The 24 Best Stone Circles in Britain and Ireland

A few of these rings draw coach parties all summer, and others sit in sheep fields at the end of a single-track road.

1. 1
   Easter Aquhorthies

   Aberdeenshire recumbent stone circle with a great slab laid flat between two tall flankers.
   1000pts
2. 2
   The Hurlers

   Three circles in a row on Bodmin Moor, said to be men petrified for playing hurling on a Sunday.
   942pts
3. 3
   Castlerigg

   Neolithic circle near Keswick ringed by the fells of the Lake District, one of the earliest in Britain.
   888pts
4. 4
   Beaghmore

   Seven Bronze Age circles and stone rows uncovered from the peat in County Tyrone.
   826pts
5. 5
   Ring of Brodgar

   Huge Orkney ring, once about 60 stones, set inside a rock-cut ditch between two lochs.
   668pts
6. 6
   Merry Maidens

   Cornish ring of 19 granite stones, said to be girls turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday.
   668pts
7. 7
   Stonehenge

   Wiltshire's lintelled sarsen circle, raised around 2500 BC with bluestones brought from west Wales.
   667pts
8. 8
   Mitchell's Fold

   Bronze Age circle on a Shropshire ridge, tied to a legend about a magic cow.
   667pts
9. 9
   Beltany

   Donegal hilltop ring of more than 60 stones near Raphoe.
   565pts
10. 10
    Machrie Moor

    Six circles of granite boulders and red sandstone pillars on the Isle of Arran.
    565pts
11. 11
    Ballynoe

    County Down circle of more than 50 closely set stones around a later cairn.
    565pts
12. 12
    Stanton Drew

    Somerset site whose Great Circle is the second largest in Britain after Avebury.
    439pts
13. 13
    Boscawen-Un

    Cornish circle of 19 stones around a leaning central pillar near Land's End.
    439pts
14. 14
    Grange Stone Circle

    Ireland's largest stone circle, beside Lough Gur in County Limerick.
    439pts
15. 15
    Stones of Stenness

    Four towering slabs on Orkney, part of one of the oldest henge monuments in Britain.
    439pts
16. 16
    Drombeg

    West Cork circle of 17 stones aligned on the midwinter sunset.
    439pts
17. 17
    Clava Cairns

    Bronze Age cairns ringed by standing stones in a wooded valley near Inverness.
    439pts
18. 18
    Calanais Stones

    Cross-shaped setting of tall gneiss stones on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.
    0pts
19. 19
    Rollright Stones

    Oxfordshire trio of the King's Men circle, the King Stone and the Whispering Knights, thick with folklore.
    0pts
20. 20
    Avebury

    Wiltshire henge enclosing the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world, with a village built inside it.
    0pts
21. 21
    Long Meg and Her Daughters

    Large Cumbrian circle with Long Meg, a red sandstone outlier carved with rock art, standing beside it.
    0pts
22. 22
    Swinside

    Near-complete circle of 55 stones in a quiet Cumbrian field below Black Combe.
    0pts
23. 23
    Arbor Low

    Peak District henge high on the moors, where nearly all the stones lie flat.
    0pts
24. 24
    Nine Ladies

    Small Bronze Age circle hidden in the birch woods of Stanton Moor in the Peak District.
    0pts

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