Latest Fieldnotes

05/05/2016 – Standing inside Lordenshaws hillfort, just looking around at the view, I thought we were done for the day. Then I turned to face Garleigh Hill. The little white trigpoint seem to call out to me and the rocky side of the hill looked just to good to pass up on. Easy walk across and lots of interesting rocks to look at on the short climb up. The cairn is just next to the trigpoint. Large capstone visible. A fine way to end the day.

Old OS maps have stone circles marked on them at the top. I guess this is just the cairn. Anyone know anymore?

05/05/2016 – We parked at the Lordenshaws car park really just to have a walk on the Simonside Hills. Once there we realised that maybe we were heading in the wrong direction! The 1:50000 OS map doesn’t give that much away but a quick glance at the 1:25000 revealed a hillside full of megalithic wonder. Luckily we had all day so we chose Simonside first, leaving the afternoon free to roam the tops on the other side of the road.

The hillside, topped with a great hillfort, is just full of rocks with markings on the them. First up to the big one. Great rock art and the location is fantastic. Close views of the Simonside Hills and The Cheviots looking fine in the distance. After that we spent the rest of the time there just wandering around looking at random stones and taking in the scenery.

So much to see but the one that will stay with me is the Channel Rock. On the far side of the hillfort is this most fantastic rock. It’s huge and has this channel in it that has to be seen. I can’t really explain why I loved it so much but I just found the groove and the smooth surface of the rock so pleasing to the eye.

Top site. If you go (and you should) make a day of it. So much to see.

05/05/2016 – Nice walk over the Simonside Hills from Lordenshaws car park. I think I passed about 5 decent cairns on the way over. The one on Tosson Hill (highest top of Simonside Hills) is a good one. Great view north to The Cheviots.

08/05/2015 – Starting from the village of Guisborough, we set out for a day strolling about the moor looking at cairns and really just taking in the fine views from the top. No set plan, just a day taken slow.

The low cloud from the day before was still hanging around as we climbed the hill but by the time we broke clear of the trees the early morning sun had worked a bit of magic and the rest of the day was left to us and the sunshine to go for a walk.

Making our way south across Gisborough Moor, we stopped to look at the cairns called Three Howes just past the trigpoint. Whilst there we got chatting to the game keeper (top man) after he saw us looking at the cairns (the place is covered in them!). Seeing we were interested in old stones, he told us about this stone circle and gave us great directions, so we duly set off to see if we could find it.

Though it’s in a open area of the moor which the track to the north looks down upon, I could easily have walked past and never known it was there. Look for a couple of old gate posts, either side of the track and look southish. It is about 200 meters away.

This is a lovely stone circle of about 18 small stones and a wonderful place to sit and while away the day. A really fantastic spot for it too with fine views. It was hard not to drift asleep as we sat there in the warmth of the sun. A real favourite. It was tough to leave to make the slow walk back over the moor.

06/05/2016 – Starting from Thrunton Wood. Anticlockwise loop round Callaly Crag, Hard Nab, stopping by this cairn for a brew then south to Long Crag, Coe Crags and back north to the start. Nice walk. (The cairns just north of Hard Nab are a bit hidden amongst trees).

02/05/2016 – Sometimes when I’ve read about a site and seen the photos, if the place is as good as Kettley Crag it’s hard to actually believe it exists and that I was there, walking up Chattonpark Hill with the rock shelter just on the other side, a few minutes walk away. It doesn’t get much better than Kettley Crag with its floor covered in the most wonderful rock art.

First things first, I had to get past the rock art on the south side of the hill. Easy parking in the layby and good access straight onto the hill. There’s rocks everywhere. The simple action of walking a hillside, having a nosey at each new rock we came across for any trace of markings is one of pure joy. Still happy just thinking about it again today. What a wonderful afternoon.

The pull of Kettley Crag proved too strong, so we made the walk over the top to the north side. It felt too soon. The Rock Shelter is quite magical and I hadn’t realised how good its location and view of the landscape was going to be. Wonderful markings.

After a while we strolled back to the Chatton rocks again. This time just sitting by the largest panel and trying to take in all we had seen. The sunshine was in and out of the clouds, making the markings on the main panel seem to nearly disappear then magically reappear again to surprise us once more. Again the views from here are too good. The Cheviots in full view.

Finally it was time to go. I came to see Kettley Crag but in the end this main panel at Chatton stole a little bit of our hearts. Perfect day.

