From the Bell Hillock, on the Hill Of Redhall, I headed south towards Kirriemuir taking the first left. The stone is about 100 meters up and near the north side of the road. Impressive views north to the Meams, Redhall and Castle Hills, all of which have prehistoric sites.
Visited 12/7/2016.
Mid Craggie is situated amongst several cairns and forts near Daviot. We continued south from South Culdoich and parked near the junction at Craggie. On the opposite side of the road is the Craggie cairn. Crossing a wee area, looks like a barn might be built, of bare land we climbed the short distance north east to the cairn. Nothing to climb or jump this time.
In amongst the ferns many large kerbs encircle the cairn which sits at 12 meters wide and 0.8 meters tall. Small brown and white butterflies accompanied us round the monument. Winter time would be a good time to visit. Fast approaching winter skies defeated us the previous visit.
It should also be remembered that Balnurain and its Clavas are nearby, a short 4 or 5 miles north. However the Craggies are stunning in their own way and are a gateway to sites further west.
Visited 9/7/2016.
From the Clava cairns at Balnurain follow the road west and keep going until it ends. We headed south west at the junction and pulled in at the railway bridge at Easter Daltullich where there is plenty of parking space. From there we headed a short walk back up the road until a rusty gate. Jump this, climb the wee hill, keep going south jumping a couple fences and the cairn will be in front.
The cairn is built high above the Allt Ruidhne Moire burn having magnificent views north over the Moray Firth into the Black Isle. To see this view you look over the glen housing its illustrious neighbours. Various kerbs lie round the cairn and a possible fallen standing stone rests on the east side. As usual a bit of houking has been done.
A wonderful site to start the day!
Visited 9/7/2016.
Taras’s fieldnotes are spot on and it looks like they had a beautiful day. I headed south on the A957, much more widely known as The Slug Road in these parts, and I had a very rainy day. Undeterred I followed the track as it wound its way up the hill. Now this track is in very good condition until the final climb when it veers west. Severe floods in the NE, including here, have washed away much of the top section until just before the masts. So if walking up in the near future take care as this is an ankle breaker.
The cairn is lovely except for the obvious minus points i,e. the trig, the concrete slab. It still stands at 17 meters wide and is 3 meters tall. Now I like the heavy mist and the masts loomed like huge giants. Being quite tall I felt at home. It also makes the site feel timeless. Even the little buildings nearby don’t detract from this special place.
After quite a long time looking around it was time to go back down the hill in near zero visibility amongst the swirling clouds.
Visited 26/5/2016.
At last the hunt for Finglenny is over. Heaven knows how I managed to miss this place but I’ll blame the camouflage. From the henge at Wormy Hillock cross the bridge and then head south. However instead of following the track we headed into the woods and walked up the middle between the Ealaiche Burn and the track. Approximately 500 meters up stream you will walk straight into the cairn.
The cairn is well camouflaged by green moss and ferns. On the south east side it is over 2 meters in height. The main reason for walking past this site is that on the north west it is practically flat. When the forest wasn’t there the views of Tap O Noth would have been stunning. After a good look round we went back up onto the track for further Drew training. Sorry I mean dog training.
Visited 23/5/2016.
The Leith Hall mound has three different height sections and is surrounded by large stones and a built up bank some 37 by 19 meters being almost 2 meters in height. In the middle is the obvious top section. Three large trees sit in the site making it easy to find. sadly damage has been done as can be seen by the pictures. It also is being used as an agricultural rubbish dump.
Still it is a very pretty place with good views. If you peek between the trees Tap O Noth can be seen to the south west.
Heading west from the village of Kennethmont on the B9002 the road veers north. I parked opposite the first minor road heading west. From here follow the wee track heading east and jump the gate. The mound is to the south east.
Visited 19/5/2016.
Visited: July 1, 2016
De Zeven Bergjes (The Seven Little Hills) is a group of seven round barrows located in the Zuiderheide, a section of het Gooi Nature Reserve located to the northeast of Hilversum. They form a compact grouping, occupying an area measuring approximately 300 × 400 metres.
Three of the barrows (Nos 1, 2 and 7) are sizeable, and probably all in excess of three metres tall; the other four are significantly smaller. None, however, has any striking individuality, and one image only of each is included here.
