This blog will explore some of the lesser known and hidden heritage sites of the Furness area in Cumbria.
Furness stretches from the southern most point of Walney island to the top of the Furness Fells at the northern tip of Windermere. Across that vast space are many facinating heritage gems which we will explore with information and images.
Follow us and hopefully you will discover somewhere you never knew existed!
Over the last year we have been exploring some of the wonderful historic sites of Furness from above in the first of our Heritage from the Air series.
Series one of ‘Heritage From the Air’ has seen us take to the skies above Birkrigg Stone Circle, Heathwaite Medieval Farmstead, Gleaston Castle, Aldingham Motte and Aldingham Moated Manor. Each episode giving a greater sense of this wonderful heritage and their surroundings.
To round off series one we now have a special montage using footage from the first 5 videos. Hit the play button below to watch and enjoy Furness Heritage from the Air:
During the 13th Century the family living at the motte and bailey castle, the Le Fleming's who built it in the early 1100s, needed to move because of coastal erosion. Due to this they built a new moated manor a short distance inland from the castle.
The manor consists of a mound surrounded by a moat for defence. The mound would have had a wooden structure built upon it, forming a new home for the family. This would have likely been surrounded by a wooden palisade, creating further defence.
In this new aerial video you can clearly see the moated manor and get a sense of it's incredible surroundings:
Aldingham Motte is all that remains of a Norman Motte and Bailey castle, once home to Michael Le Fleming.
Much of the original castles bailey has been lost to coastal erosion, as has part of the motte, a large mound where a wooden strong hold once stood.
In this video we take to the air to view what remains from above to give a sense of it's scale and how much erosion has taken of this once impressive Norman structure:
As well as the wonderful motte on show here, with it's surrounding ditch, you can also spot the marks of medieval farming with many ridge and furrow features visible in the fields surrounding the motte. Something I personally love to see. This land was no-doubt farmed following the Le Flemings moving down the hill to a new moated manor.
The ruin is sadly in bad repair, as is made evident from the large cracks that can be seen rising up through several of the walls, but it still forms quite the impressive structure. Three of it's four towers are still standing proud, with door ways and windows often still intact.
It can be hard to get a real sense of what this castle once looked like or how it once was used but this video at least gives a new perspective on the ruin and shows just some of its former majesty.
Birkrigg stone circle is one of the best known and preserved prehistoric sites of the Furness Peninsula. We took a look at this and the whole of Birkrigg Common in our past blog post Birkrigg Common, Prehistoric Landscape to Quaker Burial Ground but in this post we did something a bit different. We took to the air to view the stone circle in all its glory!
This wonderful video gives you a birds eye view of the ancient site and certainly gives you a different and unique perspective:
Luckily the sun was shining on the day this was filmed which helps to bring out all the humps and bumps around the circle. You can clearly see the slight mound just outside the inner circle and you can get a better idea of where the outer circle is and how it is shaped.
You will also notice a large sunken path/ditch beside the circle. It is unclear exactly what this is but it could be as old, if not older, than the circle itself and may have formed a processional way to the site.
Birkrigg Stone Circle is a true gem of the Furness Peninsula and is one of our favourite sites to visit. We hope you enjoyed his special aerial video and it has encouraged you to visit this wonderful site.
Keep an eye out in the future for more videos like this along with more written blog posts.
