300 
YORKSHIRE TUMULI. 
summit of a small hill adjoining the Walton and Wetherby Road, 
about eight feet in height, and rather more than two hundred feet in 
circumference. The centre of the hill was found to be a large heap 
of boulder stones, some of considerable dimensions, all in a rough and 
unhewn state. The cairn itself was five feet in height, and twenty- 
four feet in diameter. The top of the cairn was in the form of a 
basin, in the bottom of which were found a number of charred bones 
and small fragments of bronze, somewhat decayed, no doubt the 
remains of an ornament or coin. Several pieces of flint were found 
of a rude form. Above the cairn about two feet of earth was 
deposited, and upon this was piled a heap of stones, leaving a second 
basin-like cavity, one foot in depth and three feet in diameter. In 
this occurred a second burial, with bones and flint implements. This 
was again covered up with earth and a mound of stones. The mounds 
were considered to be of early British construction. 
At a meeting held at Ripon, in April, 1864, the Rev. J. C. 
Atkinson, of Danby-in- Cleveland, recorded the results of some barrow 
diggings in that district. The portion of Cleveland investigated con- 
sisted of the parishes of Danby, Guisborough, Skelton, and Wester- 
dale, an area comprising about 35,000 to 40,000 acres. The district 
included in this area constitutes a deep valley, of no great width, 
running east and west, from which two smaller valleys branch out ; 
the barriers which separate these smaller valleys are narrow, promon- 
tory-like ridges with moorland surfaces, and a height of 1,200 or 
1,300 feet above sea level. Ancient ramparts and entrenchments are 
found on these ridges without exception. The most westerly ridge 
is a regularly-formed camp, with very extensive earthworks upon its 
extremity, that is, at Crown End, in Westerdale. The other ridges 
have similar entrenchments ; the one between Danby and Fryup 
Dales has had four separate entrenchments drawn across it. They 
were considered to be the defences of Celtic settlements. Together 
with these entrenchments are a large number of tumuli, or barrows ; 
seventy or eighty large ones had been observed, and some hundreds 
of small ones. These are locally termed houes. The larger ones vary 
from two or three feet to twelve or fourteen feet in height, and from 
thirty to ninety feet in diameter. One large pile is probably 150 to 
