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Over the last 6 years since making my misc post I've been back to Long Dale too many times to recall looking for some kinda evidence of the Neolithic settlement/camp that is said to be in the area of the barrow of the same date. Nothing remains on the surface as in earthworks or depressions so I've been going solely on flint finds from the many mole hills in the area. And so my best guess is it would've probably been around 100m to the east of the barrow as I've found, getting on for several hundred pieces of waste flint flakes here but nothing else in the area.
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The barrow was excavated prior to Thomas Batemans visit in the mid 1840's but details of the finds are sketchy. Bateman's work here unearthed a primary female burial laying on a layer of burnt bones and covered by a limestone slab. Above this were the remains of five more burials and above these a crouched skeleton of a female accompanied by two jet necklaces contained within a cist. Again on top within another cist were two more crouched burials along with a food vessel. On top of this cist was a cremation burial.
A later Anglo-Saxon burial with a silver necklace was also recovered from the mound.
J.Barnatt's Barrow Corpus.
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Shouldn't really be up here at Cow Low as it's located on land belonging to the huge limestone quarry of Tunstead Works. It lies in a small plantation on the edge of the quarry which when in it's original context would've enjoyed views south across Wye Dale to Topley Pike and east across Great Rocks Dale and possibly Woo Dale to the west. As for the north who knows the massive gaping quarry has seen to the landscape here.
Through all this there are still the remains of Romano-British field system and settlement that survive in the form of low earthworks.
Still quite impressive at 28x24m and a little under 2m in height, I couldn't resist coming here because of the burials the barrow was found to contain (see misc post below).
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Barnatt's Barrow Corpus says that Salt was the first to excavate here in 1895 finding a cist burial on the original ground surface along with animal bones and an animal cremation.
It was excavated several more times just before the end of the 19th Century where several more inhumations were discoverd along with flint artefacts, an antler tine, ochre, and later iron objects.
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Located on private land in the Low Plantation...there is a path in the fields south of the barrow that leads from Home Farm, just off the Fairfield estate, to Lowfoot Farm.
Measuring around the 19m mark in diameter and around 1m in height the barrow is in fairly good condition although overgrown.
Nothing really here to make you want to visit it especially
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These two barrows are located in a field NW of the Castlegate Lane barrow above Hay Dale.
Both are plough damaged and possibly robbed of stone for the wall that crosses the larger of the two mounds.
The eastern barrow measures about 9m and is well below a metre in height, the larger to the west maybe 13x6m and maybe 1m in height.
Neither have been excavated which seems strange as Bateman was only in the next field during in 1851 at the Castlegate Lane barrow.
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John Barnatt's Barrow Corpus records that Thomas Bateman excavated here in 1851.....He found a skeleton central to the mound laid out on limestone flagstones along with a food vessel. Elsewhere in the mound were other human bones including those of a child and a number of flint tools.
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Locals call this section of Castlegate Lane Scratter......in fact it's the route of the Old Portway making its way to the hillfort of Burr Tor before carrying on to Mam Tor.
The barrow is in a field halfway up scratter opposite the entrance to Chertpit Lane and sited some way from the slopes of Hay Dale. Measuring around 14x12m and less than a metre high it looks as if the plough has taken its toll on this barrow but it enjoys extensive views to the south, east and west.
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Bateman turned his attention to this 17x13m cairn in 1850 and found both cremations and inhumations but no dateable artefacts to go with them.
J. Barnatt's Barrow Corpus
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Sited on the northern side of Monsal Dale this disturbed round cairn is crossed by three field walls....more than possible it was robbed to construct them.
Nothing here really to recommend a visit although it has fine views across the dale toward Fin Cop hillfort.
There's a track leading off the Monsal Trail heading toward Brushfield Hough; the cairn is in the fields above this....it is private land.
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Folklorist George Paterson recalls....
The King's Ring was a grand place once, but they took stones to build the lock on Newry Canal.There was a time when there was music in the ring. It was quare music, one minute it would coax the heart out of you, and the next it would scare the living daylights out of you. Maybe it is laments for the oul' kings that are played.
