Swinside

Stone Circle - Cumberland

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		Panoramas
		Infrared

Swinside is our favorite English circle, we don't know why, but this is the one we keep going back to.  The circle is also known as the Sunkenkirk because of a legend that says that local people tried to build a church on the site, but every night the Devil would cause the building to collapse and sink into the ground. 
Swinside has survived the ravages of time extremely well, originally consisting of about sixty stones, today there are fifty five, with thirty two still standing. The stones are of porphyritic slate which is abundant in the locality. The circle stands on a pronounced slope but some leveling of the site was carried out during construction, despite this, the site still has an appreciable slope which is easily seen in our annular panorama. The entrance to the circle stands at the SE, its significance underlined by two outer portal stones which form a short passage. The two southern portals stones  stand very close to the postion of midwinter sunrise when viewed from the circle centre. A very similar entrance arrangement can be seen at the circle of Long Meg and Her Daughters, also in Cumberland.