Stone Circle on Divock Moor

Double ring of seventy five stones

Mostly flat set in the banked moor surface

Purpose unknown, lost in the mists of time

Bronze Age man must have gathered at this moot

The eastward view, mountains folded on one another

Fell-sides changing colour with the seasons

Provide a dramatic background

One large stone with no markings, no runes

Cleft with a lichen tuft missed by the sheep’s rubbing

Stands out, Green against the grey

The same stone passed by Roman cohort’s on their ‘High Street’

Later generations of Hikers, Mountain Bikers, Horses with riders

Some feeling the magic of the lofty site above the glittering lake

Waders and Gulls blown inland today by fierce winter storms

Raucous calls ignored by tough Herdwick sheep

Lifetimes spent on this wet high ground, Mutton and Wool on the hoof

Living and grazing amongst the stony earth

Finding shelter next to rocks and blasted trees

Graham Ramsden

2015