The Meeting place of Four Kings in 926
Cumbria is littered with the evidence of our ancient past. Today I went to Mayburgh Henge, close to where I live, part of a three henge complex at least 5000 years old. It used to have four standing stones, but only one remains. A few hundred yards away is what is locally known as Arthur’s Round Table, which is also circular, with a raised central stage, like an ampitheatre. A third henge was destroyed a hundred years ago by road building. Mayburgh is gigantic – surrounded by a circular boundary of stones, four metres high, now covered over with grass and oak trees. Mayburgh is where, in 926, King Athelstan (grandson of King Alfred of the burnt cakes) met with King Owain of Strathclyde and Cumbria, Constantine, King of the Scots, King Hywel Dda of Wales and Earl Ealdred of Northumberland. Each of the kings would have had a considerable retinue, but Mayburgh is big enough to accommodate over a thousand people. Here the Kings agreed the Treaty of Eamont Bridge, which effectivel
