[visited 31/5/4] I've wanted to visit this ever since I'd read about it, an 'irish' henge in England next to a classic style henge, how could I resist. Access is fairly good, you can park pretty much next to the henge and get in through a gate. So, I set off from my car almost at a run, straight up the west edge of the well preserved bank of rocks and pebbles. As I reached the top I looked down into the gloomy centre, the low sun not really lighting this place with its large tree and high banks. I inspected the remaining stone defiant in its solitude, Burl reckons it could be the last stone of a giant four poster, I remain reckonless.
A henge without an inner ditch is a weird one to see for the first time and I'm still left pondering who it was that built this. Was it irish traders in the Lakes backyard, maybe a permitted intrusion or was this a local tribute to a distant race or religion? Whoever it was this slightly foreboding henge is well worth a visit.
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[visited 31/5/4] My second visit here, the first being as a tourist many years ago knowing nothing about stone circles. Last time the surrounding hills were covered in mist & cloud and we left slightly disapointed not to have seen the expected supporting cast. This time however I was blown away. The circle is here to service the axe trade (amongst other things) but thats secondary to the placing, this circle was here and is here because of the amazing views. If you only saw one circle in your life, this one would not leave you disapointed.
Of course it is with its downside, tourists are highly prevalant and its ease of access means more dedications & bizarre stuff left in the name of belief. There was a weird circle of plaster druidesque figurines not 6 inches high in the centre of the circle and I didn't get a second alone here, but that changes nothing. I loved this so much I could share it with thousands and not care...
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[visited 31/5/4] Strictly not a visit as I only managed to get within 15 metres of the circle due to it being in crop. Access is poor, you could be best off parking on the street near the golf course and walking down the right hand side of the course. There is a stile into the field with the circle towards sellafield. A note on the site security guards, they drove past me carrying a large telephoto lense and didn't even blink, so I think the golfer mentioned here, should be ignored. :)
Oh and I had another encounter with evil cows (tm) as I walked through their field between the circle and the access road. Beware the cows!
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[visited 31/5/4] Wow this is a great circle and really set the tone for the day. I walked up from the road below wondering if the circle was over rated as it took an age to appear. Of course then it was suddenly there, fantastically set against the hills with a kite flying high above it. Access is good if you're prepared to drive up the track; a small car shouldn't have too many problems. Otherwise its a mile or so up a rough track.
Maybe it was the perfect weather or the random company (hi btw) but this circle rates as one of the best I've seen. It seems to compliment the surrounding hills, having spent so long together they are perhaps now inseperable. The portal is immediately obvious despite being the first I'd seen and provides a real focal point from the centre of the circle.
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[visited 3/4/4] I've been angling to come here for ages ever since I saw The Pikestones and wondered just how they got that far north. Access is good, you can park to within metres of the stones & then through a gate.
So accompanied by loud barking I got to see a very impressive chambered tomb facing almost true west. It used to be 100 odd metres long and had a cresentic forecourt with cobbling! Very similar in style to other outliers of the cotswolds barrows, a vein of which seem to be clinging to the western edge of englands central hills. If this mound was covered in white as per mounds further south, it would have been visible far out into the western plains.
I met a very helpful local who pointed out some stones can be still be seen in the small grove of trees on the way into the site and on the other side of the access road, but most were taken away when the road was metalled. Apparently the stones are named as a result of a wedding being held here in the 1930s, what they were called before then is unrecorded.This post appears as part of the blog post " Quick bank holiday drive round" |
[visited 3/4/4] I eyed this up in the car on the way south to Congleton, on the OS map and as I approached the Bridestones, the recomendation by a helpful local was just the icing on the top! Well worth a visit for the views with amazing views in 360 degrees. Access is for the vaguely fit and up a muddy path.
You can literally see for miles from up here, it was too hazy for me but the helpful arrows-pointing-at-things-in-the-distance pointed at stuff 50+ miles away.
