Latest Fieldnotes

Two new finds from yesterday taking the total; for this relatively small area to 35 .
One , the last three pics , looks like it may have a pyramidical 1-2-3 cups at it’s ” pointy bit ” ,but there is another less obvious one just below the line of three .
Plus two pics of old finds that benefited from the good light .

Visited: March 14, 2016

This, my second visit to Prail Castle, proved to be a much more pleasant experience. Again starting from Rumness Point, I found the walking pleasant in the spring sunshine. The adjacent fields were free from crops and the field margin was a pleasant grassy stroll. I reached my goal in well under an hour.

With vegetation on the promontory of Prail Castle now short, it was clear what a superb stronghold it once must have been. After crossing the initial rampart, the grassy promontory stretched for some hundred metres, to a point where it narrowed to a width of just seven or eight metres. This is well shown on the Google map below. On both sides of the promontory, near-vertical cliffs stretch for a hundred metres, securing the site from all directions save the west.

Beyond this point, the terrain rises slightly to a final platform with a pronounced hollow on its north side, the remains of a wartime Home Guard post. Looking back towards the east, the full extent of this promontory is revealed as it curves round to meet the main line of cliffs.

You can read more about Prail castle at Canmore

Visited 14.03.2016

If travelling North on the A39 from St Columb Major, once you reach the Roundabout at Winnard’s Perch travel for almost exactly 1 mile and there is a lay-by on the opposite site of the road, pull in here and walk back on yourself for until you see a silver gate on your left and behold... The Nine Maidens!

They are on the far side of the field and as others have said, the bogginess is far worse than it looks, so wear Wellies.

I also discovered that there was a composer named George Lloyd who’s first opera contained a piece ‘Iernin’, which was inspired by The Nine Maidens standing stones near St Columb Major, and tells the story of one of the Maidens who comes back to life as a fairy.

Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lloyd_(composer)

Now on to the 2nd part of the adventure which will be tracking down this musical work to listen to while I admire your photos and my own!

Whilst going for better pics , of a find from a couple of years ago , found another unrecorded marked rock less than mile to the east . Unusually it had a dumb bell i.e. two cups joined by a groove .They tend to be found singly or in groups with other cups ,but this one only had another cup on the surface . Have compared it with a more typical example on the earlier find .

Before meeting the first group of trees to your left you will see Mag Low...one of those ‘easy to reach with vibe’ sites. The shafts of sunlight picked it out, bright green. On, till you cross the brook. I climbed a stock track that passed under an old hawthorn, then, cresting the rise, the ‘whateveritis’. There looked to be three pretty evenly spaced degraded remains of small cists tucked into the inner face of the ring. The light wasn’t right, so thought I’d wander before returning to photo. Uphill, through the open gate, the grass undulated and there looked to be traces of trackway and other earthwork. These, and the presence of sorrel, also an almost ubiquitous bellweather of settlements on the west coast of Scotland, made me feel ‘as sure as’ that those who built Green Low lived here. I climbed the rise behind, looking for more earthworks. Yup, but I reckon not t h a t old. A potter in the top of the wood prior to the intended extended pic session looking down on the site..I was looking the wrong way. The wind had got up, then, suddenly, snow. With surreal speed it fell and was blasted into the branches and grass. I couldn’t see more than 100’ for a time. Curtains crossed the valley, muffling the sound of trains climbing to Cowburn Tunnel below. It was bloody cold too. Back down to the site. Not a cist to be seen. Bother. The sun was back though. A few pix, decision made that this place was well worth a return, then back along the track. A happy woman with her even more happy offspring passed, heading to where I’d been. A fine, easy site to blood the young archaeo with. Good luck to ‘em.

Unlike Theolonius who approached from the south I decided to climb the hill from the east starting at East Tillylair. After being given permission to park, at the farm, I headed west climbing the fairly gentle slopes. Towards the summit it gets slightly steeper but nothing difficult hides amongst the trees.

Not much remains of the defences, what there is can be seen to the north west hidden amongst the heather. What can be seen is a cairn built to the Marquis Of Huntly. It is a safe bet that a lot of the forts walls have been used to build this feature.

A nice wee climb in an area surrounded in various prehistoric sites, some of which are lined up for a visit.

Visited 3/3/2016.

Sadly not much remains of the Goauch Wood cairn. It has been battered by forestry agriculture and more recently heavy storms which uprooted trees causing damage to its northern side.

