Details

The monument includes The Cockpit stone circle and seven clearance cairns
lying adjacent and north of it. It is located on Moor Divock on a slight rise
in the landscape, overlooking the Ullswater valley and close to a natural ford
crossing point of Elder Beck. It includes a circular kerbed stone bank 2.8m -
11.2m wide and up to 0.5m high which encloses an area approximately 27m in
diameter. There are 27 standing and recumbent stones set largely into the
internal face of this bank, thereby creating the stone circle. The tallest
standing stone measures about 0.95m high and some of the recumbent stones are
up to 1.9m in length. Within the eastern side of the stone circle, abutting
the internal edge of the stone bank, is a 5m square foundation of stones. This
is interpreted as an original element of the stone circle, although its exact
function is as yet unknown. Beyond the southern and western perimeter of the
stone circle there is an arc of five outlying stones each up to 1.5m high,
four of which are standing. To the north of the stone circle there is an arc
of four small clearance cairns - three of which are slightly oval-shaped and
one circular. To the north of these are a further three clearance cairns.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Stone circles are prehistoric monuments comprising one or more circles of
upright or recumbent stones. The circle of stones may be surrounded by
earthwork features such as enclosing banks and ditches. Single upright stones
may be found within the circle or outside it and avenues of stones radiating
out from the circle occur at some sites. Burial cairns may also be found close
to and on occasion within the circle. Stone circles are found throughout
England although they are concentrated in western areas, with particular
clusters in upland areas such as Bodmin and Dartmoor in the south-west and the
Lake District and the rest of Cumbria in the north-west. This distribution may
be more a reflection of present survival rather than an original pattern.
Where excavated they have been found to date from the Late Neolithic to the
Middle Bronze Age (c.2400-1000 BC). It is clear that they were designed and
laid out carefully, frequently exhibiting very regularly spaced stones, the
heights of which also appear to have been of some importance. We do not fully
understand the uses for which these monuments were originally constructed but
it is clear that they had considerable ritual importance for the societies
that used them. In many instances excavation has indicated that they provided
a focus for burials and the rituals that accompanied interment of the dead.
Some circles appear to have had a calendrical function, helping mark the
passage of time and seasons, this being indicated by the careful alignment of
stones to mark important solar or lunar events such as sunrise or sunset at
midsummer or midwinter. At other sites the spacing of individual circles
throughout the landscape has led to a suggestion that each one provided some
form of tribal gathering point for a specific social group. Large regular
stone circles comprise an arrangement of between one and three rings of from
20 to 30 upright stones. The diameters of these circles range between 20 and
30 metres. They are presently known only in upland contexts, the majority
being located in Devon and Cornwall or Cumbria. Of the 250 or so stone circles
identified in England only 28 are examples of this type. As a rare monument
type which provides an important insight into prehistoric ritual activity all
surviving examples are worthy of preservation.

Clearance cairns are built with stones cleared from the surrounding landscape
to improve its use for agriculture. Funerary cairns are also frequently found
in cairnfields, although without excavation it may be impossible to determine
which cairns contain burials. Clearance cairns began to be constructed from
the Neolithic period (from c.3000 BC), although the majority of examples
appear to be the result of field clearance which began during the earlier
Bronze Age and continued into the later Bronze Age (2000-500 BC).
The Cockpit is a good example of a large regular stone circle. The adjacent
clearance cairns are also well preserved. These sites lie close to other
prehistoric monuments on Moor Divock and Askham Fell and thus indicate the
importance of this area in prehistoric times and the diversity of monument
classes to be found here.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Burl, A, The Stone Circles of the British Isles, (1976), 57-69
Quartermaine, J, Askham Fell, (1992), 3-4
Quartermaine, J, Askham Fell Survey Catalogue, (1992), 1-3,6-7
Quartermaine, J, Askham Fell Survey Catalogue, (1992), 14-16
Quartermaine, J, Askham Fell Survey Catalogue, (1992), 14-15
Taylor, W, 'Trans Cumb & West Antiq & Arch Soc' in The Prehistoric Remains On Moor Divock, Near Ullswater, (1886), 323
Other
Bowman, A., MPP Single Monument Class Description - Large Reg Stone Circles, (1990)
Darvill,T., MPP Single Monument Class Description - Bowl Barrows, (1988)
Waterhouse, 1985,

Source: Historic England