Gents Mag 1843 part 2 p.361

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1843 part 2 p.361
stone circle   Cumberland
	Stone Circles, Cumberland Huddersfield. MR. URBAN, IN some former papers relating to those groups of massy stones, once existing in such great numbers, and still to be found in many parts of Britain, I endeavoured to shew that these ancient British remains, which we still call cromlechs, cairns, logan stones, tolmens, or humberd stones, derive from the patriarchal times recorded in scripture. And I have shewn that the names themselves are in many instances significant in the Hebrew language. But the object of my present paper is to draw your attention to those most important of all the monuments of the ancient Druids, the circular temples, which are no where met with in such number and magnificence as in the British isles. This form of structure too is recorded in scripture, for the word לגלג (or Gilgal,) is equivalent to a circle, and gave name to that famous camp or forrtress, where the host of Israel first pitched their tents in the land of Canaan, after they passed the river Jordan in a miraculous manner dryshod. We have moreover existing monuments in Cornwall, which were erected by the Phoenician miners in that part of Britain. The curious cluster of stone circles at Botallac, in Cornwall, is the first of these stone circles to which I shall advert. The very word itself is a compound of the Hewbrew word Bethel, which was changed by the Phoenicians to Bothel, and the Saxon name for the oak. In the seeming disorder of some parts of this circular monument, some antiquaries have thought they could trace a mystical meaning - and that to each part was assigned some appropriate use; but as this forms no part of the object of my present paper, which is simply to notice the circular form of the singular structure, I shall forbear any conjectures on this head. Every antiquary has some theory of his own. The open temple of a circular form at Rowldrich is another instance, which has given name to the adjacent town. The word roileag, in the old Irish language, signifies a church. There are many barrows of different shapes within sight of Rowldrich, particularly near a place called Chapel. On the heath is a large flat and circular tumulus ditched about, with a small stump in the centre.* No antiquary has yet doubted that this most interesting remain was originally a Pagan temple. Whoever is of opinion that these Druidical circles, in the number of stones of which they consist, have some relation to the ancient astronomical cycles, will find this subject very ably discussed by one of the most learned antiquaries of the present day,† and the proofs he adduces will by some be regarded as conclusive. But that able author is decidedly of opinion that these stone circles were places dedicated to Pagan worship. Indeed the circular form was highly reverenced by the Greeks, as appears from the following passage of Homer's Iliad, lib. xviii. Κηρυκες δ΄ αρα λαον ερητυον, οί δε γεροντες Είατ' επι Σεστοισι λιθοις ίερω ενι κυκλω. Here the heralds are described as sitting within a sacred circle in order to give judgment, the circle being formed of rough-hewn stone. But I intend to show that these sacred circles, in use before the Christian aera, were in various parts of Britain resorted to for ages by the early Christian converts, and that in some instances they got the name of kirk-stones. And it is not improbable that from these places of Druidical worship many of our parishes, which have the name of Kil prefixed, have originally sprung, the Gallic Cil denoting the circle inclosing the temple of the Druids. Many of the names of our hills have the same syllable prefixed to their names, and it usually happens in such instances that either some actual remains of Druidism are to be found, or, if not, traditions recorded of the former settlements of that ancient priesthood in some part of the neighbourhood. In Cumberland we may find examples of remains of Druidical monuments, of a circular form. In the parish of Whitbeck several such exist. I will mention one, near Gutterby. which at the present day bears the name of kirk-stones. It is composed of thirty stones, which form parts of two circles, an interior and exterior one, similar in position to those of Stone-henge. In
	* Vide Dr.Stukely. † Godfrey Higgins, esq. on the Celtic Druids.
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