To have been buried at the The Bridestones would have been a momentous thing indeed...This post appears as part of the blog post " Quick bank holiday drive round" |
[visited 3/4/4] "Unique in england" according to Dyer and I'm sure he's not wrong about that. Dyer says this is a neolithic chambered cairn at the Northern end with a later southern barrow with connecting bank. The bank was built with two rows of upright limestone slabs and this is visible (I think) leading away from the southern mound. Burials were found in the northern end and cremations along the bank and at the south.
Access is inadequate, you can get to wall of the field it's half in by car but otherwise its through a stile thing or over a gate.
Well, I didn't know what to expect with this and left not quite sure whats going on. It is a little gem tucked away but spoilt somewhat by the fence and tank as stubob says. Its been dug into quite a bit as well, so don't come expecting a show site! That said it is a real enigma and I'm not surprised its been put in as a bank barrow. The connecting mound is large, 2m odd high and 10m across, but the dimensions as a whole are wrong in my opinion for it to be linked with say, Long Bredy bank barrow.This post appears as part of the blog post " Quick bank holiday drive round" |
[visited 9/4/4] A word of warning, Eaton Golf course is private property and permission to visit should probably be sought from the clubhouse. If you have a slightly more cavalier approach to property ownership, access is best from the south via the path that cuts the course in two. Head up the west edge of the course along the well walked track and as you surmount the rise of the hill, the first barrow is to your right next to an attractive green. I only managed to find one of these (out of a possible 4), partly through lack of looking and mostly through not wanting golf balls aimed at me for tresspassing.
The one I found is a peach though, its had its top flattened off at some point in the past and has 4 concrete cubes on it which I presume are the remains of a water tank. But other than that its in fairly good nick. Its also a bit of an enigma, being more oval than round...
It bears more than a striking resemblance to Rudham and is presumably of the same group. An excavation in the 70s? has the barrows here down as Early Bronze Age so I guess this could be a transitional stage barrow, or even an anachronism in changing times. The longer axis points to ESE which only fuels the fire!
Access wise, as the course is designed with golf trolleys in mind I don't imagine you'd have much difficulty getting a wheelchair here, also the carpark for the golfers is but 5 minutes walk away...
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[visited nov 2003] Coming down into the valley west of Crow Hill from approx the Grey Mare, I had a purpose to fulfill. Namely the rectangular enclosure which had puzzled me last time.
I had a decent forage this time & discovered a few stones in the middle of it & also got a decent picture.
No idea how old it is as like the circles within the stone drift, it could have been made in modern times.
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[visited 22/02/04] I came here last on my day out to watch
the sunset over the lancashire plains, but changed my mind when I realised how likely I was to hurt myself going down the escarpment in the dark...
It really is a mess up here, I'm not convinced that much is prehistoric, given the huge industrial mill? stones just off the edge of the quarry. However if most of it is prehistoric then its a big cemetary, something like Raven Tor or even one of the barrow cemetarys down south (Poor Lot springs to mind.)
Well worth a visit, the views are spectacular & who knows what else is lurking under the heathery peat.This post appears as part of the blog post " Pennines Ahoy!" |
[visited 22/02/04] What a site for sore eyes this is, its condition reminds me of Grey Mare in Dorset, but the ground plan on the wellkept sign makes it look more like Hetty Peglars Tump. I parked on the corner & headed across open moor to the barrow. Its a bit trashed, but the location made up for it.
Didn't find the circle mentioned here, but did find a cairn with stones on the center which was approx 300m at 58 degrees from the Pikestones so maybe...This post appears as part of the blog post " Pennines Ahoy!" |
[visited 22/02/04] A brisk walk above Bolton leads you to this sorry site. It looks to be a dead ringer for an abused twin of Twelve Apostles, sitting sorrowful by the side of what is surely an ancient track. Despite the top of this windswept moor
doing steady traffic, I was the only person who stopped & walked over to the stumps, a somewhat depressing fact.
This circle isn't impressive, unique or even readily recognizable, but still it struggles on & fair play to it. Go visit & make sure it is less forgotten.This post appears as part of the blog post " Pennines Ahoy!" |
[visited 7/11/03] A possible site, not 15 miles from Medway, how could I refuse! This site is a touch tricky to find, however I eventually located it behind a disused battery chicken farm.
