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Fieldnotes
| Swarth Howe is a pretty easy place to visit. It is just off the A171 and has a carpark on the opposite side of the road. Accessibility is a completely different issue, the barrow is lost in a pretty much continuous dense thicket of gorse. It is possible to pick a path through the gorse and only come away with minor scratches but to be honest with you it's not really worth it. You'll spend a good half hour stumbing around to be rewarded with a fairly non-descript mound. Definitely one for the enthusiast. The stone row is a different matter. As you walk up the gorse lined track from the A171 to the wireless station, you'll find Swarth Howe on your right and the stone row on your left. It is possible to find a gap in the gorse and make your way to the stones but I would advise that you walk a little further up the path to the gateposts and then backtrack along the edge of the woodland. This will bring you to the first of the stones. Once you've found the first stone just cut into the trees and you'll find the OS pillar and beyond that the second stone. One point you may not appreciate if you are approaching the site from the north along the A171 is, that at 264m the Swarth Howe site occupies the highest point on Northern Margin of the Lower Esk valley and can be seen from many points to the south of the Esk as well as from a decent radius of coastline. This place was deliberately chosen and in my opinion is well worth a visit even if just to appreciate the topographic aspects of the site. I had planned a circular walk from the carpark at NZ843088 through Hutton Mulgrave Woods and then back along the path at Moorgate Farm checking out the cairnfield and standing stone at NZ825098 but unfortunately the path from the farm no longer seems to exist and with no one around to ask I had to back track through the woods. |
Posted by fitzcoraldo14th August 2006ce |
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