County Guides No. 22 - Cumbria

Submitted by nicoladidsbury on Wednesday, 07 July 2004 Page Views: 7856

EnglandCountry: England County: Cumbria
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**Castlerigg** submitted by Thorgrim : Twenty years ago, Castlerigg had fewer visitors - even in summer. Today, the crowds can detract from the beauty of the place. But what beauty! People come and people go, but the stones endure. (Vote or comment on this photo)

18,000 years ago Cumbria was covered in a deep blanket of ice. This ice sheet scoured the country of all pre-existing life. When the ice eventually retreated, a rich forest of deciduous trees took its place - a thick dense wood which climbed much higher up the slopes of the Cumbrian mountains than the trees grow today. The hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic period gradually came north into this wilderness.

One of the most important early Neolithic sites in Cumbria is the Stone Axe Factory in the hills above Langdale. This site was in use around 6,000 years ago and contains around 75,000 discarded waste axeheads. Polished axe heads have been found all over Britain, suggesting an early trade between the tribes. The axe heads appear to be too small for practical use, and may have been used for religious/spiritual reasons.

Gradually these early people cleared the vast forests, and started to build settlements, and lay out fields. Excellent examples of early settlements can be found all over Cumbria. Three settlements and field boundaries are clearly visible at Green Howe, near Aughertree. There are also two Bronze Age burial mounds which were excavated, and were found to contain several “beaker” cremation urns.

Possibly these Neolithic/Bronze age people needed to track the time of the year, to sow their crops or to bring in the harvest. Castlerigg , Long Meg and Swinside stone circles are some of the earliest stone circles in the UK, dating to around 3000BC.

The late Neolithic period saw the building of our fantastic henges. Unfortunately large sections of King Arthur’s Round Table have been destroyed; however Mayburgh Henge is an incredible monument and still contains a massive standing stone. Mayburgh feels like it an amphitheatre, a gathering place. The henge walls rise to over 6m and it is estimated that over five million river washed stones were used to build it.

Cumbria also has amazing rock art, one example can be seen on Long Meg near Little Salkeld, and also at Copt Howe in the Langdales (could it be associated with the Stone Axe factories?)

The Iron Age brings us the many hillforts across Cumbria - Great Urswick , Castle Crag , and Carrock are a few of the more important hillforts. These were meeting places of our tribes of the Brigantes.

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