Smoot Holes and rabbit pie

I will admit to being puzzled by these small holes in the wall that separates Docker Garth woods from the open Hay Fell.  They were much too low to be of use to sheep (hogg holes) and there were so many along the western dry stone wall.  Usually I take the path slightly away from the wall, but I once ran alongside it, counting at least 75 of these small holes. 

William Rollinson’s book of Lakeland traditions explained it: they are smoot holes, designed to be blocked up and opened for an unsuspecting rabbit or hare to emerge onto the open fell to encounter a trap, and subsequently the pot. Why there are quite so many is another problem, and one about which I have no answers. Many have a small stone lintel, and no longer seem to be in use, as far as I am aware, as they are almost all open.

Garth comes from the Norse word for enclosure: the Norse when travelling and trading into the Mediterranean called the great fortress ofIstanbul Mickle Garth, or ‘great enclosure.’  I wonder when these smoot holes were last used, and whether there is anyone who has a memory of them being used here?