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‘Solitude and awful wildness’: why you should visit Castlerigg stone circle

12:28 AM

Instead of fighting the crowds of tourists at Stonehenge, head to beautiful Keswick to visit one of the country’s earliest monuments – solstice or no solstice

It was by accident, more or less, that we visited Castlerigg stone circle on 21 December 2016 – the day of the winter solstice. My partner and I were holed up in the Lake District for a few days after an exhausting year, beset by work stress and political upheavals. The weather was mostly foul and our hotel, the wonderful old Kirkstile Inn near Loweswater, was warm and well stocked with board games and beer. On the penultimate day, we decided we’d better do some exploring.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, megalithic sites are fiddly to access. Stonehenge can be glimpsed from the A303 but you need to pay for a shuttle bus to see the stones up close. To view the winter solstice sunrise from inside Newgrange, the magnificent passage tomb in Ireland’s Boyne Valley, you have to vie with 30,000 people in an annual lottery for just 60 tickets.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/IeDQM98

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