Ancient history of the Lake District
Neolithic burial places are represented by the long barrow of Sampson's Bratful on Stockdale Moor, now a remarkably remote area above the headwaters of Worm Gill, between Ennerdale and Wasdale, but clearly a place of considerable prehistoric importance.
In addition to the long mound of Sampson's Bratful, some 29m (96ft) in length and 13m (44ft) across, the surrounding moor contains numerous other prehistoric cairns, all standing within an area which later became part of a medieval deer park and is now an upland sheep pasture. Best approached by the monks' road from the Cold Fell gate on the moor road between Ennerdale Bridge and Calder Bridge, passing close to Matty Benn's Bridge (a classic single arched packhorse bridge now in disuse), Stockdale Moor amply rewards the seeker after solitude.
Bronze Age Lake District
Most of the burial mounds, however, are of Bronze Age date, including the round barrows clustered on Burnmoor, between Wasdale and Eskdale the walk between the two dales, passing close to the barrows and alongside Burnmoor Tarn, is a delightful and easy expedition and in areas such as Moor Divock, that prehistoric metropolis, and Banniside Moor near Coniston.
This latter area is thickly populated with round barrows, though not quite so much as the environs of Devoke Water, where more than 1,200 barrows have been identified. Dunmail Raise, the round barrow which has also given its name to the pass carrying the main route through the Lake District, is perhaps the best known of these burial mounds, though its attribution to the Norse King Dunmail is apocryphal. There is only one substantial example of that most typical survival of the Iron Age, the hillfort, within the boundaries of the National Park.
The fort at Carrock Fell
This is the fort which, somewhat improbably, crowns the summit of Carrock Fell, the most easterly fell of 2,000ft or more in the northern Lake District. The remains are substantial and very well worth the stiff climb from the hamlet of Mosedale.
The walls of the fort still stand to a height of several feet in places and the remains of gateways are still discernible. The fort, which covered an area of about five acres, was probably slighted by the Romans soon after they gained control of the area. Several smaller Iron Age hillforts generally rather roughandready enclosures defended by single ramparts and perhaps ditches have been identified in the Lake District. Perhaps the most accessible is Castle Crag in Borrowdale, 'spectacularly sited on a rocky tor in the Jaws of Borrowdale and with excellent views down the valley to Derwentwater.
The fort, with its crumbling ramparts, is difficult to date, and of uncertain purpose, but fragments of Roman pottery have been discovered on the site. Another delightfully situated hill fort, again probably late Iron Age in date, is also sometimes known as Castle Crag, though it actually lies on Birks Crag above the upper reaches of Haweswater. Still further small defended enclosures of this type include those on Shoulthwaite Crag near Thirlmere and On Dunmallet Hill at the foot of Ullswater.
Threlkeld Knotts Keswick
Slightly later in date than these defensive enclosures, possibly spanning the period of the late Iron Age and the Roman occupation, are the unenclosed settlements such as Threlkeld Knotts, to the east of Keswick; Lanthwaite Green, near Buttermere; and Millrigg, in the Kentmere valley. These settlements were clearly occupied in times of relative peace, since the hut foundations appear to be those of farmers and the clusters of houses were surrounded by a few fields roughly marked out with stone walls, probably to herd cattle.
The site at Threlkeld Knotts is a good example, with the remains of four or five hut circles and the boundary walls of several roughly rectangular fields faintly picked out in wiry grass and heather on a level shelf above the Glenderamackin valley.
Lanthwaite Green the Lake District
At Lanthwaite Green, too, the fascinating remains of track ways, hut circles and boundary walls can be picked out on level ground below the steepening slopes of Grasmoor at the foot of Crummock Water. Some at least of these settlements were occupied after the Romans arrived in the Lake District, and it is to the Romans that we now turn for the next strand in the history of the area's. Landscape.
The Romans and the Lake District
Once they had brushed aside initial resistance to their invasion of Britain in 43AD the Romans advanced northwards at considerable speed, reaching the fringes of the Lake District less than 40 years later. They moved only selectively into the region, however, and the main evidence of their occupation is associated with one road and a number of associated forts.
