A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



runs a formidable fosse round three sides of the work, i.e. from north-west to 

 east and south ; along the south-west side the steep escarpment of the hill 

 made one unnecessary. This scarp has an angle of 45 degrees, and was 

 apparently perfected artificially when the earth which forms the extra strong 

 rampart above it was thrown up. The depth of the ditch from the top of 

 the rampart is as much as 20 ft. on the north-east side, and from the outside 

 edge I oft. Its width at the level of the outer edge averages 33 ft. In 

 places it is excavated out of the sandstone rock, thus producing material for 

 the supposed stone wall facings above. These fosses must always have been 

 dry defences. The excavated material from the fosse at the north-west 

 corner has been thrown out in a heap down the steep hill-side at the west 

 end of the fosse ; it thus forms a kind of bastion, flanking the long scarp on 

 the west side of the stronghold. On the south-east side of the earthwork the 

 moor beyond the fosse is at a higher level than round the other sides. Here, 

 therefore, a second rampart has been constructed in places for additional 

 strength. Only worn traces of this arc now to be seen, but ninety years ago, 

 when Ormerod sketched his plan, it was distinctly visible for a length of 

 about 200 yds. At present there are two entrances into the interior plateau. 

 The first is on the north-west side over a level bank, 32 ft. long and 16 ft. 

 wide, which crosses the fosse and passes through a break in the rampart 

 beyond. At the south-south-east side there is a similar break in the rampart 

 and a shallowing of the fosse outside, making a passage through the defences 

 into the area; but this is not shown in the plans drawn either by Ormerod 

 in 1 8 17, or by Aiken in 1793, or by Watson in 1776; it is evidently there- 

 fore not original. The stronghold would appear to have been supplied with 

 water by a natural spring within it at the south-west side ; Aiken mentions 

 a well here. There seems also to be a spring, used in recent times, in the 

 inner side of the ditch on the east. 



Aiken described 'ruins 6 ft. or 7 ft. higher than the area' near the south- 

 east side, but these are not now visible ; there are a good many stones, 

 however, about the bottom of the ditch on this side, some of which have 

 formerly been employed by shepherds or others to construct rude shelters. 

 Mr. S. Andrew mentioned having found mortar attached to stones within 

 the stronghold, but the writer failed to discover any on a recent visit. The 

 same author records a road leading to the castle on the north side, with 

 pavement in places ; also, near this road, down the side of the hill, two deep 

 trenches, apparently outworks. There was long a tradition among the natives 

 in the district of buried treasure hidden within the area of this ' castle.' So 

 persistent was this that in 1730 over one hundred people assembled, and 

 vigorous digging took place during several days ; some traces of this are still 

 visible in the holes and mounds of earth near the entrance. But nothing 

 resulted. Since that time, however, the legend has received some verification 

 by the accidental discovery, in the middle of the eighteenth century, of 

 various ornaments and a chain of gold beads beside the old road on the west 

 side of the hill ; and Mr. W. J. Andrew records that half a century later 

 further very similar gold beads were unearthed close to the earthwork.' 



» jirch. V (1776), 87; Aiken, Hist, of the Country nimd Manchester (1795), 471 ; Ormerod, Hist, cf Chei. 

 (ed. 1S19), iii; S. Andrew, Trans. Lanes, and Ches. Jntij. Sue. x, 46 ; W. J. Andrew, Journ. Brit. 

 Numismatic Soc. i, 10 ; Ord. Surv. i-in. 86, old 88 SW. ; 6-in. 97 SE. ; 25-in. 97, 16. 



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