           
|
English Heritage description:
The monument includes four contiguous bowl barrows aligned east-west and situated along the crest of a hill in the Lower Greensand. The western barrow has a mound 30m north-south, 23m east-west and 2.2m high. To the east the second and third barrows form a double mound 32m east-west and 20m north-south with each mound standing to a height of 2m. The most easterly barrow has a mound 30m north-south, 28m east-west and 2.2m high. All of the mounds have a slight hollow in the centre suggesting that they were all once partially excavated. Surrounding the mounds is a single ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has become partially infilled over the years but is still visible to the south of the mounds as a slight earthwork 4m wide and 0.3m deep, the rest surviving as a buried feature.
|
Full description of this multi-phase site.
|
Two bowl barrows in the grounds of Capesthorne Hall. EH descriptions:
NW barrow (SJ 84297 72889)
The monument includes a bowl barrow located on the summit of a rounded knoll 200m north-east of Capesthorne Hall. It includes a slightly oval turf-covered earthen mound up to 1m high with maximum dimensions of 27m by 25.5m. A broken ornamental stone pedestal on the barrow's summit is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath the pedestal is included.
SE barrow (SJ 84512 72570)
Despite some minor disturbance to the monument by a combination of rabbit holes and tree roots, the bowl barrow 450m south-east of Capesthorne Hall survives well. It is a rare survival in Cheshire of an unexcavated example of this class of monument and will retain undisturbed archaeological deposits within the mound and upon the old landsurface beneath.
The monument is a bowl barrow located on a local high point in woodland 450m south-east of Capesthorne Hall. It includes an earthen mound measuring 20m in diameter and up to 2m high.
|
Round barrow in the grounds of Birtles Hall. A BA urn was found in the Hall's grounds. EH description:
The monument is a bowl barrow located on the summit of a natural rise 230m west-south-west of Birtles Hall. It includes a slightly oval earthen mound up to 1m high with maximum dimensions of 20m by 19m.
|
Large but damaged bowl barrow. EH description:
The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on heathland at the highest part of the Ashdown Forest, towards its eastern edge. The barrow has a roughly circular mound approximately 26m in diameter and up to 0.5m high. The uneven surface of the mound suggests that it has been partly disturbed by World War II army training activity. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material used to construct the barrow was excavated. This has become infilled over the years, but is likely to survive as a below ground feature up to 2m wide.
|
EH description of univallate fort:
The monument is situated in an isolated context, approximately 110m NW of Cherry Pool Farm in the parish of Claverdon, and includes a slight univallate hillfort of Iron Age date. Barnmoor Wood camp is located on the southern edge of a slight plateau. The defensive earthworks of the site enclose a raised central area of approximately 1ha. The defences include a ditch, an internal bank and traces of a counterscarp bank along the southern edge of the site. It is thought that the slope of the hillside made a counterscarp on the northern and eastern sides of the hillfort unnecessary. The 8m wide ditch is approximately 3m deep and the internal bank is up to 12m wide at its base and 1m high. The outer edge of the ditch has been partly damaged at the south-eastern corner of the site, probably by quarrying. Access into the interior of the hillfort is currently by means of causeways across the central part of the western defences and at the north-eastern corner of the site. The latter is a 5m wide inturned, or funnel, entrance and may represent the original entrance to the site. The interior is almost oval in plan and measures approximately 125m west-east and 100m north-south. No internal earthworks are visible, although the remains of internal structures will survive beneath the ground surface. All fence posts are excluded from the scheduling, but the ground beneath these features is included.
|
Small Late Iron Age settlement enclosure, destroyed in the 1940s during construction of an airfield runway. Still shown on the 1949 "Provisional" edition of the OS 1:25000 map.
From Pastscape:
An irregular, almost D-shaped enclosure, defined by a single bank and ditch was excavated by W F Grimes in 1942-3. (Sited at SK 9443 2295). The area enclosed was about 240 feet by 210 feet and had a simple entrance in the middle of the straight, western side.
Round huts, defined by drip-water gullies, some of which intersected indicating successive occupations, were found. There were also other gullies, pits and walls representing storage arrangements and a smelting site. The pottery was predominantly Belgic in type with a little Roman material including fragments of a glass bottle and a bronze brooch. The whole suggests an occupation of mid-lst century AD. Finds to be placed in Grantham Museum.
Site obliterated by construction of airfield runways.
|
English Heritage description of large bowl barrow:
The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a bowl barrow located 80m above sea level on the western slope of the valley of the River Witham. It is prominently situated on the crest of the slope, immediately to the south of the northern field boundary hedge, some 150m east of the Great North Road. The grassy mound has a rounded summit and gently sloping sides, and shows no sign of any disturbance. It is c.50m in diameter and stands to a height of approximately 2m above the surrounding pasture. Material for the construction of the mound would have been quarried from an encircling ditch. This ditch is no longer visible but is thought to survive buried beneath the present ground surface.
|
From Pastscape, referencing "Long Barrows of The Cotswolds" (1925) by OGS Crawford:
