The Summit
The summit is a broad plateau half a mile in circumference carpeted with dry turf. There is an Ordnance Survey trig point (number S. 5619) at the highest point, near the south-western corner. Just to the north is a well-built windshelter with a view indicator or toposcope built into its centre. Between them is a large cairn. At the point where the Ingleton path reaches the summit rim is an even larger cairn; this, remarkably, is the remains of a battlemented round tower (a hospice), built in 1830. The celebrations on the day of its opening ceremony became so alcoholic, however, that parts of it were thrown down there and then, the rest being destroyed later. Along the northern and eastern edges is the shattered wall of a military camp, believed to be Roman. For the view, which is far-reaching and superb, see here. The hill fort which covers 15 acres (61,000 m2) and which the defensive wall can still be seen although much robbed for stone, contains the remains of several stone circles. It is now thought that this was in fact Celtic, the Brigantes tribe the largest tribe in Iron Age Britain a collection of smaller units amalgamated into one tribe. The fort was known to the Romans as the Kings fort. It may be that this was a base for Venutius after his 'divorce' from Cartimandua the Brigantes Queen who was a supporter of the Roman invaders, unlike Venutius who led several rebellions. What we do know is that this fort was used all year, which was unusual for such a location, but at the time of the Romans the climate was much milder, the Romans for example cultivated grapes in Newcastle.
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Famous quotes containing the word summit:
“What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
That beetles o’er his base into the sea,
And there assume some other horrible form
Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason,
And draw you into madness?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The tops of mountains are among the unfinished parts of the globe, whither it is a slight insult to the gods to climb and pry into their secrets, and try their effect on our humanity. Only daring and insolent men, perchance, go there. Simple races, as savages, do not climb mountains,—their tops are sacred and mysterious tracts never visited by them. Pomola is always angry with those who climb the summit of Ktaadn.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)