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England
CommondaleStone Circle
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i'd just like to add, being the pedant that i am, that the cairn on the north-western edge of the circle is in fact prehistoric, and possibly roughly contemporary with the circle. bill pearson investigated it along with the circle in 1967 with the teeside archaeological society, & found that it was built on the prehistoric land surface. a number of flints were also found within the cairn, although no burials. the care with which the cairn had apparently been constructed suggests that it may have had a ritual purpose rather than being simply a clearance cairn. it would be interesting to know if the cairn lines up with the summit of rosebery topping from the circle. i didn't think to check when i visited the circle last year as i wasn't privy to this information at that point and thought that the cairn was modern. it looks as though it might from the pictures i took but it's hard to be certain. i do like the idea that the circle represents the area bounded by the ridges along the horizon, with the sacred hill reproduced in miniature on the periphary. source: pearson, bill 1995. two early bronze age sites in sleddale, in b. vyner (ed.), moorland monuments: studies in the archaeology of north-east yorkshire in honour of raymond hayes and don spratt. york: council for british archaeology research report 101. |
Posted by nikodemus 18th April 2009ce Edited 18th April 2009ce |
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I visited this site some years ago, and had great trouble finding it, mainly because the heather was so high that most of the stones were invisible until I was right upon them. Returning yesterday was much easier- the heather's been burnt relatively recently (right into the circle!), and the stones are currently clearly visible from the path to the north. I was a bit suspicious of the grid ref on my first visit- the circle was slightly further east than I expected. GPS confirmed this yesterday- the centre of the circle was at NZ 63778 10848 (+/- 7m); nearer to NZ638108. |
Posted by Beanolini 19th May 2008ce |
| Commondale Stone Circle...Easer bank holliday Monday 090407...Found it... with O/S map, one look at the compas and a good knowledge of the area... Oh yes, and a three year old son, stroppy twelve year old daughter who loved it when she got there and a very cold, bewildered but understanding wife (she was ok supping whine in Tomms afterwards)...Watch this space for our wonderfull family account of the search for the Commondale Stone Circle........and we found it. |
Posted by moorfowl 10th April 2007ce |
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This lovely circle is just over 10km from the front door of my house, it also may be the only true stone circle on the North York Moors. I haven't posted any field notes about it apart from a few notes written in 2000 saying that I couldn't find the place. Today I decided to remedy that. It was also an excuse to check out my GPS after Hob had showed me how to use it correctly (it had previously sat on my shelf for over a year after being binned for being constantly wrong). I usually get up to the circle once or twice during the summer. Me and the kids park the car close to the Sleddale Beck Bridge on the Commondale to Kildale Road and then walk up the hillside to the circle. This can be a bit of an arduous route when the ground is wet but it has the advantage of taking you through the lovely stone outcrops of the western edge of Wayworth Moor. The moor has recently been fenced so you can no longer walk directly to the circle without encountering the fence. If you walk up the hill to the keeper's road you will come to a gate in the fence. Once through the gate, turn left and follow the fence downhill. The circle is about halfway down and about 50 paces in from the fence. Your best guide is to look out for the modern cairn on the margins of the ring as shown in Alirich's lovely photo http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/5190 The circle itself is a good size with many erect, albeit low, stones. There is a possible outlier to the circle 20 paces to the east south east. The GPS places the circle at NZ 63766 10848 which tallys with the map. As for why the circle is where it is, when you get there just look to the south west. You will be looking through the Kildale gap, which was possibly the main route between the North York Moors and the Vale of Cleveland and beyond. The view through the Kildale gap includes the Northern scarp edge of the Cleveland Hills and on a good day you can see over to the Pennines. Moving around clockwise from the Kildale Gap you can see Brown Hill and Percy Ridge to the west on the other side of Sleddale and then Great Ayton Moor with the peak of Roseberry Topping to the north west followed by a glimpse of the distant communication masts of Eston Nab visible through the gap between Cod Hill and Hutton Moor. Moving clockwise from North to south it's the the ridge of Commondale Moor and then views across the northern moorland plateau that dominate the skyline. It is possible that this circle unites a number of elements. Many of the prehistoric moorland and hill communities of this northern corner of the North York moors are visible and accessible from this site. It is also close to a number of possible ancient trackways, these two combined would have made it an excellent meeting point. All in all it's a lovely circle and well worth seeking out. |
Posted by fitzcoraldo27th May 2005ce Edited 29th May 2005ce |
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View the location with multimap, click on 'aeriel photo'. Just to the right of the red circle you'll see a brown shape of heather, with a lighter rectangle within it. At the top of this lighter shape you'll see some spots, zoom in on those - and THERE's the circle! The large white spot on the left is a pile of stones on the edge of the circle, and the other spots are some of the larger stones. There is quite a large mound on the southern boundary of the circle, which might hide another low stone - or at least that's what my backside thinks as it felt very uncomfortable in places! As alirich says, just to the south of the circle are two rowan trees which are inline with the circle, follow those uphill and you'll spot the pile of stones... hopefully anyway! And do watch out for that bog/pool - don't do a me and slip into it - it smells! Absolutely gorgeous views looking out through Kildale to the outer edge of the Cleveland Hills. You can see Captain Cook's monument and Roseberry Topping too. Further north of the site is a ridge that runs across the moor to the Commondale - Kildale road, nice walk back that is. |
Posted by jobbo26th January 2002ce |
| The nearest to my home and it has been the hardest to find! The tallest stone is only around two foot high, which looks as if it has recently been re-erected. The other stones, are only around a foot in hight, which keeps them quite well hidden amongst the heather. An occurance that I've never seen before, is that some of the stones seem to be surrounded by what looks like coarse sun-bleached grass, althought the entire circle is amongst heather. One of these stones has a small hole in the top where people have left a number of coins (although they havent been forced in). There is a pile of stones to the west of the circle, which helps to locate the site from afar, if coming from the road, head towards a couple of Rowan trees that stand alone on the moor and the circle is a little further north. The moor can be quite boggy at times and watch out for a small bog by the edge of the circle. Its a truely enchanting place, especially if you stop to watch the sun go down. |
Posted by alirich 26th January 2002ce |
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Armed with my trusty Burl,an O.S. map & compass and even an aerial photograph c/o Richard Crosthwaites book. Me and my mate Tess set out to seek out the circle. Well we found the hillside, identified the landmarks and stomped up and down for a bronze age. The circle is supposed to have a mound at the centre which has been converted into a grouse butt, so we checked the grouse butts, result.. Nada.. nowt. This was a first for me. Maybe we weren't meant to find it, like Moses being denied the promised land cos he smashed the tablets. (we don't usually touch tablets but we do occassionally hammer weed !). We had a lovely day anyway. |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 26th June 2000ce |
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Pat's PlacePat O'Halloran's description and photo of the circle |
Posted by fitzcoraldo 2nd December 2002ce |
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