Every year, thousands of tourists travel to the site, making it the most visited stone circle in Cumbria. This plateau forms the raised centre of a natural amphitheatre created by the surrounding fells and from within the circle it is possible to see some of the highest peaks in Cumbria.
The stones are set in a flattened circle, measuring 32.6 m at its widest and 29.5 m at its narrowest. The heaviest stone has been estimated to weigh around 16 tons and the tallest stone measures approximately 2.3m high. There is a 3.3m wide gap in its northern edge, which may have been an entrance. Within the circle, abutting its eastern quadrant, is a roughly rectangular setting of a further 10 stones. The circle was probably constructed around 3200 BC, making it one of the earliest stone circles in Britain and possibly in Europe. The ‘official’ number of stones, as represented on the National Trust information board at the monument, is 40.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, eventually reaching a peak of 1.1 million in 1939. In the 1960s, comprehensive urban renewal projects resulting in large-scale relocation of people to new towns and peripheral suburbs, followed by successive boundary changes, have reduced the current population of the City of Glasgow council area to just under 600 thousand with 1.2 million living in the Greater Glasgow urban area. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers approximately 2.3 million people, 41% of Scotland's population. Glasgow thus remains the largest city in Scotland, and is the 4th largest in the United Kingdom.
Glasgow is hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games - next stop the Gold Coast in 2018.
As we wandered around the city we came across the City Chambers (town hall) on George Square in the city centre - a beautiful building from 1898 with a stunning interior. An eminent example of Victorian civic architecture, the building was constructed between 1882 and 1888 to a competition winning design by Scottish architect William Young a native of nearby Paisley.