The cairn is very well hidden amongst the trees of Blackhall Forest. Take the B974, Strachan/Cairn O Mount road, south from Banchory and take the first minor road heading west. This is signposted with the Scolty Hill walks. (a nice walk to a nice tower). Keep heading west on the minor road, more an avoid the potholes assault course, until a small car park near the roads end. From here walk south, take the western fork, head sharp west at the next junction then head south. After about 100 meters heading south look east and hopefully an uprooted tree near a fallen tree will be spotted. The cairn is situated between these trees.

I think the forestry people are trying to protect the cairn as trees have been marked in a circle surrounding the monument. What remains of the cairn sits at 9 meters wide, 0.5 meters tall. The stones are almost all moss covered. Sadly the northern side is damaged by an upturned tree but at least it lets us see how the cairn was constructed.

After that it was a good walk up the hill to the tower, and after that it was a long walk back to the car accompanied by heavy snow and hail. Great fun!

Visited 25/2/3016.

Visited: June 18, 2015

Hunebed D27 Borger sits in the shade of a small patch of woodland immediately south of the Hunebedcentrum in the attractive village of Borger. With a length of 22.5 metres, this is by far the largest of all the Hunebedden in Drenthe. Essentially complete, it comprises 26 orthostats which support 9 huge capstones, and there are two endstones. There is also a complete entrance portal with its capstone supported on two pairs of sidestones. Originally surrounded by a ring of kerbstones, only two remain.

One remarkable feature, noted by Van Giffen, is the fact that capstones 5 and 6 had been fashioned from the same boulder.

The passage grave and the Hunebedcentrum together attract over 100,000 visitors annually, and in the holiday season the monument tends to become a climbing area for kids.

In 1695, Titia Brongersma, a poetess from Groningen visited the site and discovered the shattered remains of several pots and a number of bone fragments: alas, all are long since lost, a great pity, because neolithic human remains are exceedingly rare in the Netherlands.

In 1983, a 14-year-old student, René Edens, found human bone fragments beside some decorated potsherds here. On examination, these bones were found to date to the Bronze Age, which suggests that this monument was still in use well after the end of the Neolithic Period.

In 2010, the base of the hunebed was scanned by radar, revealing the original clay base still to be intact, and that the main 30 centimetre deep floor above it was still in good condition.

This makes it likely that items such as funnel cups, hand axes and jewellery may remain preserved below the megalith, although there are currently no plans to excavate.

A new find from a couple of weeks ago .
Had to revisit to get a decent pic .
Not particularly ornate but a fair illustration of the impact of different lighting conditions .
The pic on the far right was from the dull day of the find .

Spent another hour wandering the area today.
Going on this statement by Sidney Addy (1888) “as one could judge from the road it is a heap of stones scattered here and there. I cannot say more without a nearer examination”, any standing stone was either already gone or more likely it was just a pile of stones as described. Today the area is still an isolated sea of huge rocks, only one of which is of any note and that’s isolated from the main scatter by 50 metres or so itself, and it’s more like 135 metres from the road than the 35 mentioned by the above.
See the uploaded pics.

Couple of dodgy areas along the route if you have kids with you. One small section where a rope guards you from wandering off the edge so don’t be letting the kids run ahead.
Don’t let this put you off though, it’s perfectly safe with care (took my 7 yr old today) and the RA is well worth seeing. So are the views.

Easy to find, relocated rock art. A 3-ton carved boulder found a few miles away at Birney Hill, Ponteland, in 2015.

The stone now rests on display, outdoors next to the Great North Museum (previously The Hancock Museum) on Claremont Road.

