When the cairn was excavated in the 1950’s no finds were discovered, it was dated to the Neolithic by pollen analysis
Hag-worm is Yorkshire for an Adder (Pelias berus)
“Stone !did the hand of sacerdotal fraud
Shape thee into this vital type of things,
Or did a million winters, on their wings
Of sythe-like perseverence come abroad
To bid conjecture stand before thee awed,
And, almost severing thee from present earth,
Make thee a marvel? Vainly giv’st thou birth
To solomn fancies, building an abode
Around thee, for a world of shapeless ghosts;
Vainly they rise before me, calling up
Kings and their masters, and imagined hosts,
That fight for clouds. What then! the heath-flower’s cup
With dewdrops feeds this fountain ever dear
And the winged ouzel whistles “God is here!”
By Ebenezer Elliot , the Corn-law Rhymer.
from his sonnet The Rock Idol at Brimham
A large upright stone slab incorporating the celtic word for stone, maen, in it’s name.
This is also reputed to be the largest standing stone on the North York Moors
The name incorporates the celtic word maen – a stone..A very large slab with another recumbent one at its foot.
A very large monolith apparently in situ on the top of a howe; is now inclined at an angle and no longer upright
Stanhope White commenting on Thom
” The reader who wants to persue the matter (astroarchaeology) should read Hadingham’s book, easily the best unbiased survey of the whole field. he mentions a set of five standing stones in Scotland arranged in the form of a cross known to the locals as a Temple. On our moors we have a similar arrangement; the spaces between the four outer stones and the one at the centre of the cross have been filled in to give a sheep shelter, or beeld. Temple Beeld, as it is known, stands at NZ 756103. With the help of members of one of my classes, I took sight along every possible combination of sight lines, and then asked the Royal Observatory in any of these could be related to any significant lunar or stella position at say 1500BC. The answer, not suprisingly, was none”.
The North York Moors
Stanhope White
Dalesman Books 1979
Stanhope White reports the discovery of a bowl furnace for the smelting of iron being discovered at this site
“In the central cist of a barrow near the Beacon on Seamer Moor, the floor of which was 7 1/2 feet below the top of the mound, Lord Londesborough discovered a vessel containing ashes and teeth. Nine feet from the central grave was a large stone embedded in the natural soil, at one corner of which lay a vessel of type 2 . It also held the ashes of an animal or human being, and close to it were calcined human bones. Forty five feet from outside of the barrow, a stone circle surrounded the cist.”
Early Man In N.E. Yorkshire
Frank Elgee
John Bellows Pub.
1930
“The Scamridge dyke system in the tabular hills consists of Red Dyke, Gibbendale Dyke, Moor Dyke, the Oxmore Dykes, the Cockmoor Dykes as well as the Scamridge Dyke. Many of the dykes in the Scamridge system run for 2 or 3 miles: sometimes they are single and sometimes several run abreast. The Cockmoor Dykes are the most extraordinary of them all with no less than 20 ditches and banks of various sizes. Some of the banks are believed to be mediaeval and may have been constructed for rabbit warrening, but most archaeologists believe that the earliest dykes were elaborate boundary markers.”
Richard Crossthwaite
Ancient Cleveland from the Air
Tees Towing Co.
1986
“At killin, the circle stands in the private grounds of Kinnel House. Thge quickest way to reach it is by the lane on the south side of the bridge which crosses the falls of Dochart, by the entrance to the fortified island, which has been for centuries the burial ground of the clan MacNab. Possibly the men who built the first earthworks on the island were also responsible for placing the sacred stones in position.
Sadly since 1984 it is no longer possible to walk up to the remaining stones of that circle (six still upright and one fallen) beside the walls of Kinnel House. Now you have to make an appointment before you can go through the gate at the end of the lane. You do that by phoning Killin 212 or arrange a visit through the tourist office in the village.
This procedure is not a tribute to the antiquity of the stones. It has been introduced because the house has now been bought by the owner of Hercules, a wrestling bear, and it is the bear that people are making appointments to see.”
Celtic Journeys
Shirley Toulson
Hutchison 1985
“Solstice: Duddo
On such a night the hills dissolved
and re-assembled in the shifting mist,
Numb with moonloghts touch.
We learnt that silence was not hostile.
Took upon ourselves its deepest strength
Waiting for dawn’s layered sun.
A moon that paced
As crow’s shout cracked the sky
fled from the triggered bird-song
Hestitant then loud.
Before our eyes, a second birth,
A new-created universe,
Green and blue and gold.
