non-Mega image outlets ? A cry from many hearts

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TomBo T
TomBo Apr 22, 2004 21:24:33
Replying to TomBo

The one in the photo is in need of repair. Unsurprising, since its not marked on any map. When they're in perfect condition they are tall and slender. They look very human, on the horizon.

The county archaeologist tells me they're medieval. When I pressed her for what evidence there was to suggest this she said "farming tradition". When I asked what she meant by "farming tradition" she stopped replying to me!

Its thought they mark the places from where shepherds watched their flocks. There's much more to it than that, though, if you ask me. For a start, you often get three right next to one another. They tend to fall on county/parish boundaries. I think they get called March Stones sometimes, in Scotland.

E Earthstepper
Earthstepper Apr 22, 2004 22:02:25
Replying to TomBo

Thanks. I've never come across the term before and never seen anything quite like the one in the photo. If I had seen them, I would have supposed them to be modern walkers' cairns.

B BlueGloves
BlueGloves Apr 22, 2004 22:26:15
Replying to TomBo

That one in the picture is a modern one, probably. I'm not going to get into how I tell them apart.

The old curricks are interchangeable with standing stones - to which they are related by function. The most known in one place is *nine*. They are intended to be viewed from a specific site against the horizon. When there is more than one in a line then they were presumably to distinguish between sunsets, or similar, from one day to another. As they are constructed of drystone they can be simply moved to finely tune the azimuth they describe. Then there are keepers and walkers' cairns. They can be distinguished by style, given about fifteen or twenty years practise. The real ones very usually are found associated with megalithic sites. Sometimes they are the only bits of these monuments that remain.

Have you seen the stars tonight ? Mars, Moon, Venus, with Castor and Pollux.