Goatstones

Four Poster Stone Circle - Northumberland

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ What's New ] [ Scotland ] [ Ireland ] [ Wales ] [ Europe ] [ Methods ] [ Us ]

		Photo Gallery
		Panoramas
		Rock Art

Standing on open ground near to Ravenshaugh Crags with extensive views in all directions, Goatstones belongs to a class of monument known as a Four-Poster Stone Circle. As the name suggests, these "circles" consist of four stones arranged at the corners of a square or rectangle. Four posters are mainly found in Scotland, particularly in Perthshire, Goatstones is one of the few that exist in other regions of the British Isles.
The stones are quite low, none of them over 0.7m high, we measured the distances between them as 4.58m E-W and 4.37m N-S, they are said to stand on the circumference of a true circle. The southern stone has fallen and now leans at a shallow angle, and the top of the eastern stone is covered in cupmarks. The marks are badly weathered, but we could make out about 14 of them, although there is said to be a total of 16, see how many you can count in our rock art photos. 
The name Goatstones may be derived from "Gyet-Stones" which means "wayside stones", as the circle stands close to an old droveway.