Fluted stones whose shapes had shifted
with emitted heat
From bearded barley heads,
Buried to the hips,
reclaim their circle and identity,
Introspective, Janus-headed,
Guarding and inviting
As the suns diurnal course
Played a slow game
With shadow shapes
Time and time and time again.”
Stan Beckensall
Northumberland, The Power of Place.
Pub Tempus publishing.
2001
“Further east on Gerrick Moor there is an unrecorded cross-ridge work, about a quarter of a mile long, with a fosse on the south side, at an altitude of 825 feet. It runs slightly north of west to south of east across the moor between the steep slope of Gerrick Hawa and some very boggy ground of danby peat holes. It no doubt served as a defensive to the settlement site of the urn people, who buried their cremated dead in the Herd Howe which is a little to the north.
Near the Howe is another earthwork 215 by 185 feet, like that above Box Hall. It consists of a low rampart with outer ditch, rounded corners, and an entrance on the south side. Adjoining it are the remains of a similar work. It resembles an entrenchment of the Bronze or early Roman age excavated by Pitt-Rivers on Handley Hill, Dorset.”
Early man in N.E.Yorkshire
Frank Elgee
1930
“Two miles east of the Herd Howe and one mile north of Danby Beacon is the celebrated ‘British Village’ on Easington High Moor, first described by Young, the scene of so many antiquarian pilgrimages, and the subject of so much discussion. This ‘village’ consists of two more or less paralell rows of circular pits lying across the central part of a spur between two small streams at an altitude of about 750 feet. The pits are in two groups, and on the outer side of each row runs a small wall of earth and stones. One of the pits near the middle of the south row is much larger than the others and interrupts the continuity of the outer wall. Excavations and probings show that the average depth of the pits is from 4-5 feet and that they vary from 10-12 feet in diameter.
In addition to this main group there is another group on the opposite side of the valley that bounds the spur to the east. As described by Young (1817) they begin near the verge of the sloping bank and extend eastward for over a hundred paces in a double row of 28 pits with an outer wall on both sides. a little to the south east is a similar double row of 6 pits also provided with outer walls.
Young was confident that these holes were ancient habitations. He commented on their proximety to the Three Howes, to standing or druidical stones (one of which, the Long Stone, stands a little to the north), and to two semilunar enclosures in the valley on the east, all of which he thinks were made and used by the same people.”
Early Man In North East Yorkshire
Frank Elgee
Pub 1930
This feature shows up well on the Multimap Aerial photo
“These conspicuous earthworks were largely ignored by archaeologists until the 1960’s.
The site looks south-east towards Lonsdale and south-west to the Iron Age fort above Whorlton.
Pollen analysis of the soil beneath the bank of the enclosure shows that, at the time of construction, the countryside round about was open grassland rather than the bracken and heather which overrun the site today. The arable field system near to the enclosure was probably developed at the same time.
The enclosure itself consists of a stoney earth bank and ditch with an entrance half way along it’s left hand side. The foundations of a paved hut – of unusual oval shape-were found within the enclosure. There were no post holes-which would have indicated a wooden pallisade-on top of the earthen bank.
Pottery found on the site was dated to 300-100 BC or earlier and indicated occupation into the late Iron Age.”
Ancient Cleveland From The Air
Richard Crossthwaite.
Pub. Tees Towing Co. Ltd.
“On Ayton Moor is a complex chambered cairn with a bank250 ft long and 10 ft wide”
The North York Moors
Stanhope White
Pub. Dalsman Paperbacks
1979
Refer to the above illustration
The pictured inscription was found by The Rev John Graves and reporduced in his “History of Cleveland” published in 1808.
He speculates that the inscription was part of the “ancient cromlech”.
Ord in his “The history and Antiquities of Cleveland” of 1830 comments;
“If I have committed any error in the pursuit of these difficult enquiries, I shall not stand alone........
On visiting the place he found the “explanation” very simple indeed. Alas for antiquarians! and alas for Mr graves! this mystical inscription is nothing more than a simple love story, a pure true heart record carved on the trysting-stone “long, long ago2, by some rustic swain, in the presence of his confiding mistress:-
R.O. 1712 WOOING T.D. ”
“Holgate How has a large round barrow on the summit (SD 067 048, 436m.OD) with extensive views in all directions. Scattered rocks on the grass slopes below this cairn include some with motifs, to the south east of the West house fields.
Holgate has 3 distinct natural zones marked by green tracks.
1. The highest tract. At the foot of this slope are many scattered blocks of stone, none marked.
2. Towards the valley, below the higher green track, is an area with a scatter of much larger earthfats blocks of sandstone, many that bear marks of quarying and some of which have prehistoric motifs.
3. Below the lower green track is an area predominantly of rough grass, in which are various earthfast stones some of which are marked, and to the north of which is one of the most interesting designs in the area.”
