Westmorian

Monuments

The Westmorland Fells area has a remarkable heritage, with interesting

monuments erected over a vast stretch of time from the late Mesolithic

through to the C20

th

including stone circles, holy springs, Roman roads,

Iron Age settlements, Celtic and mediaeval field systems and 19

th

, 20

th

and 21

st

Century sculptures. There are Prehistoric sites in the Orton

Valley, dotting the limestone uplands of Asby Common, Gaythorn Plain

and Crosby Ravensworth Moor and then stretching northwards in the

famous Serpentine Avenue through Shap aligned with Knipe Scar Circle

and the Moor Divock funerary complex.

Penrith Museum and Tourist Information Centre has a fine display of local prehistoric artefacts, including axe-heads and ring and cup-marked stones. There is also a film show that teaches how the axe heads were made.

The Westmorland Fells have a long and fascinating heritage with

some of the earliest and finest prehistoric sites of their kind. These

include Gamelands Great Circle of Orton Vale, one of the UK’s widest

at 44 meters — also Cumbria’s only stone circle to be completely

embanked, and Gunnerkeld, one of the UK’s oldest, a multi-phase

site, part of which may be centuries earlier than Stone Henge!

What do they have in common? They were both built near springs.This seems to be a common characteristic for these early civilization centres.

Gamelands Stone Circle is on the Coast to Coast walk

Made with Xara

The large hand-axe is of polished limestone, the lower tools are of chert and flint

Castle Folds is a prehistoric fort set amidst the limestone pavement

A neolithic ceremonial site, possibly part of a processional way, a putative henge.

Penhurrock Cairn Circle. Funerary site, possibly post-battle?

The White Hag Cairn Circle can be seen on the walk to Black Dub

White Hag Thunder Stone is a glacial eratic boulder about 30 yds south of the Cairn circle

Oddendale Concentric Circle is a rare form

The image on the left shows prehistoric tools held in trust by The Parish Archive, Crosby Ravensworth. The hand axe top left is a very unusual polished hard limestone axe head of the New Stone age (Neolithic 4200 - 2500 BC) found at Dryevers by G. Bowness while ploughing. Top right is a small fragment of medieval pottery from the Lyvennet River. Below the ruler from left to right we have Mesolithic microliths from the left found in molehills near Sunbiggin Tarn: a tiny tooth from a fishing harpoon, a dark chert core from which flakes for a harpoon were produced, a white chert core next to it and five flakes. (c. BC 8000 - 4500) About six inches along we have a white chert leaf-shaped neolithic arrow-head found in a mole-hill near Orton Scar. Then follow two flint flakes and a flint scraper of Bronze age date (c.BC 2400 -1000), a dark chert core and finally a neolithic arrowhead stained by peat from Morland Bank area (Eel mires)

Gunnerkeld Stone Circle stands beside the M6 South

Charles Paxton’s new historical fantasy novel “Dark Moor” is now available on Amazon Kindle! The book is set in the Westmorland Fells and some other noteworthy sites in Cumbria. Please click the above link or the cover image to view the title in a new window.

Celebrating Cumbria’s Carboniferous Fells and Dales

Westmorian

Monuments

The Westmorland Fells area has a remarkable heritage, with interesting

monuments erected over a vast stretch of time from the late Mesolithic

through to the C20

th

including stone circles, holy springs, Roman roads, Iron

Age settlements, Celtic and mediaeval field systems and 19

th

, 20

th

and 21

st

Century sculptures. There are Prehistoric sites in the Orton Valley, dotting the

limestone uplands of Asby Common, Gaythorn Plain and Crosby

Ravensworth Moor and then stretching northwards in the famous Serpentine

Avenue through Shap aligned with Knipe Scar Circle and the Moor Divock

funerary complex.

The Westmorland Fells have a long and fascinating heritage with some

of the earliest and finest prehistoric sites of their kind. These include

Gamelands Great Circle of Orton Vale, one of the UK’s widest at 44

meters — also Cumbria’s only stone circle to be completely embanked,

and Gunnerkeld, one of the UK’s oldest, a multi-phase site, part of which

may be centuries earlier than Stone Henge!

What do they have in common? They were both built near springs.This seems to be a common characteristic for these early civilization centres.

Made with Xara

The image above shows prehistoric tools held in trust by The Parish Archive, Crosby Ravensworth. The hand axe top left is a very unusual polished hard limestone axe head of the New Stone age (Neolithic 4200 - 2500 BC) found at Dryevers by G. Bowness while ploughing. Top right is a small fragment of medieval pottery from the Lyvennet River. Below the ruler from left to right we have Mesolithic microliths from the left found in molehills near Sunbiggin Tarn: a tiny tooth from a fishing harpoon, a dark chert core from which flakes for a harpoon were produced, a white chert core next to it and five flakes. (c. BC 6000 - 4500) About six inches along we have a white chert leaf-shaped neolithic arrow-head found in a mole-hill near Orton Scar. Then follow two flint flakes and a flint scraper of Bronze age date (c.BC 2400 -1000), a dark chert core and finally a neolithic arrowhead stained by peat from Morland Bank area (Eel mires)