Gelt Gorge and the Written Rock of Gelt

A walk along the bewitching River Gelt, north Cumbria.

As the country scorched in the August heatwave, the footpaths through Gelt Woods seemed like a sane choice; a shady wooded walk in the damp incised gorge of the River Gelt.

Not being from around these parts, I hadn’t known what to expect. I had, in advance, swiped pink highlighter pen on my map, picking this place out to explore because it was both near to our holiday base, and the map indicated it had Roman inscribed stones. How rare and exotic!

I will come back to these inscriptions in a mo, but first I want to describe the Gelt, because I think it is the most magical river I have ever seen (and that is saying something for a Dartmoor girl!).

Over millennia, this watercourse has cut down through Triassic stone to form this gorge. Just above the bridge it runs in parallel with the bedded laminae of its sandstone geology. Damp, and covered in algae, these rocks of the valley bottom look more like timber than than sandstone, causing me to double take when I first saw it – surely that river bank cannot be made of wood?

Further along, and at length in places, the river has corroded and corraded to incise a rock cut channel into the sandstone, creating no ordinary river bed. Swirling water and the erosive impacts of centrifugal pebbles, entrained by spate waters, have hollowed out cauldrons and potholes of various sizes in the bank bedrock.

Prolonged dry weather meant that the Gelt was flowing low when I saw it, exposing these exceptional river bed features. How impressive must this river also be in flood – roaring and swirling and carving – wearing gradually and incrementally through yet more sandstone.

Rock cut rivers channels and cauldrons are not uncommon on rivers, but it is the density and quality of these characteristics on the Gelt that make it rare and golden. These unusual and insane qualities are speculated as lying behind the origin of the name of the Gelt – possibly from Old Irish ‘geilt’ for lunatic or wild, or perhaps Gaelic ‘galt‘ meaning magic. I certainly found the Gelt to be an enchanting place.

And now, back to those inscribed Roman stones. My map gave only a rough indication of their location. My eyes scanned the vertical faces of stone for the imperial graffiti, but to no avail.

Gelt Woods were used by the Romans to quarry stone used to build and repair Hadrian’s Wall. Soldiers serving in Roman legions were used as quarrymen. Their parallel diagonal chisel marks can be readily seen in the sandstone.

What I couldn’t see, was the graffiti they left. On a large quarry face, known as the Written Rock of Gelt, there are numerous inscriptions, making it the most useful Roman quarry in the north of the country for what these datable doodles denote. The carvings though, are hard to reach; the path that once led to them, now collapsed. In fact, archaeologists studying them recently, were winched down the quarry face to gain access. 

Words etched in the stone in this hidden quarry include the names, rank and military units of the legionary masons. For example APRO ET MAXIMO CONSVLIBVS OFICINA MERCATI (the Roman’s loved writing in capitals), translates as ‘In the consulship of Aper and Maximus’. These men, it is known, were consuls of the Roman Empire in 2007 AD, and it is this inscription in particular which is useful in dating some of this quarry work to the time when the Emperor Severus was in Britain, leading campaigns to quell the northern tribes; their insurrections prompting a phase of major wall improvement. 

“The inscriptions are also a good example of rough and unskilled work cut by poorly trained masons, and thus illuminate the contrast between this type of inscription and that produced on many public buildings, tombstones and milestones by the finest masons who used better quality tools and materials.” 

Historic England

The graffiti also includes a face, thought to be a caricature of the commanding officer and, titillating to us, but a symbol of luck to a Roman, a phallus. Apparently Romans were quite partial to picturing a penis.

Sadly these Latin inscriptions are eroding badly and some are now impossible to read, meaning that this scheduled monument is now on the heritage ‘at risk’ register.  It is also possible that more graffiti could have been lost beyond these known inscriptions. The numerous quarries along this valley are thought to have been used long after their Roman use; what other inscriptions might there have been that were quarried away by later quarrymen?

Over a millennia on from its border wall history, but still a long time ago from our perspective, Gelt Woods was the backdrop to another history in which the politics of this frontier and the factions to its north and south, were players. In 1569 around 3000 troops amassed here, hiding in the woods; the deep gorge and its quarries presumably shrouding the sight and muffling the sounds of this large group of insurgents. They had gathered in uprising against Elizabeth I, in support of Mary Queen of Scots, in what became known as the Northern Rebellion.

Information is vital in war, and Elizabeth’s network got wind of what was happening and an armed force was sent to quash the rebels. Known as the battle of Hell Beck (the Hell Beck is a stream that flows into the Gelt in these woods), these ‘subversives’ were slaughtered. It was said that the river ran with blood for days afterwards and …

“Some years later, a skeleton in full battle dress was found in a tree near the Gelt – presumably a rebel soldier fleeing battle” 

From ‘Brampton Walkers are Welcome’

Turning from the Hell Beck and the sheer faces of the chiselled quarries, I returned to Gelt Bridge along the higher track. Here, poking and protruding from the path and the woodland soils, are pebbles and cobbles; rounded sediments indicative of water borne transport. But what were they doing thirty metres above the river? Yet more insanity in this lunatic valley!

The answer lies, not in contemporary processes, but in those of the glacial past. These sediments spreading the slopes of the Gelt are glacio-fluvial in origin – part of the ‘Brampton Kame Belt’. Kame is the term used to refer to mounds of poorly-sorted sediments, deposited in meltwater from the margins of glaciers and ice sheets. Considered as a classic example, the Brampton Kame Belt is also one of the most extensive in the UK. The sediments here are thought to have been deposited on the southern inland margins of an ice sheet emanating from Scotland, and were dropped here around 18 thousand years ago.

The phrase ‘poorly-sorted’ means that the sediments that make up this deposit vary in size. This is a consequence of a flashy water regime, in which sometimes the speed and energy of the water moving the sediments was high (and able to transport bigger sediments), and sometimes it was very low (with clays deposited). Along the path back to the car my feet trod over these clays and cobbles; their presence telling a stoney story of the shifting patterns of meltwater channels, seasonalities in summer and winter flows, and ultimately, the final collapse of the mother ice sheet.

Thrice I returned to this river on my holiday, to look, look and look again, trying to make sense of this mad valley and its extraordinary history. The Gelt, made by the glamour of its geology and geomorphology certainly enchanted me.

Route: I parked at Low Gelt Bridge and walked along the marked footpaths on the north bank of the river. Seeing as you come back the way you came, you can make the walk as long as you fancy. Even though I walked the route in very dry weather, there were still some damp and muddy spots, so don’t wear white trainers!

Bibliography

Brampton Walkers are Welcome. Gelt, the Mad River. Sept 4th 2013.

Brown, M. 2019. Rare Roman graffiti in Cumbria quarry to be captured in 3D. The Guardian.

Current Archaeology. 2018. Roman writing on the Wall: recording inscriptions at a Hadrian’s Wall quarry.

Discover Brampton. Beautiful Woods Swimming in History.

Eden Rivers Trust. Gelt Woods and Greenwell.

Historic England. Written Rock of Gelt: Roman quarry inscriptions.

Oxford Archaeology North and Cumbria County Council. 2015. Terrestrial Mineral Resource, Cumbria: Assessment Report. English Heritage Project No. 6490