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| Google Earth view of Hollin Hill and Airyholme farm - 2002 |
Airyholme is located on the Howardian Hills, 1.5 miles to the south of
Hovingham, and 6 miles west of Malton.
"Airyholme with Howthorpe and Baxton Howe" is the rather long
winded name of a township in the Hovingham parish. The township consists of
just 4 farms, and its name appears to be derived from the ancient burial
mounds in this area. In the early 1900's, the author Rev. Arthur St Clair
Brooke described the Hovingham parish, and specifically mentions Airyholme
...
"Airyholme. This last is an interesting word. It is written Ergunholme in
Domesday, and is derived from Horgum, plaural of Horg, old Norse for a
sacrificial stone. The word is seen in transition in Dodsworth's Notes where
it is written Arg-holme. Airyholme is therefore the holme near the
sacrificial stones. Opposite the place, to the north, is a knoll of green
grass, called Hollin Hill, on the side of which are some huge flat stones,
the upper- most resting on a roller of old oak. They have all the appearance
of having once formed a heathen altar, and the fine old oaks which grow on
the hillside help to confirm the impression. "
(Brooke,1904).
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Roseberry Topping - Odin's Hill |
Another Airy-holme place-name can be found 25 miles to the north, where
it is located on the east side of Roseberry Topping - anciently known as
Othensberg, or Odin's Hill. Airy-Holme appears in the Domesday Record as Ergun
(or Ergum), and the local antiquarian the Rev J.C. Atkinson linked this name
to the Norse word Horgum - meaning 'sacred altars'. He noted that "the Horg was an altar of stone erected on high places, or a sacrificial
cairn built in open air". Old Norse texts mention that the Scandinavians honoured their gods at
their "Hofum ok Horgum" - temples and altars, while the Anglo Saxon word
'Hearg' had the same meaning.
A Horg could therefore be either a large
rock on a hill or a raised mound, both being used as a shrine where offerings
were made to the Norse gods, ancestor spirits, and the landvaettir (spirits of
the land). The Othenesberg and Airy-holme names at Roseberry Topping point to
the early Scandinavian settlers dedicating that hill to their chief god Odin,
and that they set up one or more Horg altars there.
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Google Earth view of Hollin Hill in 2002 |
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Path curving around the top of Hollin Hill |
The OS map shows Hollin Hill to be a dome shaped hill standing out
from the ridge of higher ground running to the south of Hovingham and
Slingsby. This ridge and the valley below, are the location of more than a
dozen burial mounds, most of which were excavated by Canon Greenwell in the
mid 1800's. The Google Earth image (right) shows the top of Hollin Hill clear
of trees in 2002, but since then the forestry has been extended over the hill,
and now obscures its top. The old OS map does however mark the position of 3
stones on the hill, and it was hoped that these might be Rooke's "sacrificial
stones". Unfortunately, a recent visit to Hollin Hill found no trace of the
"huge flat stones" recorded by Brooke, these may have been broken up and
removed, or because they were flat, they may lie buried beneath several inches
of pine needles and fallen leaves from the forestry. A smaller rock (marked on
the OS map) along side the path up the hill was found in this condition - half
buried under twigs and leaf litter. The hill seems to have been planted with
trees in the 1950's, which were then cut down around the year 2000, and later
replanted, so there is at least 70 years worth of fallen leaves, twigs,
branches, etc. covering the surface of the hill. If the flat stones still
exist then they will probably only be revealed if the hill is cleared of trees
in the future.
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Chalybeate waters flowing at the foot of the hill |
The visit to Hollin Hill did reveal one unusual feature about the
location. On entering the woodland on the east side of the hill, a bright
orange stream of water can be seen running amongst the trees at the base of
the hill. Tracing this stream back to its source found that it emerges from a
large boggy enclosure on the lower ground on the east side of the hill. The
vivid orange colour of the stream indicates that there are chalybeate springs
within the wet area, and the colour is due to the high iron content in the
water, which leaves a rusty orange deposit on anything it flows over. What
makes this location more interesting is that in the middle of this boggy
enclosure the OS map marks a large burial mound - apparently one of the group
excavated by Canon Greenwell. At first sight this seems a very odd location
for a barrow, however the other tumuli in this area are placed either on the
nearby ridge or in the wet valley bottom, so the location does seem
intentional.
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Airyholme and Hollin Hill - OS map (Map credit NLS) |
The first part of the Airy-Holme name (Ergum) has been traced
back to 'Horg' - a shrine located at a stone altar or a mound, while the word
holme usually refers to a small island or a piece of land surrounded by water.
This type of Holme does not really fit the local topography at Airy-holme, and
so it is worth noting that the village of Holme on the Wolds is thought to
derive its name from the Norse word 'Haugr', meaning a hill or mound. If this
is the case, then this Airy-Holme would mean the 'altar hill'.
As Horgum is the plural of Horg, then the Ergum-holme name suggests that there was more than one shrine at this location. The rounded form of Hollin Hill itself has the appearance of a natural raised mound, partly encircled by marshy ground, with the boggy enclosure and burial mound on the east side, and the Hollin Hill Bogs extending around the base of the hill on its south and west side. So Hollin Hill could have been regarded as a 'Holme', and as Brooke suggested, the "sacrificial stones" on the side of the hill were the Horgum altars. If the hill was a cult site, then this may have also included the burial mound at the foot of the hill, perhaps in connection with the chalybeate springs?
The OS map shows that Hollin Hill is surrounded by springs, - this being the main point on the long ridge of land where a large amount of water emerges to form streams, pools, and boggy areas. In the past this may have marked the location as being 'special', and a suitable site for a tumulus. A place where ruddy waters emerge from the ground beneath an ancestral burial mound would carry some pretty strong symbolism - the life blood of the land?
After thoughts
A more mundane interpretation derives Ergun from the Irish word Airge, meaning
"a place where cows are, a dairy, or herd of cows.", with the later Airghe
used for a hill pasture or a sheiling. Much of the land around Airyholme is
prime arable and pasture land spread across numerous low hills and valleys (like the nearby Yorkshire Wolds) so why pinpoint one particular
location alongside Hollin Hill as being for cows or pasture land? This interpretation seems to
overlook the Norse Horg word (and Anglo Saxon Hearg), and import a word from
another language group altogether.
That there were Norse communities in this area is shown by the Wiganthorpe place name just to the south of Airyholme. Wiganthorpe apparently has the meaning Vik or Viking village.
Hollin place names are usually thought to refer to the Holly tree, making this the 'Holly Hill', but it is worth noting that no other hills in this area are named after trees, so why the Holly? With the Airyholme place name located alongside this hill, then perhaps, like Roseberry Topping, this was a sacred hill dedicated to some Norse deity - a holy hill?
References
Atkinson, J.C. (1882) A Handbook for Ancient Whitby and its Abbey.
Brooke, Arthur St. Clair (1904). Slingsby and Slingsby Castle.
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