Long meg & Her daughters Stone Circle
Nearest Town: Penrith Nearest Village: Little Salkeld
William Wordsworth wrote 'Next to Stonehenge it is beyond dispute the most notable relick that this or probably any other country contains.'
...
“When first I saw that family forlorn;
Speak Thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn
The power of years – pre-eminent, and placed
Apart, to overlook the circle vast…”
One of the finest stone circles in the north of England, the circle has a diameter of about 350 feet, the second biggest in the Britain & The stone circle is the sixth-biggest example known from this...
part of north-western Europe.
Long Meg is the tallest of the 69 stones, about 12 feet high, with three mysterious symbols, its four corners facing the points of the compass and standing some 60 feet outside the circle.
The stones probably date from about 1500 BC, and it was likely to have been used as a meeting place or for some form of religious ritual. Long Meg is made of local red sandstone, whereas the daughters are boulders of rhyolite, a form of granite.
The most famous of the many legends that surround the stones is that they were once a coven of witches who were turned to stone by a wizard from Scotland named Michael Scot. It is said the stones cannot be counted - but, if anyone is able to count them twice and come to the same total - the spell will be broken or it will bring very bad luck. Another legend states that if you walk round the circles and count the number of stones correctly, then put your ear to Long Meg, you will hear her whisper. The name itself is said to come from a local witch, Meg of Meldon, who was alive in the early 17th century
photo by David smith
Nearest Town: Penrith Nearest Village: Little Salkeld
William Wordsworth wrote 'Next to Stonehenge it is beyond dispute the most notable relick that this or probably any other country contains.'
...
“When first I saw that family forlorn;
Speak Thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn
The power of years – pre-eminent, and placed
Apart, to overlook the circle vast…”
One of the finest stone circles in the north of England, the circle has a diameter of about 350 feet, the second biggest in the Britain & The stone circle is the sixth-biggest example known from this...
part of north-western Europe.
Long Meg is the tallest of the 69 stones, about 12 feet high, with three mysterious symbols, its four corners facing the points of the compass and standing some 60 feet outside the circle.
The stones probably date from about 1500 BC, and it was likely to have been used as a meeting place or for some form of religious ritual. Long Meg is made of local red sandstone, whereas the daughters are boulders of rhyolite, a form of granite.
The most famous of the many legends that surround the stones is that they were once a coven of witches who were turned to stone by a wizard from Scotland named Michael Scot. It is said the stones cannot be counted - but, if anyone is able to count them twice and come to the same total - the spell will be broken or it will bring very bad luck. Another legend states that if you walk round the circles and count the number of stones correctly, then put your ear to Long Meg, you will hear her whisper. The name itself is said to come from a local witch, Meg of Meldon, who was alive in the early 17th century
photo by David smith
Long Meg is the tallest of the 69 stones, about 12 feet high, with three mysterious symbols, its four corners facing the points of the compass and standing some 60 feet outside the circle.
The stones probably date from about 1500 BC, and it was likely to have been used as a meeting place or for some form of religious ritual. Long Meg is made of local red sandstone, whereas the daughters are boulders of rhyolite, a form of granite.
The most famous of the many legends that surround the stones is that they were once a coven of witches who were turned to stone by a wizard from Scotland named Michael Scot. It is said the stones cannot be counted - but, if anyone is able to count them twice and come to the same total - the spell will be broken or it will bring very bad luck. Another legend states that if you walk round the circles and count the number of stones correctly, then put your ear to Long Meg, you will hear her whisper. The name itself is said to come from a local witch, Meg of Meldon, who was alive in the early 17th century
photo by David smith
I would bet you would never guess , william Wordsworth is my fave poet. Or that looking for some information on him was how I found this information. Like that!
Love and appreciate stones, and always have. these are the books of the earth. Gaia's autobiography, written in her own language, some pages footnoted with the impressions of long dead creatures, who returned to the the earth they grew from and became a part of it. The graceful forms of rock layers and the striking jogs of fault lines, wind, water and sun have also written on her pages. OH, how I wish I could read their words. I happily share my home with rocks. ~~AVITW
