Ring fashioned to illustrate the Ninestane Rig stone circle.

18 carat yellow gold standing stones applied and chased onto a background of pattern-welded 22 carat yellow, and 9 carat white gold, it in turn being applied to trimmed body of 9 carat white gold.
Close to the great Border Fortress of Hermitage Castle in the Liddesdale valley, the Ninestane Rig is a remarkable stone circle of signifigant importance, which is unfortunately now both neglected and overlooked.

Standing now in a forest clearing, it is in fact an elipse of 9 stones, the azimuth in alignment with the major southern moonset.

Observing this alignment from within the circle, the southern moonset drops between the two contrastingly tall pillars, between which is a small stone sits (the two pillars can be seen in the 1890 watercolour, and the recent photograph) Following this alignment a few hundred yards south leads to a revelationary discovery...
It is possible that a few surviving stones, now almost completley sunk into the peat, once formed a meandering avenue of stones down to two ancient enclosures, which folk memory associates with the battle of Dawston Burn, or Degastane, in 603, where the Northumbrian king Aethelfrith defeated the Dalriadic Scots under King Aedan mac Gabran, the Degastane (?) itself, now lying recumbant, has a worked hollow on one face and marks the edge of the southern enclosure.

This enclosure has apparently been partly scooped out, and comprises of an encircling rubble dry stane wall, now eroded by time. Standing in the centre of this enclosure, and slowly turning 360 degrees, one realises that the contours of the wall profile the shape of the surrounding hills! Bearing in mind that from the observation point of the Ninestane Rig, the moon would apparently sink into this enclosure, its seems not improbable that this is intended as a microcosim of the entire valley, and a sacred place of moon associated worship...

Worthy also of note, and further research, is the exceptional acoustics of the Ninestane Rig, magnifying voice and sound with reverberating echoes.

Recent research at Stonehenge in Wiltshire has shown sound created within the circle to be projected, and to mysteriously arrive at particular places outwith the Henge.

I have been told of a possible survival of ancient acoustics surviving in Brittany, where the 'Voice of Angels' can be heard in hymsong, this is where three people sing hymns, a fourth voice mysteriously being heard hovering above the singers, as the voices reach a particular pitch in unison.

Castlerigg stone circle just outside Keswick, in the Lake District, is also known for the profile of its stones bearing resemblance to the surrounding landscape.
Ninestane Rig, circa 1890. Where the wicked medieval sorcerer Lord De Soulis was supposedly boiled in a cauldron of lead... the Jacobite army also reputeadly camped here in 1715.
Ninestane Rig today overgrown with commanding veiws obscured by forest, still, however, a rewarding hike, signposted from the road ( park by the bridge on the B6399, 2 miles north of the Hermitage castle turn off, and follow the treeline up the hill on foot )
Ancient stone marking the edge of the southern enclosure, probably the Degastane, a few hundred yards south of the Ninestane Rig.