Mr Rasbotham, a Lancashire magistrate in the last century, describes the ancient monuments called the Wilder Lads, as they existed in 1776:
Upon the summit of Horwich Moor lie the Wilder Lads, two rude piles of stone, so called from the popular tradition of the country, that they were erected in memory of two boys who were wildered (that is, bewildered), and lost in the snow at this place.
They may be seen at a considerable distance. They are undoubtedly of very high antiquity, and were originally united by a circular mound, above three quarters of which as yet remains visible. Their circumference is about twenty-six and a half feet, and the passage betwixt them six and a half feet.
From Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine vol XLI, 1837 (p752).