series of articles will finish with Stonehenge. At the time of writing there are still areas with the observation proofs missing and I would greatly welcome help from someone living nearer. Next week I shall take a look at the location of Swinside.

Contents page for the whole series is here

Note: This is the eleventh of a series of previously unpublished articles by retired farmer, Jack Morris-Eyton.

Contributor Bio for JACKME: Based in CUMBRIA, contributing since 2004. Favourite site: SWINSIDE. Occupation: RETIRED.

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