|
Not an easy site to find but what's left of it becomes recognisable once you know where it is. The outer three large stones are the most obvious things to look out for then the bank which seems to measure a couple of metres wide with a large stone that may well have formed part of an inner kerb. It's a shame that the site is so damaged as it could have been an impressive place. I've got an OS ref of SK2696075154 which puts it just a shade to the right of the circle marked 'enclosure' on the OS 1:50000 map. There's a load of (clearance?) cairns and rocks of the Swine Sty field system as well as a handfull of barrows to the northeast.
|
|
A limestone and rubble cairn measuring 17-18 metres in diameter and less than a metre tall which stands at the foot of Beacon Hill with Great Asby Scar just beyond to the east. These hills are of course the same ones that overlook Gamelands circle a mile and a quarter to the southeast. It's just possible that there is a sightline between these two sites, if anybody is passing Broadfell it might be worth checking it out (I didn't realise until checking the map much later).
|
|
A limestone and earth cairn measuring between 18-23 metres in diameter and about a metre high that stands on a northeast-southwest spine of land that runs between the valleys of Lyvennet Beck to the west and Scale Beck to the east. It has been lucky to survive as there is a limestone quarry just a few metres away to the south. Some nice views to the northeast towards the Lune Forest and Dufton and Murton Fell.
|
|
Louven Howe represents the highest point in this chain of barrows and stands just by the junction of several tracks. One leads north into Sneaton High Moor Woods, one south into Langdale Forest, one southeast towards Scarborough and one northwest along the same ridge as Ann Cross and Foster Howes.
|
About half a mile southeast of the Foster Howe barrows on the same ridge stands the lowish barrow at Ann Cross. EH record it as being about 18 metres diameter by 1.2 metres high although it seemed smaller to me (non megalithic push-bike included in photo for scale). They also mention a 2 metre wide ditch and some traces of a stone kerb neither of which I can confirm as I didn't notice either feature in the short time I was there. It does however have the ubiquitous crater left behind by those naughty early antiquarians who seemed to love excavating barrows but weren't so keen on actually recording what they found. Canon Greenwell had this to say on the subject in 1890 when he wrote about the barrows of the area - "Nearly all the barrows have been opened, and many of them in quite recent times, but no account of these examinations has been recorded, so far as I am aware, except a short notice of the openings of some on Cloughton Moor".
While the barrow has great views west, the eastward view towards the sea is now partly blocked by the trees of Louven Howe Side and Pike Hill.
|
The OS 1:50000 map shows two barrows here but there are actually three that stand in an almost north-south line along Foster Howes Ridge with the land falling away gently on each side. The barrows are visible from some distance, particularly when approached from the northwest when they are silhouetted on the skyline and there are fine views across Goathland Moor to the southwest and down to the sea at Robin Hoods Bay to the east from the barrows themselves.
When approached by track from this northwest direction it is the smaller northern barrow that is met with first, with the central barrow just beyond it but on the other side of the fence. The third (and largest) barrow stands a little further away just to the west of a gate and stile. This southernmost barrow also had a stone kerb although a very quick rummage through the heather only turned up one stone - there may be more. All three barrows show the signs of previous diggings with craters in the top, the one to the south has a rough looking boundary stone in it's crater, the central barrow is also said to have it's own stone although I can't confirm this.
|
|
This is a difficult mound to photograph as it is so badly covered in heather and is also the most low lying barrow of the group, indeed if you draw a line linking all the barrows together then Robbed Howe marks the lowest point of that line - from here it's uphill in either direction.
|
The smaller stone here has been so regularly shaped that it would be impossible to tell if it had a prehistoric origin. The larger stone is a difficult one to call as far as I'm concerned, it may be prehistoric but has been tooled on one face and at least one side with the face bearing an inscription from 1784. The barrow is also a little suspicious due to it's size and the fact that although it's marked as tumulus on the map it doesn't appear in my copy of the SMR.
Scratch head and file under Hmmm....
|
This is the easiest barrow of this group to visit as it stands just a few metres to the west of a small car parking area next to the Whitby - Goathland road. EH says it measures about 13 metres by 1 metre tall and like many of these barrows has a large hollow in its top - the result of antiquarian excavations or plundering in the past. While Breckon Howe is clearly visible from here, I don't think the next barrow in the chain, Flass Brow, can be seen from this point (I need to check the sightline again)
Although Sil Howe appears on the SMR it is not shown on either the 1:50000 or 1:25000 OS maps. This seems rather strange as it was formerly the home of the Lilla cross between 1952-1962 which would have been a prominent local landmark.
|
|
Paulus' advice is to visit this one on a wet day and catch it in low sunlight – I managed to visit on a dry February day late in the afternoon when the sun was coming in from the wrong direction. Some of the rings are just about visible and can be traced with a finger but the design is incredibly worn – shame.
|
|
This is an interesting stone propped up against a wall on the edge of the churchyard close to the 'plague stone'. It consists of a central cross within a diamond shape with the centre carved into a shallow depression, further grooves continue the diamond shape out towards the edge of the stone. I wasn't sure if it was prehistoric when I saw it but PRAWR has it recorded as stone 208 and says that Eric Cowling suggested it may have been a cist cover.
|
|
Easy enough to find in the churchyard, PRAWR says this stands 'among other stones of interest'. The only other stone I could find here was the lozenge stone (208 in the classification) that stands a few feet away, the rest are all medieval from what I remember.
|
This is an odd one – perched on top of a 30 foot chalk quarry face on the edge of a nature reserve. The quarry was once the site of chalk extraction, which was then burned to make agricultural lime and it was while digging around the base of the barrow in the early 20th century that a grave containing a crouched skeleton and a beaker pot was discovered. It is said that the pot (later dated to around 1600BC) rolled down the chalk face and was damaged while the unfortunate occupant of the grave later received a burial in the local churchyard. I don't know why the quarrymen didn't continue digging away at the barrow but I would hazard a guess that they didn't want to disturb any more bodies.
