REMAINS OF THE PRE-NORMAN PERIOD 
ling or stronghold in vogue at the time. Carlisle Castle, for example, 
may have been a pre-Roman dun; and it was probably a British caer 
after the Romans left, and then an Anglian stockaded durh, and then a 
Norman castle. But the evidences of earliest occupation are lost ; and 
so it is with several other sites. 
Dtns AND CAERs 
The stronghold—whether homestead, town, or place of safety in 
time of war—peculiar to British ages was usually on a hill, and sur- 
rounded with broad and high ditches and ramparts. ‘The more perfect 
types have three ramparts, as seen in Shoulthwaite Castle, a fortified hill 
in a little valley between Derwentwater and Thirlmere. The triple 
rampart does not entirely surround the crag, because it is only needed on 
the tongue of land joining the site with the neighbouring hills. Hutch- 
inson (ii. 154) says that pieces of freestone had been found here, and a 
well and wood ashes ; and there is a tradition that it was used during 
Scottish raids. The freestone suggests a post-Roman date, and the place 
may have been occasionally occupied throughout many centuries, for it 
lies near but hidden from the great routes through the Keswick and 
Thirlmere valleys by which raiders and invaders must often have ad- 
vanced upon the shepherds and farmers of the dales. 
Similar hill-forts, though the ramparts, if any, are not now visible, 
existed at Castlehead or Castlet, Keswick, where wood ashes have been 
found in digging ; and at Castle Crag, Borrowdale, where Hutchinson 
mentions finds, a century ago, of leaden vessels, an iron pot, freestone 
again, and two wells, and, what shows continuity of use to a very late 
period, the head of a halbert dated 1684. Reecastle, above Lodore, is 
also said to have been a fortified hill. 
Dunmallet, at the foot of Ullswater, is a very fine example of a 
fortified hill, but with only two ramparts, though these are continuous 
and well marked. Freestone has been found here also ; but the story of 
a monastery on the site is an error. Whatever the name means, it is a 
British word, and shows that when the speech of Cumbria was Celtic 
this was known as a dun. 
At the foot of Bassenthwaite lake, close to Peel-wyke, so named 
from this fortress, are the similar entrenchments of Castlehow. This 
however is not regular in form: there are four trenches on the side 
towards Peel-wyke, and only two on the more easily defensible side. 
Not far north of this, and as it were an outpost of the fells, is 
Caermote. As an ancient road runs through the camp, which is square, 
about 160 by 140 yards in size, with a gate in three of its sides, Caer- 
mote has been thought Roman. Early antiquaries said that altars and 
inscriptions had been dug up at a camp near Ireby, and it was supposed 
that this was the place. But it differs from a true Roman camp in 
having triple earthen ramparts, characteristic of British strongholds ; 
and, though the buildings in and near it have been partially explored, 
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