 Previous 20 | Showing 41-45 of 45 fieldnotes. Most recent first
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I had set myself a target for my holiday of a minimum of three site visits per day. On my first day, having only done two - the forts at Corsewall and Portobello - on returning at dusk to my campsite, the excellent North Rhinns Camping near Leswalt, my eyes lighted on this nearby site on the map. The stone looked to be near the road, and I read Broch's notes. 'Dammit, it's going to be dark but there's a full moon..I'll give it a go and get my third'. I parked up the side road by the gate, a short distance after the road left that for Portpatrick. In the field I saw some poles for electric cables in the gloaming, then, by the nearest, a smallish dark lump. It didn't move. Not a cow...or bull. Could it be...? Broch had done well to keep that pole and its pals out of his shots, as it is only about ten feet or so from the stone. I got my camera and hopped over the gate, got to the stone and got some flash shots with my camera and smartphone. The full moon was rising and casting some atmospheric shadows. The stone's faring well enough..packing stones exposed by livestock wear, but it's stocky sturdy and still well set. After ten minutes I heard a farm dog bark, not excitedly but.. mission accomplished, time to go. Pat. You've got to pat. See you again in daylight.. Number three.
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Reiterating Broch, if you don't fancy making the descent from the escarpment behind, a visit to this site is tide dependent. On the evening I visited the tide only receded sufficiently as light was fading. The main problem is at the rocky outcrop near the bottom of the steps from the car park. Watch your footing and keep your hands free as the seaweed and boulders are rather slippery. I couldn't find the site on my visit last year, and I wouldn't say it was late when I did so this time..except I saw a bat. Yes, little of the place remains, but it's still worthwhile, not least because of the very fine beach, which, out of season, in the evening you'll like as not have to yourself, and also the view from the other car park up at the lighthouse, where I've now come a couple of times to watch the sun go down over the Irish Sea. My site visit was truncated by the fast approaching darkness and also the arrival of a couple of cars in the car park and my ungrounded fear that their occupants may have had designs on mine. Memo to self: must return in broad daylight next time - tide willing. If you like to combine your hobby with chilling on a beach look no further
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Before setting out on my explorations of Galloway sites in 2015 this was a site that I had decided I would definitely visit for no better reason than that I liked the name. Do not rely on the position indicated on the OS map - I think it is slightly nearer the '9' numeral shown. This was the last site visited on a day spent exploring some superb lesser known sites in the South Rhins, and was the only one featured on TMA. This is being corrected. Parking at dusk in an informal parking area above the shore of Terally Bay I walked up and down the verge of the A716 looking at the skyline of the raised field on the landward side of the road and, after a few minutes, 'aha!' I spotted the top of the stone against the fading light. Access to the field, which had been freshly shorn of its corn, was via an ungated entrance, on the south side of which was a very distinctive gorse covered mound, of which more shortly. I made my way along the field edge to the stone, which is about four feet high, roughly rectangular, and compared to all the other stones I visited, unusually thin, at its top being about six inches thick, rather reminiscent of a tombstone. As the last rays of the sunset waned I carried on photographing using flash. It hadn't images here, deserved to.. and would. I gave a pat and made to go, and then a thought struck me: was its orientation significant, a pointer? Aligning my eyes at either end of its top in turn I found that one pointed to the summit of Inchmulloch Hill to the southwest, while the other seemed to point to the highest point of the Mull of Sinniness on the other side of Luce Bay. Coincidence? Returning eventually to the field entrance in the gloaming I couldn't help investigating that gorsey mound.. I groped my scratchy way to its summit. A perfect cone. Animal disturbance revealed that it seemed not to be composed of field clearance material but finer stuff. A cairn, I'll be bound. A stream flows gently by the base of its southerly side to meet the shores of beautiful Luce Bay. A fine place for a final rest. A migrating corncrake flew over, calling in the dark. I descended carefully, walked back to the car as a golden near full moon rose over Whithorn and the water and drove off slowly to my campsite. It had been a good day.
