The moors around Coniston are full of curious and interesting remains—cairns, circles, camps and settlements—of the remotest age in which this country was inhabited. Lying away from the high roads they are comparatively little known, but can easily be reached in the course of a day's walk or on horseback, or else by cycling—so far as the cycle will go, which is usually within a short distance of the spots to be sought—and leaving the cycle to the honesty of the country folk.

These remains are described by Mr. H. Swainson Cowper, F.S.A., in "The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthworks of Furness" (ArchÆologia, vol. liii., 1893, with plans), and some of them have passing notice in books relating to the district. Their very rudeness is a source of interest, and the mystery of their origin offers a fresh field for antiquarian research. To the unlearned visitor they are no less interesting—if he can throw his imagination back to wild days of ancient Britain, and repeople the heather and rocks with Children of the Mist. In their day the valleys were choked with matted forest or undrained swamp; the moorlands alone were healthy and habitable; not so bare and bleak as now, but partly sheltered, in their hollows and watercourses, by groves of rowan and birch, holly and yew, and the native forest trees of the north. Around these settlements the wilderness swarmed with red deer and roe, wild swine and cattle, capercailzie and moor fowl of every kind—good hunting, with only the wolf pack to dispute the spoil; for there is no reason to suppose that war, in our sense of the word, has ever invaded these homesteads and cattle-garths of primitive hunting and pastoral folk, whose chief foes were the wild beasts of the fells. Nor should we suppose that the circles are Druid temples where human sacrifices were offered. Some are the fences built around graves, and others are the foundations of round houses like the huts which wood-cutters still make for their temporary lodging when they are at work in a coppice. Others may have been sacred places; but let us withhold our fancies until we have seen the facts.

1.—The Blawith and Kirkby Moors.

The Beacon of Blawith, already noticed, can be climbed in about half-an-hour from Lakebank Hotel. South of the cairn on the top is Beacon Tarn, and two miles south-west over the heather (in which are various unimportant cairns and platforms, perhaps ancient, but more probably "tries" for slate) rises Blawith Knott, and beyond, at its foot where four roads meet, the Giant's Grave. The Giant's Grave can be easily reached by road; 2-1/2 miles from Woodland Station, or 4 miles (via Blawith and Subberthwaite) from Lakebank. This walk, as described, is well under 10 miles by cross roads. The story, still current in the neighbourhood, tells that in the Heathwaite "British settlement" (half a mile south of the cross roads) lived a race of giants, of whom the last was shot with an arrow on the Knott and buried in the grave; and, on opening it, the Rev. Francis Evans found calcined bones and charcoal.

The Heathwaite settlement consists of the foundations of ancient dwellings, just to the north of Pewit Tarn, and surrounded by extensive ruined stone walls, and a great number of cairns. Many of these are mere heaps of stones thrown together by the farmers to clear the land, in order to mow the bracken which they carry away for litter. Some of the cairns and walls, however, appear to be ancient.

A mile and a half south of this, on the headland to the right-hand side of the road, just before we reach Burney Farm, is the ruined enclosure, roughly square, with a party wall across the middle of it, known as the "Stone Rings." The walls are of a type seen in the British settlement near High Borrans, Windermere, and at Urswick Stone Walls—that is to say, flanked by big slabs set on edge, as though the builders were rudely trying to imitate the Roman walls of rubble thrown into an outer casing of masonry.

Following the road for a mile to south-east, shortly before coming to the Goathwaite Quarries, in the heather on the left may be found a small ring embankment; and about a mile as the crow flies south-east of this, across a little valley and only to be reached by a somewhat roundabout road, is the remnant of what was once a fine stone circle (quarter of a mile north of Knapperthaw).

Looking south-west from here we see a pass across Kirkby Moor, to the left of the rounded summit (over 1,000 feet) opposite. From the top of that pass, a short mile to the west, is a conspicuous grey cairn of loose stones, which was opened by Mr. Jopling (author of A Sketch of Furness and Cartmel, 1843), and found to contain burnt bones in a prehistoric "kist" of flagstones.