Going north to Dounby the North Bigging Road is a sharp turn on your right with the broch clearly marked on the map, but I approached from the other end after going on to Dounby and turning off there so (hopefully) I could see other sites along the way. After the Holodyke Hunting Lodge (no mere gateway but a grand mansion) the road turns back down to the main road. On the left is a converted wartime building and the broch is in the next field. After I did my work the farmer came to find out why my interest in his “knowe”, rather bemused. A very understanding chap and I would suggest speaking with him beforehand as we need more people like him and I enjoyed our brief chat. There are a few exposed parts of the nound but I’d say that from what I saw the “many stones of considerable size” have gone. It also looks to me as if the present SE edge was the border because the field over the dyke is so level, though the report says that the long pit there might be wall core. Near the top of the downhill side is a shallow bowl that could be a cell as a low ridge seems to cut it off, though from the side it does appear like part of a structure heading down to the base of the mound.

Visited 30th April 2016

I would never have known about this place without the handy ‘sites nearby’ drop down on the TMA website. I’d been looking to see if there was anywhere to combine with a visit to the Druids Circle at Ulverston, and being only a couple of miles away this seemed to fit the bill perfectly. I’d done a bit of Google Streetview scrying before we set out and located what looked like a suitable layby to park up in on Hooks Lane just to the south of the village on the way towards Little Urswick. Being too busy scanning the fields for the chamber we initially overshot the site, and if you reach a crossroads on Hooks Lane you’ve definitely gone too far. Managing to turn the car around in the narrow lane we eventually made it to the pull in, and walked back down the road looking for the chamber.

It’s difficult to spot from the road but soon we reached a likely looking gate with pubic footpath sign, directly opposite a small stone building and noticed that actually there was space to park the car right next to the field gate. It’s always nice when a site can be accessed via a public footpath as it just makes the whole visit more relaxed, allowing you to enjoy the place without feeling like an intruder. So crossing the field we soon reached a stile over a stone wall with the slope on which the burial chamber stands behind it.

The burial chamber is cunningly concealed by a tree, which not so much as hides the chamber but erupts from it, pushing aside the stone orthostats as if in a time-lapse arboreal explosion. From the blocky stone facade the burial chamber resembles the result you’d get if you asked someone to build a chambered tomb in Minecraft, chunky stone slabs of grey stone forming the proud remains of a frontage, whilst behind the chamber layers of limestone outcropping rise in a wide shelf.

It’s really peaceful here, a few cows going about their business cropping the grass in a nearby field, and I squeeze into the remains of the chamber and sit in the dappled shade soaking up the atmosphere and writing some fieldnotes. Although small and ruined this is a lovely place. It’s certainly an unusual site, of what I’m sure antiquarians would have referred to as a ‘rude’ construction, and reminded me a bit of the Brane burial chamber all the way down in Cornwall. The top stone of the chamber seems to support a little ecosystem of its own, with various mosses, ferns and even a small tree growing there, and standing back from a certain angle the chamber resembles a giant turtle, the bushy greenery of the central tree forming the shell.

Decamping over to the limestone ridge to survey the view the sun is out, and the chamber blends nicely into the landscape, almost as if it’s a natural feature. I could happily stay here all day, I just wish we’d got a picnic with us, as it’s getting late into the afternoon now and we’ll need to move on soon to find somewhere to eat.

Crossing the field back to towards the car we encounter a couple of walkers examining an O.S. map, ‘Don’t suppose you know where the burial chamber is?’ they ask, I point them in the direction of the tree hiding the stones, they initially look at me askance, probably having expected something more along the lines of West Kennett, but head off anyway another two visitors for this engaging little site.

09/05/2016 – Starting from Clay Bank car park, nice walk over the tops to Drake Howe. Fine weather today with good views. The top of Drake Howe is a really good place for a cairn and this cairn is a fair size. Time hasn’t been good to it though. Wainstones worth a look at on the way.

12/05/2016 – If you are thinking of visiting one of the two hills mentioned in local rhyme posted by Rhiannon below I’d pick Rubers Law over Dunion Hill any day of the week.

Access can be gained from most directions but I liked the walk from Denholm (nice coffee shop there) to the NW. Follow the footpath heading SE out of Denholm, then take the path through the trees which lead you first SW then SE. After that it’s a short climb up to the top.

The fort is on the summit of a great little rugged hill. Some nice overgrown walls to see but this fort’s best defence is the hill’s natural outcrops. Lovely site to walk around and great views from it.

12/05/2015 – Like Rubers Law hillfort nearby, the history of this fort looks quite complex. Unlike fantastic Rubers Law, this fort and the hill it’s on has been quarried to near oblivion. It’s in a sad state nowadays. Parking at the entrance to the quarry we walked past Dunion Hill on the way to the much nicer Black Law. Access this way is probably frowned upon but if you don’t tell, I won’t either.

