The River Ure

The Ure near Thornborough

The River Ure in Yorkshire had, along with the Swale, a spiritual and ritual significance equivalent to the Thames and the Stonehenge Avon in southern Britain. Several henges are found on high ground along its valley, many now little more than unexcavated cropmarks. The Thornborough Henges are an exception. Three henges, which possibly represent Orion’s Belt, were dug from gleaming white gypsum and would have been a focal point for a vast distance all around. The Devil’s Arrows standing stones are a little further downstream near the confluence with the Swale.

The central Thornborough Henge

The Ure is sourced in the Yorkshire Dales and flows through the lowlands after it joins with the Swale, where it changes its name to the Ouse, and flows through York and eventually reaches the Humber Estuary, making it one of the most significant rivers of northern Britain. Ure and Ouse may have the same etymological origin.

The Humber Estuary

Rivers were considered sacred in Neolithic and Bronze Age times and this belief survived in various forms until modern times. The River Avon is believed to have formed part of a processional route to Stonehenge, linking the living with the dead or the physical world with the spiritual world. Ritual offerings and the bones and ashes of the dead were deposited in the water, which represented a liminal boundary between worlds. Rivers were the arteries of the land, much like the arteries of the body, and water was a life-giving essence which formed a key part of rituals. The Ure, which means ‘Holy River’ in ancient Celtic, was probably a central part of ritual life to the people of northern Britain, although four thousand years of time has largely eradicated all physical traces of this.

Ripon Cathedral

The spiritual traces however, remain. Several now-ruined abbeys were built along the river’s valley, and the cathedral at Ripon is situated on the banks of the Ure. Ripon has a particularly powerful sense of peace which I never normally feel in an urban environment, and I felt that same powerful essence at every place I visited along the river. I watched a barn owl flying along the banks at twilight and wondered if that was a sign that, just as the river flows on forever, the spiritual qualities it reflects also do the same.

The River Swale

Rivers had special significance in ancient Britain, both for practical reasons such as transport, navigation and water supply, and for spiritual reasons. Water has always been closely linked to the spiritual realms and Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments were commonly built near rivers. Stonehenge, linked to the River Avon, and the monuments on the Thames and its tributaries are famous. The River Swale in northern Britain was once of similar sacred importance, now largely forgotten.

The Swale derives from sualuae, which means ‘deluge’. The river is one of the fastest flowing in Britain and can rise three metres in twenty minutes as rainwater pours off the dales into the valley. Even where the river crosses the gentler lowlands and joins with the Ure, it is still fierce when in spate.

The Swale as it joins the Ure

The importance of the Swale likely links to the Neolithic trade in stone axes. Greenstone axes were crafted in Langdale in the Lake District and transported all across Britain, and had a significance far beyond their practical use. Their route into southern Britain likely followed the River Eden through Cumbria, also the focus of many sacred monuments, and then the River Swale which leads towards the lowlands.

Maiden Castle

The unusual henge of Maiden Castle was built on high ground above the Swale near the village of Grinton in upper Swaledale. Further downstream at Catterick was another henge and timber enclosure, dated to around 2500BC and only recently discovered. The huge standing stones of the Devil’s Arrows are a short distance from the confluence of the Swale with the River Ure. Another interesting place is St Michael’s Church near Downholme, on a unusually shaped and very prominent hill called How Hill. This would have been a key landmark for people following the river millennia before the church was built, and perhaps had also sacred significance long before this point. It is certainly a peaceful and powerful feeling spot today.

St Michael’s Church and How Hill

The Devil’s Arrows

The Devil’s Arrows, also known as the Three Greyhounds or the Three Sisters, are a row of three colossal standing stones near Boroughbridge in Yorkshire. The stones, which reach seven metres in height with another three metres underground, are taller than the sarsens of Stonehenge. They were probably raised in the early Bronze Age, around 2000BC. 

Legend says the devil, sitting on How Hill near Ripon, a strangely prominent and eerie-feeling hill with a ruined church dedicated to St Michael, threw rocks at the town of Aldborough after it offended him. They fell short and formed the Arrows.

The row of Arrows, looking uphill

The three stones are the survivors of a larger row. One stone was pulled down in the 16^th century; a fifth one is reputed to have also been removed. Perhaps there were even more, forgotten even by legend. 

The stones, weighing 25 tonnes, are millstone grit, probably originating from a location near Knaresborough, nine miles away. It is possible they were carried by glacial action to a much nearer point, making their transport much easier. The stones were then raised and slid into their sockets, probably using levers and pulleys, and their holes packed with cobbles. It was a phenomenal undertaking. 

The stones were shaped and dressed to give them a smooth finish, something which was rarely done in British stone monuments. The sarsens of Stonehenge are the other best-known example of this, and may suggest this monument was a rival or equal power base to Stonehenge. This area of Yorkshire is believed to have once been equal in importance to the Stonehenge monuments.

The uppermost stone.

The stones are on a 320º alignment, which roughly faces the midwinter sunrise and midsummer sunset, but they are not quite in a straight line. They climb a shallow slope leading from the River Ure – this link to water is reminiscent of Stonehenge – and the final stone sits on the top of the hillside. Perhaps the destroyed stones continued towards the river and the monument formed an elaborate procession up the hillside towards the rising midwinter sun. 

Interestingly, two now vanished henges which stood on shallow hillsides near the village of Hutton to the north, are also on the same alignment as the Arrows. Perhaps it was part of a much greater monumental complex than is currently thought.

The River Ure at Boroughbridge