Turning south from this, by a grassy track through the heather, five minutes' walk brings us to the "Kirk," a ring embankment on the brink of the gill which encloses the site on two sides, probably sepulchral, and perhaps connected with the great cairn, as there are the remains of an avenue of standing stones leading in that direction. A field near this is called "Kirk Sinkings," with which compare "Kirk Sunken," the name of the Swinside Circle, and of other similar sites. Kirk or Currock does not imply a consecrated spot, but is the common word (surviving from the "Cumbrian" or Welsh) for stone monuments.

From this, twenty minutes westward down a steep road through the picturesque gill brings us to Kirkby Watermill and Church (Norman door and font, and a tombstone in the chancel which combines the simple cross with rudimentary effigy). Kirkby Hall, a mile to the north, is a fine specimen of the ancient manor house. Another mile northward is Grizebeck, with remains of a ring embankment, unimportant, behind the cottages. Hence it is a little over two miles to Foxfield, or three to Broughton; or, omitting Grizebeck, from Kirkby Church ten minutes' walk brings us down to Kirkby station.

2.—Bethecar and Monk Coniston Moors.

South of Lakebank, turning to left down a narrow lane through the hamlet of Water Yeat, we reach Bouthray (Bouldery) Bridge over the Crake, and see, half a mile further down, the new Blawith Church on the site of an old Elizabethan chapel. Opposite it, across the river by a footbridge, is Low Nibthwaite bobbin mill—in the eighteenth century an important "forge" where iron was smelted with charcoal.

Crossing the bridge, and leaving Arklid Farm on the right, 1-1/2 mile from Lakebank brings us to Nibthwaite, whence the lakeside road leads in about 7-1/2 miles to Coniston Church, past Brantwood and Waterhead; the path to the moors strikes up to the right hand and across the breast of Selside. Another path leads to the Top of Selside, 1,015 feet, with Arnsbarrow Tarn and Bell Beck descending from it, to the south-west, with several good waterfalls. Bethecar Moor is between Bell Beck and Nibthwaite—fine broken ground, which seems to have been less inhabited than the other moors, for no remains except a cairn (1-1/4 mile due west of Waterpark) have been reported.

Two miles north of Nibthwaite is Parkamoor, which in the Middle Ages was a sheep cote belonging to Furness Abbey. Recently, walled up in an outbuilding, on a deserted farm near at hand, part of a woman's skeleton was found. There is an obscure story of an old lady who disappeared after residence at Parkamoor some generations ago, but nothing has been proved as to the supposed murder; nor is there any reason to connect this with an alleged ghost at Coniston Bank, several miles distant.

Hence the path to the right goes to Satterthwaite, down Farragrain Gill; northward, a track leads over the Heald, with magnificent views, to the lonely hill farm of Lawson Park, another Furness Abbey sheep cote (2-1/2 miles), and down to Lanehead and Coniston (3-1/4 miles); or by a cart track met 1/4 mile above Lawson Park, and leading upward and northward, we can traverse Monk Coniston Moor, and descend to civilisation by the lane that crosses from Grizedale to Lanehead. Along the ridge which forms the boundary between Monk Coniston and Hawkshead is High Man (922 feet), where in a cairn is a stone with the initials "J. W., 1771" and "E. D., 1817," and on the west side of the stone "T. F., 1817"—evidently a merestone or boundary mark. A circle and other cairns have been noted near this summit; the circle may be comparatively modern, the ruins of a hut such as charcoal-burners make for temporary lodgings in the woods.

High Cross, where the Coniston, Ambleside, and Hawkshead roads meet, is close at hand, 2-1/2 miles from Coniston Church.

3.—Banniside and Torver Moors.

Up the road behind the Railway Station, in twenty-five minutes you reach the gate of Banniside Moor, which we passed in descending the Old Man. Along the quarry road to the right towards Crowberry Haws, about a third of a mile from the gate, below you on the right-hand side is an ancient garth of irregular rectangular shape, with a circular dwelling in the middle of the highest side. A small outlying building is just to the south-east. This seems more modern in type than some of the remains we find in the moors, but it is difficult to classify and impossible to date.

Returning to the gate, follow the Walna Scar path over Banniside to the south-west for ten minutes; 300 yards west of the flagstaff is a ring-mound on a levelled platform at the edge of Banniside Mire, formerly a tarn, but now almost peated up.

