If you're a new visitor to my web site then I would like to thank you for taking the time to visit these pages and I hope you will find something useful within them. The information contained here is aimed specificaly at Stone Circles rather than any other prehistoric monuments such as dolmens, cairns or solitary standing stones.
If you have been to these pages before then you may have noticed that things have changed a little since your last visit. Essentially Paul's Stone Circle Data Base is exactly the same as before but with a new look and navigation system. All the contents such as the information and photographs are the same as the old site although some small changes have been made here and there.
I hope you like the look and feel of my new version and hope that you will continue to use it as frequently as before.
About these pages
Firstly I would like to point out that I am not an expert on the subject of stone circles, I am simply an amateur with an interest and enthusiasm for these ancient sites. I have no archaeological background and ask the visitor to these pages to bear this in mind when reading my descriptions and notes.
My interest in this subject began in 1986 whilst on a visit to Robin Hood's Stride in Derbyshire. From the top of this unusual rock structure can be seen the remains of the Nine Stone Close stone circle. I began to wonder who had put the stones there and why. I knew they must have had some connection to Stonehenge and other stone circles; but apart from that I was in the dark. On that day I decided to try and find the answers to my questions. After visiting over one hundred stone circle sites since and taking photographs of each, making notes on them and reading from a large variety of books, some of those questions have been answered and the mist is beginning to clear; but only slightly!
At this stage I should point out that I have no particular interest in the spiritual side of this subject, these monuments were set up so long ago that we can only scratch the surface in deciphering what they were for. To inhabit them with spiritual beings performing rites and rituals that we think we can connect with today seems fanciful in my opinion. However this is just my personal viewpoint, I find the age, beauty and intrigue of these sites more than enough to excite the imagination without the need to invoke connections with the supernatural. There can be little doubt however that the builders felt very differently, stone circles were most certainly spiritual centres of some kind, the meanings of which were obvious to those who built them. Those meanings however are now totally lost to us and all we can do in our present age is to hope that we may catch a small glimpse of what they were for and what their true purpose may have been.
The notes, descriptions and photographs included on these pages are mostly taken from the notes jotted down during my visits to the sites and are only intended to be a rough guide. I have made a point of including as many of the lesser known circles as possible as these are the ones usually left out of the guide books and the purpose of this data base is to provide as much information on those lesser sites as possible.
All of the circles listed have been visited by myself in person except on a few rare instances where, for a variety of reasons, I was unable to find the site at the time of my visit. On some of these instances I have been sent photographs and details by other enthusiasts, and with their kind permission, have included their notes and photographs on these pages instead of my own.
I hope these notes will be of some use to you and all other devotees of the subject and if anyone should wish to correct me on any of my findings then please feel free to do so, both amateurs and professionals alike!
Paul J Kenyon
