Mitchells Fold Stone Circle

This is where I went today, to get some photos cos for I'm thinking of redesigning the interpretation board up at Mitchells Fold for the next trick for my MA. Brilliant day, lovely location, and here are some of the things I encountered on the way.

This is a bit of the stone circle itself; in fact it's the largest stone. Most of them are little fellers like the other ones you can see. There's a wonderful legend attached to the place; apparently a fairy cow used to appear here at times of famine, and she would never run dry as long as nobody took more than one pail of milk. Then a wicked old witch, Mitchell, milked the cow into a sieve and drained her dry. The cow vanished, Mitchell was turned to stone, and the other stones crowded round her to make sure her spirit was trapped, and therefore couldn't go round draining people's beer glasses, MacDonalds milk shakes etc.

There is an alternative version, whereby the cow goes mad (does this remind you of anything?), and is slain as the Dun Cow by Guy of Warwick (himself a legendary figure). However, I don't think this version of the story is true - not like the first one - because the original cow was white. And a fairy. Apparently there's a relic of the Dun Cow, to show how ferocious its horns were. It's actually an elephant tusk.

On the way up to the circle I didn't meet any cows, but I did see some sheep.

Here are some of them. I quite like the way sheep turn their bottoms towards you and widdle. This one obviously couldn't decide whether to do the widdling activity, or to keep an eye on this strange person who was pointing a magic lantern box in their general direction. And ended up doing both.

In fact it was a very fruitful visit. I talked to several people about what they would like to see on the interpretation board, and what was important to them about sites like this. They had strong views and were very forthcoming. Which isn't surprising, considering the actual board, which is depicted below. One of them even gave me her email address in France!

This has a certain minimalist, conceptual appeal. Tate Modern would probably exhibit it.

It's just not very informative.

What would you like to see on there? Please leave comments below. All correspondence will be dealt with in the strictest confidence, apart from the fact that the world and his welly-boots would be able to see.