Arbor Low Stone Circle
Arbor Low Stone Circle
United Kingdom
April 30, 2002
ARBOR LOW - Neolithic Stone Circle (Henge)
As if the lonely windswept Moorland of the Peak District needed to be any more dramatic, enter Arbor Low. This "Stonehenge of the North" is a
4500 year old fallen stone circle, or "Henge" situated seemingly in the middle of nowhere. High enough at 375 meter elevation to scrape the perpetually
low UK sky, so interaction with the wind, the clouds, and varying degrees of rain is likely. The high windsept moorland offers unending green fields with a
networks of ancient stone walls spider-webbing across the landscape. And amidst it all, lie 59 heavily weathered limestone blocks on a grassy plateu, further
surrounded by a 2 meter tall round bank and a meter deep circular ditch.
I headed up to Arbor Low after reading about it in the English Heritage guidebook. It was not far from a client visit I had one afternoon in Macclesfield. My chosen return route to London by crossing through the Peaks District National Park and then south on the M1 afforded more sighseeing opportunities than the direct M6 route. The site itself is tricky to find, yet multiple B road connections and close attention to English Hertage signs eventually lead you there. The site is accessed through a local farm which supplies a slurry of manure across the only entrance. Suit and tie gave way to jeans and tennis shoes for the challenge. The afternoon started out sunny enough, with no company but for the farmer's sheep. A half-muddy, half-grassy walk of maybe 200 yards brought me to the site itself just as clouds and wind began to threaten.
The stones are beautifully gnarled by the centuries, catching rainwater in weathered nooks. They lie splayed outward from the circle center as if purposefully pushed down. I tried to imagine them standing, with Bronze Age worshippers burning fires and honoring their gods. The solitude of the afternoon helped me to feel the weight of the centuries that this site of human history holds. The distant bleeting of the sheep added to the lonely serenity. Before long however, the clouds and wind and rain came down and I was forced to retreat toward the farm and the refuge of my car. I did not make it dry.
Entries listed by Geography and Subject Matter
Arbor Low Stone Circle
Arbor Low Stone Circle
Arbor Low Stone Circle
Arbor Low Stone Circle
About to get soaked in the Peak District
