Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/155

Rh station was Apiatorium. Mr. Hodgson, in his History of Northumberland, supposes that it may have been Banna. But as neither of these writers appears to have any very strong grounds for their suppositions, I may venture to suggest that if Whitley Castle be the Alionis, then, in all probability, Bewcastle will be the Galava of the Tenth Iter of the Itinerary.

The word Galava may be derived from more than one etymon, but each appears to correspond with the general features of the place. If we derive it from the Celtic word, gallt, a rock, and by a commutation of letters from the Celtic Welsh, afon, or the Celtic Gaelic and Irish, abhan, a river, we have an allusion at once to the little rocky river Kirkbeck, which flows close past the Station. Or if we derive it from the word cald or kalt, cold; it may refer to the cold exposed situation of the fortress, or to the peculiar nature of the river, which is generally cold in summer, and hence caldafon or kaltafon, and by corruption Galava, may mean the Station at the cold river. Or if we suppose gal to be a corruption of the old word keld, a well; this also agrees with the situation of the place, as there is a river on the South side, and a celebrated well on the South-east side of the Station. It may also allude to the river itself, which is formed by the waters flowing from several copious wells in the immediate neighbourhood. Tradition also seems to support my view, that Bewcastle is the Galava of the ancients. There is a large district in the North side of the parish of Lanercost (immediately South of Bewcastle), which was formerly called Wuleva or Wulyevva. Here is a remarkable resemblance to the word Galava. The old people in the neighbourhood, say that this district was always called Wuleva Quarter in their young days, and that the Cairn on the Tower-brow was called the Cairn of Wulyevva, and sometimes the Pikes of Wulyevva. Wulyevva Quarter is now more generally called Askerton Quarter or Township.

The Station at Bewcastle has been placed on the nearly level surface of an irregularly-shaped eminence; its form being hexagonal, but its sides are unequal. Their respective lengths are as follows:—South-west side, 108 yards; South, 78 yards; South-east, 95 yards; North-east, 125 yards; North, 146 yards; and North-west, 83 yards. The station,