Description
Arbor Low consists of about 50 large limestone blocks, quarried from a local site, which form an egg-shaped circle, with monoliths at the entrances, and possibly a portal stone at the south entrance. There is also a large pit at the north entrance, which possibly contained a stone. Some of the stones are broken; some of these fragments may originally have been joined together, such that there were originally between 41 and 43 stones. The stones range from 1.6 to 2.1 m tall, with the monoliths being between 2.6 and 2.9 m.
In the centre lie seven smaller blocks, which form a cove.
One stone is partially upright; the rest are all lying down. Although it is frequently stated that the stones have never stood upright, it is possible that they had originally been set upright in shallow stone holes.
The stones are surrounded by an oval earthen bank, approximately 90 by 85 m at the outside edges and 2 m high, with an interior ditch being about 2 m deep and between 7 and 10 m wide. There are two causeway entrances breaching both the bank and ditch; the north-west one is 9m wide, and the south-south-east one is 6m wide. Within the bank lies an inner platform 52 by 40 m in size.
Few henge monuments in the British Isles are as well-preserved. Arbor Low was one of the first ancient monuments to be given statutary protection, in the 1880s. Small monoliths engraved VR and GR (for Victoria Regina and Georgius Rex) still stand around the henge, demarcating the protected area.
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