Little Meg

Little Meg

The Little Meg circle with the decorated stone in the foreground
Shown within Cumbria
Location	Little Salkeld grid reference NY57693749
Coordinates	54°43′50″N 2°39′30″W / 54.73064°N 2.65845°W / 54.73064; -2.65845
Type	Kerb cairn
History
Periods	Bronze Age

Little Meg (also known as the Maughanby circle) is a small circle of large kerb stones which probably surrounded a Bronze Age kerb cairn. It is close to the village of Langwathby to the north-east of Penrith in the English county of Cumbria and is 650 metres north-east of the more famous stone circle of Long Meg and Her Daughters. It forms part of a complex of stone circles and cairns around the Long Meg site that includes the circle at Glassonby, Old Parks, and other sites since lost.

Two of the stones (only one remaining) were decorated in antiquity with a series of concentric circles and a spiral.

Little Meg is situated c.650m north-east of the Long Meg stone circle (grid reference NY57693749). "It stands on a very slight ridge amongst gently undulating glacial deposits". Long Meg would have been visible at the time of its use.

The stone circles, henges, cairns and other standing stones in the area are often grouped at nodes of communication routes. The Shap Stone Avenue to the south of Penrith, forms an 'avenue' running to the east of the River Lowther along a main route to the north; the Long Meg complex runs alongside the River Eden; Mayburgh and the other henges run alongside the River Eamont near its confluence with the River Lowther.

Among the many questions related to this site, one concerns why Little Meg was not aligned with the midwinter or midsummer line to Long Meg. Clare suggests that maybe that line was considered too 'sacred', or that the existing vegetation precluded seeing the line, or that there was already another monument there.

Other questions concern the nature of the construction of Little Meg. When first discovered in the middle of the nineteenth century, there was a c.1.3m mound covering the stones. The number of stones was reported to be 8 by one person, 11 by another, perhaps because the mound was not completely cleared away and still covered three stones. Bones, charcoal and a 'coarse pot' were found buried in a cist at the centre of the circle, the pot being unadorned and standing at the east end of the cist.