Dear Croppie: Do Crop Circle Designs Ever Get Repeated?

A question that came out of an August 2022 Q & A session on our Crop Circle Explorer Instagram page: are crop circle designs ever repeated?

Fortuitously, the answer arrived just two weeks later in the shape of a new formation at Etchilhampton Hill in Wiltshire:

Photography by Nick Bull

Compare the design with that of the crop circle at Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, a decade previously:

Silbury Hill, June 2012. Photograph by Bruce Coldbridge.

Beyond the scale of the formation, the proportions of the circles and the addition of some tiny satellites, the Silbury Hill formation is essentially the same design as its more recent sibling.

This isn’t the only example though. Another one compares a 1999 Beckhampton, Wiltshire formation… 

Beckhampton, Wiltshire, July 1999. Photograph by Steve Alexander.

…with a circle from West Somerton, near Martham, Norfolk from 2006:

West Somerton, near Martham, Norfolk, June 2006. Photograph by Verity Bullock.

In case you’re wondering why the former of the pair looks more pristine it is because it was put down in wheat. The West Somerton ‘remake’ has the characteristic lay of yellowing barley.

Here’s one more example, beginning with the May 2011 circle at East Kennett in Wiltshire…

East Kennett, Wiltshire, May 2011. Photograph by Olivier Morel.

The circle reappeared at nearby West Kennett Longbarrow in July of the same year:

West Kennett Longbarrow, July 2011. Photograph by Steve Alexander

Three years later the same circle reappeared once more at West Kennett Longbarrow, leading it to be nicknamed ‘the recurring circle’:

West Kennett Longbarrow, June 2014. Photograph by Steve Alexander

Whilst repeated crop circles are rare in the 21st century you can look back to the early days of the phenomenon to see a time when such events were far more common. Afterall, how many takes on the simple circle, the ringed circle and the quintuplet could there be? Here’s one example from 1983. The first circle appeared at Chicklade in Wiltshire…..

Chicklade Bottom, Wiltshire, 1983. Photograph by Roger Kingston.

…a very similar quintuplet was found at Cheesefoot Head, Winchester, Hampshire in June:

Cheesefoot Head, Winchester, Hampshire, June 1983. Photograph by Colin Andrews.

So there we have it: crop circle designs have been repeated since the phenomenon began. Whilst they’re certainly unusual these days they do occur.