m2. An example of a propped stone in Northern England, related linguistic points & other points
Written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost, this article was published in the UK on the 23rd of September 2025, and published only on this website, www.clwaideac-na-cuinne.co.uk I the author was also born in the UK and live in the UK. This article is unrelated to any of my other publications, some of which do talk about other aspects of and examples of these propped stone or primitive dolmen sites. I also published elsewhere including on other websites, and have published several other unrelated articles, including talking about ancient archaeology and sandstone sites, on another website recently. I have also published a book on this website recently (the website you are currently on). I have discussed other archaeological sites in much detail elsewhere too of many types, including polygonal masonry, mainly on one of my other sites and in a print book, with discussions in other publications too including some (and other archaeological sites place-names in Cumbria and other topics) in my recent PDF book published on this site. Much of my archaeological research focuses around Northern England, Finland and Scotland however. The photo in this article was also by myself the author. This article contains no sub-sections and only more interconnected text, and a photo with photo description above in Italics. There are comments on these sites in a general way including in the USA, Northern Europe and Siberia, and comments on the language around the “Holme Park Fell 1” (Farleton Knott 1) site. This article is within the spirituality m_. section of the website you are currently on, because this article talks about ancient spiritual sites, and one specifically, with spirituality comments at the end. This article contains 2338 words.
From the North Salem Dolmen, located close to Salem Center in New York state, to the upland limestone areas of Northern England, and the mountains of the Lake District, to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and into Russia, such as on Vottovaara Mountain in Karelia; there are large boulders, balanced upon smaller stones, sites which are sometimes referred to as “propped stones” or “primitive dolmens”. These sites are sometimes implied to be the result of glacial action, and indeed, going by the traditional science, many of them would be. But many others are placed in a way which glacial action would not easily account for - and indeed it seems to be an emerging, albeit low-key aspect to archaeology, that many of these sites are now being accepted as ancient sites.
A thing which is particularly fascinating I think is that well, firstly, these sites are very hard to date, but I see no reason to associate them specifically with the Neolithic period in the UK, and it is possible that some of them are Mesolithic or Paleolithic in origin. They appear, in some way, to have special relationships to the landscape around them, to other sacred sites, and perhaps even to astronomical alignments. They may have been used as tombs in some way or other, like other more typical dolmens I have discussed. But instinctively I feel that they are more specifically connected to ancestors and to deities, perhaps playing a part akin to the sacred sites known to the Sámi as sieidi, and certainly there are examples of these sites in Northern Europe, a specific example I have discussed and published about before being one from near the Pite River in Northern Sweden, and as I understand it, the Sámi people do view these sites as sacred, perhaps as being sieidi in a sense. Do these sites also have acoustic properties I wonder? Other “balancing rock” sites can be considered as connected in some way perhaps, including the famous Kummakivi in Finland, and for example the less-well-known “hanging stone” in the Ergaki National Park, in the Sayan Mountains of Southern Siberia.
Another fascinating thing which I have already briefly mentioned in relation to propped stones or primitive dolmens specifically, is that these sites seem to be found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Sarah Brailey, the USA-based archaeological and ancient history researcher, was the first to personally inform me about the existence of these sites in the northern United States, and she has personally studied and worked on the North Salem Dolmen, one of the most famous and perhaps most impressive of these sites in the northeast United States.
These sites are also, as implied, in Northern Europe - they are not linked to the “Viking peoples” specifically, but I would imagine there may be some connection between these sites and the ancestors of the Sámi and Finnic-speaking peoples. We also have distant genetic and linguistic connections to Finland here in the UK, not to mention my large amount of published work connecting Finno-Ugric languages, and specifically Finnish, to indigenous American languages, particularly when talking about the relationships between Finnish and Quechua - which can be read about across many of my other publications, as well as other links involving indigenous American and Uralic and other languages.
I have personally found several of them in Northern England, previously unknown, some of which I have discussed in other publications. The photo below does however show an impressive example of one of these sites in Northern England which is recognised by some archaeologists. There is more information in the text in small font italics below, and above the photo:
The photo below shows a propped-stone or primitive dolmen referred to on the megalithic portal site (UK) as Holme Park Fell 1; but the site is also close to Farleton Knott; collectively this upland area is a large, relatively high area of limestone pavement in northwest England. This area is littered with other potential archaeological sites which I have seen, and I will go back there at some point to locate some others and then write about them. A David Shepherd seems to have been the first to comment on this site’s existence, and it is written about in: Shepherd D. 2013. Propped stones: the modification of natural features and construction of place. Time and Mind. Vol 6 Issue 3 November 2013. pp 263-86. Bloomsbury. As you can see, the stone is in a prominent position, is balanced upon the bedrock and two smaller rocks placed beneath it; and also from here one gets great views towards Ingleborough for example, another sacred mountain. The weather was also perfect for views. The grid reference for the propped stone below can be found on the Megalithic Portal website. More information about the propped stone and fell, and my walk there, is below the photo below:
When I tried to find the propped stone in the photo above, which has only minimal contact with the ground, and is balanced and somewhat pointy in shape, I had some problems. For one, I went up the fell the wrong way, twice; luckily the second time I was able to clamber through gorse whilst trying to avoid destroying any spider webs, where I met a group of four lovely old ladies, who helped me with the map - because I am really not that familiar with this fell. From their map-reading at the time, they nearly sent me in the complete opposite direction, bless them; but they noticed in time, and after another briefer moment of getting lost among natural erratics and limestone cliffs, I located the site. The ladies were lovely, and one of them had more than a little interest in ancient sites and prehistory.