Rather more than half a mile south-west of the flagstaff you strike Torver Beck, after passing many clearing-heaps among the bracken beds—the subject of Dr. Gibson's dialect sketch of "Bannasyde Cairns" in The Folk-speech of Cumberland.

Clearings and tries for slate, old limekilns and pitsteads and sheepfolds and so forth, are traps for the amateur antiquary. But in many cases, as we have seen, and shall find in the course of our day's walk, digging has proved that the cairns on these moors were actually the graves of prehistoric people, or forgotten sites of ancient habitation. Much remains to be explored; and the "enclosure" we come to, a few steps down Torver Beck, is a case in point.

It is a ruined stone wall forming an irregular quadrangle, through which a cart-track now runs. Within it is what looks like a hut circle on the brink of the ravine, from which water could be got by simply letting a backet down into the stream beneath. Across the beck, about 100 yards to the south-west, Mr. Cowper notes another ring-mound "badly preserved, without entrance or trenches."

Going due south to the footbridge across Tranearth Beck (or the Black Beck of Torver), and then striking up Hare Crags to the south-east (about two-thirds of a mile from the last), we come to a large ring-mound with double ditch, intrenching the top of the hill. From this, descending to the south-west and crossing the beck by another footbridge, we strike a path leading north-west in half a mile to Ashgill Bridge and Quarry.

Along the ridge of Bleaberry Haws (1/4 mile south-west) is yet another ring-mound on the edge of a lake basin, now peat moss; and 200 yards farther we find the northern angle of the Bleaberry Haws dyke, a more important example of the kind seen on Hawkshead Moor.

Following the dyke to the south-west and turning to the left where it disappears, we find a circle of seven stones, into which Mr. Cowper dug, and found a rough pavement of cobble-stones at a depth of two to three feet resting upon the natural rock. Many cairns are passed on going a few steps eastward to strike the main line of the dyke, which runs down into Bull Haw Moss, making a curious fold or fork at the farther side of the valley, and then climbing the steep bank and running over the top due south, until it loses itself among a group of cairns in which Mr. Cowper found prehistoric interments. The dyke is altogether over a mile long, partly a stone wall, partly an earthwork. Antiquaries have been much divided over its possible use and object; the late W. Jackson, F.S.A., thought it might be a kind of deer trap. The deer would be driven from the south-west along the moorland valley, and cornered in the fork of the wall.

From the southern extremity of the dyke a path leads down to the road from Broughton Mills to Torver. Two miles south-west along this road, and between it and Appletreeworth Beck, Dr. Kendall of Coniston has noticed a similar dyke. The name of a neighbouring farm, Burnmoor, suggests the recognition of "borrans" or stone heaps of more than usual importance. In the Burnmoor above Eskdale are important stone circles.

Torver Station is rather more than a mile from the point where we struck this road, and Coniston 2-1/2 miles more by road or rail.

Coniston is a good centre for further excursions in search of moorland antiquities. From Woodland station a day's round might be made by Broughton Mills to the cairns and enclosures on the south side of Stickle Pike and above Stonestar; across the Duddon to the ruins of Ulpha Old Hall, Seathwaite, the home of "Wonderful Walker" (born at Undercrag, 1709; died at Seathwaite, 1802, in the 67th year of his curacy there); then back by Walna Scar, passing ancient remains of undetermined age. The first group is found by turning to the right below the intake wall until a stile is reached, below which, and beyond, are traces of rude building. On rejoining the road up Walna Scar, a gate is seen across the beck; through it and about a quarter of a mile horizontally along the breast of the hill are extensive ruined walls, and many outlying remains on a shelf of the mountains about 1,000 feet above the sea. Hence the way to the top of the Scar is plain, and Coniston is about an hour's easy walking by a well-marked path from the summit.

Swinside Circle is about 4-1/2 miles from Broughton station, and is little inferior to the great circle near Keswick. On digging it we found nothing at all; we learnt, however, that the place was not used for interments or sacrifices, and its origin remains a mystery.

Other prehistoric sites within reach of Coniston are Barnscar and Burnmoor (by the Eskdale railway); Urswick Stone Walls, Foula, Sunbrick Circle and Appleby Slack, Pennington Castle Hill and Ellabarrow in Low Furness; and Hugill British Settlement near Windermere station.