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2 Cairns & a Mesolithic scatter site are listed very close together in The Anglezarke survey report & also by Pastscape, so having worked out where the sites should be I headed off on the short walk from Moor Lane. The first of the cairns is quite easily found, but the second is more problematic, I think I found it but it’s buried deep in the Anglezarke tufty grass & a winter trip when the vegetation is at its lowest is needed to confirm it.
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Listed on Pastscape as a “Broken standing stone on Anglezarke Moor. Possibly prehistoric, but more likely a med/post-medieval waymarker” this stone at least has its feet rooted in the ground, not in peat & is also situated away from any major stone working sites, but as with so much up here the question of its antiquity remains. In common with most of the Anglezarke sites whichever way you try to access this stone, bogs & tufty grass are on the menu!
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A wonderfully sited standing stone on Stronstrey bank, if this is Neolithic it has had an amazing escape situated as it is in the middle of & surrounded by post medieval stone workings. Personally I think I think it’s contemporary with the surrounding stone workings and has been standing for a few hundred years at most.
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Even though Anglezarke is my local site I had never given this cairn much thought, assuming it to be synonymous with the site posted here as Pikestones Cairn. Recently however the difference in location between the site of the the Pikestones Cairn & all of the published data on Jepson’s Gate Cairn began to intrigue me, surely all of the sources for the JG Cairn, including the excavation report, couldn’t have it in the wrong place? The published co-ordinates placed Jepson’s Gate Cairn on the south-west side of Hurst Hill, whereas the Pikestones Cairn is on the south. There was only one thing to do and that was to get re-acquainted with the delights of the Anglezarke tufty grass & bogs, soon locating the cairn with it’s still clearly defined kerb very close to the published co-ordinates.
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The circle consists of 15 low granite stones and has a diameter of 20m; it is sited next to the well preserved remains of a Romano British Enclosure into the walls of which some of the stones on the Western side have been incorporated. The circle although quite ruinous is easily recognized, although a number of the stones are hidden by tall grasses.
The extensive site, of which the circle is a part, bears evidence of long term occupation, containing not only the circle and enclosure but four substantial cairnfields, several stone banks, an ancient trackway, hut circles, and the remains of a medieval field system.
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Close to Pike Stones and the Jepsons Gate Cairn, evidence of Mesolithic lithic scatter and occupation were discovered by excavation in the 1990's. The report can be found in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 62/1996.
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Not that easy to find, the carvings are below the tide level on very slippery rocks. There are more cups here, but either they were below the water level or hidden by seaweed, and as my swimming abilities are very similar to those of my camera I decided to settle for the more obvious examples.
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Having noticed the low water levels in several reservoirs recently, it seemed a possibility that the drowned circle at Walshaw Dean might perhaps be visible, so I set out armed with the published GPS and the 1902 pic of the site. I headed straight for the spot indicated by the GPS which is just past the dam of the upper reservoir to find nothing but water. The description of the site however places it in the middle reservoir, not the upper, so I walked round the reservoir looking for signs of the circle, eventually right by the dam in the middle reservoir I spotted what looked to be the remains of a circle, closer inspection raised my hopes still further – Was this indeed the remains of Walshaw Dean Circle? I think so, further information from Ling Roths – 'The Yorkshire Coiners' puts the site 'on the left hand side of the valley going up, a few yards above the damn of the second reservoir' (Thanks Paulus) in other words exactly where these stones are at SD96472 33553. At the moment levels are still low, and the stones clearly visible, the site is an easy 1 mile walk up the tarmac road to the Lodge, when you reach the Lodge, look over the dam & the circle is right there.
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The feature here that is generally assumed to be the cairn is actually the base of a modern summerhouse, the real cairn is at SD50147428 and is a much more discreet affair, being an oval about 12.5m x 9.4m, it consists of a mound of earth and limestone rubble, and is kerbed with limestone blocks. At the centre is a depression, the result of an 1778 excavation which recovered a human skeleton, a large bead, and calcined human bones.
The cairn is easy to locate via the footpath to Leighton Hall from Peter Lane. Almost immediately after going through the gate from Peter Lane the path crosses a tractor track running up the hill, follow this to the left, the cairn is on the left-hand side of this track, just before leaving the trees and entering the area where the stone circle is situated (Directly below the ESE outlier).
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Is this a local stone or was it brought in from elsewhere during construction of the reservoir? Living locally I've made many trips to the surrounding moors and so far not seen evidence of any other rock art in the Rivington area.
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Sited about three quarters of a mile down the A839 to Lairg from the A9 junction, on the Mound Rock, Aberscross is easily accessed being sited on a flat platform a short walk up the slope, however it's definitely one to visit when the bracken is down, in early July it was completely swamped.
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