 Looking south over the stone circle towards King's Tor with the standing stone to the middle right of picture. |
 The
stone
circle that forms part of the Merrivale complex stands about 120
metres south of the western end of the southern stone
row. Whereas the rows follow an east-west spine of land across Longash
Common the circle and its associated outlier
are located on a south facing slope that leads down to a small stream
with the rock outcrop of King's Tor dominating the view to the south.
The circle itself is a fairly modest ring of eleven stones varying in
height between 40-60cm and with a diameter of about 18 metres and excavations
in 1895 suggested the existence of several socket holes that may once
have held more stones that were already missing by that date. There
does not appear to be any evidence of a bank around the stones making
this a freestanding circle. Just over 30 metres to the south of the
circle and clearly visible from it is a 3 metre tall standing stone
of rectangular section, the flat faces of its broader sides being aligned
to the south towards King's Tor and north towards the circle. As can
be seen from the photograph below the sun around midday casts a shadow
that points back towards the circle, this shadow would be even longer
during the winter with the sun being lower in the sky although I doubt
it would ever reach the circle. This may just be a coincidence but a
further investigation of the relationship between the stone, the circle,
the sun and King's Tor may be worth undertaking.The monuments on this part of the moor stand close to a field boundary and it could be that other structures to the south have been damaged or destroyed. A handful of low stones would seem to be evidence of a stone row that once lead south from close to the standing stone while parts of the kerb of a small cairn also stand near by as well as several other fallen stones in the vicinity whose purpose remains unclear. Suggested Date: Bronze Age |
 The standing stone is a short distance to the south of the stone circle. The large hill in the haze in the distance is King's Tor. |
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