Early Neolithic Dates on Human Bone from Fox Hole Cave, Derbyshire
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Pastscapes information on the caves' excavations.
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This rock shelter is about 220m NW of the footbridge at the bottom of Cales Dale as it joins Lathkill Dale. Tricky climb onto the ledge and shelter.
Excavated by TA Harris in 1928. Finds included Upper Palaeolithic flints plus some reindeer bones. Neolithic flints were also recovered and included a discoidal knife, a leaf-shaped arrowhead and flakes. A possible human burial of a Neolithic date was also found.
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I visited Chee Tor a coupla years ago after I came across a reference to a stone circle there in the SMR/NMR records. I now note that Pastscape also mention the site as an uncertain stone circle Short arc of bank with four upright stones within it, possibly a Bronze Age embanked stone circle. So I thought I'd post some pictures...see what folk thought.
Chee Tor is a high spur of land overlooking the River Wye in the valley below. It's a pretty spectacular location for a circle located as it is right on the edge of the near vertical slope into Chee Dale.
I'm not sure what to think....other parts of the tor are noted for their Romano-British settlement remains and it's this that bugs me about the site...'taint a million miles away from them...although there's nothing like this structure amongst them.
Spectacular area and worth a visit for the views of Chee Dale alone.
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Pastscapes information on the shelter and its burials.
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You'll probably need a gps to find this cist unless you have a few hours to spare. There is a large rock nearby that sorta becomes visible when you're on top of it and so is something to look for in the thick heather....I think it is part of the boundary bank the cist is built into.
Two sides of the cist are clearly visible and constructed of fairly large stones.
If you have a gps then SK28157 71021 should get you to within a few metres of it.
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Separated by the Umberley Sick from Gibbet Moor this cairn stands on Brampton East Moor proper, although it is directly related to the Gibbet Moor settlement and lies several hundred metres from Gibbet Moor North.
The cairn is enormous (close in size to Wet Withens' barrow) even though it was robbed in medieval times to build an adjoining animal pen.
The NMR reckons that there is at least 2 cairns possibly 3 with some visible kerbstones but so interfered with is it, it's difficult to work out any of it out.
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SK17230 65405.
Cales Dale as with Calling Low Dale is a tributary valley to Lathkil Dale with stunning limestone scenery where the two meet.
Cales Dale Upper Cave is well hidden on a high shelf on the western side of the valley and requires a steep tricky climb up from the path.
The cave was used in the Iron Age and later Romano period.
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This rock shelter is located just over half a mile away from Bee Low in the secluded Calling Low Dale (previously Callenge). Access to the dale is pretty straightforward through Bee Low Wood although I'm not sure about it being an actual 'right of way'. Moving around between the crags is hard going as there is no path.
In the Neolithic it was used as a burial site and two cists were constructed within it, one containing human bones, arrowheads and a Peterborough ware bowl. Colonel Harris who excavated here in 1936-39 also found other burials were outside the cists.
Tricky to locate, as there are several other caves/shelters, it's situated at the southern entrance to the crag sided dale. On the whole it's a little disappointing but hey it's in a spectacular position.
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Excavated by Carrington in 1849 the barrow was found to contain a contracted inhumation accompanied by several leaf shaped arrowheads and other unspecified flints. The mound also contained a secondary cremation.
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Thomas Bateman's
"Ten Years' Digging in the Celtic and Saxon Grave Hills, in the counties of Derby, Stafford and York. From 1848 to1858..."
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Archaeological trail through Ecclesall Woods. The stone and several other possible prehistoric features are mentioned.
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The rock shelter/cave is located in a low (3m) broken limestone scarp, some 300m in length, overlooking Bonsall Moor and the hill of Blake Low to the south.
Known by CAPRA as DS01 the scarp and shelter are overgrown and difficult to spot from any distance and other smaller shelters can be misleading.
In Rodney Castleden's 'Neolithic Britain: New Stone Age Sites of England, Scotland and Wales' he mentions that large rocks in front of the shelter were placed there to form an enclosed platform in front of the opening...not sure whether I got this bit or not...it's rocky ground and looked natural to me.
A number of flint tools have been recovered from the area in and around the shelter. Being such a small hole I'm guessing the place was used as a hunting shelter, rather than for habitation, somewhere to make tools outta the wind and rain
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Don't like doing this but I ain't actually been to this cairn, although we did see it from the neighbouring Parkhouse Hill; and from here it looked to be quite a decent size.
It's located on open access land so a personal visit is on the cards.
There's also a good view from Parkhouse Hill to the Dowel Cave and Etches Cave.