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It is a wonder that this stone has not toppled, and I would be very surprised if it has not done so within the next ten years. Parking on the verge a short distance along the minor road that leads to Low Clanyard after it leaves the A716, adjacent to a solitary static caravan to the rear of the corner house I found a broad holloway - perhaps indicative of a former sizeable human presence - with a disused farm track in its middle that climbed up onto the pastureland that overlooks Luce Bay, and the stone came into view on ascent as the holloway opened out at its crest. Although the stone, some five feet in height, looked in good order as I approached, the side view of it told a different story, as it is leaning southward at an angle of approximately sixty degrees, and I am totally convinced that but for some chocking stones on that southward side it would have gone already. The culprits are undoubtedly cattle, as its packing stones are exposed and its corners blackened by the grease from their rubbing. The stone is top heavy and seems to be tapering to a point at its lower end, and I doubt if that is now embedded by more than a foot. I gave it a gentle pat, but fear its standing years are very nearly over.
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Like CARL, I failed to find this despite a prolonged search. I do wonder if the position indicated on the OS map is entirely accurate, as subsequently I found one or two instances where this seemed to be the case, eg Low Curghie. What I did find, though, were four very large stones set vertically at regular intervals set into the wall of the field below that where the wind turbines are. They seemed very out of place compared to all the other stonework, and I wonder if they were there as a consequence of a site being tidied away. I did not think that they included a recent addition to their number. They were not visible from the minor road that leads to Whirlpool, being on the far side of the first brow, but should be visible with binoculars from the road that leads to Clachanmore and Ardwell. I regret not having a look in the top 'turbine' field, but the increasing interest of cattle made me decide it was best to withdraw. I hope to have another crack next year..my only failure to find a site out of the thirty or so visited in western Galloway in October 2015. Hi ho..
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Previous 20 | Showing 41-45 of 45 fieldnotes. Most recent first |
I have always been interested in history, fictional or historical, and loved reading as a child the works of Rosemary Sutcliff. Yes, I did read Stig Of The Dump too. When ten I found a mussel midden when digging holes in the back garden - it turned out my folks house was built adjacent to the town hanging place, and the mussels were part of the additional social attractions. I used to visit sites when I could with my similarily interested father, particularily on holiday. Glenelg Brochs, Caer Caradoc, Maiden Castle, Warham Camp... History was my strong point at school, but life took me elsewhere for a career. I continued to read the likes of Graves, Belloc and Childe, though, as well as watching any history programme on television.. Cunliffe, Wheeler, Chronicle.. this continues to the present. I watch the repeats of the repeats of the repeats of Time Team, you name it. While my interest latterly has been for the most part armchair based, I have always loved looking at maps, and by using the distance between the Roman milecastles of Hadrian's Wall as a datum I have done a lot of work identifying Roman settlements along pre-Roman routes, cross referencing with linguistic clues in placenames and archaeological records. I also believe I have found three settlements of some size where little or no habitation exists today. Oh, to dig. I have no favourites as to type of archaeological site, and feel that phenomena such as holloways and holy wells or sacred springs are unjustly neglected compared to the likes of stone circle glamourpussies. A site is a site is a site. I visited many in the White and Dark Peak in the '80's before raising a family and steam engine restoration and firing took precedence. After tentative explorations on holiday over the last five years I have recently started to visit sites intensively again, but my circumstances frustratingly rarely permit this. My prime interest currently is visiting Western Scottish coastal sites, and, as a horticulturist, studying the botany in their environs that may be present day survivors of cultivation contemporary with site's occupancy, such a sorrel and, yes, gorse, sacred to the Celts and much used by them, now cursed by those interested in archaeology today. Sorry! (Not : p) Favourite sites: Lagvag Cairn, Dunman, Slochmill, Barsalloch, Powerstock Common, Eggardon Hill, Arbor Low, Warham Camp and Stevington Holy Well. Avatar: Torhouskie Stone Row. I took this image after being charged by cattle there five minutes earlier. A reminder to myself to make the most of what life may yet have to offer, including enjoying this, my hobby, as it can end in a trice.
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