Long Meg and her Daughters

One of the finest stone circles in the north of England, Long Meg and her Daughters has a diameter of about 350 feet, the second biggest in the country. Long Meg is the tallest of the 69 stones, about 12 feet high and standing about 60 feet outside the main circle, with three mysterious symbols and its four corners facing the points of the compass. 

The stones probably date from about 1500 BC and possibly used as a meeting and bartering place for nomadic peoples or for some form of spiritual ritual. Long Meg is made of local red sandstone, whereas the daughters are boulders of rhyolite, a form of granite, which were transported into Cumbria by glaciers.

William Wordsworth wrote: ‘Next to Stonehenge it is beyond dispute the most notable relic that this or probably any other country contains.’

Local legend claims that Long Meg was a witch who, with her daughters, was turned to stone for profaning the Sabbath as they danced on the moor. The circle is supposedly endowed with magic so that it is impossible to count the same number of stones twice, but if you do, then the magic is broken.