Kemp Howe stone circle

Kemp Howe circle lies just to the south of Shap village and is part of what was once an extensive ceremonial landscape. The circle's present day situation is somewhat unfortunate as half of it lies buried under the west coast main line railway!

Kemp Howe and the railway

Kemp Howe was once connected to a tumulus by a long avenue of stones that itself formed a section of an immense super-monument at Shap that formed a megalithic metropolis. Unfortunately much of this was destroyed when the land was enclosed for agriculture and the building of the railway 150 years ago assisted with the process.
kemphowe2

Nowadays Kemp Howe squats uncomfortably between the railway and the A6 road in the shadow of Shap cement works. However in the wider context of the fate of the prehistoric monuments of Shap we should perhaps be pleased that some of it continues to survive at all. It would be very interesting to know whether any geophysical survey of the land below the railway has been done (perhaps during one of the times the line is closed for seemingly never ending engineering work?) to establish whether the circle stones are still present under the embankment. For the moment it is ironic that Kemp Howe may currently be the most visited stone circle in Britain as it is passed through, albeit unknowingly, by thousands of train passengers every day!

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