Sleights Moor

 

A friend and I took a walk around Sleights moor starting at the High Bride Stones, a group of Prehistoric Standing Stones that have been interpreted as the possible ruins of two Four-Poster Stone Circles or the remains of a number of Stone Rows.

We followed the lines of stones to the edge of the moor and the descent into the Murk Esk valley.

A Ladder trap, one of two in this small area, both thankfully empty.

Descending the bank to the Low Bride Stones on Sheephowe Rigg.

Like the High Bride Stones on the moor above, this is a very ruinous site. Archaeological surveys have revealed over 100 stones including a mutilated cairn.  The current best guess is that many of the stones once formed part of a prehistoric enclosure.

We moved north along the top of Lowther Crag to the disused Bolton Crag quarry, one source of the beautiful Middle Jurassic moorland sandstone. Across the Esk valley we can see the quarries at Aislaby. Stone from these quarries was used to build the 11th century Abbey at Whitby, the foundations of the old Waterloo and London Bridges and the piers at Whitby.

Walking up onto the moor top we found small, loose boulders made of ‘white flint’. This stone was prized by the steel industry, its high silica content, up to 98%, meant that it was ideal for making refractory bricks and moulding sand.

We moved across the highest part of the moor to Black Brow and its two Bronze Age kerbed burial mounds, the Flat Howes. This is the highest section of the moor, there are uninterrupted views along the Esk Valley to the Kildale Gap, across the moors towards Fylingdales and down to the coast into Whitby, a fitting place to spend eternity.

Greenland’s Howe

The other day I contacted my mate Chris and asked him if he fancied a mooch up onto Sleights Moor to check-out the Bronze Age cist at Greenland’s Howe. Chris was happy to come with me so we drove up from Sleights and headed across the moor to the monument. A cist is basically a stone lined box into which a body or cremated remains were placed, a stone lid or capstone was then placed on top, sealing the the cist. A circlular kerb of stones was then placed around the cist and finally an earthen mound was built over the cist and stones to create what is known as a barrow.

On the North York Moors barrows are more commonly referred to as Howes from the old Norse Haugr meaning hill.  The cist at Greenland’s Howe is one of the best preserved examples on the North York Moors, the mound and a number of the kerb stones have been removed but enough remains to illustrate how these ancient burial monuments were constructed.

The cist has been placed into an alignment of approximately 310 degrees, which roughly aligns it to the rising sun on the winter solstice and the stetting sun on the summer solstice. Greenland’s Howe, in common with many North York Moors burial mounds, is situated on high ground, allowing it to be visible on the skyline from certain viewpoints. We can probably assume that these viewpoints were where the relatives of the dead lived. The sight of the graves of the ancestors would have provided a sense of continuity and legitimise ownership of the land.

The views to the north are along the Littlebeck Valley towards Whitby and the coast. Just to the north of the monument there is an upright stone, a possible outlier, which aligns with Whitby.  Chris and I discussed the possible function of this standing stone,  Bronze Age people would have navigated the north-south routes across the high Moors using the chains of barrows as waymarkers. This outlying stone could have directed travellers from the high moors to the mouth of the Esk, which is not directly visible from the monument.

The High Bride Stones 1817-1995

Other collections of upright stones, arranged in lines, or placed without apparent order, are found in several parts. On Sleights moor there are a remarkable assemblage of this description, called the high Bride stones, forming a kind of irregular line, and perhaps originally an avenue. There were 11 upright stones in this cluster some years ago: at present there are only 6 standing, and 3 or 4 that have fallen down: none of them exceeding 7 or 8 feet high.

A History of Whitby. George Young 1817

The only other stone circles known to me are the High Bride Stones, near large and small barrows, at an altitude of 900 feet on Sleights Moor. To-day six only are standing, and at least fourteen are fallen. The most conspicuous stone is 7 feet high and terribly weathered. Near it lie three others nearly as long, and another about 4 feet long, which together with the upright stone form a semi-circle. Some distance to the south stands a solitary stone about 3 feet high. Thirty yards north of the semi-circle, three upright stones from 2-3 feet high form part of another circle, the remaining stones of which to the number of at least eight have fallen over and are more or less hidden in the heather. Further north are two fallen stones and still further in the same direction is a monolith 6 feet high high and deeply rain furrowed. Thus the High Bride Stones, which from north to south extend about 150 yards, seem to have originally consisted of adjacent circles, one of large, the other of smaller stones, with outlying monoliths. Despite their deplorable state they are the most impressive standing-stones in North-east Yorkshire.

Early Man in N.E. Yorkshire. Frank Elgee. 1930

At the northern end, on Sleights Moor, the High and Low Bridestones offer an interesting contrast; the latter are natural formations, curious weathered blocks of sandstone, some of which look like  huge toadstools, raised on narrow stems. The High Bridestones, on the other hand, though hardly so fine to look at, are human handiwork, a stone circle of the Bronze Age; the individual monoliths are many of them very large, and although today more than half have fallen, this remains easily the best sanctuary of its kind in this part of the country.

A Guide to the Prehistoric and Roman Monuments in England and Wales. Jacquetta Hawkes. 1951

Note. The natural formations referred to by Hawkes are located in the Dalby Forest. The Low Bridestones on Sleights Moor are a number of low standing stones that have been interpreted as prehistoric walling.

On a bleak, often waterlogged limestone pavement the High Bridestones have been all things to all men. Even the name is deceptive. It has nothing to do with nuptials, sex or fertility symbolism. It relates to Brigid, the goddess of the Bigantes, the Iron Age tribe that inhabited this grim, windblown region. There have been varying interpretations of the eleven stones of which six stand. They have been called the remains of two stone circles with outliers to the north and south; standing stones among natural outcrops; and a ruinous double row or avenue. They may, instead, be the wreckage of two Four-Posters.

A. At the north-west and at right-angles to the line like a terminal stone on Dartmoor there is a single stone 5ft 2ins (1.6m) high. To its south-east, 190ft (58m) away, are three stones at the corner of a rectangle 25ft by 20ft (7.6 x 6.1m) from which the north-east stone is missing. The tallest pillar, 4ft 5ins (1.3m) high is at the south-east. The setting resembles a ‘christianised’ Four-Poster.

B. A further 76ft (23.2m) south-east is a low, loose stump and 28ft (8.5m) beyond it is a very questionable Four-Poster in such a disastrous state that little can be claimed for it. The biggest stone, 7ft 6ins (2.3m) high, still stands and around it in confusion lie three slabs, 8ft 4ins, 10ft and 7ft 6ins (2.5, 3.1, 2.3m) long. If this megalithic disaster had have been a Four-Poster its rectangle would have been about 15ft by 13ft (4.6 x 4m). Like the more identifiable setting to the north-west its sides would have been roughly aligned on the cardinal points.

A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. Aubrey Burl. 1995

Postcard