They were more active in the Eden valley, immediately to the east, and the Lake District and west Cumbrian coast served largely as a buffer zone within which attacks from Scotland or Ireland could be contained or, as in the case of the Roman ports such as Ravenglass, as possible launching pads for the invasion of Ireland: an invasion which never actually took place.
The one Roman toad of real importance in the Lake District proper was High Street, running from Brocavum near Penrith to Galava (Ambleside), together with its extension westwards across the Wry nose and Hardknott Passes to the port at Glannaventa (Ravenglass). From the first the Romans must have recognised that the chosen route was one which would present considerable difficulties because of its exposure and elevation reaching over 2,700ft on the High Street ridge whose name it shares despite the fact that there appears to have been a pre existing British trackway along the ridge.
Nevertheless they persevered, and the result is an extraordinary and very welldefined route along the crest of the ridge, from Celleron Farm, a few miles southwest of Penrith, to the Trout Beck valley and (by means of a traverse of Wansfell, where the exact Roman route is uncertain) the remains of the fort at Galava.
Penrith Roman Route
There are few more varied and worthwhile long distance routes in the National Park than the 'Roman' route from Penrith to Ravenglass, and it is worth dwelling on the details of the journey, some of which can be followed by car but which will appeal most to walkers, who can enjoy a magnificent walk. From Celleron, where the tarmac ends, the route lies across Heughscar Hill to Moor Divock, already noted as a centre of prehistoric activity.
The very fact that the Roman road appears to head for the stone circle at The Cockpit, altering course after passing the ancient monument, underlines the fact that this was not a newly devised route but an adaptation of an existing thoroughfare.
From The Cockpit the line of the Roman road can easily be followed as it rises inexorably onto the most easterly ridge of the Lakeland mountains, passing over Loadpot Hill, Wether Hill and High Raise on its way southwards to the narrow col of the Straits of Riggindale and then the level plateau of High Street itself.
The route reaches the Trout Beck valley by descending Scot Rake, named after the border raiders who caused medieval havoc in these parts, and crosses Wansfell to arrive at the fort of Galava on lowlying ground at the head of Windermere.
The line of the Roman road westwards from Galava through Little Langdale can, be traced only with difficulty, but as it crosses the Wrynose Pass the Roman road can again be detected not always using the same alignment as the present tortuous motor road and west of Cockley Bridge it is very clearly seen. At first the track to Black Hall, a straight and very Romanstyle route, marks the way, but after reaching the farmhouse the route becomes much more devious, climbing in a series of zigzags and at one stage cutting through bare rock to the summit of Hardknott Pass. The fort at Hardknott, described below, lies just to the north of the present road, which approximates to the Roman line on the descent into Eskdale.
Either the valley road or, even more pleasantly, the old packhorse route on the opposite bank of the river can now be followed to Boot, Eskdale Green and eventually the Esk estuary at Ravenglass, site of the fort of Glannaventa.
Roman Roads in the Lake District
The other Roman roads in the area were all peripheral to the Lake District: in the southeast no road seems to have penetrated further than the fort at Watercrook, near Kendal, and although a road ran southwest through Greystoke from the fort at Old Penrith it apparently got no further than the low earthworks near Troutbeck which appear to represent two small marching camps.
From Papcastle, near Cockermouth, another road was constructed southeast, in the direction of Keswick, and there might have been a link road from Watercrook to Ambleside, but little is known of these. The Roman forts in the Lake District, at Ambleside, Hardknott and Ravenglass, were probably constructed shortly after the arrival of the Romans, towards the end of the first century AD, and may well have been built of turf and timber at first, before being reconstructed in stone. None of them was large enough, at least initially, to hold an auxiliary regiment, or cohort, of 500 men, and indeed Hardknott may have been properly garrisoned only fleetingly before being virtually abandoned as it became clear that there was no local threat to the Romans. The remains of all three forts are certainly worth exploring.
Things to do in the Lake District and accomodation
Whether you want to discover the Roman roads in the Lake District, enjoy a day at the Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness, discover the Lake District of William Wordsworth or enjoy a day at the Aquarium of the Lakes, you will find a wide range of things to see and do in Cumbria. Accommodation is plentiful, from boutique hotels in Windermere and Bowness to guesthouses in Coniston and B&Bs in Keswick, you will find great accommodation at prices you can afford.
