Robin Hood's Howl (Kirkbymoorside)
Locality | |
---|---|
Coordinate | 54.273495, -0.955058 |
Adm. div. | North Riding of Yorkshire |
Vicinity | c. 750 m W of Kirkbymoorside |
Type | Natural feature |
Interest | Robin Hood name |
Status | Extant |
First Record | 1847 |

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-08-28. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2022-04-22.
Robin Hood's Howl is a long, narrow, wooded hollow on the southern edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. First recorded in 1847, Robin Hood's Howl is situated c. 750 meters west of Kirkbymoorside, in North Yorkshire, formerly the North Riding of Yorkshire. The 'howl', which is oriented NNE–SSE is c. 1.5 km long and c. 150 m at its widest. It is almost entirely covered by beech and other deciduous trees.
Dobson & Taylor note that this natural feature is '[a]pparently a hole or hollow (rather than a hill)'.[1] A fairly recent study of Northumberland and county Durham hill-terms lists a single example of a place-name, Howl John between the villages of Eastgate and Stanhope in Weardale, whose name includes a reflex of OE 'hōh', meaning originally "‘heel’, in the anatomical sense, and ‘heel, hill-spur’, in a transferred topographical sense".[2] Some 50 meters west of what is in round terms the midpoint of Robin Hood's Howl are the scheduled remains of a Bronze Age round barrow. 'Excavations have reported finding a large quantity of burnt bone together with an urn. The monument survives as a low stony mound approximately 25 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres high'.[3] It is conceivable that 'Robin Hood's Howl' could have originated as a name for the mound, yet if so the only moderately similar case would be that of Robin Hood Ball (Netheravon), whose name is often misapplied to a nearby prehistoric feature by modern English archaeologists. However, this mistake seems to have been first made by one of their ranks who misread the maps or perhaps did not read them at all. It seems less likely that the name 'Robin Hood's Howl' should have been misapplied in the Ordnance Survey name book on which the early maps of the area were based, and the letter 'l' would have to be regarded as inorganic or simply a mistake, if the element 'howl' were part of the name of a mound. In view of the lay of the land it seems much more natural to take 'Howl' as a metathetic form of the noun 'hollow', which goes back to OE and ME 'holh' (also ME 'holȝ').[4]
Robin Hood's Howl first figures, as item No. 719, in the 1847 tithe award for Kirkbymoorside, where its owner/occupier is given as Lord Feversham (i.e. the third Baron Feversham), its area being 30 acres, 2 roods and 29 perches (18337.32 m2), while the state of cultivation is not noted.[5]
Gazetteers
- Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 306, s.n. Robin Hood's Howl.
MS sources
- 1847 tithe award for the township of Kirkby Moorside in the Parish of Kirkby Moorside, online at the the Genealogist, Piece 42, sub-piece 208, Image 151, #719) (£)
- accompanying map, online at the the Genealogist, Piece 42, sub-piece 208, Sub-Image 001, colour (£).
Printed sources
- Ekwall, Eilert, compil. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Fourth edition, reprinted (Oxford, 1991), p. 254.
- Smith, A.H. The Place-Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire (English Place-Name Society, vol. 5) (Cambridge, 1928), p. 85.
Maps
- 25" O.S. map Yorkshire XC.2 (1912; rev. 1910) (georeferenced)
- 25" O.S. map Yorkshire XC.2 (1893; surveyed 1891)
- 25" O.S. map Yorkshire XC.2 (1912; rev. 1910)
- 25" O.S. map Yorkshire XC.2 (1946; rev. 1938)
- 25" O.S. map Yorkshire LXXIV.14 (1893; surveyed 1891)
- 25" O.S. map Yorkshire LXXIV.14 (1912; rev. 1910)
- 6" O.S. map Kirkby Moorside parish (Revised: 1910; Yorkshire (1950s) Yorkshire XC.NW) (georeferenced)
- 6" O.S. map Yorkshire 74 (1856; surveyed 1848–53)
- 6" O.S. map Yorkshire LXXIV.SW (1895; surveyed 1891)
- 6" O.S. map Yorkshire LXXIV (1895; 1893). Not online
- 6" O.S. map Yorkshire LXXIV.SW (1914; rev. 1910)
- 6" O.S. map Yorkshire LXXIV.SW (1952; rev. 1950).
Background
- Gavin Dronfield photography: Bluebells and ramsons in Robin Hoods Howl
- MED, holgh, n.
- Megalithic Portal: Robin Hoods Howl
- Nurminen, Terhi Johanna. Hill-Terms in the Place-Names of Northumberland and County Durham (Doctor Phil. thesis) (Newcastle University, 2012), pp. 169-70
- OED, hoe, n.1.
- OED, hollow, n.1.
- Pastscape: Monument No. 58661
- Wikipedia: Baron Feversham
- Wikipedia: Kirkbymoorside
- Yorkshire Walks: Route No. 283 – Wednesday 25 February 2009: Kirkdale, Hodge Beck, Robin Hood's Howl circuit – 9km – North York Moors.
Also see
Notes
- ↑ Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 306, s.n. Robin Hood's Howl.
- ↑ Nurminen, Terhi Johanna. Hill-Terms in the Place-Names of Northumberland and County Durham (Doctor Phil. thesis) (Newcastle University, 2012), p. 169, and see p. 170. OED, hoe, n.1.
- ↑ Pastscape: Monument No. 58661; its coordinate is 54.2737,-0.9568.
- ↑ OED, hollow, n.1.; also MED, holgh, n.
- ↑ 1847 tithe award for the township of Kirkby Moorside in the Parish of Kirkby Moorside, online at the the Genealogist, Piece 42, sub-piece 208, Image 151, #719) (£); accompanying map, online at the the Genealogist, Piece 42, sub-piece 208, Sub-Image 001, colour (£).
Image gallery
Click any image to display it in the lightbox, where you can navigate between images by clicking in the right or left side of the current image.
Robin Hood's Howl / T. Eyre, 19 Apr. 2020, Creative Commons, via Geograph.
Limestone outcrop, Robin Hood's Howl / Mick Garratt, 2 Feb. 2020, Creative Commons, via Geograph.
Limestone outcrop, Robin Hood's Howl / Mick Garratt, 2 Feb. 2020, Creative Commons, via Geograph.
Limestone outcrop, Robin Hood's Howl / Mick Garratt, 2 Feb. 2020, Creative Commons, via Geograph.
Limestone outcrop, Robin Hood's Howl / Mick Garratt, 2 Feb. 2020, Creative Commons, via Geograph.