Sometimes Facebook throws up a delight. For a while now I’ve been linked up with a Facebook page called ‘Swindon – Past and Present’. A Swindon archaeologist by the name of Bernard Phillips has been posting some very interesting items about sites of archaeological interest in and around Swindon. Just read this about Barbury Castle:

“South of Wroughton, stands the Boroughs largest and most impressive Iron Age hillfort – Barbury Castle. Like Liddington Castle it was built around 750BC. Its double defensive ditches and ramparts enclose an area 11.5 acres (4.65 hectares). A geophysical survey in 1996 and an earthwork survey in 1998 by the Royal Commission for Historical Monuments recorded forty hut circles and hundreds of pits within it. Chance discoveries include a blacksmiths hoard that comprised knives, sickles, awls, spearheads, an anvil and a chariot fitting, and pits containing pottery and skeletons. The combined evidence points to this hillfort being dominant in the region serving domestic, agricultural, trading, military and religious functions throughout the Iron Age.”

03/05/2016 – From The Chevoit. Weather was cold, sunny, windy, cloudy, snowy, calm ...

03/05/2016 – It’s a fine walk round The Cheviot and Hedgehope Hill apart from one thing – the bog. As Rhiannon’s folklore post below puts it – ‘..a perfect bog’. We’ve walked a few soggy hills in our time but this was something else. The top’s so bad they’ve laid over 1 km of stone slabs to help folk across the flat summit. It wasn’t that much better before or after the top as well today. I’m not sure my boots will ever recover. Apart from that, it’s a pretty straight forward circuit of the hills from the end of the public road in Harthope Valley. Couple of cairns on The Cheviot and one on Hedgehope Hill to look at but I guess the main reason to go is a day in the hills away from the hustle and bustle of modern life.

07/05/2016 – After missing the view on our misty trip to Erra Moor in the morning, we thought we’d try another hill in the afternoon but if anything the cloud was even worse on this one. Starting from the Cross Keys hotel on the A171 to the south, footpath heads north up the hill all the way to the top. Nice walk and the hillfort looks decent from what I could see of it!

07/05/2016 – Easy walk up from Clay Bank car park. Cairn on summit with trigpoint on top. Thick cloud today so the views (which I bet are good) will have to wait until next time.

11/05/2016 – In an area of many hillforts, if you are looking for one with good views they don’t come much better than this. Starting from the village of Morebattle, we took the St Cuthbert’s Way until just after Grubbit Law then followed the gentle incline round to Hownam Law. A fine walk that didn’t take as long as it first looked from the bottom. The summit is an ideal place for a fort. With its impressive 360 view, no one’s sneaking up on you here. Not really much walls to look at, best maybe on the south side. There is an enclosure to the east and two probably artificial ponds on the level ground north of the top. The trigpoint sits on a grassed over cairn. Great place for a day trip. We sat for a good while eating our sandwiches in the sun and murdering the theme tune to Grange Hill after noticing the name of the top just to the west on the OS map. I liked this one.

13/05/2016 – Walking the fence line off Lammer Law back to West Hopes we passed this hillfort. Viewed it from afar as I was a bit sleepy to go over and the electric fence had got me twice already by then and I didn’t what to give it its hat trick. Feel a bit bad about not making the effort as it does look a good little site. Canmore mentions it being vitrified.

13/05/2016 – Starting from the end of the public road just south of East Hopes (Good parking NT 55741 63272) we headed south past West Hopes (location was used in the opening scenes of the film ‘Greyfriars Bobby’ 1961). Good tracks all the way to the cairn on top of Lammer Law. A fine walk on the hills, looping round Hopes reservoir back to the car. Though not the highest point of the Lammermuir Hills, Lammer Law is perhaps better known than Meikle Says Law due to its name and its big cairn at the summit. The footprint of the cairn is a good size and views across the Firth of Forth and over to the Pentland Hills are very impressive. Bit cloudy today so the far stuff was a little tricky to make out. Well worth a visit this one and one I had looked forward to for a while so it was good to finally make the trip. The walk over to Whitestone Cairn, east of here, on Harestone Hill from West Hopes looks good as well – next time.

10/05/2016 – Now long closed down but the cafe next door is a good place to break up a journey.

Visited 30th April 2016

The Druids circle always strikes me as a bit of a Cinderella site, always overlooked for the more glamourous sites of Castlerigg, Long Meg and Sunkenkirk that lie further within the heart of the Lake District. It’s always been the case previously for me too, with never time to detour off as there always seemed bigger sites to see. Now it’s time to put this right and the circle is first on our itinerary for our weekend in the Lakes.

