A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
but some of the doubtful examples already given, as Hayton Castle Hill, 
Tower Tye, Watch Hill, and Skew Hill, approach very closely to the 
less distinct forms of mote-hill. A good example of the difficulty is 
seen in Liddel Strength, or Liddel Moat, as it is sometimes called. 
Liddel Strength is on the edge of a precipice, 150 to 160 feet above 
the river, and on the other side of it runs a Roman road. It may have 
lost something by the fall of the edge of the precipice, but in General 
Roy’s day the semicircular inner court measured 13 by g yards, sur- 
rounded by a great rampart and ditch, and containing the remains of 
a dwelling-house. Another rampart and ditch enclosed a rather larger 
crescent-shaped area to one side, representing the base-court. This is 
far different from the mote proper, and more nearly like such British 
forms as Shoulthwaite Castle ; but it is known to have been in use in 
the twelfth century. Chancellor Ferguson thought it probably eighth 
or ninth century to Norman ; others have made it the caer of Gwen- 
ddoleu, a Celtic chief slain 573 at Arthuret, seeing in Carwinley, or 
Carwhinelow, the name Caer-gwenddoleu. General Roy thought it 
Roman, but that is impossible. 
But on Roman sites and out of Roman ruins later comers con- 
structed imitation hill-forts, for such the motes are; and we cannot 
always tell the date of their construction, especially when the same place 
was continuously occupied for centuries. At Maryport the south end 
of the Castle Hill has been made into a moated mound, 160 yards in 
circumference, by digging a ditch to cut off the scarped end of the 
hill (Britton and Brayley, Cumberland, p. 207). At Beaumont, Castle 
Green is the old name for a space north-east of the church, where a 
ruined Roman mile-castle has been turned into a moated mound 
(Maclauchlan, Memoir, p. 80). Hence the name Beau-mont, as Ellen- 
burgh is the durh on the Ellen. 
Of moated mounds without base-courts now to be seen, there are 
Brampton Mote, a conical hill about 50 yards high, with a level summit 
about 40 paces in diameter and a breastwork round it; the similar mote 
near Irthington church, and another less certain in its intention at 
Irthington mill; and a mound and wet ditch at Holm Cultram, north 
of the abbey. The mound at Bleatarn on the Roman wall, it may 
be noted, is modern, though it has been classed as a mote by former 
writers. 
Mounds with base-courts like Carnarvon Castle exist at Whitehall 
(a mile south-west of Mealsgate railway station) ; at Downhall, Aikton, 
where a square platform has been made by cutting ditches across a long 
narrow hill and on each side of it ; at Over Denton near the old vicarage 
(marked ‘camp’ in the ordnance map), where there is a small square 
enclosure, and near it a mound in a circular or oval ditch about 14 yards 
in diameter ; and at Denton Hall. MHere the base-court is 8 5 yards 
long, with a ditch about 84 yards broad, and a rampart partly round 
it, extending to two sides, beyond which is a smaller ditch ; adjoining 
the west side is a smaller enclosure in which is a mound ; later on a 
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