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Further to Schlager Man's folklore post.....Finn McCool is reputed to be buried here.
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Local Tradition holds that if you successfully land one stone in three on top of the capstone you will be married before the year is out. It also claims that the giant, Parra Bui MacShane, lies here after his fatal encounter with Finn McCool.
From The Gap of the North by Noreen Cunningham & Pat Mcginn.
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In 1962 after excavation the monument was repaired, since the American Army on tank manoeuvres, during the Second World War, threw down some of the facade stones and broke them.
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George Paterson recorded the following story about the tomb.
Sur' he saw no hurt in the breakin of it. But he never lived till finish it. For hundreds of years it has been there - maybe indeed since the beginning of time. I always remember it. Sure, it was there that I saw the first wee people.
From the Gap of the North by Noreen Cunningham & Pat Mcginn....
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The two concessionary footpaths are due to close in November 2011.
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" So spectacular and remote is the monument that its construction was ascribed to either the Devil or Michael Scot, the great Medieval scholar who was reputed to command demons."
Geoff Holder The Guide to the Mysterious Lake District (2009)
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That mystic round of Druid fame,
Tardily sinking by its proper weight
Deep into patient earth, from whose smooth breast it came!
William Wordsworth The River Duddon (1820).
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The cave scenes in Ken Russel's film adaptation of Bram Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm were filmed in Thors Cave.
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A Furness Diary 1801-1807 published by The Countryman in 1958.......
"Friday, May 24th 1801. About 100yds to the West of Urswick Church in Furness in a field called Kirkflat, adjoining to the highway, stands a rough piece of unhewn limestone, which the Inhabitants of Urswick were accustomed to dress as a Figure of Priapus on Midsummer Day, besmearing it with Sheep Salve, Tar or Butter and covering it with rags of various Dyes, the Head ornamented with flowers."
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In John Askew's Guide To Cockermouth of 1872 he notes that some forty years earlier a Fletcher Grave of Cockermouth described two concentric circles on this site, the inner twenty paces and the outer sixty of which most were removed when the land was enclosed.
An outlying stone was recorded in 1923, to the SW of the circle, but has since been removed.
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Been meaning to come back up here with a camera since this section of the moor was burnt off 5 or 6 years ago.
Now after so long the heather has grown back and much of the cairn cemetery is well hidden in the thick new growth.
Still visible are the 2 larger burial cairns, but hidden are 3 smaller ones and 3 small rings of kerb stones, although we possibly came across one of these rings a few metres away to the SE of the most southerly of the larger cairns.
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Fin Cop 2010
Fin Cop is going to be excavated again in July and August of 2010 by Clive Waddington of Archaeological Research Services in conjunction with the National Park Authority, Longstone Local History Group, English Heritage and Natural England and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Open days will be held every Saturday of the five week dig; July 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st meeting in the Monsal Head car park, overlooking the viaduct, at 11am and 1pm.
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Details of the 2009 excavations at Fin Cop.
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Body Find Sparks Peak District Stir
Dr Clive Waddington and the Longstone Local History Group, excavated Fin Cop in July 2009, several open days for public viewing were held...
"It is believed the Iron Age hillfort is between 3,000 and 2,000 years old. Radiocarbon dating of surviving material is likely to enable more accurate dating. Tools and weapons made from stone from the Lake District and the Yorkshire Wolds or Lincolnshire were also found. The corpse will be analysed to try to determine its sex, age and origin. The adult skeleton, which had been thrown into a ditch and covered with stones, was uncovered during a three-week dig at the site".
Liz Roberts Grough Website.
The results will be announced at a Derbyshire Archaelogical Day in Chesterfield in January next year.
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Located in the trees to the west of Robin Hoods Stride. A short walk along the vehicle track of approximately 80m, with the stones visible in trees immediately to the right of the track.
One of the larger stones in the ring has a well carved number 3 on it, perhaps suggesting there are several other hut circles in the area.
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Dolphin trainer for the MoD.
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