When I tried to go down the fell again, I faced the same problem, but after some more rocky areas and clambering over more gorse bushes, I was able to find a path. Note of advice: the drops and steepness of this fell are unpredictable to those not familiar with it, of which I count myself, and some of the paths and dangerously steep, and when heading down it is difficult to tell how steep they are until one realises they are in a potentially dicey place - so be careful. The OS maps of the fell are also completely useless in terms of indicating where any of the paths are. I don’t always like paths, but this fell is far too steep to take any chances, seriously. There are also other interesting aspects to history and language within a few kilometres radius of this site, not including other archaeological sites in the area. Whilst I have discussed a lot on Cumbrian place-names elsewhere, I will now comment briefly on a few within a few kilometres of this site, and some other information about the history of this specific area.
Not far away from the site is a place called Mansergh. The mans- part of this name may be related to the genitive of Germanic *mann - “person” (*mann does not mean just “a male man” like it does in Modern English), whilst the -ergh element, which is found quite a lot in southern Cumbria, is specifically connected to Norse and Goidelic words related to pasture and land, I have commented on this elsewhere in other places in detail, including how this word may be pre-Goidelic and pre-Norse in origin. One of the places i have discussed this root in other detail is my article published on Omniglot (UK-based), titled: Ancient language and extra-Indo-European language in Britain, available at the following link: https://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/ancientlanguage.htm
Other interesting names in the immediate vicinity, including Puddlemire, which likely means “puddle marsh” in essence, of Middle English and older Germanic origin. A rather unusual name not far from the village of Nook is Pendle Hill - Pendle Hill is also the name of a much larger sacred mountain in Lancashire to the south, famous for its connections with the Pendle Witches. But - there is a tiny hill near Nook, near the Holme Park Fell 1 site, which is also called Pendle Hill - why, I don’t know. Pendle is often interpreted to be from the common and recently-elsewhere discussed in my recent PDF book, P-Celtic or pre-P-Celtic element *penn - “head” plus Middle English “hill” - “hill”. Other interesting names include Hellgill Beck, “hell” being likely in reference to the Germanic or pre-Germanic idea of hell as the underworld, which could in this case be connected to a cave for example. There is also a Skip Burn nearby, “Skip” likely meaning “ship”, e.g. Icelandic skipi - “ship”, Danish skib, etc, although one certainly could not fit a ship there now, perhaps the name being in reference to a time when water levels on land, and/or sea levels were higher - this is also true of the River Keer a little to the south, which I have discussed before, and other areas hereabouts. There is also Lupton Beck, the first element, *lup- possibly being either a Germanic, Celtic or pre-Indo-European term for “mud”, with related terms found in many languages, e.g. English “slop”, “gloup” etc; whilst the name Barkin Beck may show the pre-/Extra-Celtic element bar- “top” affixed onto the -kin suffix, perhaps also of extra-Celtic origin, which may also be identified in the name “Pool Darkin” not far from this place, equivalent to Old Irish dercan - an eye, or hollow, again possibly showing evidence of this hypothetical extra-Celtic *-kin suffix. I have commented on different names in this same area in other publications. I also commented in other words and in reference to different examples, in my recent PDF book published on this site, that it is the pre-Goidelic indigenous traveller languages such as Shelta, which may have the closest, in some ways, relationship in Goidelic terms, to this linguistic substratum. The aforementioned book (published via the site you are currently on) can be bought from this site, and is titled: More on Britain's linguistic past, and prehistoric, runic, slate and copper mine related and other aspects primarily to Western Britain and connected topics, this pdf-only book is published via clwaideac-na-cuinne in the UK on the 17/09/2025 (This book is also unrelated to the content of the website via which it is published as are all my pdf-only books from the website content), I have discussed far more on these connections with indigenous traveller languages, and those languages themselves, across many other publications too.
There is a lot of history in this area, including the canal which is a fine example of a northern English canal, or, well, of any canal in England for that matter. Sadly the canal near Farleton Fell is disconnected from the main Lancaster Canal to the south of Carnforth.
I include this article in the more spiritual (spirituality and language focused) section of this website, because, these sites could well be ancient sites to honour ancestors and the natural forces of creation, even the creators, or creator itself. These sites are believed to be sacred to indigenous peoples across Eurasia, like the Sámi, and so I do think it important that these sites have our respect and are acknowledged in an appropriate way. Just as native peoples across the world are claiming back their heritage (where lost), it is also time for us in Britain, in my opinion, to remember these gods and ancestors once again, and to find once again our place in the cosmos. And whilst I and other research tirelessly, I think it is only the indigenous peoples themselves who can help us to truly understand what it all means. ~
I hope that this article was a fun read, it is dedicated to those I love, to the ancestors, land, and to all indigenous peoples.
- I have also published a small video online of the propped stone focused upon in this article, but it does not contain the information in this article. I hope also that soon, an article I wrote regarding the Mongolian language will be published via the SL magazine in South Africa, although all my publications outside of this magazine are done from the UK. For reference purposes, this article's URL is: https://www.clwaideac-na-cuinne.co.uk/articles-about-spirituality-language-m1-to-m18/m2-an-example-of-a-propped-stone-in-northern-england-related-linguistic-points-other-points .