Birkrigg Stone Circle

The Birkrigg stone circle is a Bronze Age stone circle on Birkrigg Common, two miles south of Ulverston in the English county of Cumbria [1]. The circle consists of two rings of stones, the inner being 8.5 m wide and consisting of 12 stones varying between 0.3 m and 0.9 m tall and the outer measuring 26 m and consisting of 20 smaller stones [1]. Limited excavation within the inner circle in 1911 found an upper and lower pavement of cobbles [1]. Below the lower layer of cobbles five cremations were uncovered, three in pits, one on a layer of cobbles and one covered by an inverted urn [1]. A second excavation in 1921 produced a few small stone implements which the excavator thought might be a pestle, a palate and a piece of red ochre, and which might therefore have had a ceremonial use [1].