I have visited· I would like to visit

markj99 visited on 19th Feb 2023 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Castlehowe Scar Stone Circle is easy to visit, located adjacent to a minor road to Orton near Shap. This small stone circle consists of an assortment of rounded stones. Despite its stature this site is well worth a visit.

TheCaptain visited on 19th Sep 2022 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 5 Onwards to Castlehowe Scar Stone Circle, my first new circle of the day. Easy parking beside the small lane running south, and its easy to see the circle just in the next field, but no entrance available today. It’s a small scruffy circle of large boulders, close to the field wall and with a cattle feeder placed inside it.

drolaf visited on 6th Aug 2020 - their rating: Amb: 3 Access: 4

SumDoood visited on 22nd Mar 2015 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 5 Dull really, but the stones (rows) leading south across open ground into the shallow valley might cause you some thought.

Anne T visited on 7th Sep 2014 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Castlehowe Scar Stone Circle, near Shap, Cumbria: Having previously stopped at the Thunder Stone 200 metres to the west of Castlehowe Scar Farm, we drove almost 1 kilometre up to this little stone circle. All the land from the Thunder Stone up to Castlehouse Scar Wood on the right hand side of the road is labelled as access land on the Ordnance Survey maps. Immediately before the wood there is a single track metalled road, which turns right towards Hardendale Quarry, with room for 2-3 cars to park on the verge next to the field containing the stone circle. Whilst the land is labelled access land, there was a padlock on the gate to the field, so we explored from the field next door, where there seemed to be a few red granite stones poking up through the grass in the field. ‘A stone row’, my husband pronounced. Having driven over 60 miles to get here, and having checked that the field really was access land, in frustration we ended up climbing over the gate to walk quickly round this small stone circle (this is in complete contrast to the farmer at the Gamelands Stone Circle, near Orton, who had very kindly put in a kissing gate to allow entry). There was a water container left close to the stones by the farmer, and I was sorely tempted to try and move this out of the way to avoid it spoiling the photographs, but didn’t dare (and I suspect I would have needed a tractor to attempt it). All the stones were red Shap granite – we wondered after if they had been polished at some stage in the past to make them shine. The red of the granite certainly stood out amongst the white/grey of the natural limestone bedrock nearby. Checking on the geology of the area when we got home, these red granite stones seem to only came from a very small area, so any of these red stones would have needed to have been quarried and moved up to their current locations. Strangely, to me, the size of the stones seemed large in comparison to the diameter of the circle, as they did what remained of Kemp Howe at the edge of Shap Village. Whilst we were parked at Castlehowe Stone Circle, there were many cars coming and going – dog walkers, people doing outdoor activities (we thought they might be cavers) and the owner of the wood next door. Curious that so many people were around, but no-one took any notice of the stone circle, apart from us – perhaps they are all too familiar with it. We next drove on to Iron Hill, further down the minor road running alongside Castlehouse Scar Wood to Hardendale Quarry to continue our Stone Circle and Cairn adventure.

Richard13 visited on 1st Mar 2007 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 4

BolshieBoris visited on 1st Jan 1995 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 5

MAIGO FrothNinja have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.67 Ambience: 3.29 Access: 4.71

Click to view comments at bottom of this page

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.