X-Files from the Bog: Yule solstice dive, Orton Stone Circle

The Riddle of the Stones

Located about a mile east of the village of Orton is an ancient stone circle, one of the largest in Cumbria. It stands at the foot of an impressive hill known as Knott Scar, and excavations suggest that it was built some time between 3800 and 3400 years ago. Like many stone circles it is in truth more of an oval. It measures 146 feet long by 123 feet wide.

Conventional wisdom has it that each of the 33 stones has tumbled as a result of ploughing in the nineteenth century. I'm not convinced of this, for two reasons. Firstly the stones are quite stubby affairs, not much more than a yard across. There is no obvious way of either setting them "up"...or, for that matter, of knocking them down. Secondly, if they were a hazard to farming, why would they be left in place to blunt a plough, instead of being hauled away?

It is claimed that 7 stones have in fact been removed, and that they will have numbered 40 in all. A cursory examination would bear out the theory that there were more stones, since there are two obvious gaps. However, I did some investigation by considering sunrise and sunset alignments at key dates in the agricultural calendar. What I found was that sunrise during the midwinter (Yule) solstice occurs at 132 degrees south east (130 degrees when the circle was built). If you stand at the mid-point of the stones the sun appears to rise above the southernmost stone just before the eastern gap.

Similarly, sunset during the midwinter solstice occurs at 228 degrees southwest (230 degrees at the time the circle was built). So again from the centre of the oval the sun appears to sink directly behind another large stone, the one marking the start of the western gap. I therefore wonder if at least one of these gaps is deliberate. There's some additional tentative evidence to add to this. Although it is hard to see on-site, Google Maps clearly shows a footpath into the circle which is exactly parallel to this line. Could this be the vestigial remains of a processional cursus?

Google Maps also shows a circular structure to the south of the stones. This doesn't appear to be documented at all, and again it can't be made out easily at ground level, but it looks clear enough to me in the photograph. I wonder if this is a related earthwork. Certainly, similar ones have been found near the Long Meg complex further north...which incidentally has a well-attested alignment from mid-point of the Daughter stones to Long Meg at midwinter sunset.

A "Classic" Bog

There's a pond on the other side of Knott Lane, about two hundred yards south of the circle. It really is a beauty; a classic bog. It's surrounded by reeds and sedges and when you stick your wellies in, a reeking, sulphurous miasma is released from the ooze. I just knew I had to dive this one.

And so it was that on December 21st - the midwinter solstice - I arrived at Orton stone circle with my scuba equipment. It was just before 3pm. The sun would be setting soon. I left my gear in the car and walked up Knott Lane, an unpaved strip of mud, past the boggy pond and to the field in which the stones lay. A bleak, misty ambiance had settled over the place...not quite mist and not quite rain. The uncanny atmosphere was enhanced by the fact that this particular winter solstice marked the end of the Mayan calendar, and the newspapers had been providing coverage of a supposed impending apocalypse. I took some video footage of the circle and walked back to the car, plodging again through the puddles of that muddy lane, and through the rivulets of water that fed the bog in which I would soon be diving.

So what's in there anyhow? Any bottles?

After gearing up I carefully made my way into the mire. Twilight had begun. I knew that further up the lane the sun would be setting through the mists, just behind the large stone I identified from the centre of the circle. I slowly sank into the pond and regulated my breathing before commencing my search for bottles. I didn't find any. The bog is remarkably clean; all I found was a discarded signpost offering Bed and Breakfast, presumably put up at some time by one of the local farmhouses. I dragged the sign out and left it in the sedge by the mire.