Engaging in the traditional British bank holiday pursuit of dodging both the showers and the traffic it’s not long before we turn off at Ulverston and are on the A5087 hugging the coast. I’d previously Google Street Viewed the hell out of this road, to make sure I’d recognise the sharp turning onto Birkrigg common, and so had no trouble in finding the un-signposted lane we needed. Pulling in on the grass next to a couple of other cars I was amazed to find I could just about make out the low shapes of the stones. I’d worried it might be harder to find, having read some of the previous fieldnotes, and the ominous pronouncement ‘needs an O.S. map’ from the papery TMA, but it seems the previously obscuring ferns have been quite brutally hacked back.

It’s a lovely setting for a site, and the circle’s not bad either. Blue skies stretch over the expansive stretch of Morecambe bay, and the tower of Bardsea church in line with the circle draws the eye, a fine juxtaposition of the old gods and the new.

The circle itself is intriguing, the small pristine ring of pockmarked stones initially looking like they tell the whole story, and only at a closer glance do you make out the outer circle of recumbent stones around the perimeter. It may be natural, but it almost looks like the circle sites on a henge, vague traces of a raised platform and embanked ditch catch my eye, but it’s probably wishful thinking on my part. As a site it makes a complex picture, and I sit amongst the stones and ponder.

The breeze is mild and the warmth of the sun is pleasant when it makes an appearance between the scudding clouds, and I’m struck by how nice it is here. Sadly there is still some traces of red paint on the stones, but it’s barely visible, and the circle will persist unbowed long after the existence of the idiotic vandal responsible is forgotten. A small piece of amethyst has been left in the centre of the circle as an offering, but it’s nice to see everything else is clean and tidy with no signs of litter about.

I walk to the nearby limestone pavement to get a slightly elevated view, serenaded on my way by a skylark, and have to concur with Mr Cope, that this truly is a ‘righteous hangout’, even in this region of spectacular circles the Druid’s Circle holds its own. It retains a certain charm of the plucky underdog, and is surely worth the visit in its own right. I like it here!

Visited 2nd May 2016

When visiting King Arthur’s Round Table I’d make two suggestions. Firstly the little village of Eamont Bridge is surprisingly busy, and there isn’t really anywhere designated to park if you’re coming to see the henge. We squeezed in amongst some other cars at the side of the A6, outside what seemed to be a rather busy hair salon and garage that seemed to be holding a yard sale. In hindsight it would probably have been better to park up at one of the two nearby pubs, where a leisurely drink, as opposed to a continual fear of getting the car bumped, might have proved more conducive to a pleasant visit.

Secondly make sure you come here first before visiting Mayburgh henge. Having just come from there it’s fair to say that after the grandeur of the amazing Mayburgh, which exceeded all expectations, there’s a palpable sense of let-down when you first see King Arthur’s table. Huddled between the intersection of two busy roads, on first appearances it bares more resemblance to a village bowling green, or King Arthur’s picnic spot perhaps? Like Carl before us we were somewhat disappointed with this place.

Shadows from the late afternoon sun pick out the gentle undulations of the earthworks. It’s a shame the northern edge of the henge seems to have been barbarously shaved off, along with the second entrance, but walking around the neatly trimmed grass of the lumps and bumps of the ditch and mound everything was pleasant enough, there just seemed to be something missing. The tree adorned top of the bank at Mayburgh is visible on the horizon, and as I wander around the circular centre of the henge I try to imagine how the sightlines must once have been between the two monuments, but it’s hard to strip away the modern trappings of the road and village.

I can’t quite put my finger on why I’m not so taken with this place, perhaps if it sat in splendid isolation, with just the majestic embankments of Mayburgh on the horizon, or in a way just felt a bit more ‘wild’ I’d appreciate it more. I was interested to read in Fitzcoraldo’s notes that it was once turned into a tea garden, as it still feels a bit like that now, perhaps just a little too manicured?

Still it’s so close to the road and near to Mayburgh it seems rude not to at least pay a visit when passing, but I think it’s perhaps best taken as an appetiser to the wonderful Mayburgh just up the road.

