Ancient mystery in the Yorkshire Dales

Time detectives are trying to unravel the mystery of horses bones found buried in some lime kilns discovered in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

One theory is that the gruesome remains – unearthed by members of the Ingleborough Archaeology Group – were ritually buried in the clamp lime kilns to ward off evil spirits.

But they were only put into the kilns after they had been abandoned and backfilled – which is another mystery, according to Group chairman David Johnson.

“These were not animals that fell in or were thrown in,” he said.

“In two of the kilns, at Feizor and at Newby Core near Clapham, we found nearly identical sets of bones – a skull, at least one large leg bone, one shoulder bone and a couple of vertebrae. And they had all been stacked in a pile very neatly. One near Kilnsey just had a horse’s skull in it.

“There are many accounts of animals and other items being buried in the foundations of buildings while they were being constructed, but I have never found any examples of this happening as a closure ritual – this seems to be unique to these kilns.

“Perhaps the lime burners had been using them for many years and getting a good living out of them and then, for whatever reason, they closed the kilns and thought they should leave something behind to ward off any evil spirits that they may have imagined in their superstitious minds.

“I have contacted the English and Irish folklore societies and to Romany gypsies at the Appleby Horse Fair in Cumbria to see if any of them have heard of this practice but they haven’t.

“The only thing I have found is an article about an 18th century house on the Isle of Man that had one under the structure, apparently to ward off evil spirits. The same paper referred to other similar burials in Wales and Ireland, including one where builders of a Methodist chapel in the late 19th century put a skull under that for the same reason. There are also references to horse skulls with boar’s tusks shoved up the front teeth sockets, but none of these are closure rituals.”

The excavations form part of an Ingleborough Archaeology Group project that is looking at the limestone industry. Historically, lime burning was a major industry in the Yorkshire Dales and the main uses of burnt limestone – or quicklime – were for making mortar and plasters and to sweeten acidic pastures.

As well as that mystery, the Group members are trying to work out why some of the kilns were fired up but the resulting quicklime that was produced was just left in the abandoned kilns.

Robert White, Senior Conservation Archaeologist with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, which has supported and part funded the research project, said: “It’s an odd thing to put the bones in the bottom of the pit – and even odder to put them there when the kiln was finished with and was being filled in.”

He said the kilns were all in use between about 1620 and 1670 and he added: “It’s not unusual for there to be primitive ritual activity in that period – if you think about it, even in the 20th century rabbits’ feet and horseshoes were still being used as symbols of good luck.

“But why these particular bones were being buried in a kiln that was being backfilled after use is something else.

“We would be very interested to hear from anyone who has come across similar activity and may think they have an answer.

“The 17th century was a period of the lime burning industry about which very little was known so the survey and excavations by David Johnson and the Ingleborough Archaeology Group are a really good example of local archaeology field work by a local society,” Robert said.

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