Alphasmam writes: We visited Brat's Hill stone circle and the two White Moss Stone circles on our weekly walk.For anyone visiting Eskdale to look at the Bronze Age sites on Burnmoor, a trip to Dalegarth Station from Ravenglass on The La'al Ratty (Little Ratty) narrow gauge railway is a very pleasant way to begin the day.The train connects you from the Roman Port of Ravenglass to Dalegarth and Boot into Eskdale through woodland and mountain scenery.
Brat's Hill and White Moss circles [see the nearby sites list] are up a fairly steep track from the old mill in Boot itself but it is a shortish walk .Very soon we noticed we were walking between cairn after cairn on all sides. The path even takes you over cairns which are now waterlogged and in boggy areas. The views on the walk up to Burnmoor are wonderful. You can see a wide panorama of mountain peaks starting with Harter Fell, Bowfell and Crinkle Crags and eventually on reaching Brat's Hill a dramatic view of the great bulk of the Scafell Range.
The Brat's Hill and White Moss area is boggy moorland. The cairns are in close proximity to each other and it is estimated that there are over 400 of them in this one site.Some of the cairns seemed to be oval rather than round and ranging in size from what looked like 2 m in diameter to 10 m in length and about 1 m high.The ones round in shape were probably 2m to 7m in diameter and about 1m high. There are five stone circles although we only visited three.
Brat's Hill circle is large and we counted about 40 stones forming an irregular circle.The diameter of the circle is about 25 m perhaps more.There are 5 funerary cairns within this circle with 4 of them arranged around a prominent stone in the circle. I found it difficult to photograph the whole circle in one shot.I needed a wider angle. Nevertheless we spent a long while just looking.
In view and very close to the NW of this circle are White Moss E and White Moss SW stone circles. The former has about 11 stones forming the circle and apparently the cairn in the centre had funerary remains. The diameter is about 16m. The other White Moss circle has much the same diameter but has at least 14 stones that we counted and also has a funerary cairn in the centre.
South east of these circles there is quite an obvious linear wall or stone banking structure (photos supplied) and 2 white stick markers drew out eyes towards an enclosure or field almost rectangular in shape.(photo)
There were also short lengths of stone wall and what we thought was some sort of connecting trackway. I was totally taken with the sheer scale of all these stone features.
Unfortunately we didn't have time to go a little further North to look at Low Longrigg circles but we were told that they exhibit similar stone walls, trackways, stone circles and cairns of various shapes and sizes.
I learnt a new word which is "lynchet" meaning a large step cut into a hillside to form a flat area making farming easier.I believe we saw one south of Brat's Hill but we weren't sure.
To say that the features we looked at were Bronze Age the whole complex seems to have survived well.It seemed quite a well developed and well managed landscape which must indicate its importance in prehistoric times.
Again this place has atmosphere and wherever you stand there are 'special' views which must have held great significance in the placing of the monuments. A perfect location for travel between the great valleys and routes over the mountains and also with access to the sea. It surely was a very busy and vibrant place to live.
On a personal note I was the most moved by my first siting of White Moss E as it had a moody, 'fairytale' quality to it. As a textile artist I can see this is soon to be a work in progress.
I have tried to supply a variety of pictures to illustrate the related features where the circles are located.I didn't want to duplicate photographs you already have. Again the weather was dull and so hazy conditions prevailed.
Brat's Hill
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