After dropping the kids off at school and collage I decided that it has been too long since I last went out, it’s payday and there are blue skies and fluffy white clouds overhead so I grab me stuff, jump in the car and head out west.
The weather in Wales and me don’t get on all the time, in fact we argue constantly, I want sunshine and rainbows but Wales doesn’t care what I want so it tries it’s level best to deter me from coming at all, today was no different. The head sized hailstones half way there almost made me turn round but i’m more persistent than that.
By the time I parked in the car park the weather had settled into murky low cloud, the fort is visible on the euphemistically named Conway mountain, but there is no direct route, so a half mile walk east down the road to a crossroads turn left on to a wide footpath follow that up hill till you get to a T junction of footpaths, left again, when a right turn going uphill presents itself take it for a now direct route to the “citadel”.
Upon my return home and looking it up on Coflein I can see that the hill fort proper is much bigger than I thought so all I had a look at was the citadel, don’t make this mistake.
The citadel, I will continue to call it this, just for a laugh, takes up only a quarter of the entire fort, but it is the best preserved part, actually it has been partially restored if the pictures on Coflein are anything to go by.
I’ve been trying to find the time to come here for a couple of years and so far the weather is kind of cooperating, the wind is very strong but the rain passed by just a couple hundred meters away. I only spotted two definite round house platforms, there are more.
The battery in my camera now chooses it’s moment to let me down, so I swear loudly at it, it doesn’t seem to have any effect. I take it as a sign that it is time to go home and pick the kids up, but I stroll side ways over to a vantage point across from the fort and whisper sweetly to the camera, it allows me a few more photos, that’s why we anthropomorphise.
I don’t fancy retracing my steps laboriously back to the car so I try and head back in a straight line, it didn’t go well, two barbed wire fences, a wall and a small stream have to be crossed whilst keeping out of view of the two nearby houses, it was more fun but it probably took longer than the right way.

I definitely agree with Gladman that Julian’s fieldnote in TMA doesn’t give a true sense of the effort required to reach this splendid site but then I think the route Julian took is shorter than Gladman’s suggestion albeit, as I discovered, the advantage gained in terms of distance is offset by having to negotiate a fence. Sitting in the nice cafe at Cladach Chirceboist Uneval (the hill) is prominently visible directly in front of you in a north-easterly direction. It looks a darn sight nearer than it does from the starting-point suggested by Gladman which I originally drove up to. Even though it was a fine sunny day and hadn’t (I believe) rained for over a week I still didn’t fancy trekking across such a wide expanse of boggy terrain so wondered if I could get to it from the main road (the A865) instead. Driving back down towards the cafe I spotted an open gate on the left, about 150 yards before the cafe, and what appeared to be an abandoned single-track road leading to nowhere. Deciding against driving up this (basically it’s just loose gravel, rocks and ruts and pits with nowhere to turn which might be very awkward if it’s wet) I parked up and set off walking. Re-reading TMA on my return I see Julian says ‘the road soon disappears’ so assume he must have gone this way and indeed after about three-quarters of a mile or so it ends in a mass of rubble. At this point Uneval is at about two o’clock so off I traipsed over the bog until I came up to Loch Fada and saw that along the top of it, cutting off the route to Uneval, ran a fence, not a particularly forbidding one but still topped with a couple of strands of barbed wire. Getting over it wasn’t a huge deal; I’m a month shy of 60 and still reasonably agile so it shouldn’t pose most people any great problem. From then on it was steadily uphill through the bog and gorse, still something of a slog but much less so than if you’d come all the way from Gladman’s starting-point. Either way it’s well worth the trip, as much for the monument itself as for the stupendous views, all the better for being seen in such piercingly clear light. The people that built this really had an eye for its positioning in the landscape.
I was lucky; in less favourable conditions, both underfoot and overhead, this wouldn’t have been half so enjoyable but don’t be put off treating yourself to what Julian aptly describes as ‘the megalithic chaos’ of this wonderful place. Walking back to the car I felt extremely pleased with myself, equivalent to when I made the long hike to White Moor on Dartmoor a couple of years ago. I’d reckon on about 45mins/an hour each way but be warned, there is a lot of bog and a couple of small streams around Loch Fada. I went in up to my calves a couple of times but then I walk too fast and perhaps take less care than I should. The road is shown on the OS map; I think it’s the one that goes to the left of Loch Fhaing Bhuidhe though once I’d set off walking I couldn’t get it out to check because the wind was too strong so I just kept my eyes glued on Uneval and headed in that direction.

I headed south from the remnants of the cairn, crossed the track, jumped the fence and headed west. A fence runs through the middle of the 9 meter wide hut circle. The circular wall of the hut can be clearly seen, when at the site, and I somehow managed to walk through the front door which is in the east. Some of the wall is over 2 meters wide but is no more than 70-80 centimetres high.

Good views south to Cairn Mon Earn and Blarourie (a hill I will have a good look at very soon).

From the hut circle I made my way down to the minor road and headed west. The Nine Stanes RSC can be seen from the road. Just round the corner is the car park where the walk started.

Visited 14/4/2016.