Kirkcarrion

KIRKCARRION is an enigmatic tree-topped shape that sits above Middleton-in-Teesdale. Anyone who has ever visited the little town must have looked up at the silhouetted shape of Kirkcarrion’s commanding height and wondered about it.

The first picture is a drone view which I have taken from the internet. One can see that the hill is partly man made and you can also visualise the fantastic views.

The last two photos are taken from other locations in Teesdale on different days.

It was probably that sense of wonderment that attracted our ancestors to it many millennia ago – that and its strategic importance, as it overlooks the point where the valleys of the Tees and the Lune meet. It is reckoned that in Bronze Age times – 2,000BC to about 500BC – humans piled lots and lots of stones on the top of Kirkcarrion. Perhaps, then, it was a burial place – a barrow – for someone who was very important.

After the Bronze Age, the Brigantes tribe ruled the north of England for several centuries into Roman times. They inherited the rocky hilltop, and it is believed that they buried their Prince Caryn up there. This would account for Kirkcarrion’s name – it was originally Carreg Caryn, the burial heap of Caryn (“carreg” in Welsh means “stone” or “rock”).

In 1804, some men were stealing Caryn’s stones to build walls with when they came across a kistvaen, or chamber up there: four flat stones standing on their edges with a fifth slab across the top. One of the men moved the top slab and, convinced he was about to find buried treasure inside, shouted: “It’s aal mine!” But all he found was a little urn containing some bone fragments and dark dust – the last earthly remains of Prince Caryn?

The urn was taken to Streatlam Castle, which was east of Barnard Castle until its demolition in 1959. The castle was owned by the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorn, and although it was the home for much of the 19th Century of John Bowes, the founder of the Bowes Museum, the urn somewhere along the way was lost. However, Lord Strathmore’s bailiff did mark the scene of the discovery by planting trees on Kirkcarrion. A plantation, though, did not appease the spirit of Prince Caryn. The removal of the urn had unsettled his spirit, and to this day his ghost haunts that windblown promontory above Middleton-in-Teesdale.

The first picture is an aerial view which I have taken from the internet. One can see that the hill is partly man made and you can also visualise the fantastic views.

I was always fascinated by this story and on many photos of Teesdale Kirkcarrion is visible in the distance. That day I wanted to actually climb up to the top and explore the hillside. I arrived very early at Middleton, crossed the bridge and parked at the turnoff where the small dead end lane leads to Holwick Scar (marked on the map). The walk up the hill is part of the Pennine Way but one cannot get lost since you have your target always clearly in sight. On photo #3 is the view towards Middleton and my next stop, the wooded gorge of Huddeshope Beck where I wanted to take photos of waterfalls later on. The views on the way up were already phenomenal. On photo #4 you can see Holwick Scar in the distance on the left with the crag that I took the panorama from. The only other person near was the farmer passing by on his quad lower down. As I came closer to the top I couldn´t stop taking photos from all possible angles.

Curlews and Lapwings all around me. But I was focussed on reaching the top. When I finally entered it was really an eerie feeling. It was totally calm and quiet and the views all around absolutely stunning. I somehow felt like I was wandering around in a cathedral instead of all the beautiful glass stained windows all around I had the 360degree views. 

I later found that photo number 14 is the view towards Eggleston and the road that leads from Eggleston to Stanhope. On the page with the panoramas taken from that road there is the last photo that has the exact opposite view. A distinctive feature is the cluster of beautiful stone walls visible on both photos.