You should be at the top of the hill, within the ramparts of the hillfort. You may like to explore the remains of the hut circles where people once lived on this windswept summit, or stop a while to take in the extensive views.
It looks like I’m in the heart of the hillfort now.
That’s right. You’ve walked through the ramparts of the Iron Age hillfort. You can see the remains of round huts where people lived in the fort.
Did the people who built the hillfort make the rock art?
No, the hillfort was built around 350BC, which is at least a thousand years after the rock art was made.
I wonder if the people who built the fort noticed the rock art.
We can’t tell for sure but they did use some of the carved stones to build with. We’ve also found quite a few cup marked boulders around the fort.
Maybe they thought they were special.
Or it could just mean they were convenient building material.
Oh. I’d like to think that they chose to use them deliberately.
That’s a nice thought, especially as Lordenshaw appears to have been a significant place to lots of people through time. Likewise, Simonside across the road was believed to be a powerful place inhabited by mythical creatures.
What other traces of people are there on Lordenshaw?
Well, there are quite a few Bronze Age burial cairns from between 3500 and 1500 years ago. There is also a stone-lined coffin called a ‘cist’. One of the cairns includes cup-marked stones which may have been quarried from existing carved outcrops.
Those cup and ring marks seem to have moved about quite a bit!
Yes, they were probably re-used a few times over the years. They’re also in the thirteenth century deer park wall—that was built by a local Lord for hunting.