Nevertheless, this area is easily accessible by a 15 minute walk from the Poolsterstraat bus halt (No 108 bus from Hilversum station), and provides pleasant walking on excellent paths. In a leisurely stroll, I visited all the barrows in three-quarters of an hour.
The grave mounds are about 4,000 years old and date from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. In and around them have been found urns, a dagger, an axe and a beaker.
The numbering of the mounds follows the maps of the area prepared by Museum ‘Oer’, located in Ulft, Netherlands.
Visited: July 2, 2016
You will almost certainly encounter hunebed D51 Noord Sleen en route to its much better preserved twin, D50, which lies about 100 metres farther along on the opposite side of the road (Hunebedweg).
D51 is very much the poor relation in this hunebed pair: it is somewhat smaller (at 12.3 × 3.5 metres), completely lacks a ring of kerbstones, and has clearly been the target of stone robbers over the ages. All but one of the original 14 sidestones remain in place though, but of the complement of capstones, only two of the assumed seven originals are still to be seen, one still supported and the other partly slumped into the crypt. There is an entrance portal with three of its original four stones still present.
Visited: July 2, 2016
Hunebed D50 Noord Sleen is in many respects the most spectacular of all the hunebedden, not only for its sheer bulk (it measures 17 metres in length, almost 4.5 metres in width and consists of 16 sidestones and 7 of the original 8 capstones), but because it is surrounded by the most complete set of kerbstones of any hunebed. It is this ring of kerbstones that immediately catches the eye, as many of them are as tall as the sidestones in the hunebed itself, in contrast with the rather diminuitive kerbstones found at other hunebedden.
The circle is also noteworthy for the close packing of its stones which, at several places round the hunebed, stand virtually shoulder to shoulder with each other.
Hunebed D50 possesses just a single remaining stone of its entrance passage. The three missing ones have been marked by concrete slabs by Albert van Giffen.
I first visited here in 2011, and have been waiting for a sunny day to do photographing it justice on several trips to Drenthe since. This seemed to be the day, as I had just visited the Stone of Noordbarge in hot sunshine, but as I took the bus the few kilometres up the road to Noord Sleen, dark clouds gathered. I just had time to take a few photographs of D50 in reasonable light before the rain came, and then I had to beat a hasty retreat as wind and rain lashed the area.
You can read more about Hunebed D50 on Hans Meijer’s website.
This updates the link (below) provided by Jayne, which is now ‘dead’.
02/07/2016 – I didn’t think I’d get time to fit a visit to this stone in during my trip but luckily plans worked out well and on the last afternoon we found ourselves in Arisaig, good to go.
We started from the The Land, Sea and Islands Visitor Centre, a lovely small community run visitor centre in Arisaig. Well worth a look around and it has a nice shop. On display there is the Rhu Stone. Link below for more info. Very interesting.
nosasblog.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/rhu-arisaig-neolithic-hide-and-seek/
It’s a nice walk of about 4 miles to the stone and back on good tracks. Lovely for a sunny afternoon. The stone isn’t hard to find, just off the track at NM 66917 84483. Over 80 cups on it. In the visitor centre there was a notice asking folk to stop putting coins in the cups as it was causing damage. Luckily the cups were empty today. Location is good with fine views of the surrounding hills.
If you have time, make the short walk on to the pebble beach at Camas Ghaoideil, it’s a lovely spot for a brew and a sandwich.
Visited: July 2, 2016
I finally got around to visiting this huge erratic boulder after failing miserably, on an earlier trip, to photograph it from the window of a moving bus.
I had been visiting Emmen’s zoo, Wildlands, newly relocated to a spacious park on the western boundary of the town. At the end of the visit, I set out on foot for the Steen van Noordbarge, a pleasant 20-minute walk.
The stone is easily located as it lies on Emmerweg, just a few metres east of the sign indicating the western boundary of Emmen/Noordbarge. It lies in a shallow grassy hollow, and measures 4.15 × 3.40 metres. Efforts had clearly been made in antiquity to shatter the stone for building purposes, as there is evidence of seven boreholes in it.
29/06/2016 – Lovely walk today around high lochs and hill tops on Eigg. Follow the same track as the walk up An Sgurr then leave the path just as it turns to climb the ridge and instead start heading north and spend the day exploring the lochs and rocks of this beautiful area. No paths but easy under foot.
