Biography of Mary Stuart Countess Lonsdale 1741-1824

Cumbria and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. I propose to give you his results, with the aid of a map traced from the Ordnance Survey, (see Plate I). On that map is a farm house, called Brackenbyr, about 100 yards south of the railway station, and nearly opposite the Greyhound Inn, at Shap, which is on the east side of the high road, while the farm is on the west. Here Dr. Simpson thinks he could, in 1859, from tradition and from various indications, make out that there once was a stone circle, 400 feet in diameter, with a large stone in the centre. There is a legend of a huge stone which once stood here, and was cut up into seven pairs of "yat-stoops" (gate posts).¹ From this circle at Brackenbyr, an avenue or double row of stones ran to the south and terminated in a stone circle, of which some five stones², as well as three forming part of the avenue, are still to be seen on the west side of the L. and N. W. Railway, which, most unluckily, on its formation in 1844, passed over and destroyed the remains of the avenue, leaving only the eight stones just mentioned. The diameter of the circle was 30 yards³, and it is at a place called Shapsey, about half a mile to the south of Brackenbyr. With this paper is given, (Plate II) a reproduction of a drawing, made in 1775, by Lady Lowther, wife of Sir James Lowther, afterwards Earl of Lonsdale. This shows the avenue, and is taken from the Shapsey, or south end of it, looking north. Returning again to the Brackenbyr circle, Dr. Simpson makes out a single row of large stones (the huge pyramidal stones) running from that circle in a north-westerly direction, of which four stones remain at Karl Lofts⁴, about 200 yards north of the Greyhound Inn at Shap. Seven or eight others, including the Guggleby, are yet to be found, and tradition says they extended as far as Moor Divock. Dr. Simpson's restoration of the Shap Stones is reproduced here as Plate III, which gives a ground plan, while Plate IV gives his idea of the appearance presented by the single row of large stones (the huge pyramidal stones) running from the Brackenbyr circle in a north-westerly direction. We are inclined to think he shows far too many stones. Canon Greenwell appears to approve of Dr. Simpson's restoration: at any rate, he writes:—

The large series of standing stones at Shap, however, once consisting of at least a circle and an avenue, is now almost entirely destroyed; but from such parts of it as are left, and from old accounts and the traditional knowledge of the place, the Rev. Dr. Simpson, LL.D., has been enabled to reconstruct it.⁵

Note 1. The O.S. (six inch scale) shows one stone at Brackenbyr: this would be part of Dr. Simpson's large circle.

Note 2. The five stones, part of the destroyed circle, are shown on the O. S, (six inch scale), and are marked ' Druidical Circle ' in old English letters. The O. S. also shows a single stone at Force Bridge, (close to the east side of the high road, and just south of the water), and three stones about half way between Force Bridge and Brackenbyr; those would from part of the avenue. An isolated stone to the end of the railway is not éonformable.

Note 3. See Dr. Simpson's Paper, ut ante p. 28.

Note 4. Dr. Simpson uses the words 'Karl Lofts' in a two-fold sense, which is rather puzzling. Here he means the four stones north of the Greyhound Inn, at Shap, but in a passage which we have quoted from him at the beginning of this paper, he means the district south to Shap down to Shapsey.

Note 5. British Barrows,: Greenwell and Rolleston, pp. 381-2.