Yeah, pretty much, with both the southern enclosure and northern 'fort' being Iron Age sites (of some sort) initially. The actual castle below is very overgrown and I didn't investigate beyond walking past it!
Interesting, there's a lot going on round there. Should be back that way next month, but I'm currently unable to walk anywhere much, so not sure how much I'll be getting to see this time.
According to the SMR it's a proper mixed bag. Iron Age pottery shows definite prehistoric origins, then reinforcement of the earthworks later. A bit like Castell Dinas Bran I guess. Lovely place for a mooch though, especially at this time of year.
Yeah, the idea was to find the cairn supposedly at SH65141153, so came via Bedd y Brenin to the west... but nothing doing. Not a bad back-up plan, although to be honest was probably always going to push on.
Good to see this superb, albeit small, museum in Devizes getting some publicity. I believe it will be moving to the larger building of the old Assizes Court sometime in the future. Must make a point of visiting soon to have a closer look at the necklace.
Really liking these... great moorland settings. Without your efforts, a lot of this substantial stuff would remain in obscurity. Slight regret is that you weren't posting here 10-20 years ago when I was coming to Scotland every year! Always needed to break the long drive in The Borders
The Wren's Egg boulder is not in its original position, following an attempt by a farmer to move it. Probably not very far, but enough to take it out of alignment.
Hello Spencer. I know the stones you mean and it's hard to say if they are cleared standing stones or not. There are a few similar stones in the walls around the field, which all look to be the same type as the Wren's Egg and the two in-situ standing stones. I'd guess they were all dropped from the last glacier to melt here. I was at Shakeabodie Rock, a few miles north at the weekend and the walls there were full of small glacial erratics of the same type too.
The mound is certainly made of glacial deposits, but it isn't beyond possibility it was also of significance. The 1970s excavation report ruled out the possibility of the Wren's Egg being part of a double circle, but didn't rule out other stones standing close to it. It also mentions that as the stone holes are so shallow, it is possible any traces have been ploughed away.
Interestingly, the stones from one of the early Bronze Age cists discovered here a few years ago, are deposited in the same corner of the field you speak of. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more to still discover (I think there was one found near the farmhouse too). I'd be interested to see if there are any ritual deposits waiting to be found in the nearby loch and my feeling is that the Fell of Barhullion lies at the centre of a ritual landscape.