Stone Circle (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NY 88542 74175
Archaeology & History
Highlighted, albeit in the past tense, as a “Druidical Temple” on the first Ordnance Survey map of the area in 1866, these megalithic remains were seen by earlier antiquarians, but seemingly met their demise sometime in the early 19th century. Some halfwit land-owners no doubt wanted their little garden extended to where local folk would have traditionally met at certain times each year—so in getting rid of the stones, it would help to keep the riff-raff away. (many of these elitists still think this way) It had certainly gone when the Northumbrian historian John Bates (1895) wrote about it, where he told simply:
“The fine circle at Nunwick, on North Tyne, described by Bishop Gibson, has long since disappeared.”
It was still standing in the 17th century, three or four thousand years after our ancestors put it there. We know this because the remains of the stone circle were told about in Gibson’s (1695) edition of Camden’s Britannia, where mention is made of “large stones erected at several places” in Northumberland, including this place where,
“near Ninwick in the Parish of Simondburn, four such stand still erected, and a fifth lies fall’n to the ground.”
The situation hadn’t changed when John Wallis (1769) visited Nunwick. On his trip to these megaliths he told that,
“In an adjoining field, called, Nunwick-east-field, were five upright stone-pillars, in a circular order; four of them perfect and entire in 1714, the other broken; the perfect ones eight feet high, and nine feet and an half over; the circumference of the area in which they stood, ninety feet.”
It was obvisouly a decent-sized circle! The great megalithic archaeologists Barnatt (1989) and Burl (2000) included the site in their respective catalogues, but could add no further details apart from saying there was a drawing made of the stones sometime around 1715 which, apparently, is in volume 15 of the History of Northumberland. Has anyone got a copy…? 🙂
References:
- Barnatt, John, Stone Circles of Britain – volume 2, BAR: Oxford 1989.
- Bates, John C., The History of Northumberland, Elliot Stock: London 1895.
- Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.
- Dodds, M.H. (ed.), A History of Northumberland – volume 15: Simonburn, Rothbury, Alwinton, etc, Andrew Reid: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1935.
- Gibson, Edmund (ed.), Camden’s Britannia, F. Collins: London 1695.
- Wallis, John, The Natural History and Antiquities of Northumberland – volume 2, W. & W. Strahan: London 1769.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
