Raising the Last Wolf

Weight 

80kg / 177lbs (weight based on that of a large male wolf).

Location
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Name Origin
Based on the last bastion of wolf within England.

Original Challenge

Stone to plinth. The lift symbolises raising the last wolf: a tribute to the untamed wilderness that still stirs within us.

Stone Placement
Placed by @dances_with_stones. The stone and plinth stand on the summit of Wolfhole Crag, the most remote gritstone outcrop in the UK at 527m of elevation and can only be reached via a 4.5 mile walk in. The stone commemorates the last bastion of wolf within England.

History

People have moved through this landscape for over 5,000 years, using the high fells for grazing, travel and navigation.

The area saw Neolithic and Bronze Age activity (c. 4000–800 BC) and lay on the fringe of Brigantian territory in the Iron Age.

Between AD 800–1100 Norse settlers shaped the valleys and place-names. Wolfhole likely means “wolf’s hollow” or “wolf place,” recalling a time when wolves still roamed Bowland.

Records and folklore suggest some of England’s last wolves survived here, with bounties recorded into the 1500s–1700s. Later estate and OS maps note its exposure and isolation and it remains one of Lancashire’s wildest places.

English wolves were large—some remains suggest Arctic-scale; up to 80kg—and once common across Bowland and the Pennines. Relentlessly hunted from the 11th century, they eventually disappeared, marking the loss of England’s last true wilderness.