In addition to the long mound of Sampson's Bratful, some 29m (96ft) in length and 13m (44ft) across, the surrounding moor contains numerous other prehistoric cairns, all standing within an area which later became part of a medieval deer park and is now an upland sheep pasture. Best approached by the monks' road from the Cold Fell gate on the moor road between Ennerdale Bridge and Calder Bridge, passing close to Matty Benn's Bridge (a classic single arched packhorse bridge now in disuse), Stockdale Moor amply rewards the seeker after solitude.
Bronze Age Lake District
Most of the burial mounds, however, are of Bronze Age date, including the round barrows clustered on Burnmoor, between Wasdale and Eskdale the walk between the two dales, passing close to the barrows and alongside Burnmoor Tarn, is a delightful and easy expedition and in areas such as Moor Divock, that prehistoric metropolis, and Banniside Moor near Coniston.
This latter area is thickly populated with round barrows, though not quite so much as the environs of Devoke Water, where more than 1,200 barrows have been identified. Dunmail Raise, the round barrow which has also given its name to the pass carrying the main route through the Lake District, is perhaps the best known of these burial mounds, though its attribution to the Norse King Dunmail is apocryphal. There is only one substantial example of that most typical survival of the Iron Age, the hillfort, within the boundaries of the National Park.
The fort at Carrock Fell
This is the fort which, somewhat improbably, crowns the summit of Carrock Fell, the most easterly fell of 2,000ft or more in the northern Lake District. The remains are substantial and very well worth the stiff climb from the hamlet of Mosedale.
The walls of the fort still stand to a height of several feet in places and the remains of gateways are still discernible. The fort, which covered an area of about five acres, was probably slighted by the Romans soon after they gained control of the area. Several smaller Iron Age hillforts generally rather roughandready enclosures defended by single ramparts and perhaps ditches have been identified in the Lake District. Perhaps the most accessible is Castle Crag in Borrowdale, 'spectacularly sited on a rocky tor in the Jaws of Borrowdale and with excellent views down the valley to Derwentwater.
The fort, with its crumbling ramparts, is difficult to date, and of uncertain purpose, but fragments of Roman pottery have been discovered on the site. Another delightfully situated hill fort, again probably late Iron Age in date, is also sometimes known as Castle Crag, though it actually lies on Birks Crag above the upper reaches of Haweswater. Still further small defended enclosures of this type include those on Shoulthwaite Crag near Thirlmere and On Dunmallet Hill at the foot of Ullswater.
Threlkeld Knotts Keswick
Slightly later in date than these defensive enclosures, possibly spanning the period of the late Iron Age and the Roman occupation, are the unenclosed settlements such as Threlkeld Knotts, to the east of Keswick; Lanthwaite Green, near Buttermere; and Millrigg, in the Kentmere valley. These settlements were clearly occupied in times of relative peace, since the hut foundations appear to be those of farmers and the clusters of houses were surrounded by a few fields roughly marked out with stone walls, probably to herd cattle.
The site at Threlkeld Knotts is a good example, with the remains of four or five hut circles and the boundary walls of several roughly rectangular fields faintly picked out in wiry grass and heather on a level shelf above the Glenderamackin valley.
Lanthwaite Green the Lake District
At Lanthwaite Green, too, the fascinating remains of track ways, hut circles and boundary walls can be picked out on level ground below the steepening slopes of Grasmoor at the foot of Crummock Water. Some at least of these settlements were occupied after the Romans arrived in the Lake District, and it is to the Romans that we now turn for the next strand in the history of the area's. Landscape.
The Romans and the Lake District
Once they had brushed aside initial resistance to their invasion of Britain in 43AD the Romans advanced northwards at considerable speed, reaching the fringes of the Lake District less than 40 years later. They moved only selectively into the region, however, and the main evidence of their occupation is associated with one road and a number of associated forts.
They were more active in the Eden valley, immediately to the east, and the Lake District and west Cumbrian coast served largely as a buffer zone within which attacks from Scotland or Ireland could be contained or, as in the case of the Roman ports such as Ravenglass, as possible launching pads for the invasion of Ireland: an invasion which never actually took place.
