ANCIENT BRITISH SETTLEMENTS. 44 



be ancient British, the abodes of the warlike Brig- 

 antes who dwelt here, or the arrival of the Romans 

 and of other tribes still more ancient, but others 

 may have been built since the Roman invasion, 

 especially those which are of an oblong form and 

 are encompassed by stones, which is the case at the 

 Stone hags, their hilts are similar to those in other 

 countries which the ancient Britons inhabited ; and 

 barbarous nations to the present day build in a si- 

 milar manner. The first person who viewed the 

 pits in this district in this light was Mr. Bird of 

 Whitby, since which many have visited them, and 

 antiquarians are agreed on the subject. 



The first station of these ancient remains from 

 Kirkby-Moorside, is that called the stone hag,* on 

 the east side of Farndale on the Blakey-Moor, 

 four miles south of Ralph Cross, close to the road 

 between Castleton and Kirkby-Moorside, this clus- 

 ter is 400 feet long from north to south and three 

 hundred feet broad from east to west, the area is 

 wholly occupied with pits which are varied in their 

 form and differ from all other stations ; some of 

 them are round, some oval, some resembling a half 

 moon, and are in general of a large size, both in 

 breadth and depth. Vestiges of buildings are very 

 evident, and in some places the houes seem to have 

 been divided, and almost opposite the stone hags, 

 on the west side of Farndale. 



On the side of the hill a row of round pits extend 

 to a great distance, which probably had been huts 

 for soldiers, when on their watch ; and not far from 

 them is a protuberance called the Urn Knab, on 

 which is a very strong trench, which runs across it, 

 and must have been a strong place of defence. The 

 knab is almost inaccessible on three sides, the south 

 north and east ; and the west part has been de- 

 fended by a high mound and .deep ditch, partly of 

 stone, and partly of earth, having a houe in the mid" 

 die of the garrison ; and there is a tradition that a 

 battle was fought near, between the English and 

 the Scots. 



* The word Hag. signifies broken on u?eu 

 3L 



