Wandering in the shadow of the sacred hill

My friend Graeme Chappell and I decided to have a wander around Thompson’s Rigg. We followed the Old Wife’s Way from Horcum, dropping down along Newgate Brow into the valley below.

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We crossed the fields to take a look at the standing stones at the foot of Blakey Topping. These stones have been interpreted as a possible ruined stone circle.

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After spending some time at the stones we walked onto Thompson’s Rigg. The Rigg is only a mile long, its flanks slope down into the valleys of the Grain Beck to the East and Crosscliff Beck to the west. The moor is surrounded on three sides by higher ground and gently slopes to the south where it narrows to form a valley which eventually leads to Langdale End and Howden Hill, a hill very similar in appearance to Blakey Topping.

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About a third of the way along the Rigg the trackways bends, at this point, running diagonally to the trackway, is a cross ridge boundary. The boundary is a banked structure that bisects the full width of the moor and is topped, in parts, with large stones. The official scheduling for the area states that, Although this boundary forms part of the post-medieval field boundary system in the area, it is considered to incorporate elements of an earlier construction which had origins in the prehistoric period, contemporary with the cairnfield. source

In his book Early Man in North East Yorkshire Frank Elgee wrote, A wall of upright stones crosses the Rigg between the farm and the barrows, he also includes the boundary on his map of the area

It is curious that despite the earthwork being mentioned in the official scheduling of the area and despite it defining the the northern limit of the cairnfield and barrows and its close resemblance to other moorland cross ridge boundaries, this significant structure does not appear in either Don Spratt’s 1993 or Blaise Vyner’s 1995 inventories of the cross ridge boundaries of the North York Moors.

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South of the large boundary earthwork we started to encounter many cairns, most are in deep heather and difficult to define, at least one of this group appears to be a large ruined barrow.

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We continued south, traipsing through the deep heather to a grassy area containing a beautiful Platform Cairn. Platform Cairns are rare on the North York Moors, they are defined as, A roughly circular monument featuring a low, more or less level platform of stones surrounded or retained by a low stone kerb. Some may feature a small central open area, thus resembling a ring cairn. Source.

There is a large stone and hollow in the middle of the cairn implying a possible ruined cist, it is evident that this cairn had been excavated in the past. Graeme reminded me that we were only seven miles from Pickering, once home to James Ruddock.

James Ruddock was a nineteenth century commercial barrow digger. Between 1849 and his death in 1859 he opened many of our moorland mounds in search of finds to sell to the gentleman collectors of his time. His main client was the antiquary Thomas Bateman, he also opened barrows for Samuel Anderson of Whitby.

Unfortunately Ruddock did not always keep precise notes regarding the locations of his diggings, many of his finds have ended up in our museums with vague labels such as, from a mound 6 miles north of Pickering.

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Moving further south we encountered this lovely, fairly well-defined ring cairn.

On the south eastern flanks of the Rigg is a group of hollow ways, these are not considered to be prehistoric.

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At the southern end of the Rigg is this orthostatic wall which contains many large stones, some of which appear to be buried into the ground. If the wall contained unburied stones it would be classed as a boulder wall. The walling is definitely not prehistoric but may contain stones from an earlier feature.

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Not far from the walling is this three foot high standing stone, located within an area of low banks and cairns at the southern end of the Rigg.

Blakey Topping and Thompson’s Rigg are well worth a visit, There is a wealth of prehistoric remains to be seen within a relatively small area. The area is owned by the National Trust and is not managed for grouse so has a mixture of habitats, we saw plenty of birds including Skylarks, Snipes and what I think were a large flock of Fieldfares.

If you visit this lovely place, what you’ll undoubtably notice is that wherever you are on the moor, Blakey Topping is the dominant landscape feature. Graeme and I agreed that this beautiful hill probably had a deep significance to the original inhabitants of this area. A sacred hill? perhaps even a sacred landscape?

Resources

Early Man in North East Yorkshire. Frank Elgee. 1930

Orthostatic Field Walls on the North York Moors. D A Spratt. YAJ Vol. 60. 1988

Linear Earthworks of the Tabular Hills, Northeast Yorkshire. D A Spratt. 1989

Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology of North-East Yorkshire edited by D A Spratt. 1993

CBA Research Report 101: Moorland Monuments’ in The Brides Of Place: Cross-Ridge Boundaries Reviewed, B Vyner. 1995

OS Map – The National Library of Scotland

Postscript

To illustrate Graeme’s comments

Nature in Her Freaks – Blakey Topping

Blakey Topping (Black-houe Top.)