Two upright stones known as "Odo and Dodo", now in the grounds of Prescott House, were reported by Mr Passmore to have been removed from Nottingham Hill Camp about1860. One is 7ft high, the other 6ft, and both taper to a rough point.
|
|
|
I head across to the enclosure. Oblong in shape, the stonework of the walls still stands to a few courses high. Much more limestone lies around and about, so building material was certainly not an issue. What is rather less clear is why the structure has been built around a shake hole. I assume (geologists, please help) that the hole was already there when the walls were put up around it. It's not very big, so its mysterious portal-to-the-underworld qualities are fairly limited. Odd.
|
To the north of here the map shows an enormous expanse of quarry, so my route cuts directly east up the slopes of Cefn yr Ystrad. This proves to be much harder going, the grass masking lumps and bumps of limestone and hollows that could turn an ankle with ease. I'm relieved to reach the ridge and even more relieved to see the day's main objective, the enormous bronze age cairn of Carn y Bugail ("Cairn of the Shepherd"). It's still some way off, and the intervening terrain is not the easiest to cross. What looks like a smooth grassy plateau actually takes a tiring 10 minutes of route-picking and step-watching even in this dry weather.
But the effort is entirely justified. The OS map shows two named cairns here, but our friends at Coflein are not content with that and have added another two. The named cairns are the real beauties, despite the efforts of many visitors to hollow out their interiors. Carn y Bugail has been moulded into a rather peculiar shape, two piles of stones heaped up on top of the mound giving it an oddly horned shape, like a toad or lizard. Despite this, it's a huge cairn, 3m high, as big as any I've visited and boasting terrific views to the central Beacons and across to the Black Mountains to the northeast. The view north is blocked by the equally massive Garn Felen. ("The Yellow Cairn") and the prominent mound that Garn Felen III sits atop, forming the end of the summit ridge. Beyond that Waun Rydd fades into the deepening haze as midday approaches. To the immediate northeast of Carn y Bugail are a collection of enormous (presumably natural) limestone blocks that form the outer extent of the cairn.
To the east of Garn Felen is a small pyramidal modern cairn, with a wooden cross set into its top. This monument to the crew of a Wellington bomber, marked in Gladman's fieldnotes, is indeed poignant. Even more so when you see that small fragments of twisted and melted aluminium surround the base of the cairn, the remains of the plane itself. Cause to stop a while. Despite the sadness of such a sight, there are worse places to be remembered. And remembered the fallen airmen obviously still are.
Garn Felen cairn is a match for Carn y Bugail in size. The top has been similarly scooped, but without the pointy rebuild. It remains a seriously impressive monument though, the plentiful limestone scattered all over the mountain's top being an easy source for such a monster. From here the obvious focal point is actually Garn Felen III and the Waun Rydd summit beyond, with a deep valley in between. So it's to Garn Felen III that I head next.
The obvious cairn here is a small, pointy, modern thing, but it sits on a great rounded mound of limestone blocks that forms the northern end of the long summit ridge. Coflein has recognised this for another bronze age cairn, although the OS don't mark it. Beyond, the ground falls steeply away, to a lower shelf where Garn Felen enclosure is visible. The landscape below the cairn is a weird, pock-marked sea of natural sink holes and possibly some human intrusion, like a turf-skinned holey cheese. The bigger scarring of the modern quarry is just visible over the ridge beyond.
I head back across to the SW to the summit trig point. I think this marks the highest point of the mountain, but the substantial nature of the main cairns means that they may rise above it. The trig has been well placed for the better sight-lines over to the west though. From here the three big cairns are laid out in profile, and what an impressive trio they make. Interestingly there is a flattened, circular patch of limestone blocks surrounding the trig. Could this be the remnants of yet another cairn? It certainly seems possible, although the Uplands Survey recorded the trig pillar but didn't comment on this in doing so.
Looking westwards, the ground drops away into a little cwm. On the slope opposite are the remains of Garn Felen II, a shattered cairn in a slightly odd situation. All that remains is a turfed over doughnut, with a scatter of exposed limestone blocks on the downslope side, the whole thing perched halfway down the slope. Compared to the other three cairns it is slight and has no impressive views either to or from it (although the prominent bump of Garn Felen III is in clear view). But it does make for a nice sheltered spot to sit and contemplate the minds of the people who came to this exposed, rugged mountain top millennia ago. They left behind monuments that survive so well and I'm sure they would be pleased to know that the places still exerts such a pull on this visitor.
|
A confused set of fences and gates at the edge of access land appears to bear no relationship to what the map is showing me and I emerge into an area of limestone outcrops and broken pavement, in which somewhere - so the map tells me - are two cairns, the first stop of the day. Rather overshadowing everything is the panoramic view to the northeast, sweeping across the reservoir to the central Beacons peaks.
I wander around amongst the limestone for a while, not really looking in the right place and finding nothing cairn-ish. Eventually I come across the northern cairn, a turfed-over mound with limestone blocks protruding here and there. The centre of the cairn has been scooped inevitably, but not recently if the covering turf is any indication. Treasure seekers rather than walkers have disturbed this one, it seems. The view of Pen y Fan is obscured by a small stand of trees, but would otherwise be the perfect backdrop. I fail to find the other cairn and eventually decide that bigger and better sites await.
