Circles & monuments

86 places across Britain and Ireland

• Arbor LowPeak District, Derbyshire · The Stonehenge of the North, where every stone lies flat.
• AveburyAvebury, Wiltshire · The largest stone circle in Britain, with a whole village built inside it.
• Ballynoe Stone CircleNear Downpatrick, County Down · A ring of more than 50 stones at the end of a hidden lane.
• Beaghmore Stone CirclesNear Cookstown, County Tyrone · Seven stone circles uncovered from the peat in the 1940s.
• Blick MeadAmesbury, Wiltshire · A warm spring that may make Amesbury Britain's oldest settlement.
• Boscawen-UnNear St Buryan, Cornwall · A ring of granite with one white quartz stone and a leaning heart.
• Bryn Celli DduLlanddaniel Fab, Anglesey · A tomb that fills with sunlight at dawn on midsummer's day.
• Bush BarrowNormanton Down, Wiltshire · A chieftain buried with a gold lozenge, near Stonehenge.
• Cairnpapple HillNear Linlithgow, West Lothian · A sacred hilltop used for 2,000 years, where you can climb into the cairn.
• Callanish StonesIsle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides · A cross-shaped stone setting at the edge of the Atlantic, tied to the moon.
• Carn BreaAbove Redruth, Cornwall · A Neolithic village that may have been attacked by hundreds of archers.
• CastleriggNear Keswick, Cumbria · One of Britain's earliest circles, ringed by the mountains of the Lake District.
• ChysausterNear Penzance, Cornwall · A village of courtyard houses on a Cornish hillside.
• Cissbury RingNear Worthing, West Sussex · Flint mines beneath the largest hillfort in Sussex.
• Clava CairnsNear Inverness, Highlands · Bronze Age tombs inside stone rings, lined up with the midwinter sunset.
• Coldrum Long BarrowTrottiscliffe, Kent · A stone tomb that may have held one family.
• Cuween HillNear Finstown, Orkney · A tomb where the skulls of 24 dogs lay on the floor.
• DaneburyNear Stockbridge, Hampshire · The most thoroughly dug hillfort in western Europe.
• Drombeg Stone CircleNear Glandore, County Cork · Ireland's 'Druid's Altar', lined up with the midwinter sunset.
• Duddo Five StonesNear Berwick, Northumberland · Five tall stones, carved into strange shapes by 4,000 years of weather.
• Durrington WallsNear Amesbury, Wiltshire · The village of the people who built Stonehenge.
• Flag FenNear Peterborough, Cambridgeshire · A causeway of 60,000 timbers, and offerings thrown into the water.
• Glastonbury Lake VillageGodney, Somerset · An Iron Age village built on a man-made island in a marsh.
• Gors FawrMynachlog-ddu, Pembrokeshire · A ring of 16 stones beneath the hills that gave Stonehenge its bluestones.
• Great Orme Copper MinesLlandudno, Conwy · Miles of Bronze Age tunnels dug with bone and stone.
• Grey WethersNear Postbridge, Dartmoor · Twin stone circles once sold to a stranger as a flock of sheep.
• Grimes GravesNear Brandon, Norfolk · A field of hundreds of Stone Age flint mines.
• GrimspoundDartmoor, Devon · A walled Bronze Age village of 24 huts on the open moor.
• Gristhorpe ManGristhorpe, North Yorkshire · A Bronze Age man buried in a hollowed-out oak tree.
• Hambledon HillChild Okeford, Dorset · A Neolithic enclosure that became a vast open cemetery, then a battlefield.
• Hengistbury HeadBournemouth, Dorset · A headland used by Ice Age hunters and Iron Age traders.
• Hill o' Many StanesNear Lybster, Caithness · Around 200 small stones set out in fan-shaped rows on a hillside.
• Howick HouseHowick, Northumberland · Until Star Carr, the oldest known house in Britain.
• JarlshofSumburgh, Shetland · Four thousand years of homes on one Shetland shore.
• Kilmartin GlenKilmartin, Argyll · Over 350 ancient monuments packed into one Scottish valley.
• Kit's Coty HouseAylesford, Kent · Three stones and a capstone from Britain's first farmers.
• Knap of HowarPapa Westray, Orkney · Possibly the oldest stone house still standing in northern Europe.
• Knowlton ChurchNear Wimborne, Dorset · A ruined Norman church built inside a pagan henge.
• Lanyon QuoitNear Morvah, Cornwall · A giant's table of stone, once tall enough to ride a horse under.
• Lindow ManLindow Moss, Cheshire · A man preserved in a peat bog for 2,000 years.
• Llyn Cerrig BachRAF Valley, Anglesey · Iron Age swords and chains found while building a wartime runway.
• Long Meg and Her DaughtersLittle Salkeld, Cumbria · A coven of witches turned to stone, guarded by their tall red mother.
• Machrie MoorIsle of Arran · Six circles on one moor, with pillars taller than a double-decker bus.
