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Towtop KirkEnclosure
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It's been a long time coming but it's finally happened, Tow top Kirk and me, together at last. I've been waiting for a considerable while and it's taken a sunny equinox Sunday to get my act together, but together it is, and here I am. Parking is easy, the road has a wide flat grassy verge between it and the wall, room for a dozen cars, but today there's just two, ones mine and the other, well lets just hope they're not going where I am. The footpath is on the south side of the road and leads one south west towards Cawdale beck, an interesting big stone cantilevered looking bridge crosses it. Then on the other side it's up the high steep bank and onto the open moorland, the circle is visible from the top of the river bank, about 50 yards distant. So, this is another of the lake districts possible henges, I saw another last year on Halloween, Dovedale Henge/settlement, it's hard not to compare the two and all the other henges I've seen. The circular....ish bank isnt high, its only a few inches higher than the surrounding ground, like Dovedale there is an entrance at the west end, I could not see the entrance at the east side as it's much more worn or the grass was too long. There's a giants handful of small boulders inside the enclosure in its north west corner? Apart from the west entrance this site is nothing like Dovedale henge, it's in an unremarkable position, the bank is very low, and there's no big stones. But I think this site has more going for it as a henge than the other. Talk of it being an old Christian enclosure I can only echo Wideford and Fitzcoraldo, Whats a christian enclosure, when have churches ever been circular, makes no sense to me. Because it lacks the interior ditch of a henge, it had the feeling of an unfinished henge, maybe, in short I dont know what it is but because I'm a supporter of prehistory I lean somewhat automatically towards a ritual site, a Henge. |
Posted by postman22nd March 2022ce Edited 22nd March 2022ce |
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"A presumptive old trackway goes above the northern bank of Haweswater Beck in the Lake District, to a prehistoric henge called Tow Top Kirk. There was never any Christian kirk here. If one asks locally for an explanaition of the name, the answer: 'Probably they had some sort of religious ceremonies here in prehistoric times' ". Brigantia - A Mysteriography Guy Ragland Phillips Routledge & Kegan Paul 1976 |
Posted by fitzcoraldo3rd February 2006ce Edited 3rd February 2006ce |
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ArchSearch comes up with Bampton Towtop Kirk as an enclosure that could be the result of digging for peat , whereas ARCHI in 2001 has it down as early Christian enclosure ( whatever that is ) . P.S. see Towtop Kirk forum for fuller description . |
Posted by wideford28th February 2004ce Edited 28th February 2004ce |
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Bit of controversy over this one. In his book "Walks in Ancient lakeland" Robert Harris says, "This ancient henge is slightly smaller but similar in scale to King Arthur's Table at Penrith, but it seems to lack the interior ditch. English Heritage's record of Scheduled Monuments describes the site as an "Early Christian Enclosure". Could this be a christianised henge? Roll on the good weather! |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 28th February 2004ce Edited 28th February 2004ce |
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