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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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