This is a putative fort, a nice destination for a picnic after a pleasant short walk through pretty countryside over a nice stone bridge.

Westmorland during the Neolithic

Neolithic tools have been found throughout the area

Occupation during the Neolithic was of a more settled nature, with the advent of farming, forested land was cleared and domestication of animals supplemented hunting, fishing and gathering. The population expanded and there were even some large structures built like Castle Folds and Gamelands Great Stone Circle. Elsewhere in Eden the vast structure of Mayburgh Henge was erected with 20,000 tons of river rubble stones!

Made with Xara

Leaf-shaped neolithic arrowhead in local white chert about 2.5 cm long..

This Shap granite cup stone monument is likely neolithic in date, it bears six cup marks in a curved line.

Gaythorne Plains Cupstone. Proof that cup marks were pecked even in the hardest granite! The stone is aligned East West and bears six cups in a curved line. Nobody knows what the cups signify. One theory is that as babies were born their souls were freed from the rock. It’s possible that they denote fresh potable water nearby.

This site is probably neolithic and as its name suggests, had a defensive role. It has a very fine atmosphere!

The Druidic Judgement Seat grazed by Fell Ponies. Causewayed platforms such as this comprise the oldest known forms of earthworks. This site is neolithic at latest.

Neolithic Fort at Castle Folds

One of a series of shap granite boulders that line Appleby Golf Course is marked in relief with an eliptical ring.

Marked granite megaliths are rare. This rock is extremely hard.

Found art or ground art? A raised ring in one of the Shap granite boulders beside Appleby Golf Course’s 15th hole near The Druids’ Judgement Sea. The platform likely predates Druidicism by many millenia. Nearby is a spectacular cave in red permotriassic sandstone

Fell ponies graze The Druids' Judgement Seat at Appleby Golf Course. The causwayed platform could be of very early date.

This structure is unlike any other documented in Cumbria, and it is situated in fine moor land with great wide views.

Gaythorne Circle has a curious structure with a kerbed platform circle with short diagonal lines at four ‘corners’ and a double avenue of stones leading off for 5o feet in the direction of Fiend’s Fell!

Chapel Waste Neolithic Limestone Quern with cup and line decoration

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.

Neolithic

Westmorland Fells

Celebrating Cumbria’s Carboniferous Fells and Dales

Westmorland during the Neolithic

Neolithic tools have been found throughout the area

Made with Xara

Neolithic Fort at Castle Folds

Leaf-shaped neolithic arrowhead in local white chert about 2.5 cm long..

Found art or ground art? A raised ring in one of the Shap granite boulders beside Appleby Golf Course’s 15th hole near The Druids’ Judgement Seat. The platform likely predates Druidicism by millenia. Nearby is a spectacular cave in red permotriassic sandstone

The Druidic Judgement Seat grazed by Fell Ponies. Causewayed platforms such as this comprise the oldest known forms of earthworks. This site is neolithic at latest.

Little Asby Circle, by Sunbiggin Tarn, now serves as a Lek for Red Grouse.

Gamelands, below Knott Hill, is a Neolithic ‘flattened’ Stone Circle over 100 ft long and all the megaliths are now fallen. All are of Shap granite but one, which is limestone. It is embanked, and now open at both ends. Could it be a henge?

Neolithic arrowhead from Eel mires, Maulds Meaburn.

Chapel Waste Neolithic Limestone Quern with cup and line decoration