Iron Hill

Also known as:
Hardendale Cairn Circle
Nearest town:
Appleby-in-Westmorland (10km ENE)
OS reference:
NY596148
OS sheet:
91
Latitude:
54° 31' 36.09 N
Longitude:
2° 37' 27.47 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Iron Hill (Cairn circle) by Vicster

On the other side of the wall, the centre of the cairn is obvious but the stones have gone. Very odd.

Vicster
Vicster Jun 22, 2009
Image of Iron Hill (Cairn circle) by Vicster

The last remaining stone on “this” side is built into the wall which dissects the carin

Vicster
Vicster Jun 22, 2009
Image of Iron Hill (Cairn circle) by fitzcoraldo

The stone that Stan Beckensall has interpretted as cup marked.
The inset sketch is from Stan’s book Prehistoric Rock Art in Cumbria.
Landscapes and Monuments.
Published by Tempus Books
2002

fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Jun 22, 2007
Image of Iron Hill (Cairn circle) by fitzcoraldo

Plan from John Waterhouses excellent book The Stone Circles of Cumbria.
ISBN 0 85033 566 3

fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Jan 31, 2007

Articles

Iron Hill

Moth
Moth Jul 2, 2003

Sunday 29 June 2003
From Castlehowe Scar stone circle, we continued south to the end of the plantation on the left. It’s worth noting that the lane does a sharp left and then turns right to continue south to avoid the revolting newish Hardendale quarry. (Older maps show it as going straight on.)

For Iron Hill we simply parked at the second of these corners and walked up the overgrown lane that goes straight on at the corner.

As you reach the brow of the hill after a couple of hundred yards, tops, the bizarre ‘Iron Hill north’ cairn ‘chopped in half’ by the wall appears on your left. To the right is Iron Hill south.

Can’t add much to Fitzcoraldo’s description, except to echo that it’s worth a visit if you’re around. The views must have been beautiful pre-quarry & still are if you manage to look in a direction that excludes the damn thing. Still, won’t be there forever I guess.

Iron Hill

fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Feb 21, 2003

I’ve been trying to get to this site for some time and have eventually got there. I must say I wasn’t disappointed. You can see the stones profiled on the horizon as you come up the road from the cattle grid. The footpath up the hill is walled on both sides and seems like an extension of the road. The first site you come to is the cairn which is bisected by a stone wall. The cairn is approximately 10 metres in diameter and only has stones on the southern side (10 of ‘em). It makes you wonder about the farmers attitudes to these sites. Why did the farmer of the northerly side remove the stones and the farmer on the southerly side leave them in situ?
Fifty metres south of the cairn along the low limestone scar is the second circle. This is a lovely intimate circle with twelve stones, nine of which are lovely Shap granite and the rest limestone (I think).
The view from the circle is over the massive Hardendale quarry. A truely rural/industrial landscape.
Fifty Metres east of the first cairn is a single large stone that stands at the entrance to another walled corridor between fields.
Weird boundaries they have up here!

Iron Hill

stubob
stubob Jan 21, 2003

The half circle of Iron Hill North has one stone of limestone amongst the Shap granite, this also occurs at other sites nearby such as Gunnerkeld and Gamelands.

There is a sandstone boulder in Iron Hill South that has 4 or 5 cupmarks on the top.

Iron Hill

IronMan
IronMan Apr 2, 2002

Well worth the visit to the Iron HIll cairn circle and it’s companion cairn just a few feet away, intersected by a dry stone wall. The circle is difficult to understand, at first, but does eventually make sense. Taking photographs was very hard!

Miscellaneous

Iron Hill
Cairn circle
fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Jun 24, 2007

On Harberwain Rigg is a remarkable mound occupying a very elevated position; its diameter is fourteen yards, and surrounded by eighteen large boulders. It was carelessly opened a few years ago, and in the south-west side was
found a human skeleton of gigantic proportions; but whether he had been in a cist of how laid was not noticed. Along with the bones were found portions of the horns of the red deer. The mound is called Iren Hill, doubtless a corruption. Half way between it and the stone circle was found in a cleft of the rock a bronze dagger blade, thirteen inches in length and four inches broad at the hilt. It is of very good orkmanship. Whether it is coeval with the mound is doubtful; but it is a good specimen of the weapon which supplanted those of the stone age, and in the hand of the Briton opposed the advance of the Roman legions.

From
The Vale of the Lyvenett
T.S. Bland

Sites within 20km of Iron Hill

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