High above Scandal Beck, the Giants Graves lie almost absorbed into the rough grass of Smardale Fell. Their long, low forms were once interpreted as pillow mounds built for rabbit farming, but their size, shape and exposed position have led to the more intriguing suggestion that they may instead be burial cairns. Seen against the sweep of the valley, these quiet earthworks leave the walker with a tantalising question: farming remains beneath the turf — or monuments to people buried here long ago?

Near Smardale Bridge, the earthworks become harder to unravel. Low grassy mounds lie beside Scandal Beck, but centuries of quarrying have left spoil heaps of similar shape among them. The Ordnance Survey identifies genuine pillow mounds here, remnants of the medieval rabbit warrens that once occupied the valley. For the walker, it is a landscape that rewards a slower look — what first seems merely uneven ground gradually reveals traces of work, farming and industry beneath the grass.