III.—THE MOORLANDS AND THEIR ANCIENT SETTLEMENTS.
The moors around Coniston are full of curious and interesting remains—cairns, circles, camps and settlements—of the remotest age in which this country was inhabited. Lying away from the high roads they are comparatively little known, but can easily be reached in the course of a day's walk or on horseback, or else by cycling—so far as the cycle will go, which is usually within a short distance of the spots to be sought—and leaving the cycle to the honesty of the country folk.
These remains are described by Mr. H. Swainson Cowper, F.S.A., in "The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthworks of Furness" (Archæologia, vol. liii., 1893, with plans), and some of them have passing notice in books relating to the district. Their very rudeness is a source of interest, and the mystery of their origin offers a fresh field for antiquarian research. To the unlearned visitor they are no less interesting—if he can throw his imagination back to wild days of ancient Britain, and repeople the heather and rocks with Children of the Mist. In their day the valleys were choked with matted forest or undrained swamp; the moorlands alone were healthy and habitable; not so bare and bleak as now, but partly sheltered, in their hollows and watercourses, by groves of rowan and birch, holly and yew, and the native forest trees of the north. Around these settlements the wilderness swarmed with red deer and roe, wild swine and cattle, capercailzie and moor fowl of every kind—good hunting, with only the wolf pack to dispute the spoil; for there is no reason to suppose that war, in our sense of the word, has ever invaded these homesteads and cattle-garths of primitive hunting and pastoral folk, whose chief foes were the wild beasts of the fells. Nor should we suppose that the circles are Druid temples where human sacrifices were offered. Some are the fences built around graves, and others are the foundations of round houses like the huts which wood-cutters still make for their temporary lodging when they are at work in a coppice. Others may have been sacred places; but let us withhold our fancies until we have seen the facts.
1.—The Blawith and Kirkby Moors.
The Beacon of Blawith, already noticed, can be climbed in about half-an-hour from Lakebank Hotel. South of the cairn on the top is Beacon Tarn, and two miles south-west over the heather (in which are various unimportant cairns and platforms, perhaps ancient, but more probably "tries" for slate) rises Blawith Knott, and beyond, at its foot where four roads meet, the Giant's Grave. The Giant's Grave can be easily reached by road; 2-1/2 miles from Woodland Station, or 4 miles (via Blawith and Subberthwaite) from Lakebank. This walk, as described, is well under 10 miles by cross roads. The story, still current in the neighbourhood, tells that in the Heathwaite "British settlement" (half a mile south of the cross roads) lived a race of giants, of whom the last was shot with an arrow on the Knott and buried in the grave; and, on opening it, the Rev. Francis Evans found calcined bones and charcoal.
The Heathwaite settlement consists of the foundations of ancient dwellings, just to the north of Pewit Tarn, and surrounded by extensive ruined stone walls, and a great number of cairns. Many of these are mere heaps of stones thrown together by the farmers to clear the land, in order to mow the bracken which they carry away for litter. Some of the cairns and walls, however, appear to be ancient.
A mile and a half south of this, on the headland to the right-hand side of the road, just before we reach Burney Farm, is the ruined enclosure, roughly square, with a party wall across the middle of it, known as the "Stone Rings." The walls are of a type seen in the British settlement near High Borrans, Windermere, and at Urswick Stone Walls—that is to say, flanked by big slabs set on edge, as though the builders were rudely trying to imitate the Roman walls of rubble thrown into an outer casing of masonry.
Following the road for a mile to south-east, shortly before coming to the Goathwaite Quarries, in the heather on the left may be found a small ring embankment; and about a mile as the crow flies south-east of this, across a little valley and only to be reached by a somewhat roundabout road, is the remnant of what was once a fine stone circle (quarter of a mile north of Knapperthaw).