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Visited in Aug 2007 with my mum in tow. Lucky to have quite a fine day and the views across the water were breathtaking.
The visitor centre is interesting; certainly from my mum's point of view she found it helpful to have some info about the landscape, geology and the history of the site. Without this, I imagine the actual arachaeology side of it would be rather dull! The huge Scots Pine which is located in the centre is also pretty stunning.
When you get out, you walk among the bog past lines of stone walls; I actually got a bit excited about it all but can appreciate why it may be beyond the interest of the casual observer!
There are the remains of a domestic enclosure which is also really interesting but overall the most spectacular thing about this site is the location. Amazing.
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Despite the rather unattractive chicken wire which holds the renovated cairn in place, this site was really intriguing to me. Later than the other burial chambers, the remains of 5 people (3 adults and 2 children) were found here and it is the most elaborate of the sites at Carrowmore.
What fascinated me though was the fact that, despite it having been partially excavted, the packing stones which held the lovely big capstone in place on the orthostats are untouched. I love this fact - what we now see is exactly how it was when it was first built. Fab.
Unfortunatley, the weather was too overcast for us to see the curved rock art which is carved into the capstone.
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This is one of those sites that takes your breath away. Despite the rain and mist, which meant we didn't get to see the site in the context of the surrounding landscape, this felt like one of those places where things just fit together.
I was with my mum, so decided it would be worthwhile taking the guided tour, so that she could have a better understanding of what we were looking at. As it turned out, I too ended up feeling like I understood this place better after spending an hour with the fabulous OPW guide. She was interested AND interesting, answering questions but also asking for our opinions and she skillfully avoided responding to the only other 2 people on our tour who seemed to be into biblical/creationist archaeology and kept referring to Noah a lot! Odd. Mind you, it was raining quite heavily.
She led us on a (chronological) spiral journey through the various sites, explaining the relevance to the surrounding hills (which we couldn't really see) She also advised us which of the other sites (which weren't on the tour) we should visit and went into detail about which sites had been excavated and/or altered, so that we got a sense of how this landscape would've looked when littered with these amazing burial/ritual sites.
If you come here with non-stoney folk in tow, I would recommend taking the tour for their sake as my mum was as giddy as a kipper by the end of it all - she said she could now understand why I am so enthusaistic about all things old and stoney and spent most of the next day asking me hundreds of questions. Some achievement!
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Priapus hails from Greek mythology and represents procreation and fertility.
Local village custom suggests that the stone was decorated each Midsummer in the hope that fruitful procreation would be stimulated. This custom seemed to die out in the early part of the 19th century but the stone remained in the field until the 1920s.
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Directions - Great Urswick; the stone is built into the field wall on the opposite side of the road to the school.
Now broken and set into the base of the field wall, this stone once stood in the adjacent field. Named the Priapus Stone, it was village custom to decorate the stone at Midsummer in the hope that harvests would be fruitful.
There is no definite record of it being ancient but this custom apparently died out at the begining of the 19th century.
If it was complete it would be similar in size and shape to the Middle Barrow stone, less than half a mile from here. From this field you can see Great Urswick burial chamber.
A local woman showed it to us but said she believed it was medieval. I'd like to believe it predates this period by a few thousand years!!
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Ooooh, this is a fab site! The first time I headed out here I was alone and it was bucketing it down - trying to drive through torrential rain whilst looking over hedges on a windy road isn't my greatest skill, so what I didn't realise is this; you can see it quite clearly from the road!!!
I can't think of a similar site anywhere else in this area, it looked like it should be in Cornwall or Wales or Ireland.
Although somewhat destroyed, there is still a sense of how this would've stood in the landscape and if you scrabble between the fallen stones and the prickly old hawthorne you can look through the remaining stones towards an obvious dip in the hill opposite. I loved the fact that the natural stone surrounding this chamber made if feel like it was part of the landscape. Fab.
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The walk from The Hurlers to the Cheesewring is magnificent. As you walk across the open land, you can see the site getting bigger and bigger and more and more spectacular.
This really is an amazing landscape and once you venture to the top, it really is one of those "top if the world" feelings.
Fabulous.
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Just returned from a trip here and suffered the same fate as Jane and Treaclechops did on their trip - a party of 4 adults + dogs strewn across the circle which made photography and, more importantly, investigation of the site a no-no.
It didn't help that I misread Cronezone's directions and had walked back to the 2 footpath signs and taken the right one from here, rather than from where I had parked the car. So, I had already spent 45 minutes stagggering through pretty high bracken wondering where on earth the blighter was!
Anyhoo, I hung around for few minutes and explained that I wanted to take some photos but they weren't for moving, so headed off again. At least I will know where it is, next time I visit! Oh, and the views across the bay are amazing.
2nd visit - 4 weeks later. Came back determined to get some good pictures and with Vicky and a picnic in tow. What we hadn't expected was the travellers camp which had set up just across from here! Once again, there were a few folk around but this time they were more than happy to vacate the circle so we could get some pictures and have a proper nosey round. This is a cracking site but I think it is just too accessible in a way - there were the remnants of a fire bulit in the centre of the circle and evidence of a couple other fire pits on the path; this combined with the red paint on one of the stones made me think that this merely a party-spot for some. Ah well.....