Prehistoric Rock Art of County Durham, Swaledale and Wensleydale.
Stan Beckensall and Tim Laurie
Pub. County Durham Books
1998
“You enter the circle between the two largest or portal stones, which are both bigger than you. Directly opposite, on the other side of the circle, is a stone called ‘recumbent’ or ‘axial’ by archaeologists; by which they mean it lies sidewards rather than upwards. Ancient markings have been carved on it’s upper surface. It’s been suggested that they represent axes, and this proves that these circles were not a place of worship, but the focal points of a Cult of the Axe which existed in Western Europe in Neolithic times. Or the stones may have enclosed a market-place, and the axial stone was the counter on which goods were traded.
I have to say, though, that shopping seems an unlikely motive to me. Proponents of this undeniable imaginative theory make comparisons with shopping malls, which might be seen as the new temples. Shoppers are worshippers, McDonalds is the sacrament, Nike provide the vestments; but the theory is of course rampant bollocks, and seems so particularly in a part of the world where there are no malls, but you can still buy a bicycle in a pub. The stone is quite clearly, an altar stone, and something would have been placed or celebrated- or sacrificed-on it.”
Pete McCarthy
McCarthy’s Bar
Pub. Septre Lir
2000
“There is another camp of the Eston type (Eston Nab) at an altitude of 1075 feet on the brink of a vertical cliff at Boltby scar on the Hambletons. Here a semi-circular rampart with an outer fosse enclosed an area as wide as the Eston Camp but not more than 170 yards long. Within it are two round barrows and a peculiar oblong mound of unknown purpose. I noticed a few flint flakes on the cliff-edge.
The similarity of this camp to that at Eston Nab points to it being the work of the urn people whose remains occurred abundantly on the Hambletons.”
Early man in North East Yorkshire
Frank Elgee
Pub. J. Bellows
1930
“When Denmark’s raven soared high,
Triumphant through Northumbrian sky,
Till, hovering near, her fatal croak
Bade Reged’s Britons dread the yoke;
and the broad shadow of her wing
Blackened each cateract and spring,
Where Tees in tumult leaves his source,
Thundering o’er Caldron and High Force;
Beneath the shadow the Northmen came,
Fixed on each vale a runic name,
Reared high their altar’s rugged stone,
And gave their Gods the land they won.
Then Balder, one beak garth was thine,
And one sweet brooklet’s silver line;
And Woden’s croft did little gain
From the stern father of the slain.”
Nice eh?
that was from Walter Scott’s “Rokeby”
“The custom of giving names to wells and fountains is of remote antiquity, being common alike to earliest idolaters, to Jews and to Christians. In papal times, if a well had an awful situation, as at Rosebury; if it’s waters were clear, and medicinal, as at Hilda’s-well, it was the custom to dedicate it to some saint by name. To such an extent did this species of idolatry prevail, that it was forbidden in the canons of king Edgar A.D. 960, also in the canons of St. Anselm A.D. 1102. Notwithstanding, it prevailed without intermission till the Reformation, when many innocent customs and harmless superstitions were wholly extirpated because they savoured of popery.”
The History and Antiquities of Cleveland
J. W. Ord
1846
Republished by Patrick & Shotton
1972
Frank Elgee in his book ” Early Man in North East Yorkshire” describes his excavations of Eston nab.
Flints were discovered on the higher platform, “Good implements were scarce; chips, flakes and pieces numerous.” Further in the camp he discovered several cremations, flint scrapers, a leaf shaped arrow-heads, many quartzite hammer stones, a stone chopper, stone rubbers or polishers and numerous fragments of food vessels. he discovered a cup marked rock in the fosse and evidence of stone walling.
One disturbing feature he discovered was “minute pieces of calcined human bone suggested either cremations had been carried out on the discovered hearths or that a cannibal feast had be held”
The camp is dated to the bronze age by the food vessels.
“Stone Rows
These are rare. I discovered one in a small valley, Haredale, on the north Cleveland moors half-way between Commondale and Freeborough Hill. Here on a huge natural mound known as Old Castle Hill which projects from the western side of the valley at an elevation of 800 feet, are five small upright stones in a line about 150 yards long. The row, which is not absolutely straight, runs west-north-west by east-south-east, the most westerly stone standing about fifety feet from the others which are closer together. On the north slope there are some pits which may be hut sites.
On the end of the mound on which stands the stone alignment known as Old Castle Hill there are a few dry pits, possibly the abodes of the prehistoric priests or magicians whp performed their magical rites at the stones for the benefit of the neighbouring settlements, of which it may have been the sacred site.”