Loch Nam Ban Mora is just past An Sgurr. It’s lovely and its little stone islet with its dun is well worth a visit to see from the shoreline.
If you have time, walk on to the top of Cora-bheinn (not far). It has one of the best views of the island.
I think Loch Nam Ban Mora means ‘The Island of the Big Women’. Interesting folklore about the Loch – infinite-scotland.com/poi/st-donnan-and-the-island-of-the-big-women/
Worth mentioning is a great little book you can pick up in the shop at the Harbour – ‘The geology of Eigg’. Nice to have with you as you walk around (especially if you know as little as me about rocks and stuff). It suggests some good walks/routes at the back.
28/06/2016 – This site caught my eye when I was looking for places to visit on Eigg. Location looked great from the map and the Canmore classification of ‘Ritual Enclosure (prehistoric)’ sounded pretty intriguing. So on our first full day on Eigg, off we went to see if we could find it.
Two ways to this one, from the north or from the south – east is the sea and west are the cliffs of Beinn Bhuidhe. We walked in from the north. There is no path this way and at this time of year the bracken is bad. Easier from the south, access to the ground below the cliffs is at Bealach Clith. An OK-ish path heads north for a mile or so but then it’s again like from the north, just a case of bashing through the bracken. As you near the site, the whole place becomes one massive boulder field. You have to really watch your step. Finding the site proved tricky (even with GPS) as it’s in the middle of this boulder field. Some of the boulders are huge!
I didn’t know what to make of the enclosure surrounding the underground chamber really. Again the bracken didn’t help with trying to make out the structure (I’ll put a link to HES, which gives a full description, below and also Canmore which has some nice diagrams and photos)
The entrance to the underground void isn’t too bad but you have to watch your head on the roof. Inside the space is good and it extends a fair way. It’s a bit of a shock after a few hours of walking in the sunshine in an open landscape to suddenly be in darkness in such a small space relative to the outside world. After a while it felt peaceful and we both liked it very much. Lots of limpet shells on the floor near the entrance left by something or someone.
Overall I found the place a mystery and it was wonderful for that. Hard to get to and then find, especially at this time of year but if you are ever on Eigg it’s worth the trip, I’d love to read others’ thoughts on the place. Worth the walk just to be in such an amazing landscape for the day.
27/06/2016 – Morning ferry from Mallaig for a few days on Eigg. The highest place on the island is the magnificent pitchstone ridge of An Sgurr. As the ferry gets closer to Eigg it’s hard not to be totally captured by the hill’s ever increasing dominance of the surrounding landscape. The walk from the harbour is pretty straight forward. Just head west and then follow the red dots marking the way on the track leading to the hill. Approaching from the east, the sheer sides of the hill makes access seem a near impossible task but follow the track along the north side and about 500 meters west of the top a small gully allows access to the ridge. It’s then just a case of following the red dots to the top. Nothing too technical but a small word of caution, the three sides of An Sgurr are sheer and it wouldn’t be a great place to be in the wind and rain. I have no head for heights and did find the feeling of exposure a bit hard work. The views from the top are amazing. Rum, Skye and back to the mainland, very good indeed.
There is not much to see of a fort on the top though, just a dry stone wall running north-south near the access gully, that cuts off the eastern end from the rest of the ridge.
It’s possible to make the climb to the top and back to the ferry on a day trip but if you can it’s better to stay over a few days on wonderful Eigg and take the whole place in. The hill is a special one. It’s been 10 years since I was last on Eigg so it was great to finally make it back to visit this hill. Fantastic day.
In my opinion the sentinel feature of the South Lanarkshire landscape is the great Bronze Age cairn surmounting the sprawling, elephantine bulk of Tinto. Now I’m assuming this is not an overly contentious assertion, the monument visible for miles around... well, at least when not subsumed within an all too frequent mantle of low cloud, that is. My choice of the most enigmatic site in the locality – Park Knowe – is, however, far more subjective... not least since, I guess, the very meaning of ‘enigmatic’ is itself equivocal and subjective.