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An audio trail to download covering Stanton Moor; includes 9 Ladies, the cairn T2 and the natural outcrops
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For what is life? And what is life like? I do not know what Life is but Life is like yesterday at Minninglow where as I peered over the flank of the grassy kist-crowned hill I saw a circle of six unmapped Neolithic standing stones I had not realised were there. Gray in the vernal sun lay they, Dinantian limestone sarsens honed round by the howling hail of ages. Gray as the drystone dykes and ice-plucked slabs and quarry walls about me. Always curious about antique things I strode against the freezing wind to see them, and they raised their heads and skittered in alarm.
James R Warren.
Perditions Illusion. 2006.
(http://www.jamesrwarren.com/perdita1.pdf)
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An audio trail to download to your mp3 player taking in some of the archaeology of Gardom's Edge.
A map and directions for the walk are available too.
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Gratton Moor lies between Minninglow and Arbor Low above the dry valleys of Long and Gratton Dale.
What first drew me to this place was its position in relation to the Neolithic monuments around here and a ploughed field and mole hills on the eastern side of the moor. I wasn't here to see the two Bronze Age barrows... I was here for flint. And when I got to the fields that's what I got...there were waste flakes of chert and flint along with scrapers, blades and the odd arrowhead lying on the surface.
Checking the NMR and SMR I found that the moor had been walked years before by a local bloke from Elton, who too had filled boxes with his finds, and that a number of Neolithic occupation sites were noted on the moor at SK199599, SK202603 and SK191605
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From J D Sainter's "Scientific Rambles Round Macclesfield" 1878:
'At a short distance south of Rock Hall, there may be observed on the opposite slope of Hen Cloud a block of gritstone, which upon approaching it, is found to be resting or balanced, in the first place, upon a short edge of rock and then upon two upright and pointed stone pillars about eighteen inches in height, which will constitute a dolmen. At a few yards south of this stone there appears to be the remains of a stone circle, 20 feet in diameter.'
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From J D Sainters "Scientific Rambles Round Macclesfield" 1878:
'East of this sephulchral cell or monument, there stood six or eight upright stones or monoliths, from 8-10feet in height and six feet apart, which formed a circle 27 feet in diameter; and two other stones stood north by south within this circle, which may have been the remains of a cromlech or dolmen that had contained a burial by process of cremation, since the soil is reported black with charcoal ashes. Another stone stood six yards east from this circle, succeeded by one six yards beyond it......'
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Catalogue of the Bateman collection of antiquities in the Sheffield public museum.
Prepared by E. Howarth.
Published by order of the Committee.
1899
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"On the eminence above Matlock Church, called Riber Hill, are the remains of what has been supposed a Druidical altar, but which has more resemblance to a cromlech; it is called the Hirst Stones, and consists of four rude masses of gritstone, one of which, apparently the smallest, is placed on the others, and is computed to weigh about two tons, on the upper side of which is a circular hole, made for the reception of a pillar in modern times..."
T. Bateman "Vesitiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire.
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"On the declivity of a hill on Ashover Common is a rocking stone, called by the people 'Robin Hood's Mark' which measures 26 feet in circumference, and from its extraordinary position evidently not only appears to have been a work of art, but to have been placed with great ingenuity. About 200 yards to the north of this is a singularly-shaped rock, called the 'Turning stone', in height 9 feet, supposed by Mr Rooke to have been a rock idol..."
T. Bateman "Vesitiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire.
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"Nearly a quarter of a mile west of Row-tor is another assemblage of large rocks, forming a similar kind of hill, called Bradley-tor, after a former owner of the property on which they stand; on the upper part is a rocking stone 32 feet in circumference, and of orbicular shape, and raised above the ground by 2 stones having a passage between them. This conforms in every aspect to the Tolmens or rock idols described in Borlase's 'Antiquities of Cornwall' in which part of England there are many examples of this form rocking-stones...."
T. Bateman "Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbys"
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The mound was excavated by T.Bateman in 1845. He found the primary burial of contracted inhumation and several later cremations.
The inhumation was accompanied by flint tools including a dagger and an axe.
In relation to the cremations pottery, a barbed arrowhead and quartz pebbles accompanied one.
The other appeared later and held unspecified Anglian artefacts.
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There's plenty historical to see on the way to Carder Low from Hartington village; medieval earthworks at Moat Hall, a Norman Motte at Bank Top Farm and Romano field systems on the slopes of Carder Low itself.
The barrow/cairn, about 19m across and 1m high, is however a bit of a disappointment although the views across the upper Dove valley into Staffordshire are excellent.
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Dolphin trainer for the MoD.
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