Backstone Circle

Strange phenomena experienced at stone circles, and especially the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire, can be found in Paul Devereux’s book Places of Power (2nd edition, Cassell Illustrated, 1999).

The filmmaker Jeff Figgis recounts the experiences of the late photographer Sir Simon Marsden, also at Rollright, where he was thrown back by an invisible force, with his camera ripped from his hands and which left a nasty bruise, recounted in Simon Marsden: A Life in Pictures [FT370:66-67].

Ron Gandy in his article It’s Weird Up North! [FT343:20-21],

reporting on the 2016 conference of the same title, recounts speakers giving talks on all manner of weirdness, and this included Steve Jones discussing strange experiences at Backstone Circle on Ilkley Moor.

In his book The Old Stones of Elmet (Capall Bann Publishing, 2003), Paul Bennett relates a weird encounter, experienced by himself and a friend when camping at the circle, occurring at around midnight on 12 July 1989.

Although the book is now out of print, Bennett repeats his experiences on the Backstone Circle section of The Northern Antiquarian website (scroll down to the section titled Fortean History: www.thenorthernantiquarian. org/2014/09/22/backstone-circle/).

After a session of ‘spirit invocation’ (though the author doesn’t specify exactly what this involved), the pair reported seeing a vision of several hooded figures walking in a circle, gradually increasing speed, until they were replaced by a bizarre light show, described by Bennett “as twodimensional horizontal lights”, whizzing around the circle. After these vanished, Bennett reported entering the circle, and feeling an intense coldness, like walking into a freezer, and dropping to his knees with chill as he reached the centre.

Bearing in mind that his book wasn’t about fortean phenomena but about the location and history of standing stones in West Yorkshire, it seems an unnecessary and bizarre thing to fabricate, and so – rightly or wrongly – I have given the author the benefit of the doubt.

There are other notes on bizarre events at the circle. Carol Oliver added a comment (which she also repeats on her Mountain Coward website): “The sight you saw at Backstone that night sounds very much like an old Wiccan ‘mill’ or round dance where they circle rapidly while chanting to raise energy to use for various ‘work’ (curing animals, potato blight etc). I really wish I’d been with you, especially for the ‘light show’ afterwards :-) I’m sure it was pretty scary though.”

This comment can be found by scrolling down the page to the last few paragraphs of her Backstone Circle entry on her website at: https://mountaincowardadventures.wordpress. com/2015/02/28/hunting-haunted-backstone-circle/

A correspondent, named only as ‘smackedpentax’ writes: “It is a shame you didn’t experience the ‘closed door’ (or more likely ‘Get The F**K Outta Here!’) experience, because it is really unnerving when it happens. And it does quite frequently – I personally know four people it has happened to! Another place I find creepy is Horncliffe Circle – and that is well worth a visit next time you are up there.” This can be found by scrolling down the page at: https://mountaincowardadventures.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/ hunting-haunted-backstonecircle/

As a fortean researcher, and a native of ‘weird’ West Yorkshire, I visited Backstone Circle in late 2022, intending to write it up for my blog Spooky Vocation, but I had no odd feelings or experiences.

Rob Gandy described Backstone Circle as ‘hard-to-find’ and he weren’t kidding! When I visited, it was almost hidden from view by long grass and I missed it several times. The best place to start is the Ilkley Moor landmark of the Cow and Calf Rocks. Then forge ahead, crossing the stream called Backstone Beck, then up the hill, keeping the Beck on your left. Eventually, you arrive at a crossroads in the path. Push on ahead, and Backstone Circle is about 100 yards to your right. If you reach a paved, crescent-shaped seating area, then you’ve gone past it. Turn around and go back and it’s about 50-100 yards on your left.

If you’re planning to do a lot of country walking, I recommend Christopher Goddard’s book The West Yorkshire Moors (2nd edition, Gritstone Publishing Co-Operative, 2019) including loads of detail and clear, hand-drawn maps, and which is one of the few publications featuring Backstone Circle and brief details of its fortean happenings.

What we really need to do is to organise an overnight investigation, accompanied by someone with experience of ‘spirit evocation’. Any volunteers?

Andy Owens

Halifax, West Yorkshire