Swinside Stone Circle

A beautiful solitary stone circle, the stones are said to be uncountable, there is also a legend which suggests a church buried beneath the stones. It is sometimes referred to as the Sunkenkirk for this very reason. The circle is also referred to as the ‘grey cobbles’.

Swinside had fifty five stones of which only thirty two remain standing. A stone once stood in the centre of the circle, but it is now also missing. The circle is 28.5 M in diameter and is slightly flatter on the South-Southeast face.

In accordance with many stone circles it may have had some kind of astronomical function. Two stones to the Southwest are slightly outside the circle and stand next to an opening in the stones. From the centre of the circle they point to the midwinter sunrise, the missing central stone may have been used as a sight marker.