Swinside Stone Circle, Cumbria: The 'mini-Stonehenge' which sprang up overnight
The Swinside Stone Circle is little visited, despite its chilling origin story.


On the slopes of the Lake District’s Black Combe, near Broughton-in-Furness, this extraordinarily well-preserved Neolithic stone circle is barely visited, perhaps because it’s a mile’s walk to the nearest road. Its spooky story is that the stones appeared in the dead of night, after the Devil stole them from a nearby church, hence its moniker Sunkenkirk.
There are 55 stones — slate from nearby fells — at least half still standing, in a ring with a 94ft diameter and an entrance that aligns with the midwinter sunrise. It’s on private land, but can be seen from the track between Crag Hall and Swinside Farm.
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Annunciata is director of contemporary art gallery TIN MAN ART and an award-winning journalist specialising in art, culture and property. Previously, she was Country Life’s News & Property Editor. Before that, she worked at The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, researched for a historical biographer and co-founded a literary, art and music festival in Oxfordshire. Lancashire-born, she lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and a mischievous pug.
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