Now on an astonishing birthday weather wise, after an amazing summer, I wasn't that surprised to find the ruins of the church completely overgrown. Trouble being, so overgrown as to make it impossible to ascertain the presence or non-presence of any sarsen stone(s).
Anyone wanting to attempt this one should wait till January or turn up with lots of people prepared to clear a lot of foliage...
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[visited 22/09/2003] My first view of a certified cursus and I was not disapointed. I visited a bit near the middle of the cursus at approx SU025167.
I parked in a weird layby next to a farm gate on the edge of the A354 & worked my way through Oakley Down barrow cemetary, past a small wood and onto the cursus at SU023163. I then followed the path of the cursus north, touching on a wood full of some kind of pheasant thing. The best viewable remains seem to be in the wood itself, I didn't look for the west bank in the wood but the east bank reaches a height of approx 1.5m skirting the edge of the wood. Also look out for clear marks in the soil to the south of the wood, the east banks path is clearly visible at this time of year (late september).
So general impressions, it is huge. The only other sites that had this vastness about them that I've seen are Silbury & Avebury, but the overall nature of this dwarfs them. Two banks of earth taller than me, ploughing across the dorset landscape for miles upon miles, over hills into valleys, onwards ever onwards. One of those few occasions I've been overawed by what I've seen at a site.
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[visited 28/7/03] Magnus Magnusson opened this idyllic retreat in urban north kent in 1985. The Rising Sun pub noted by Dyer, is long since gone and has been replaced by a council estate. The closest we londoners get to Ballybrack, I guess.
Nothing to see unless you like pebbledash coverered cubes of cement. The first piece of the skull to be found was where the large 'plinth' is now, the next two pieces where the small 'seats' are.
As I left the site, the phrase 'one for the enthusiast' ran through my head...
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[visited 14/07/03] Well, I'm by far a cursus expert but I always thought they were much wider and generally bigger than this. However look at the pictures; it is a very strange track, it heads straight to one end of the barrow and it does go straight up a very steep hill. I would guess the central mound (and it is raised) is about 5 metres across.
Unfortunately I didn't get to the end at the bottom of the hill due to time constraints, so I have no idea how far it went etc...This post appears as part of the blog post " Wondering at Wilmington" |
[visited 14/07/03] Amazing views to the east, spoilt by the low sun & the early morning haze, which to be fair made the whole experience seem more mystical. This mound is a strange one, I wasn't sure where the mound ended and the edge of the hill began. Of course being the wrong side of the barbed wire fence didn't help.
I'll be back to have a proper shufty at this, the other side of the fence.This post appears as part of the blog post " Wondering at Wilmington" |
[visited 14/07/03] If I hadn't known this was a barrow, I would have thought it was either related to the fint mines next to it or some weird hillfortesque defense. The reason for my confusion is it seems to curve along the edge of the hill, though that could have been my sleep addled mind...
All in all its a good length, though fairly denuded & with a bit missing (the platform?). The question in my mind is whether the fint mines are contempory as Dyer hints.This post appears as part of the blog post " Wondering at Wilmington" |
[visited 14/07/03] Been here a couple of times before, but this was the first time I've climbed the hill (Like Dyer says, you can see it with binoculors perfectly well from the carpark :).
It apparently dates from Saxon times, though as per the rumour is something was painted here well before that. I will say the hill surface it is on is surprisingly flat and to my mind marks the quarries, almost like a first attempt at a billboard!This post appears as part of the blog post " Wondering at Wilmington" |
[visited 19/5/3] - This is another delightful sight with what I've just found to be Robin Hood's Stride very close by (ooh thats a very interesting rock outcrop). The stones definately look like the sorry remains of a circle & reminded me quite strongly of Bathampton Down. Very easy to reach from the road & lots in the area, well worth a visit as you'll probably get this to yourself like me!This post appears as part of the blog post " Peeking at the Peaks" |
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Rumours I found one folklore piece to complete my rainbow are true
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