Been 8years since I last was at Offerton West. So overgrown was it back then that I wasn't in a hurry to return.....gave it another shot today and the circle/ring cairn is quite prominent now, although the damaged western side is covered in dying bracken.
Worth a look. Photos dont really do it justice.
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Now missing its centre and western side this would've at one time been quite an impressive cairn. It overlooks the settlement and field systems on the improved Highlow Bank.
From the standing stone, follow the wall east for a couple of hundred yards. When the wall changes direction the cairn is visible over the wall.
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This is quite a large cairn, somewhere around 20 or so metres in diameter and less disturbed than its northern neighbour. A ring of gritstone kerbstones surround it.
SK22481 85614.
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Parking at Dennis Knoll the cairn is about three quarters of a mile away on the top of Stanage Edge. The first half mile is all up hill with a final rocky scramble up to the Edge proper.
I'd left Matlock bathing in the sun under clear blue skies, but here only 20miles North, the wind howled up along Stanage Edge blowing in rain and hail storms every few minutes.
The north cairn at Crow Chin is around 20m in diameter and ringed by a gritstone kerb. Several smaller cairns from the excavation lie beyond its rim on the north side. And the stones of the dismantled cist within the cairn circumference to the south.
On a clearer day the views out over Win Hill, Lose Hill and Crook Hill would be superb.
SK22469 85614.
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This is now under an open access/right to roam area.
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Approaching from the south along the Duke's Drive that crosses the moor.....get to the old reservoir keepers house (now RSPB) keep to the vehicle track to the left and through the gate (as it skirts the property) 200m further on keep looking to the right, the circle is between the track and a large grassy/bracken clearing 50m from the track......there's a quite well worn path around the circles circumference.
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This small barrow of earth and stones, 7m x7m and below 0.5m in height, lies by the side of an ancient trackway. It has outstanding views through the valley to the hillfort/enclosure at Carl Wark.
Atop the barrow is a wayside cross base known as the Baptism Stone or Christening Stone.
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Think the stones visible in the hollow on top of the barrow are in fact the remains of a lime kiln.
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Around 120m from the cairn Harland Edge SW (b) this circular cairn of around 6m in diameter is also overgrown and again probably related to a settlement or something below Harland Edge to the south (Harland Sick).
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Unless you are walking Harland Edge then there's not a lot to make you want to find this cairn. It's roughly 5x4m in diameter and just visible above the scrub and heather.
From its position just below Harland Edge proper I would say it's more than likely related to the settlement on Harewood Moor or perhaps one below the 'edge' itself rather than those on Beeley or Gibbet Moor.
Excellent views south over the remaining Eastern Moors to the White Peak in the south.
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Small area consisting of a cairnfield and linear field clearance just about visible above the moorland grass a couple of hundred metres from the Millstone Sick. The NMR states that a house stance/platform is also visible but I couldn't find or make that bit out for certain.
The NMR also records the possibility of a stone circle on Harewood Moor. In his books John Barnatt does not mention it however, and my search of the area has yielded nothing up to now.
In all the remains are not really worth the effort of a special journey, although the boundary stone that stands in an improved field and is known from the 16th century perambulations as Shirle Forke, approx. SK305670 and engraved with crosses is worth checking out in itself.
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There are said to be 6 small cairns here, 2 of which are said to be definitely funerary because of their formal lay out i.e kerbs and dished interiors, but the area is so overgrown in thick heather or last years bracken that there is nothing to be seen on the surface.
Approximately 300m from the cairn at Fallinge Edge.
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As Postman says very overgrown now...only two of the cairns remain visible and a small section of the kerbstones.
The rectangular setting nearby is now completely heather covered.
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It's not really worth the effort of the 800m or so rough and wet moorland crossing from the Raven Tor Triple Cairn to this small funerary cairn on Fallinge Edge.
It's hard to tell whether the cairn's been excavated at some time in the past or not. Although some of the stone has been robbed, no doubt when the nearby quarries were working, as half the cairn is only discernable from the ring of kerbstones that remain.
Around 7m in diameter and perhaps 0.4m in height.
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Rainster Rocks lies near the south western end of a chain of dolomitic limestone outcrops that start in the north east at Harboro' Rocks moving through Longcliffe Crags and finishing at Black Rocks.
Smaller in area than Harboro' or Longcliffe the outcrop at Rainster is impressive because of its height.
With both the outcrops to the NE having a prehistory, (Harboro' Rocks where a Neolithic passage grave was erected and a Neolithic cave burial was located along with signs of Palaeolithic activity and Longcliffe Crags where Rains Cave is sited), I've often wondered about Rainster Rocks and whether they were an important part of the ancient landscape.
So over the last 5 or 6 years I've been searching the area around the rocks for any kind of evidence. At the south side of the rocks is a Romano-British settlement and lead rake and this is noted in the NMR.
The area is also heavily marked with Medieval ridge and furrow so any chance of finding a long lost barrow wasn't on the cards....but what there was was a prolific amount of mole hills....so I took my chance with them after successes with this method elsewhere in the Peak.
After a year or two with no success I started to take the lads up there with me to help me look....I showed them a piece of flint so they knew roughly what they were looking for and the youngest promptly went to a mole hill and recovered what looked to be a flint awl.
That was all that we found and nothing more turned up for several years until this year. Checking the mole hills this year I've found up to now what looks to be the rough out of a small flint axe and also a small quartzite celt (at least I think thats what they are, I'm trying to get in touch with the small finds officer at Derby's museum to confirm my beliefs).
While I know that a couple of random finds prove nothing the rocks lie within 2 miles of the Neolithic/Mesolithic sites of Minninglow Hill and Tithe Farm, the Mesolithic site at Hoe Grange and the Neolithic sites at Roystone Rocks and Curzon Lodge.
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I wouldn't swear to it but I think this barrow has been lost to the Grange Mill Quarry.......I couldn't find it after a long time festering around the area along the edge of the quarry.
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Even more plough damaged than Slipper Low and no real reason to make a visit. Never been excavated....strange seen as Bateman was so close to it in the mid 19th Century.
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Standing by several walling stone quarries. Measuring around 17 x 14m in diameter, several kerbstones are visible, the low mound looks very messed about with. Maybe the wall builders stripped most of the usable stone before sinking their quarry.
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Over the last 6 years since making my misc post I've been back to Long Dale too many times to recall looking for some kinda evidence of the Neolithic settlement/camp that is said to be in the area of the barrow of the same date. Nothing remains on the surface as in earthworks or depressions so I've been going solely on flint finds from the many mole hills in the area. And so my best guess is it would've probably been around 100m to the east of the barrow as I've found, getting on for several hundred pieces of waste flint flakes here but nothing else in the area.
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Shouldn't really be up here at Cow Low as it's located on land belonging to the huge limestone quarry of Tunstead Works. It lies in a small plantation on the edge of the quarry which when in it's original context would've enjoyed views south across Wye Dale to Topley Pike and east across Great Rocks Dale and possibly Woo Dale to the west. As for the north who knows the massive gaping quarry has seen to the landscape here.
Through all this there are still the remains of Romano-British field system and settlement that survive in the form of low earthworks.
Still quite impressive at 28x24m and a little under 2m in height, I couldn't resist coming here because of the burials the barrow was found to contain (see misc post below).
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Dolphin trainer for the MoD.
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