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Finally!!!! After driving past this site lord only knows how many times and making a hundred promises to myself to visit, I finally made it on Saturday. Inspired by a certain Dr Burl, who we had just witnessed giving a rather humourous talk in Penrith about Cumbrian stone circles, we jumped in the car and headed out, mapless but determined. Fortunately, Dom has a great sense of direction and I had vague memories of having checked out the route when I had planned to visit previously and we found Gunnerwell Farm without too many u-turns!
We parked on the road and walked down to the farm - I don't know whether the farm was ever sold but if it was, the new owners seem as friendly and welcoming as the previous ones. We did see the stone standing in the field outside the house but weren't sure whether this was just one of those cheeky old glacial erratics which manage to get everyhere round this bit of Cumbria.
From the farm, you just go through the gate and follow the field straight down - access is easy and no longer do you need to take your life in your hands and climb over dangerous walls. Jane will be pleased!
The M6 wasn't too busy and it was a stunningly beautiful day so we pottered around for some time - Dom mentioned the resemblance to Croft Moraig and I have to admit, it is equally as "messy" - it looks as if 2 groups of peope were trying to out-do each other and it just ended up as one big stone-fest! There are a couple of those lovely pink stones you find at Kemp Howe and Gamelands too which looked fab in the sunshine. Perversley, you actually get a better sense of this circle as you drive by on the M6 than when you are stood in the centre of it, so we climbed up to the top of the field to look down and see it is all of its glory.
A fabulous site to visit after being so inspired by Dr Burl and a good way to end the day. Bliss.
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After yet another visit to this intriguing site it seems clearer than ever that the entrance to the henge is aligned with a notch on the hill which is due east. This appears to be the point where the midwinter sun rises.
Whether I will ever be brave/foolhardy enough to trek over boggy fields to spend a few hours on this wind swept land in the middle of winter to check this out for myself remains to be seen!
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I would advise that you visit in winter so that you get a better idea of what a huge site this is. Even without the leaves and foilage, it is a hard site to decipher when you first enter but after we had walked the entire circumferance of this mighty henge, we had a better idea of what we were looking at!
It really is rather huge and impressive.
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We left it a bit late to look for this stone and it was dusk as we hit the the gardens. After looking at a couple of big stones by bins ("surely they wouldn't put it be a bin?" we hoped) we spotted it in a line of stones along the path on the right hand side as you approach the museum.
It is strange in that there is NOTHING to alert you to its presence or where it is from (this is a museum garden, after all) - it is as if they don't even realise it is there. It seems just stuck in with a load of other path-lining rocks. Strange.
The light wasn't good enough to get any decent shots but it was lovely to see, after being fed a diet of Romans and Vikings all day!
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Camped in the field next to these last night and took the opportunity to have a good look around. Am now more confused than ever! They do look positively henge-like as you approach but there doesn't seem to be any continuity and nothing is "finished off" Also, there is evidence of quarrying and there are a couple of large holes (now lovely - but very deep - ponds with ducks a plenty)
If these are the residue of quarrying then it seems that they would be less stylised to me. Also, someone would know because the quarrying would've been done in the last couple of hundred years, so there would be records, surely? BUT......why so many half henges???? Agh, it is frustrating. I'll post some pix and see what you all think
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It's HUGE!!!!
But.....is it a long barrow????? We had just spent the morning at an archaeology conference in Penrith and had been told in no uncertain terms that there aren't any long barrows in Cumbria. As we had spotted this site on a previous outing last year (as we were on the road to Moor Divock from the Clifton stones) and had promised ourselves a return trip, we felt that today was the day. Could we prove the archaeo bod wrong?
As Dom quite rightly pointed out, its situation is perfect for a LB, on a slight rise and highly visible from all directions. But....if it really is a LB then it should be famous and have a visitor centre because it is absolutely massive!!
We went into the field alongside it and it must measure at least 100m. It ticks most of the boxes but it just seems impossible that such a huge structure could've gone un-noticed by so many folks for so long.
So, maybe that guy from Cumbria Archaeology unit was right and there aren't any LBs in Cumbria afterall?
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Planned M6 road link
The planned M6/Heysham road link will run straight through the small village of Torrisholme, causing major disruption to the residents and will pass a few hundred metres from Torrishome Barrow.
The County Council's planning application admits that there will be "moderate to slight adverse effects" upon the site and that there will increased visual and noise disprution. The heart of village will be cut in 2 and houses which once looked out over green fields will have a 4 lane highway passing by their bedroom windows.
As the road passes through the village (and cuts straight through the grounds of the College where I work) it will be raised above the current road level, thus impacting upon the views from the top of the Barrow which allow a 360 degree view of the area, across to Lancaster and Morecambe Bay.
Locally, few people believe that this monster road will benefit the local area, our MP (Labour) has called it a "white elephant" and the impact it will have upon the life of the residents and the local FE College will be huge.
We have few prehistoric sites of note in this area as it is (the Romans were busy round here!) and the Barrow isn't particularly renowned but this is just another example of big business and government thinking the "little people" don't count. There is huge opposition to the road locally as we all know it is LOCAL traffic which causes the problems and this link will not ease any of this.
Local campaigners have set up a lobbying group - details can be found here: http://www.heyshamm6link.info/
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A recent move to a bizarre coastal village which gets cut off by the tide twice daily has meant my stone-hunting has become less frequent and also necessitated us selling the VW campervan (boo!) but.....I am still attempting to discover everything within my natural hunting grounds (N Lancs/Cumbria) and I keep being drawn further north to Scotland.......a recent trip to Aberdeenshire has helped develop a healthy obsession with RSCs!
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