Backstone Circle

Map Referance : SE126461
53°54'41.02"N 1°48'35.48"W
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This charming, tumbledown, overgrown circle, camaflouged by newer dry-stone walls takes some finding, but it's certainly worth the effort! It's perched on the flanks of the Backstone Beck valley. I must've walked near it dozens of times over the years and never noticed it. Maybe it's because it's hidden amongst more recent constructions, or maybe it's only noticed if you're actually intent on finding it!

The stones nestle into the moorland vegetation, partially obscured by great tussocks of sedge. To me, the attendant man-made remains don't seem to detract from the peaceful sanctity of the place. The circle was 'forgotten' until quite recently. At first 'the jury was out' as to it's authenticity. Collyer and Turner (1885) mention a 'rude circle of stones' that you had to look twice at to see, situated somewhere beyond the White Wells. This fits the bill! Today though, it seems the archaeologists and megalith-hunters have vouched for it's worth and included it in some of the current guides to the moors. If this is a tenuously verified site then the alignments which occur here are a miraculous coincidence! Folks more attuned to these things than I have observed lines of reddish light, which dowsing has corroborated.