Miscellaneous Posts by Hob

At Mayborough they dug up a brass celt. On the other side of the Eimot, upon a high ground overlooking all, is a very fine round tumulus, of a large size, and set about with a circle of stones: this in all probability was the funeral monument of the king that founded the temple and circus. Someone has lately been digging away part of the barrow, and carried off some of the stones, and demolished others.

The great barrow accompanied with stones, by the Eimot side, is called Haransley hill.

On the south side of the town of Shap, six miles south of Penrith, we saw the beginning of a great Celtic Avenue, on a green common. This is just beyond the horrid and rocky fells, where a good country begins. This avenue is seventy foot broad, composed of very large stones, set at equal intervals: it seems to be closed at this end, which is on an eminence, and near a long flattish barrow, with stone works upon it: hence it proceeds northward to the town, which intercepts the continuation of it, and was the occasion of it's ruin; for many of the stones are put under the foundations of houses and walls, being pushed by machines they call a betty, or blown up with gunpowder. Though it's ourney be northward, yet it makes a very large curve, or an arc of a circle, as those at Abury, and passes over a brook too. A spring likewise arises in it, near the Greyhound inn. By the brook is a little round sacellum, composed of twelve stones, but lesser ones, set by one great stone belonging to the side of the avenue: the interval of the stones is thrity-five foot, half the breadth of the avenue: the stones, no doubt, did all stand upright, because three or four still do; but they were not much higher then, than now as fallen, because of their figure, which is thick and short: they are very large, and prodigiously hard, being nothing else but a congeries of crystals of very large sizes, of a flakey nature. Houses and fields lie across the track of this avenue, and some of the houses lie in the inclosure: it ascends the hill, crosses the common road to Penrith, and so goes into the corn-fields on the other side of the way westward, where some stones are left standing; one particularly remarkable, called Guggleby stone. The people say these were set up by enchantment: and the better sort of folks, as absurdly affirm, they are made by art. I doubt not but they are gathered somewhere off the surface, among the fells, and that there was a great temple of the old Britons, such as that at Abury, which it resembles very much, as far as I can judge at present; for the rainy weather, which in this country is almost perpetual, hindered me from making at this time a thorough disquisition into it.

In passing over Moor-Duvvoch in 1800 I had observed a stone which I then supposed had some characters upon it with which I was unacquainted. In walking from Askham to Pooleybridge on 3 May, 1811, in company with the Rev. John Collinson, rector of Gateshead, and the late Mr. Matthew Atkinson, I was anxious to have a second sight of it, but sought it in vain...

...I did not, in this search, forget to look for the stone that attracted my attention in 1800, and reached it soon, when I found it to be a large detached mass of grauwacke, shewing its conglomerate origin in several rings and segments of circles eaten by the weather into its surface as sharply as if they had. been cut with a sculptor's chisel; and thus the long-encouraged vision of a Saxon or Latin inscription in Runic, or some other antique characters, vanished in a moment. This stone is upon the side of an old road or cast a little south of the south end of Lord Lonsdale's fir plantations on Moor-Duvvoch.

"W. Matfen is the seat of sir William Blacket, bart. and in an adjoining field is a circular mount with a cavity at top, and by it a stone nine feet high, three feet by one and a half thick, called the Stob stone.
In opening of other tumuli of stones have been found two kistvaens, or coffins of four stones set on edge with a bottom and cover, containing the ashes of the dead appearing in a white dust. It has since all been removed"

There is yet remaining one very great heap of stones, besides other tumuli, and a remarkable one farther to the east called Dewley Lowe, with a smaller one near it.

"North-east of Achadh-a'-Charra, at an equal distance from the Chapel, is Cnoc-a'-Charra, or 'the hill of the pillar.' On the top of this hill there is another stone 9 feet long, and 3 feet 10 inches in circumference; of the 9 feet, 2 feet are in the ground. Still farther to the north-east, on a higher hill, there was a cross which fell some years since, and was broken; the three stones were in a straight line."

This pillar on Cnoc-a'-Charra is now well known on account of the Ogam inscription incised upon it, and a most interesting description of it4 will be found in the first number of Scottish Gaelic Studies, published 1926. There we are told that in the course of last century it twice fell down, and on one of these occasions a length of about 2 feet broke off athe top, and is now lost. Consequently it now stands about 5 feet 9 inches above ground. Detailed particulars of these accidents will be found in Rhys's account of the stone in vol. xxxi. of the Journal of the
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, from information supplied by the parish minister, the Rev. John Francis Mackenzie. The damage was said to have been caused by some quarrying operations in the hillock, and that it suffered further rough treatment may be gathered from the remarks of another writer, who records that several times the pillar was pushed over by the lads of the neighbourhood, and subsequently replaced by the orders of the proprietor.

It may be of further interest to note that on 27th June 1899 this stone was inspected by a large party of members of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, and of the Cambrian Archaeological Association, who visited the island in the course of a specially organised archaeological trip to the west of Scotland in a steamer chartered for the purpose. A description of this visit, illustrated by a photograph of the stone, was published in the Journal of the first-named Society

Occupying the summit of Tom a' Chaisteil, a rocky spur, is a fort, sub-circular on plan, measuring c. 33.0m NNE-SSW by c. 31.0m, within a tumbled wall, most of which in the E has fallen over the cliffs of the spur. Occasional outer facing stones can be seen but no inner face, so that the thickness of the wall cannot be determined, although the width of tumble suggests that it may have been about 3.0m. The entrance was probably in the W where a gap has been blocked by a later wall, but no details survive. The interior is featureless. Some eight to ten metres to the N of the fort is a trench c. 2.0m wide and c. 0.6m deep, extending 35.0m W from the cliff. It is presumably associated with the fort, the most likely explanation being that it is part of an unfinished outer defence. On the W side, below the wall, is a recent shelter

The other two camps are on the Horton grounds. Near to one of them are the remains of a stone circle, which during the last century would have been called a Druid's temple. Five stones are remaining, two only standing in their original position; when complete the circle had been about 100 feet in circumference; and it probably marks the burying place of some chieftain. At no great distance form it, are several barrows which also appear to have been places of sepulture. Mr Greenwell dug into some of them, but nothing was discovered save traces of burning.