On Long Scar Pike is a large mound of stones twenty yards in diameter, and eight or nine feet high. It has been opened, but no account kept. There is another on How Nook Pike, a little further south; these are the highest points in the parish of Crosby Ravensworth, and are positions truly worthy as the resting-places of some ancient chieftains or warriors, overlooking as they do the vale of Orton, the Lune and their tributary dales of Bretherdale, Langdale, Wasdale, and the vale of Birkbeck with its far-famed medicinal spa, backed by the bleak and rugged peaks of Shap Fells.
On Wicker Street, near the stone circle, is a large irregular oblong mound, twenty-four yards in length, and another at no great distance, but small and circular, on the east side of the Roman road. A more remarkable one is on a limestone cliff overhanging the Lyvennet, in Crosby Gill; it is an oval, or keel-shaped, ten yards the longer diameter, and six the less, and about seven feet high.
Robin Hood's Grave is an oblong mound, seven yards by three. It is situated at the bottom of a narrow rocky dell at the head of Crosby Gill, where the footpath from Orton to Crosby enters the woods, once the chase of Sir Lancelot Threlkeld. It is noticed by Mr. Sullivan in his "Cumberland and Westmorland," but he speaks of two heaps: this is, however, a mistake, there being only one. Of this mound he says "It was once customary for every person who went a-nutting in the wood, at the south end of which this heap is situated, to throw a stone on Robin's grave, repeating the following rhyme:—
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, here lie thy bones;
Load me with nuts as I load thee with stones."
Whoever was the original of the famous outlaw, and whether he was properly Robin of the Wood or Robin with the Hood, his name is now connected with mounds and stones innumerable in various parts of England. On Ploverigg Edge are two large stones, known as Robin Hood's Chair and Punch Bowl; in short, too much popularity has converted him, according to the view of critical investigation, into a myth. Probably the well-known rhyme of schoolboy notoriety may be in allusion also to the famed outlaw of Sherwood Forest:—
Robin a Ree, Robin a Ree, if I let thee dee
Many sticks, many steanes be heaped o' my weary beanes
If I sud set Robin a Ree to dee:
This game is usually attendant on bonfires, near which, those joining the game stand in a row; the first then takes a fiery stick, and whirling it round and round repeats the rhyme, then handing it to the next, who repeats it, and so on till the stick dies out; the unfortunate individual, in whose hand this happens, is then at the mercy of the grimy sticks and wet sods of his companions.
Not far from Robin Hood's Grave is a spring known as "King's Well," which is supposed to bear its royal title from being visited by King Henry VII.; but of this we have no more reliable proof than we have that Robin Hood's remains lie beneath the mound, which, on being opened, was found to contain only an old sheep's skull.
There are three mounds near to each other on the east bank of the stream near Gilts; they are about seven or eight yards in diameter each. None of these have been opened. Between Gilts and Lodge is one; below it are a number of parallel and other earthworks, suggesting to the mind of some antiquaries the idea of its having been a maze; a dilemma in which antiquarians are often found.
A little south of How Arcles is a mound near which are circular and square entrenchments.