Long Meg and Her Daughters
Charlotte Rowland
Long Meg and Her Daughters is one of the finest and most prominent stone circles in the North of England, with narrative, legend and storytelling at its core. Made up of many stones, each bearing their own weight of representation, meaning and implied myth, the monument is significant, with many levels of decoding and suggested definition being applied to the structure over time. While symbolisation and interpretation continues to differ, the stones remain, firm and solid in their intent and unmoved in their hold on the landscape, and the way they ascribe new denotation and force to it.
Logistically, the stone circle has a diameter of approximately 350 feet, which is the second biggest in the country, with Long Meg coming in at 12 feet high. At present, the build consists of 59 stones, though speculators estimate there might once have been up to 70. It is thought that the stones date from 1500BC, with the site likely once being used for religious ritual and worship. The materials of the stones differ. Long Meg is made of local red sandstone, whereas the daughters are boulders made of rhyolite, a form of granite. The effect is impressive, and as mysterious in nature as it is prominent and upfront in vision.
The intrigue and enigma applied to the monument lends it a thrill that seekers of surprise and riddle in the natural world likewise pursue. It is this complexity, whereby the subtle inscrutability of the statue mirrors that of walking through it, that makes the site so ideal for lovers of a walk with a twist, where a drive to consistently question your surroundings is the drive for walking, or wandering, through them.
