Strange Clouds over Bury at sunset

We were staying in Bury St Edmunds in March and saw this strange cloud formation in the sky: it looked like a perfect floating ring.  My Canon IXUS says it was 18:52 on 1 March 2004, and as at today 3 April, the camera is showing the correct date but running 2 minutes slow, so I guess it is accurate. The clouds were close to due North from us.

We thought is was probably natural: the thickness was about that of a vapour trail but the ring was quite perfect and we would probably have seen the plane... certainly there was nothing in the sky. So the question is was it a natural cloud shape (say around a rising hot air plume) or was it an optic effect (some light effect from the sunset caught a sheet of invisible cloud with a ring).

It was beautiful and made goose-pimples come up anyway.

Second picture was taken zoomed in on the structure.
Clouds1
Clouds2

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