The one Roman toad of real importance in the Lake District proper was High Street, running from Brocavum near Penrith to Galava (Ambleside), together with its extension westwards across the Wry nose and Hardknott Passes to the port at Glannaventa (Ravenglass). From the first the Romans must have recognised that the chosen route was one which would present considerable difficulties because of its exposure and elevation reaching over 2,700ft on the High Street ridge whose name it shares despite the fact that there appears to have been a pre existing British trackway along the ridge.
Nevertheless they persevered, and the result is an extraordinary and very welldefined route along the crest of the ridge, from Celleron Farm, a few miles southwest of Penrith, to the Trout Beck valley and (by means of a traverse of Wansfell, where the exact Roman route is uncertain) the remains of the fort at Galava.
Penrith Roman Route
There are few more varied and worthwhile long distance routes in the National Park than the 'Roman' route from Penrith to Ravenglass, and it is worth dwelling on the details of the journey, some of which can be followed by car but which will appeal most to walkers, who can enjoy a magnificent walk. From Celleron, where the tarmac ends, the route lies across Heughscar Hill to Moor Divock, already noted as a centre of prehistoric activity.
The very fact that the Roman road appears to head for the stone circle at The Cockpit, altering course after passing the ancient monument, underlines the fact that this was not a newly devised route but an adaptation of an existing thoroughfare.
From The Cockpit the line of the Roman road can easily be followed as it rises inexorably onto the most easterly ridge of the Lakeland mountains, passing over Loadpot Hill, Wether Hill and High Raise on its way southwards to the narrow col of the Straits of Riggindale and then the level plateau of High Street itself.
The route reaches the Trout Beck valley by descending Scot Rake, named after the border raiders who caused medieval havoc in these parts, and crosses Wansfell to arrive at the fort of Galava on lowlying ground at the head of Windermere.
The line of the Roman road westwards from Galava through Little Langdale can, be traced only with difficulty, but as it crosses the Wrynose Pass the Roman road can again be detected not always using the same alignment as the present tortuous motor road and west of Cockley Bridge it is very clearly seen. At first the track to Black Hall, a straight and very Romanstyle route, marks the way, but after reaching the farmhouse the route becomes much more devious, climbing in a series of zigzags and at one stage cutting through bare rock to the summit of Hardknott Pass. The fort at Hardknott, described below, lies just to the north of the present road, which approximates to the Roman line on the descent into Eskdale.
Either the valley road or, even more pleasantly, the old packhorse route on the opposite bank of the river can now be followed to Boot, Eskdale Green and eventually the Esk estuary at Ravenglass, site of the fort of Glannaventa.
Roman Roads in the Lake District
The other Roman roads in the area were all peripheral to the Lake District: in the southeast no road seems to have penetrated further than the fort at Watercrook, near Kendal, and although a road ran southwest through Greystoke from the fort at Old Penrith it apparently got no further than the low earthworks near Troutbeck which appear to represent two small marching camps.
From Papcastle, near Cockermouth, another road was constructed southeast, in the direction of Keswick, and there might have been a link road from Watercrook to Ambleside, but little is known of these. The Roman forts in the Lake District, at Ambleside, Hardknott and Ravenglass, were probably constructed shortly after the arrival of the Romans, towards the end of the first century AD, and may well have been built of turf and timber at first, before being reconstructed in stone. None of them was large enough, at least initially, to hold an auxiliary regiment, or cohort, of 500 men, and indeed Hardknott may have been properly garrisoned only fleetingly before being virtually abandoned as it became clear that there was no local threat to the Romans. The remains of all three forts are certainly worth exploring.
Things to do in the Lake District and accomodation
Whether you want to discover the Roman roads in the Lake District, enjoy a day at the Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness, discover the Lake District of William Wordsworth or enjoy a day at the Aquarium of the Lakes, you will find a wide range of things to see and do in Cumbria. Accommodation is plentiful, from boutique hotels in Windermere and Bowness to guesthouses in Coniston and B&Bs in Keswick, you will find great accommodation at prices you can afford.
posted by Windermere Boutique Hotels | 07:17
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