Crowning a low, seemingly insignificant hill to the north-east of the aforementioned, dominating Tinto, a designation of ‘Enclosure’ upon the relevant OS map does little to promote a visit here. Why indeed, what with the fine Iron Age earthworks of Fallburn perfectly placed below (to the approx west) to detour any travellers still retaining a little residual energy not expended during the ascent to the massive cairn? In fact, arising from an overnight camp to a vividly bright dawn, it is only a chance reference to a ‘ring of standing stones at Park Knowe’ (or words to that effect) upon the Fallburn car park noticeboard that raises my curiosity. Whatever could it mean?
So... standing upon the ancient ramparts of Fallburn a short time later I find myself intrigued as to why this impressive hill fort was not itself erected upon Park Knowe, obviously a far more naturally defensible location... assuming the latter’s enclosure is indeed less structurally significant? Hey, suffice to say a visit is now not only required, but essential. However, upon arrival, close proximity nevertheless does little to resolve the conundrum. Yeah, the summit of the hill is indeed girdled by two, roughly concentric banks; however these are so diminutive in stature – a thin rubble core held in position by a line of contiguous stones on each face – as to suggest their function was to merely delineate the enclosure? For this was surely no hill fort, the pragmatic RCAHMS classification justified:
“In view of the slightness of the banks, the monument cannot be classed as a fort... in the 18th century the interior is reported (OSA 1791) to have contained “a large mound of earth”. There is no indication of this mound at the present time, and if it ever existed it was presumably levelled when ploughing encroached upon the site. (RCAHMS 1978)..”
So what do these remains upon Park Knowe represent? If the enclosure did, in fact, once feature a ‘large mound of earth’ I’d suggest it’s not unreasonable to hypothesise a low level companion to Tinto’s incomparable monument rising to the south-west, standing within an enclosure devoid of any defensive characteristics or intention. For me the fact that the Iron Age locals chose to build their great fortified home below Park Knowe – rather than take advantage of its clear defensive worth – is indicative that something of very significant (non-military) importance already occupied the summit, something that had to be left inviolate. Or suffer the consequences.
That this mysterious structure still exists, still accords wondrous views across the surrounding landscape this golden morning... still has the capacity to confound, to send thoughts cascading around this human brain in a futile quest for immediate comprehension... is truly something to behold in a age where ‘everything’ can seemingly be answered in an instant at the activation of an on line app. Ha! Not everything, or so it would appear!
I find it difficult to define, let alone relate, what characteristics a prehistoric site must possess to be considered ‘enigmatic’. However I have to say Park Knowe is probably as close to a physical representation of this nebulous term as I’ve yet encountered in these Isles.
A couple of miles south of Aberglaslyn on the A498 there is a house set back from the road, it has a nice garden, just past it is the parking place, a little layby with room for three or four cars. We the occupants of third car exited said vehicle and walked back up the road following the now wide and slow moving river Glaslyn, but only for a hundred yards then we turn left and up hill on a farm track passing a rusty shack on the corner(you can see it on streetview).
This is the very much up hill section of the walk, it’s steep and slippy and because of the thick wooded slopes there is no view. But on the upside I love walking in the woods of Snowdonia, because of the abundant rainfall these woods are as lush and verdant as the proverbial garden, a river runs along side the path plunging over a hundred falls. Moss covers just about everything, ferns, falls and forts, who could ask for more.
The easy to follow path zigzags it’s way up until it comes out of the woods and onto the open hill side, there would have been good views, particularly of Cnicht east across the valley, but the mist and grey skies that had bothered us this whole summer solstice morning, was still bothering us, all in a days stone hunting these days.
This path runs right next to the fort, so it was with relative ease that we reached this minor league player in the game of stones.
We leave the path and ascend the rock, passing some very unusual looking rocks we enter through what surely must be the original entrance, now walled up. This modern wall encloses the hill top and is built from the old fort wall, in places it has used all the stone from the fort, and in places there is still much stone spread still beneath the wall.
It lightly but persistently rained nearly the whole time we were there, Eric hunkered down whilst I explored and photographed.
Farmer has not only built a new wall out of the fort but there are three annexes inside it too, and lots of ferns, soaking wet ferns.