What's left of the barrow now measures about 15 metres in diameter, stands a metre tall and is situated on a northwest-southeast spur of land overlooking the valley of Burlands Beck. This same spur is also the location of the Deadmen's Grave long barrows about 500 metres to the northwest.
|
This is quite a large barrow that has managed to survive intensive agriculture as well as excavation and people riding trials bikes over it in recent years. Measuring between 30 and 35 metres in diameter the oval mound is still a couple of metres tall with the large depression in one side resulting from archaeological investigations in 1941. Although the land that the barrow stands on is fairly flat it seems that the close proximity of the source of the River Bain just a few hundred metres to the north west and the ancient trackway known as 'High Street' just to the south west might well have been the reason for its location here.
The barrow is believed to have been reused as the base of a set of gallows and more recently the site's association with death continued in the early 1960's when a nuclear missile launch site was commissioned less than a mile to the south east (don't worry, they're long gone).
|
|
I have to admit that this is a new one to me, I've never expected any barrows in this part of the county and hence never bothered looking, but here it is, marked on the map (though not as tumulus) too, which is even more of a surprise. It stands on a slight rise and can be see from some distance due to the trees growing on it but unusually for barrows in the county it is not associated with any streams or rivers, the nearest one is 2-3 miles away. English Heritage say it measures about 17 by 11 metres and stands around 2 metres high.
|
|
This is a nice barrow in a pleasant spot standing on gently eastward sloping land between 2 tributaries of the River Lymn with some great views of the surrounding countryside. The barrow itself is oval measuring roughly 30 metres by 20 metres (probably the result of plough damage) and stands about a couple of metres tall with a sizeable depression in its top. It is though that this is the result of the barrow being used as the base for a windmill at some time in the past, indeed it is marked on the OS map as 'mill mound'.
|
This barrow has often fallen in to 'is it or isn't it' category. It's shape and position are not typical of the Lincolnshire long barrows being a lengthened oval rather than trapezoid and standing on greensand rather than the chalk of the other barrows in the region. C. Phillips writing in 1932 likened it to several barrows in east Yorkshire while P. Phillips (I'm assuming they are related) said in 1989 that excavations had proved inconclusive, further in 1998 Dilwyn Jones failed to mention the site in his study of the long barrows of the area (although he also missed out at least one other recognised barrow).
English Heritage on the other hand have no doubts and list it as a definite long barrow giving its measurements as 65 metres by 20 metres with a maximum height of about one and a half metres and aligned south-east to north-west.
As with many other Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Lincolnshire it is close to the prehistoric trackway known as High Street and also stands close to the head of a valley that marks one of the sources of Kingerby Beck - the kind of position common to local barrows.
|
|
A nicely preserved barrow about 20 metres in diameter and just over 2 metres high standing next to the Viking way and to the north-east of the village of Burgh-on-Bain. The piece of land that the barrow stands on is a north-south spur that extends between the valleys of the River Bain to the west and one of it's tributaries to the east ending where the Bain cuts eastward then south again at the deserted medieval village of Biscathorpe a mile or so to the south. This gives the site an impressive 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside which is rich in chalk and flint – indeed English Heritage say that there have been several finds of worked flint from the soil around the barrow.
|
Further to what Dave says English Heritage only records a single barrow here – the round barrow to the east of the track. It has indeed been almost destroyed by ploughing with the earth and chalk body of the mound being spread across an area of 30-40 metres. If you crouch down though you can still see a slight hump in the field against the horizon.
The barrows position is interesting as while the land drops away by a nearly a hundred metres within a mile to the west to the River Bain, the barrow is just below the eastern crest of the hill and seems positioned to overlook a series of 5 or 6 valleys on this more gently sloping side of the hill. What could be more important however is that between the barrow and these valleys is a minor road that runs roughly northwest-southeast along a flattened ridge that was formerly used as a prehistoric trackway along this part of the Wolds. This trackway is now known as 'Bluestone Heath Road' and runs almost parallel to the 'High Street' trackway 3 miles to the east on the other side of the Bain but it appears that it was either felt to be less important and attracted less barrows or if they existed here in the past they have now been lost.
Fact fans: The large dishes close to the barrow that look like they come from a sci-fi filmset formed part of a cold war microwave communications system code named 'Ace High'. They can be seen on the goole map photo to the northwest of the barrow.
|
|
This is a smallish barrow measuring 15 metres by 1 metre high with slight traces of a ditch to the north and south that stands on a parish boundary just outside the village of Buslingthorpe. The first thing that is noticeable is how flat the land is, in the surrounding square mile the elevation doesn't rise or fall much more than a couple of metres either way. What there is round here however is plenty of water, the barrow is sited almost exactly half way between 2 tributaries of Barlings Eau - I'm assuming that these existed when the barrow was built and are not a result of more recent land drainage.
|
|
|
|
Log in |
Register
Previous 20 | Showing 21-40 of 178 fieldnotes. Most recent first | Next 20 
Top of page