EARLY MAN 
Circle, are set on a ring-bed of small rubble. The peristalith is an ir- 
regular oval, or rather a pear-shaped figure, the longest diameter being 
107 feet and the shortest 96 feet 8 inches. ‘The number of stones re- 
maining in the peristalith at the time of Mr. Dymond’s survey in 1877 
was thirty-eight, of which thirty-three were erect and five prostrate. 
The gateway is at the north. There is a rectangular enclosure within 
the circle on its east side, formed by ten more stones (eight erect and 
two prostrate), making the total number of stones altogether forty-eight. 
Within the area of the peristalith is a shallow circular trench 13 feet in 
diameter, which looks like the remains of a barrow, and might be such 
but for the ploughing to which the area has been subjected. It has been 
conjectured by several that this circle was a temple, and that the 
enclosure on the east side was the most sacred place, the holy of holies to 
which only the priests had admission, the chancel, as it were. Possibly 
it merely protected the barrow of some greater man than usual. Some 
excavation was made in 1882 in the interior of this enclosure. A trench, 
18 to 19 feet long was opened in it, having a breadth of 3 feet 3 inches, 
with two cross cuts of about 2 feet. The following is the report made 
by Mr. W. Kinsey Dover, who superintended the work :— 
Depth of dark superficial soil to where the yellow undisturbed soil appears, 14 
inches, with the exception of a small portion at the west end, where the black soil 
mixed with stones continued to a depth of 3 feet. Near the bottom here I found 
what I think to be a few small pieces of burned wood or charcoal, also some dark 
unctuous sort of earth.? 
The stone circle with external menhir, called ‘Long Meg and her 
Daughters,’ although less visited than the Keswick Circle is probably 
more famous. Its name is attractive, and many writers, commencing 
with Camden, who made a survey of Cumberland in 1599, have written 
accounts of it. Like those of the Keswick Circle these have many 
discrepancies.” 
The peristalith is irregular, with a longer diameter of 360 feet east 
and west, and a shorter one of 305 feet north and south. The number 
““of stones in it, excluding one or two fragments, is sixty-eight, of which 
twenty-seven are erect. Long Meg herself, who stands to the south- 
west, about 60 feet outside of the ring of her hard-featured daughters, 
makes the number of stones up to sixty-nine. A gateway or rudimentary 
avenue intercepts the peristalith in the direction of the menhir, which 
is a monolith of hard red sandstone, 12 feet high by 3 feet 6 inches 
broad, and the same thick. The cup and ring markings upon Long 
Meg have already been mentioned, ante p. 243. There are traces of a 
ring embankment, from Io feet to 14 feet broad, and now at the most 
but a few inches high. This is most apparent in the western half. 
Two large tumuli, or barrows, or cairns of cobble stones, were 
formerly within the great circle, and if they were not mere clearance 
1 Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archeological Society, 
vol. vi. p. 505. 
? These accounts have been collected by Mr. Dymond (ibid. vol. v. pp. 40-7). 
247 