Early Man in North-Yorkshire
Frank Elgee
Pub. John Bellows
1930
“Wade’s Stones near Lythe and Goldsborough are mentioned by Camden as being 7 feet high. They may have been tampered with for one near Lythe is now about 6 feet high; two near Goldborough about 100 feet apart are 3-4 feet high. Barrows in which food vessels have been found adjoin these stones, which derive their name from that fabulous giant, Wade, who so tradition says, was buried near them. Curiously enough, at the base of the Lythe stone, Mr Hornsby discovered an unburnt Anglian burial, probably that of a warrrior, for there were also remains of an iron spearhead.”
Early Man in North-East Yorkshire.
Frank Elgee
Pub. John Bellows
1930
Shap Granite is very distinctive and easily identified by the large pink feldspar crystals contained within it’s matrix.
Shap granite is a very popular building stone and can be found used in buildings all over the UK.
This is what Stan and Tim say about the beautiful ruins of West Loups.
“The West Loups farmhouse site has had occupation that extends from an early circular enclosure containing an early medieval longhouse and partly enclosing the still-visible remains of a farmhouse dating from the 16th century. In one sense the farm seems shut-in by the valley, with a northern outcrop of sandstone forming a distinct ridge, but the view east is of a wide , gently-sloping valley broken at the east end by the Ravock Ridge. The motifs mark the margins of this area, with three in a special context, two at springs and one in an old enclosure”.
Taken from;
Prehistoric Rock Art of County Durham, Swaledale and Wensleydale.
Stan Beckensall and Tim Laurie
County Durham Books
1998
Prehistoric Rock Art of County Durham, Swaledale and Wensleydale.
Stan Beckensall and Tim Laurie
County Durham Books
IDSBN 1-897585-45-4
Well worth a tenner of anyones money!
There are many sites on Gales moor and the surrounding area.
They lie on military ranges and access is limited.
Watch out for the warning signs and the red flags.
Gayles moor is generally open to the public on Sunday afternoons and Mondays but this is not always the case.
Check with the range warden.
A prominent unexplored mound with a wall running over it, upon which are two large carved boulders.
The link with Arthur is probably early 14th century for that is the time the Cliffords became the owners of nearby Brougham Castle. They claimed descent from the Welsh kings and therefore Arthur. It is significant that after their arrival their castle of Mallerstang became known as Pendragon Castle”.
Archaeological sites of the Lake District
T. Clare
Moorland Publishing Co.
“The largest known hillfort in Cumbria, was formed by a stone wall enclosing the highest part of the ridge”.
“The site, now partially reconstructed, appears to have been a mound or cairn with a boulder Kerb sealing two earlier features with graves”.
An area of previous settlement was chosen and perhaps delineated by a ring bank, used for burial on at least three occasions. The funery area which included a hut like structure was then sealed by a mound”.
Archaeological Sites of the Lake District
T. Clare
Moorland Publishing Co.
Also known as Sunbrick Stone Circle
“The site consists of one possibly two stone rings, and seems more ritual than astronomical. Within Cumbria there are three certain and eight other possible sites with the same characteristics: a pavement below which are one or more pits associated with cremation and Early Bronze Age objects”.
Archaeological Sites of the Lake District
T. Clare
Moorland Publishing Co.
“The site was discovered by Prof J.K. St Joseph in 1949, and from his series of aerial photographs it was possible to trace the course of the cursus for approximately 2.1 kilometers. Evidence from soil stripping and exacavations has shown that the monument extends even further to the north-west, the north west terminal not as yet having been discovered. The south west terminal, which shows clearly on the aerial photographs, consists of a straight transverse ditch which joins the two main ditches at right angles. Clustering around it was a series of ring-ditch crop marks. The aerial photographs also show a series of bleach marks between the ditches at the southern end of the cursus, which may represent a series of contiguous mounds. This area of the cursus also features what appears to be smaller outer ditches, although they may be restricted to the southern end of the cursus as they were absent in the excavated area.
Another noteworthy feature brought out by aerial photography is the accuracy with which the ditches have been laid out, so they are remarkably straight considering the distance over which they extend”.
“from the evidence available at Rudston, it would appear that cursus monuments in Yorkshire developed during the late Neolithic, and flourished, as can be seen at Rudston in its magnificent complex of monuments, into the Early Bronze Age. It is within this local chronological framework that the cursus at Scorton must have developed, although not to as great an extent as the important centres of Rudston or Thornborough”.