• MaeshoweStenness, Orkney · A Neolithic tomb lit by the midwinter sun, and full of Viking graffiti.
• Maiden CastleNear Dorchester, Dorset · The largest Iron Age hillfort in Britain, and a disputed last stand.
• Mam TorCastleton, Derbyshire · A hillfort on the Shivering Mountain, slowly sliding away.
• Marden HengeVale of Pewsey, Wiltshire · The largest henge in Britain, and almost nobody has heard of it.
• Mitchell's FoldCorndon Hill, Shropshire · A witch, a fairy cow and a sieve that drained a village dry.
• Must FarmWhittlesey, Cambridgeshire · Britain's Pompeii: a stilt village that burned and fell into a river.
• Mên-an-TolNear Morvah, Cornwall · A stone ring with a hole through it, said to heal those who crawl through.
• Nine LadiesStanton Moor, Derbyshire · Nine women who danced on a Sunday, with their fiddler close by.
• Pentre IfanNevern, Pembrokeshire · A sixteen-tonne capstone balanced on three pointed stones.
• Ring of BrodgarMainland, Orkney · A vast ring of stones between two lochs, at the heart of Neolithic Orkney.
• Scorhill CircleGidleigh, Dartmoor · Dartmoor's finest stone circle, near a stone said to cure the sick.
• SeahengeHolme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk · A circle of oak posts around an upturned tree, revealed by the sea.
• Silbury HillNear Avebury, Wiltshire · Europe's largest prehistoric mound, and nobody knows why it was built.
• Skara BraeBay of Skaill, Orkney · A Stone Age village revealed by a storm, with stone beds and dressers.
• Snettisham HoardSnettisham, Norfolk · Over 150 gold and silver neck rings, perhaps royal Iceni treasure.
• Stanton DrewNear Bristol, Somerset · A wedding party that danced into the Sabbath, and paid for it.
• StonehengeSalisbury Plain, Wiltshire · Britain's most famous monument still keeps its central secret: why it was built.
• Stones of StennessMainland, Orkney · One of the oldest stone circles in Britain, and the lost Odin Stone.
• Stoney Littleton Long BarrowWellow, Somerset · A tomb aimed at the midwinter sunrise, with a fossil on its doorway.
• SwinsideNear Broughton-in-Furness, Cumbria · Sunkenkirk: the church the Devil kept pulling down.
• The Amesbury ArcherAmesbury, Wiltshire · The richest early Bronze Age grave in Britain, near Stonehenge.
• The Battersea ShieldRiver Thames, London · A bronze shield pulled from the Thames, made for show rather than battle.
• The Broch of MousaMousa, Shetland · The tallest Iron Age tower still standing, home to storm petrels.
• The Devil's ArrowsBoroughbridge, North Yorkshire · Three giant stone pillars said to have been hurled by the Devil.
• The Dorset CursusCranborne Chase, Dorset · Two parallel banks running for six miles across the downs.
• The Dover Bronze Age BoatDover, Kent · A boat of sewn oak planks found under a road.
• The HurlersMinions, Bodmin Moor · Three circles of men turned to stone for playing a game on Sunday.
• The Langdale Axe FactoryPike of Stickle, Cumbria · Stone axes made on a mountainside and traded across Britain.
• The Merry MaidensLamorna, Cornwall · Nineteen girls who danced on a Sunday, and two pipers who fled.
• The Moor Sand WreckSalcombe, Devon · Bronze Age swords on the sea bed, perhaps from a sunken boat.
• The Ness of BrodgarMainland, Orkney · A great Neolithic temple complex hidden under a farmer's field.
• The Rollright StonesLong Compton, Oxfordshire · A king and his army, frozen in stone by a witch's trick.
• The Rudston MonolithRudston, East Yorkshire · The tallest standing stone in Britain, in a village churchyard.
• The Sweet TrackShapwick, Somerset Levels · The oldest road in Britain, laid across a marsh in a single year.
• The Westray WifeLinks of Noltland, Westray · A tiny carved figure with the oldest known face in Britain.
• The Wetwang Chariot BurialsWetwang, East Yorkshire · A woman buried on her chariot with a bronze mirror.
• Thornborough HengesNear Ripon, North Yorkshire · Three giant henges in a line, laid out like the stars of Orion's Belt.
• TinkinswoodSt Nicholas, Vale of Glamorgan · A tomb with a 40-ton capstone, where a night's stay brings madness or poetry.
• Tomb of the EaglesIsbister, South Ronaldsay · A cliff-top tomb of 16,000 bones and the talons of sea eagles.
• Tre'r CeiriYr Eifl, Gwynedd · The Town of the Giants, with 150 stone houses on a mountaintop.
• West Kennet Long BarrowNear Avebury, Wiltshire · A great stone tomb you can walk inside, older than Stonehenge.
• Windmill HillNear Avebury, Wiltshire · The largest causewayed enclosure in Britain, where the first farmers gathered.
• WoodhengeNear Amesbury, Wiltshire · A lost circle made of timber, found from the air in 1926.