It came all too soon to be the time to go, so we climbed back over the new wall and exited the fort via the correct exit, just in time to note that the low clouds had moved on somewhat revealing a decent section of the best place in Wales and England, not a green field in sight, and more trees than I thought were in the whole national park. I asked Eric to sit tight whilst I went for a little walk up there and there, points at rocky vantage points, from up there the view was stunning, I could now see Cnicht, across the valley and far above us and a touch round the corner Moel Hebog and it’s cairn cemetery, but not Snowdon, the mists still clung on tightly over there. I’ll have to come back on an even nicer day, there are hut circles and hut circles that might be ring cairns and two kilometers west a stone row, so until then, we’ll continue to avoid dying horribly so we can keep on with a game of stones.
Today (after the nation’s collective bad weekend) I had the opportunity to walk up White Horse Hill at Uffington. Probably my favourite place, the place that represents home to me. The moment my feet start to walk up, peace descends and the turmoil of our current political situation fades, not into insignificance but certainly into proportion. This is my England, ancient and symbolic. A profusion of orchids and wild thyme growing on the banks of the hillfort. Sat on a wooden bench up there to have a snack, listening to the skylarks, watching red kite soar up from below and rise high into the thermals, in the distance the London train speeds by – looking almost toy-like from this height . The white horse is currently being re-chalked but paid my usual respects anyway. Then for a walk along the Ridgeway, more wild orchids. Didn’t go as far as Wayland’s Smithy today, just wanted to see, touch and hear my little bit of old England again. Feeling a better for it – for now anyway.
The Lamalou dolmen is one of small group of very similar monuments on the Causse de l’Hortus .They all have square or trapezoidal chambers , an adjoining ante chamber ,which tends to be smaller ,a long passage , indented slabs at entrances , dry stone walling and large cairns . The orientations are similar ,between 246 -256 degrees but the declinations are all quite different with nothing astro or landscapewise in common .Despite the presence of small but prominent hills on their horizons e.g. Pic St Loup etc , they are avoided .
D27 Borger viewed from a Drone
Wiebe de Jager has filmed D27 Borger, Netherland’s largest hunebed, using his DJI Phantom 2 drone fitted with a GoPro Hero 4 video camera.
The video can be viewed on YouTube.
Visited 25.6.16
Directions:
You can park outside the chapel in the hamlet of Rhos-Goch. The barrow is in the field behind the chapel.
At first I walked through the chapel graveyard in the hope of seeing the barrow in the neighboring field (the graveyard is on a slight rise). However, due to the high hedgerow this was not possible. I then walked a short distance down the main road and came to a field gate.
Unfortunately I could see no trace of the barrow.
Either I was looking in the wrong place or it has been ploughed out?
Failed visit 25.6.16
There are two barrows showing on the O/S map adjacent to Lane Farm. Unfortunately the hedgerows here are huge, at least 10ft in height. I could see no access points near to where the barrow are so had to resign myself to defeat on this occasion.
I have no idea what condition the barrows are in?
Visited 25.6.16
Wow, has it really been 6 years since my last visit? Where has the time gone? Needless to say, the stones are aging better than me! :)
The field where the stones live has been left to go fallow and the grass and nettles were knee height. The stones felt warm to the touch and I sat upon the smallest stone, which is half-fallen. The clouds had cleared and the sun shone. Despite being close to a country lane and being overlooked by a farmhouse, all was quiet. This is a nice place to sit and ponder. The stones are off a decent size (5 to 6ft tall) and are well worth a visit if you happen to be in the area.
Hopefully it won’t be 6 years till my next visit.
Visited 25.6.16
Despite the field being in crop the ‘bump’ of the barrow could quite easily be seen from the field gate.
Not worth going out of your way for.
Visited 25.6.16
The stone can be found at the edge of the road pretty much opposite the public footpath sign. I notice the grass verge has recently been cut back by the council. I wonder how many mower blades have been damaged on this stone? The low stone was covered in nettles on my visit. This is a stone which would be easy to miss!
Visited 25.6.16
Directions:
Where the road kinks there is a public footpath sign. Go through the field gate to the left of the sign. The stone is visible from the gate.
The field had been left to go fallow and the grass was waist height. Only the top of the stone was visible from the gate. Upon approaching I could see the stone was in a slight hollow. No doubt due to it being previously used as a rubbing post?
From the stone you can easily see how the stone (and all the other prehistoric sites in the area) sit within a natural bowl, surrounded by hills in all directions. This is a pretty area and well worth a visit if in the area.