Extracts from;
Excavation at the Cursus at Scoton North Yorkshire 1978
Peter Topping
Yorkshire Archaeological Journal
Volume 54
1982
Tyrebagger means “The land of acorns”
“Castlerigg in Cumbria was until quite recently without any recorded rock art. The author (Stan Beckensall) recorded one cup marked stone built into a modern wall nearby, and then two students from Newcastle University, Nick best and Neil Stevenson, photographed a spiral on one stone in late afternoon sunlight in 1995. later they found incised lozenge motifs on two other stones, and I found a cup and ring at the top of another.”
Stan Beckensall
British Prehistoric Rock Art
Tempus
1999
“On the top of the hill, there used to be a hermitage called Wilfreds Needle. This was hewn out of solid rock, but quarrying work and mining for iron ore have led to it’s disappearance”.
Another type of Bronze Age burial was burial in an oak coffin, consisting of a hollowed out tree trunk. The most recent example was found in the barrow at Willie Howe, 2 miles from Sledmere (NGR SE 955 658). the coffin burial was in fact the third burial on the site. The primary grave was in a deep rock cut pit, just off centre, which had been robbed prior to 1863. This was surrounded by a ditch 70ft in diameter.
In phase 2 another grave was dug outside the ditch, containing an adolescent lying on a bier of chalk blocks and accompanied by a bronze awl and a long necked beaker. The oak coffin belonged to the final phase, and was set in a deep rock cut grave and was surounded by a ditch 110ft in diameter. Only a few charcoal fragments of the coffin itself survived, but it had been surrounded by compressed chalky rainwash which left its shape quite clear. It had been covered by a wooden lid, part of which had caved in. The coffin contained an adult male lying on the right side, with two rough flint blades as grave goods. a radiocarbon date of 1600 +/- 70 bc was obtained from one of his bones”.
From “Five Yorkshire Barrows”
Peter Armstrong
Current Archaeology
No.94
Vol. VIII No. 11
Published October 1984
Gogmagog, The Buried Gods.
By TC Lethbridge
First published in 1957
It doesn’t appear to have an ISBN, my copy was published in 1975 by Book Club Associates.
This is a fascinating book about this site and Lethbridge’s discoveries there. He looks at other hill figures and explores the mythologies and beliefs surrounding them.
“This is the system the system of earthworks on Fylingdales Moor at NZ905022 consisting of triple trenches in which stands one or two stones, the most prominent of which bears the name Old Wifes Neck. According to Elgee, an entry in the Gentlemans Magazine for 1857 speaks of hundreds of flint arrow heads having been found below these fortifications in Biller Howe Dale. If this is correct, then this is the only place where any sign of war during the Bronze Age or even earlier.”
The North York Moors, An Introduction
Stanhope White
1979
“Only the stone base remains of John Cross, a wayside cross of early christian origins, probably destroyed by puritans in the 17th century. The stone which now fits in the base is of a later date and is a boundary marker between the parishes of Sneaton and Fylingdales.”
“Walk The North York Moors”
Brian Spencer
1991
Puritans eh!
Wade is supposed to be the local giant, his name crops up all over the North Yorkshire Moors. The Roman road that runs onto Wheeldale is known as Wade’s Causeway. This implies that the name of Wade came after the Romans had left our shores and vanished from the folk memory. Many of the sites attributed to Wade are in areas that were settled by the Danish vikings. It does not take a great leap of faith to transform Wade to Wodan.
That’s my theory for what it’s worth.
“...Maiden Castle at Grinton in Swaledale, is a curious place with a roughly circular bank and ditch approached from the east by a stone avenue. There are round barrows in the vacinity, and although the ditch lies outside the bank, it seems very probable that Maiden Castle is not a fort but some kind of sacred enclosure or meeting place”
Jacquetta Hawkes
A Guide To The Prehistoric And Roman Monuments In England And Wales.
Pub. 1978 Abacus
“Among the Pennines and the North Yorkshire Moors, too are linear earthworks comparable to those in the Parisian territory. Certainly not all are Iron Age, but a strong case can be made for some. The usual suggestion is that these are ranch boundaries. At Maiden Castle, on the southern slope of Swaledale west of Grinton, a ditched enclosure of rather less than an acre with a stone wall has a stone- walled drove road leading to it from the east. This is comparable in its general nature to the ‘banjo’ enclosures of the south, and we are inclined to accept it’s Iron Age date.”
The Brigantes
Brian Hartley and Leon Fitts.
Pub. Alan Sutton 1988
This site is approx 1 miles EES of Appletreewick
“A major site (rock art) is at Skyreholme, where 33 gritstone boulders and other earthfasts have simple cups, some grooves, and a few rings. Some cups are linked by grooves. The rocks lie at c.350m OD.”
British Prehistoric Rock Art
Stan Beckensall
Pub.1999