Prehistoric stone circles are rare survivors on the English landscape. They are known only in upland settings and the majority are found in the west, especially in Devon, Cornwall, and Cumbria. Therefore, the existence of one, and possibly two, at Mudbeck, at the head of Arkengarthdale, is of special interest.
According to Historic England, excavated sites have been found to date from the Late Neolithic period to the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2400 BC to c. 1000 BC). It is believed they were important ritual sites, associated with burials. Typically, they have a diameter of 20 to 30 metres with 20 to 30 upright or recumbent stones. The most convincing of the two sites at Mudbeck is slightly smaller, with a diameter of 18.5 metres and with six surviving stones from a probable original setting of 12.
To learn more, see the SWAAG database Category Standing stones and circles, which contains 20 records. The two Mudbeck sites are described in the first and eighth entries (record nos. 120 and 545). For comparison with a more complete example, see the seventh entry (record no. 514), which is about The Cockpit stone circle at Moor Divock, above Ullswater, in the Lake District (photo above).
The other 17 records contain descriptions of a variety of sites of single and multiple standing stones, including exceptional sites in Cumbria and Galloway, other sites in Teesdale and Wensleydale, and just two isolated single stones on Ellerton Moor, and one at Stony Hill between the head of Arkengarthdale and Sleightholme.
Also, in the SWAAG database Category Unknown, there is an interesting speculation by Doug Waugh about the visible relationship between a series of stone-marked summits between Teesdale and Swaledale – scroll to the fourth entry (record no. 1011).