Of all the hills in our district, this seems to have attracted most of the attention of the Druids; who it is said were great admirers of nature in her freaks. This singular isolated hill resembles a huge tumulus or barrow of an arch-Druid, or half a Druid’s mundane egg, standing on the plane or base of its longer axis (although this is a natural hillock, detached from the main range of the Coralline-oolite, or outlier hills); and therefore from its shape, was no doubt held the more sacred by the Druids. But besides its shape, the many Druid-stones erected on the moor, both at its foot, and at a little distance off, indicate that this was a sacred mount…

..Nor will it appear at all surprising that this semi-mundane, or semi-egg-shaped hill, and the excessively dreary and secluded moor on which it stands should have been seized on, and  consecrated by the Druids for the performance of their mysterious, mistaken and cruel rites. Possibly, however, this now wholly heath-clad moor might have been, in their time, partially enlivened by waving groves; especially about this hill, and the rising brow of Cross Cliff.

Descriptions Geological, Topographical and Antiquarian in Eastern Yorkshire. by Robert Knox. 1855

Map © National Library of Australia

Cloughton Moor

From Descriptions Geological, Topographical & Antiquarian in Eastern Yorkshire by Robert Knox. 1855

The Devil’s Arrows

From

John Aubrey’s Monumenta Britannica compiled between 1665 & 1693

Newton Mulgrave Moor – A long barrow, an antiquarian and some rubbish

Long Barrows are fairly scarce on the northern North York Moors, this is round barrow country. Newton Mulgrave and the surrounding moors are rich in prehistoric monuments, the dales running down from the moors to the coast are fertile and well drained, ideal for early farmers. A number of the barrows, including the Long Barrow are placed at points where they can be seen from the dale below, the ancestors looking down from the place where the land meets the sky.

In the past, the moor was a rich hunting ground for early antiquarians, especially, Samuel Anderson of Whitby. Anderson excavated many of the barrows on the moor and built up a large collection of prehistoric pottery. He eventually sold his collection to finance a new business manufacturing jet ornaments. Much of his collection was sold to Joseph Mayer of Liverpool for £150. He also gave or sold some of the pottery to the Mappin Art Gallery in Sheffield.

Anderson’s pots in were displayed in the Liverpool Museum as part of the Mayer Collection, the museum and many of the displayed pots, were destroyed during a German bombing raid in May 1941.

The Long Barrow is recognisable but has suffered historic damage, that said, it’s well worth a visit. The walk takes you across a lovely grassy moor with views to the coast and a moorland skyline dotted with mounds. Below is a description of the barrow taken from the English Heritage Record of Scheduled Monuments.

The monument includes a long barrow situated in a prominent position at the top of a north east and north west facing slope on the edge of the North York Moors. The barrow has an earth and stone mound which is ovoid in shape, with its long axis oriented ESE to WNW. The mound measures 36m in length and is 13m wide at the west end and 20m wide at the east end. It stands up to 2.6m high at the east end, with the top sloping down towards the west. On the top of the mound and on the north side there are a number of small hollows caused by the robbing of stone from the fabric of the mound. Originally the mound would have been narrower and trapezoidal in shape with flanking quarry ditches up to 3m wide along its north and south edges. However, over the years erosion and stone robbing have resulted in a more rounded shape and soil has slipped from the mound, increasing its width and burying the quarry ditches which are no longer visible as earthworks. There would also have been a forecourt area up to 10m wide in front of the east end of the mound where rituals connected with the use of the barrow would have taken place. There is nothing of this visible now, but archaeological remains will survive as subsoil features. The long barrow lies in an area rich in prehistoric remains, including further burial monuments.

Fly-tipped rubbish, polythene animal feed bags, scrap iron and fencing roll.

This is on the open moor a few meters from the Long Barrow and a good walk from any road. The moor is a managed moor, the fences are in good order, the grouse butts are well maintained yet this is tolerated. Sometimes there seems to be two rules in the countryside, one for the visitors and another for the landowners and farmers.

Sources

A 19th century antiquary: the excavations of Samuel Anderson by Terry Manby in Moorland Monuments CBA Research Report 101 1995

Pastscape www.pastscape.org.uk

The Hand of Glory

When I was young summer holidays were generally camping trips to the Lake District or ‘days out’. Days out were day trips to the seaside of the moors. The most popular local seaside destinations for the children of Middlesbrough were Redcar, Saltburn and Whitby.

Each seaside town had its own particular draw, Redcar had gaming arcades and a cinema, Saltburn had a cliff lift and rock pools, Whitby, my favourite, had Dracula, the 99 steps and The Hand of Glory.

The Hand was, and still is, kept in a display cabinet in the Whitby Museum at Pannett Park. The museum remains one of my favourite places. It’s a lovely place that rejects the need for modern push-button interactivity and focuses on stimulating our natural curiosity by presenting us with strange, beautiful, bizarre and exotic objects.

The Museum also houses one the best collection of marine fossils outside of the Natural History Museum in London.

For further reading on the Hand of Glory I’d recommend a two-part essay  by Robin Wilson entitled A Blaze of Glory published in the excellent quarterly magazine Northern Earth  (issues 140 & 141).

The Whitby Museum can be found here  and includes a page on the Hand Of Glory