25 MAM TOR, NEAR CASTLETON. 



had rendered almost inaccessible, save on the north, where it is 

 linked to the ridge of Lose Hill. Not content with double ram- 

 parts on the south, we find that the makers threw up a third 

 bank, and it is on that side that the original entrance appears; 

 a low sunken path, beginning far in the valley below, climbs 

 its way to the south-west corner of the precipitous height, where 

 a great massive bank commands the entrance. A tumulus is 

 here, too, but whether it formed any part of their scheme, or 

 whether it is older than the banks, or not, it is singularly well 

 placed to aid in fighting the foe at the gate." 

 Mr. Thomas Bateman, in his book Vestiges of the Antiquities, 



of Derbyshire, says : — 



" The summit of Mam Tor, near Castleton, was extremely well adapted for 

 a military station, as the ascent on every side, excepting the north-east, is very 

 steep, and the height of the mountain is nearly one thousand three hundred 

 feet above the level of the valley.* The camp upon its summit was surrounded 

 by a double trench, which is, for the most part, in excellent preservation, save 

 where the decomposition of the shale, of which the mountain is composed, has 

 caused the lines to be broken. t It extended from north-east to south-west, 

 along the ridge of the eminence, and occupied rather more than sixteen acres of 

 ground, the circumference being nearly one thousand two hundred yards. 

 The inclosed area is very irregular, but, on the whole, approaches to an oblong 

 form. The principal entrance was from the west. At the north-east corner 

 is a perennial spring, and near the south-west side are two barrows, one of 

 which was opened some years ago, and a brass celt and some fragments of an 

 unbaked urn were found in it." 



Beyond the reference closing this extract, we have no record 

 of any " finds," and must be content to form what opinion we 

 may of the age of this fortress, by its form and position, at 

 the same time regretting that, as was pointed out in this 

 Journal (vol. xxiii. p. 109), "form of construction alone will not 

 always give the required basis for judgment, as the most simple 

 forms adopted by early man were also, on occasion, used by the 

 invaders of the eighth to the tenth centuries." 



Nevertheless, there are, frequently, certain characteristic 

 features which are indicative of early work, foremost among 

 them, being the nature of the approach and entrance. 



* Bateman was not quite correct in this. The O.S. shows the height of 

 Mam Tor a few inches less than 1,700 feet above sea level, the Edale Valley 

 696 feet, and the vale east of the hill about 1,100 feet, above the same datum. 



t Surely the popular belief in the original continuity of the ramparts is un- 

 warranted, for the disintegration of the shale would commence ab initio. — Ed. 



i 



