Close to Penrith, in Cumbria, in the far North West of England, is a Bronze Age stone circle known as Long Meg and Her Daughters. It is one of around 1,300 stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany and was constructed as a part of a megalithic tradition of building stone circles, which lasted from 3,300 to 900 BCE, during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.
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Photo: Long Meg and Her Daughters
This stone circle is the sixth-largest example known from this part of North-Western Europe and is considered to be one of the finest in the North of England.
Long Meg and Her Daughters stone circle has a diameter of approximately 350 feet (107 metres) and is the second biggest in England. Long Meg is the tallest of the 69 stones, at approximately 12 feet high (3.7 metres). It displays three mysterious symbols, its four corners face the points of the compass and it stands some 60 feet outside the circle. Long Meg is made of local red sandstone, whereas the daughters are boulders of rhyolite, a form of granite.
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Photo: Long Meg and Her Daughters
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It is thought that the stones probably date from about 1500 BC and it was likely to have been used as a meeting place or for some form of ritual.
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William Wordsworth wrote the following poem about the stones in 1822:
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A weight of Awe not easy to be borne,
Fell suddenly upon my spirit, cast,
From the dread bosom of the unknown past,
When first I saw that family forlorn;
Speak Thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn,
The power of years – pre-eminent, and placed,
Apart, to overlook the circle vast.
Speak Giant-mother! tell it to the Morn,
While she dispels the cumbrous shades of night;
Let the Moon hear, emerging from a cloud,
At whose behest uprose on British ground,
That Sisterhood in hieroglyphic round,
Forth-shadowing, some have deemed the infinite,
The inviolable God that tames the proud.
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Local legend claims that Long Meg was a Witch who, with her daughters, was turned to stone by the famed 13th century Wizard, Michael Scott of Balwearie, when he caught them all profaning the Sabbath, as they danced wildly on the moor.
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Photo: Long Meg and Her Daughters
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The circle is supposedly endowed with magick, so that it is impossible to count the same number of stones twice, but if you do manage it, then it is said the magick is broken.
According to local lore, the petrified family must remain that way, until such time as someone succeeds in counting their number accurately or, failing that, should manage to count the same number of stones twice.
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Photo: Long Meg and Her Daughters
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Also, should anyone dare mistreat, or attempt to damage, any of the stones, the latent powers within them will be revived and those stupid enough to continue with any disrespectful actions will be severely…..dissuaded!!!
This happened to Captain Lacy, who was an 18th Century landowner. He used explosives in an attempt to dislodge and remove Long Meg and Her Daughters. Within moments of the work commencing, a fierce storm of driving rain and pounding hail arose, accompanied by the worst thunder and lightning the district had ever witnessed.
The workmen Lacy had employed became so terrified, that they fled the site fearing for their lives. Once they had run off, the storm ceased and the stones were left to age in peace, as they do today and will, no doubt, continue to do so for hundreds, if not thousands, more years.
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Information sourced from the following:
Melusina The Green Witch 