Robin Hood (Langwathby)

Locality
Coordinate	54.703733, -2.65794
Adm. div.	Cumberland
Vicinity	Between Langwathby and Winskill, slightly SE of Brigglebeck
Type	Prehistoric site
Interest	Robin Hood name
Status	Extant
First Record	1989

Loading map...

{"minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"mappingservice":"leaflet","width":"34%","height":"400px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":false,"defzoom":9,"layers":["OpenStreetMap","NLS","Stamen.Terrain"],"image layers":[],"overlays":[],"resizable":false,"fullscreen":true,"scrollwheelzoom":true,"cluster":false,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clustermaxradius":80,"clusterspiderfy":true,"geojson":"","clicktarget":"","imageLayers":[],"locations":[{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERobin Hood (Langwathby)\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"Robin Hood (Langwathby)\n","link":"","lat":54.703733,"lon":-2.65794,"icon":""}],"imageoverlays":null}

'Robin Hood' is located in the enclosure indicated by the pointer.

Approximate location of 'Robin Hood' / Google Earth Street View. (Click to enlarge).

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-08-28. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-07.

'Robin Hood' is the local name for a small unlisted but possibly pre-historic monument, located somewhere in an enclosure east of the public footpath from Langwathby to Winskill and south of Brigglebeck. The monument, a cist oriented east–west, with its large capstone now lying on the ground a little to the west, sits on top of a low rise, which may well be of natural origin. The cist is about 1.2 m in length, c. 0.5 m in width, and its height above ground some 20 to 35 cm, all four sides being made up of single blocks. It is filled with smaller stones. The slightly oblong capstone (also red sandstone) is c. 1.5 m in length and between c. 90 cm and c. 1.14 m in width. The monument, perhaps mainly because it sits on slightly elevated ground, is visible from the footpath.

As is so often the case with Robin Hood place-names, it is not known why this rather modest monument has come to be named after the outlaw, but a Langwathby man stated – possibly in 1989, certainly no later than 1996 – that it is known locally as "Robin Hood" and "is the site of an ancient battle"; "under this mound, they say, 'are buried the slain'".

Gazetteers

• Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 293-311.

Sources

• Godwin, Jeremy. '"Robin Hood", near Langwathby', Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, Series 2, vol. 96 (1996), p. 236.

Maps

The monument is not indicated or labelled.

• 6" O.S. map Cumberland L (1867; surveyed 1867)
• 6" O.S. map Cumberland L.SE (1900; rev. 1898)
• 6" O.S. map Cumberland L.NE (1900; rev. 1898)
• 6" O.S. map Cumberland L.SE (1900; rev. 1898) (georeferenced)
• 6" O.S. map Cumberland L.NE (1927; rev. 1923)
• 6" O.S. map Cumberland L.SE (1927; rev. 1923)

Background

• Wikipedia: Langwathby.

Notes

 Cumberland place-names 

 Place-names