King Arthur's Round Table, Cumbria
- King Arthur's Round Table, Cumbria
King Arthur's Round Table is a Neolithic henge in the village of Eamont Bridge within the English county of Cumbria, around 2km south east of Penrith. The site is free to visitors and is under the control of English Heritage.
The henge is around 90m in diameter with two original entrances of which only that in the south-east survives due to modern road truncation. The external bank is 1.5m high with an internal quarry ditch which was 9m wide, flat bottomed and 1.4m deep when excavated in the 1937 and 1939. William Stukeley recorded two standing stones outside the northern entrance although these are no longer visible.The northern end of the henge is now covered by the B5320 (formerly A592) road and the Crown Hotel.
Attempts to turn the site into a landscaped garden in the 19th century have also caused disturbance and created a raised plateau in the centre. A cremation trench was identified in the middle during the excavations in the 1930s. It was 2.4m long, 0.8m wide and just 0.25m deep, contained cremated bone and may have been covered by a stone structure although little remained for analysis.
Another henge called the Little Round Table stood 200m to the south but was destroyed in the 19th century. The better preserved henge at Mayburgh is also very close by, indicating the presence of a henge complex and possible ritual landscape similar to those at Thornborough or Salisbury Plain.
References
* Marjorie Rowling, (1976) 'Folklore of the Lake District'
* Charles Thomas, "Folklore from a Northern Henge Monument", "Folklore", Vol. 64, No. 3., pp. 427-429 (Sep., 1953)
(References taken from postings by Rhiannon on the forum for the henge on [http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/78/king_arthurs_round_table.html "Julian Cope Presents" The Modern Antiquarian] )
External links
* [http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/cumbria/ancient/King-Arthur.htm Britain Express] online
* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0015-587X(195309)64%3A3%3C427%3AFFANHM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A JSTOR] online journal
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