|
Some information about the well, which has supposedly healing qualities.
|
Heading downhill from Corringdon Ball stone row (30.8.2010), East Glaze Brook proves to be narrower and faster flowing than its western namesake, the water forced into a little fall by the granite rocks on its sides. Luckily it's not wide enough to cause any real obstacle to progress. The long barrow, a skyline landmark for some time, has now disappeared beyond the brow of the hill.
There is apparently another stone row between brook and barrow, but my cursory look doesn't reveal it and by now I am quite tired and hot, and still not quite at the furthest point out of the day, so I don't press the point as much as perhaps I should.
Cresting the ridge, the slumped shape of the long barrow comes back into view. A real rarity on Dartmoor, this wrecked chambered long mound would readily recognise its Cotswold cousins, the principal difference being the much harder granite of its construction. Unfortunately, like many of its family it has been trashed. The chamber is now reduced to a collection of scattered stones, leaning and fallen uprights and a dismounted slab that was presumably the capstone. Cattle clearly trample around the remains, probably making rubbing stones from the uprights. The earth around the stones is being very badly eroded by these visitations. The mound itself is low and stands to a height of less than a metre. An even more trashed and reduced round barrow, cut across by a wall, sits quietly to the southeast. Despite all of this, the long barrow remains surprisingly impressive, partly due to its positioning against the skyline when seen from both east and west. The endless skies of Dartmoor and the solitude of this spot, far away from roads or houses, contribute to a strong sense of timeless place that many barrows in better states of preservation elsewhere lack. As ever on Dartmoor, I find it very difficult to imagine a woodland landscape in place of the wide open spaces of the moor. What change this mound has seen over the ages!
I spend a while here, in silence and solitude, but it's a long, hot walk ahead and at length I return over East Glaze Brook to collect G/F. We head back to the old tramway bed at Glasscombe Ball, which as part of the Two Moors Way will take us all the way back to Ivybridge. It's been a terrific day out, the Neolithic survivors at Cuckoo Ball, Butterdon Hill and Corringdon Ball, although less celebrated and visited than the numerous Bronze Age sites, remain an important and rewarding collection of Dartmoor sites to visit.
|
(30.8.2010) After leaving Glasscombe Corner stone row, with its ruined terminal cairn, we take a trackless route northeast, roughly following the alignment of the row. The hillside slopes downwards, towards the little valley of West Glaze Brook.
Even in this hot, dry weather the approach to the brook is muddy and damp - in winter this is probably a quagmire. The brook itself runs clear and quick, crossing it is a balancing act across uneven, slippery stones. Luckily it's narrow and we make it across without incident. The hillside then climbs again, to a broad neck of land separating West Glaze Brook from its eastern counterpart. Over to the ESE is the rounded bulk of Corringdon Ball hill, while the slumped lines of the attendant long barrow, our ultimate goal for the day, are now silhouetted against the skyline to the east.
On this neck of land is Corringdon Ball stone row, one of the more well-known of the rows of Dartmoor on account of the multiplicity of its rows. It lies amongst scattered clumps of gorse, vibrantly flowered with yellow at this time of year, and the stones are very small, easily hidden in the short grass. In truth I find myself rather underwhelmed by this site, for reasons I'm not really sure of. Perhaps it's the diminutive size of the stones, or the fact that the overall pattern is quite difficult to ascertain amongst the grass. Maybe it's simply the heat of the Bank Holiday sun overhead. The terminal cairn circle at the eastern end seems strangely resistant to easy plotting by eye, with only an arc of stones cutting across the end of the rows to mark its existence at all.
From this end of the rows, the contours drop steeply again to East Glaze Brook and G/F decides she doesn't want to make the final crossing, electing to stay under the welcome shade of some trees near to the row while I go on to visit Corringdon Ball long barrow.
|
|
    
|
 
|
 
|
         
|
 
|
Twin interests are music and prehistory - music obviously includes Mr Cope, but wide variety of other things including Durutti Column, New Order/Joy Division, Billy Bragg, Smiths, Chameleons, Cardiacs, 50s rock'n'roll, etc. Many hols (and every opportunity) spent dragging very patient girlfriend to see vaguely discernable stone lumps obscured by mud and vegetation, particularly in West Penwith, also the Peak District and Herefordshire/Shropshire. Used to live in Yorkshire (Blakey Topping and High Bridestones being favourites) now live in Gloucestershire and pining for stone circles. Also blaming TMA in general and Gladman in particular for increasing levels of obsession where Wales is concerned. And now also blaming Drewbhoy for the urge to move to Drewland, RSC Central. No car (and can't drive) so sites are visited by public transport and on foot, which is still just about possible, despite the efforts of our beloved government to reduce/stop less profitable services by cutting funding everywhere. Working for a government scheme designed to kill your dreams. Appreciate a nice pint after a hard day's stone spotting (particularly in the Tinners Arms at Zennor).
|
|
Log in |
Register
Previous 50 | Showing 51-100 of 4,108 posts. Most recent first | Next 50 
Top of page