PARISH OF BAMBOROUGH. 413 



Parish of Bamborough. Orel. Maji. ex. s.e. 



The site of the sepulchral mounds about to be described is second 

 to none in interest, whether we have reg-ard to the natural features 

 of the country in which they are placed, or to the historical and 

 other associations with which so many of the neig-hbouring" localities 

 are invested. They are found upon Lucker Moor, on the farms of 

 Rayheug-h and Rosebrough^ and form a group of considerable extent, 

 the cairns being of varied size. To the west the ground rises to 

 Ross Castle^ a hill just outside the park of Chillingham, crowned 

 with an ancient British fort, whilst further to the west and north 

 the eye takes in Hedgehope, Dunmore, and Yevering Bell, and 

 other mountains of the Cheviots. Far away to the north, and 

 beyond the Tweed, the horizon line which bounds the view is 

 formed by the high range of the Lammermuir. To the east, with 

 a rich and fertile tract of lower-lying ground intervening, is the sea, 

 with Lindisfarne or Holy Island, the seat of the earliest missionary 

 settlement in Northumberland, and hallowed by the saintly life and 

 the untiring labours of St, Cuthbert. Further down the coast to 

 the south is Bamborough, whose ancient castle still rises from its 

 rocky eminence and grandly dominates the scene, a worthy 

 representative of the residence of the Saxon kings of Northumbria, 

 and in later times the capital of the Earldom of Northumberland. 

 Stretching away to the east, out to seaward, are the Fame Islands, 

 upon one of which St. Cuthbert passed many years in solitude and 

 self-denial, and where he died ; whilst another of them in our own 

 days has been made memorable by an heroic deed, when Grace 

 Darling braved all the perils of the tempest in rescuing the 

 survivors of the stranded ' Forfarshire.' The towers of Dunstan- 

 borough Castle, raised on a crag of basalt overhanging the sea, 

 form the last point of interest along the coast to the south. 



CXCIII. The principal cairns, as regards size, are three upon 

 Rayheugh, placed in a line nearly north-west and south-east, and 

 one upon Rosebrough, about half-a-mile to the south of them. 

 That which is situated the furthest to the north-west was opened 

 by Major Luard-Selby in 1862. It is 62 ft. in diameter, and had 

 once been about 10 ft. high. He discovered at the centre, upon the 

 level of the natural surface, a cist made of four stones set on edge, 

 having two stones on the bottom and a single cover-stone, which 



