Stone Circle

The Stone Circle is a gravel festival built around the summer solstice, with its base camp, the Festival Fort, set inside the Iron Age earthworks of Old Sarum above Salisbury. It is not a race: finishing times are recorded, but the weekend is as much about food, beer, live music and time with friends as it is about the riding.

The routes head out across Salisbury Plain, a vast chalk plateau that one road.cc writer called a rare stretch of empty space in the busy south of England. The organisers promise big-ring hero gravel on the Imber Ranges, mixed with woodland singletrack, field-edge bridleways, old railway lines and short road links, passing some of the best-known ancient sites in the country.

Around the rides there is a fancy dress hill climb on the Friday, shakedown and hangover rides, sunrise yoga, supported women's start waves and on-site camping, with guided walks and games for family and friends who come along without a bike.