Rising up circling former top of ancient tableland (7)
I believe the answer is:
plateau
'tableland' is the definition.
('plateau' can be a synonym of 'tableland')
'rising up circling former top of ancient' is the wordplay.
'rising' is a reversal indicator (going up in a down clue).
'circling' is an insertion indicator (circling can mean going around or containing).
'former' becomes 'late' (**).
'top of' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'ancient' is 'a'.
'up' backwards is 'pu'.
'late'+'a'='latea'
'pu' placed around 'latea' is 'PLATEAU'.
(Other definitions for plateau that I've seen before include "Reach a level" , "tray that is ornamented" , "Level outcrop of land" , "High level land area" , "Large level tract of elevated land" .)