 The five stones of the Day House Lane Stone Circle | |
  Shown within Wiltshire | |
| Alternative name | Coate Stone Circle |
|---|---|
| Location | Near Coate |
| Coordinates | 51°32′24″N 1°44′20″W / 51.540°N 1.739°W |
| Type | Stone circle |
| History | |
| Periods | Neolithic / Bronze Age |
Day House Lane Stone Circle, also known as Coate Stone Circle, is a stone circle near the hamlet of Coate, now on the southeastern edge of Swindon, in the English county of Wiltshire. The ring was part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, over a period between 3300 and 900 BCE. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although some archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle's builders.
Five partly buried stones remain at the site. A circle of sarsen megaliths, Day House Lane Stone Circle probably had an original diameter of about 69 metres and possibly contained over thirty stones. It was one of at least seven stone circles that are known to have been erected in the area south of Swindon in northern Wiltshire. The earliest known reference to the site was made by the local writer Richard Jefferies in the 1860s. When the antiquarian A. D. Passmore investigated the site during the 1890s he found nine stones, mostly buried. He observed a line of five stones not far from the circle's northern end, suggesting that these were part of a prehistoric avenue connected to the circle; these too no longer existed by the 21st century.