A stone circle is an ancient monument of standing stones. It is not always precisely circular, often forming an ellipse, or more rarely a setting of four stones laid on an arc of a circle. The sizes of the standing stones has a lot of diversity.

The number of stones can vary between 4 and 60. Well more than a thousand stone circle monuments have been cataloged for the British Isles and the parts of Western Europe lying not more than 100 miles from sea. Purposefully erected thousands of years ago, their purpose is shrouded in mystery today.

All experts agree that stone circles are of pre-Christian date. But beyond that, stone circles have proven difficult to date. Radiocarbon dating has produced a wide range of dates at different sites.

No doubt, this is at least partly due to an inadequacy of materials suitable for the radiocarbon dating method that can be reliably obtained at the sites. The diversity of radiocarbon evidence may also indicate that stone circles were indeed constructed at a diversity of dates, or perhaps were sometimes reconstructed at later dates. The earliest dates are unclear.[citation needed] A second reason why they've proven difficult to date is that, other than the stones, generally no other archeological artifacts associated with the stone circles are available.

Pottery shards, bones, etc., are irregularly found at the sites, and when found are frequently of later date than the stone circle -- that can be said even though the date of the stone circle is undetermined. The sites have an absence of evidence of human dwelling, and most often an absence of graves. This suggests that stone circles were constructed for ceremonies (perhaps religious ceremonies) and were in use on ceremonial occasions only.

The type of ceremonies (if any) is entirely unknown. An alternative hypothesis as to purpose is that they were a form of amulet or talisman, i.e., an entity acknowledging and appeasing supposed spirits dwelling in nature, meaning that their ceremonial use was secondary to their talismanic value, or co-equal to it. The crudeness and variety of the stones excludes the possibility that they had astronomical observation purposes of any precision.

Sometimes a stone circle is found in association with a burial pit or burial chamber, but the great preponderance of these monuments have no such association. A stone circle is an entirely different entity from a henge, and different also from an isolated monolith, yet sometimes these other types of ancient stone monuments are found in close proximity.

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