Nine Standards Rigg Cairns – Cumbria

  (This post is a bit of a ‘Filler’ as i have been unable to visit any sites for the last 3 months. This has been due to a leg injury which has been very slow to heal, and has stopped me driving or walking any distance. However things are finally improving and i am hoping to get out and about again.)

  Back in October 2025 i tagged along with Gavin Parry (link) and Graham Vasey (link) to look at the row of tall cairns on Nine Standards Rigg near Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria. These cairns are something of a mystery as it is unclear when or why they were built, and no real history or tradition has survived to explain them.

Addleback – the Giant of Addlebrough Hill

  Addlebrough is a prominent, flat topped hill in upper Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, 30 miles to the north west of Harrogate.
  Back in the 1870’s, the folklore collector Richard Blakeborough transcribed part of an old manuscript written by David Naitby – a shoemaker in the market town of Bedale. Naitby had himself gathered old stories and folklore in the late 1700s, and these were recorded in his manuscript. Another Bedale resident called Willie Plews had shown Naitby his family bible which had a handwritten page dated “March ye 7th 1680“, which noted details of a giant who once lived on Addlebrough hill …

The Devil’s Breeches – Staithes

The village of Staithes is located on the Yorkshire coast, 8 miles to the north of Whitby.

  The first edition OS map of 1856 marks a place called the ‘Devil’s Breeches’ near the head of a stream valley on the south side of the village. There appears to be nothing written down in the area’s local history to explain this name, and it seems to have only been recorded by the OS map surveyors more than 170 years ago.
A recent visit to Staithes provided an opportunity to ask some older residents about this place name, but only one person knew of it because they had seen it on the old map, and they had no explanation as to why the Devil would be connected with that place. With the folklore behind the placename apparently long forgotten (a very common situation) it is perhaps worth exploring some possible explanations for this intriguing name.

Sir Wyville and the Great Serpent of Slingsby

  The village of Slingsby is located on the edge of the Howardian Hills, 15 miles to the north of York.
In the early 1600’s, the antiquarian Roger Dodsworth visited Slingsby church and noted a stone memorial to a knight which had an interesting story connected with it …
“There is in the choir a monument cross legged of one of the Wyvilles, at his feet a Talbot couching (a dog laying), no inscription, a shield on his arm with 3 chevrons and a top band depicted, the colours hard to see. There is in the east end of the towne an old house of stone called Wyville hall.
The tradition is that betwixt Malton and this town there was sometime a serpent that lived upon pray of passengers, which this Wyville and dog did kill, when he received his deaths wound. There is a great hole half a mile from the town, round within and 3 yards broad and more, where this serpent lay in which time the street was turned a mile on the south side, which doth still show itself if any take pains to search it.”

A Shrine of Cocidius ? – Adel Woods (Leeds)

  Up until the early 1900’s Adel was a small village 4 miles to the north of Leeds. Since that time the city has expanded and swallowed up Adel and several other villages, which now form the cities northern suburbs. An area of old woodland still remains on a hillside between Adel and Alwoodley, and near the top of this hill there is a large boulder with the outline of a warrior carved upon it. It is thought that this figure represents the Celtic god Cocidius, and that the carving dates back to the Romano-British period.