This is a very fine stone in my opinion, and also one I cannot help feeling is very underappreciated in view of the lack of any evidence of other visitors since it was rediscovered and its existence put online in 2013. I also cannot but help feel slightly apprehensive about its future in view of the fate of two other stones in the vicinity and the heavy timber extraction machinery clearly in use at this location. I became aware of it through the most illuminating Pecsaetan website of TMA’s Harestonesdown/Geoff and the late Stubob, and I recommend at a minimum reading their homepage for the sage words, including about safety, concerning fieldwalking therein. Several months after the stone went on my ‘must see’ list – as it should be on others – the opportunity arose after a day in the liquid sunshine on Stanton Moor with Geoff, TMA’s Juamei and pals who were company more than equal to the elements. Spirits bolstered and realising that it was difficult for clothing to get much wetter, so what the hell, off to try and find this beleaguered monolith without any aid other than the grid reference on TMA provided by Stubob. Sparing the details of circuituous forest wanderings apart from to say it was dusk when I found it and was on the point of giving up had I not spotted a thin vertical line of greeny grey lichen in the forest gloom, here are directions hopefully sufficient for non GPS enabled others to follow....park opposite the lane leading to Tax Farm with its Caravan Club signs. Walk uphill along the road and on the right hand side after approximately 170 paces you will see a clearly defined little path leading initially at right angles from the road then bearing right by the stone wall which is then crossed through a gap and then you’re in the forestry. Ahead another path is quickly met. Turn left and soon you will see on your right a long, neglected and boggy forest ride between plantations. Squelch along this, negotiating the heavy machinery rutting. A large replanted clearing will come into view on your right. On the left as you make your final approach to that you will see a path joining at right angles. Pause, then continue walking onward counting each step. At around number thirty seven and to your right by the side of the path you will see a fallen stone Turn 180. Ahead you will hopefully see the stone in the gloom – possibly clearer in late afternoon sunshine. Walk eleven pacesish in from the treeline on the left hand side of the path. Touch, pat or, as I did, an extreme behavioural rarity, put your arm round your goal and hug it. Pause again and think of and thank its finder Stubob and all the others now gone who have made this website what it is. The third tallest stone on the Eastern Moors, over six feet, deserves all the attention that you will give.

This stone stands around 1.5m tall and is located around 50 metres down hill from doll Tor stone circle. It’s easy to find but the route to it can become a impassable tangle of brambles in high summer.
There are other large stones close by, some suggestive of a four stone alignment including this stone. I’m uncertain of age but the rilling suggests its been stood this way for millenia.
Stu first pointed this out to me several years ago but as we visited in summer we couldn’t really explore the area fully.
Well worth a look if you’re visiting the nearby circle.

I must express my gratitude to Terry Howard, eminence grise of Sheffield’s ramblers, for bringing this to my attention and providing directions to its approximate whereabouts. It was he who discovered it many years ago when in the employment of the water board, who oversee neighbouring More Hall reservoir. He reported it promptly to Sheffield Council’s archaeology service, who should hold a record of its discovery date. It was, apparently, the first rock art discovered in South Yorkshire, pre-dating the finding of Eccleshall Woods 1. Subsequent to his finding it, some ne’erdowell uprooted it from the univalate rampart of what appears to be an unrecorded promontory fort or settlement above, for which I will be providing a separate site entry, and it tumbled down onto a plateau some twenty feet below, where it now lies. I do wonder if it has gone completely off Sheffield Archaeology Service’s radar, for reasons apparent if you keep reading...... To find it, park on the far side of the reservoir and walk across the dam. If you look to your right you will see, above and beyond the adjacent Broomhead dam and reservoir, the moors of the same name, my TMA rummaging hangout for the forseeable, and an area I’m becoming increasingly of the opinion is of great archaeological importance. Anyway, back to the star of the show. Terry said I should take the path on the far side of the dam that goes uphill to Brightholmlee, and then bear off it left into the wood following the 60-80’ scarp E above the weir. I saw a worn path in that direction and followed it. It gradually became apparent that those keeping the path worn were, if humanoids, diminutive, as I had to duck under branches, and then as the path proved a challenge to the most agile limbo dancer, I realised that those responsible were four legged. Keeping parallel to it I came to a plateau with a sheer drop through the rhododendrons to my left. This plateau was full of big holes. The four legged creatures were evidently of the black and white striped faced variety. So t h a t s why the grass on top of the dam was so chavelled....As Terry directed, I carried on, but would return to this spot on completion of my search, as stonework and the univalate rampart along the scarp ahead greatly intrigued. First things first: the Great Stone Search. I crossed three babbling rills beyond the platform area that plunged about thirty feet down the drop to my left, and the rampart became progressively more distinct, and I walked along its top, mindful of avoiding being tripped by brambles and plunging over. Yes, there was a plateau, obviously man made, 25’ish below to my left, but where was the stone? There was a large tree in extremis, big boughs and branches hanging over or lying on this flat area, bits n bobs of brambles and ferns, but...no stone. It should have been visible, being described by Terry as about a metre long by half a metre thick, with, thankfully, the cup marks uppermost after it had been toppled. Should have. I was nearing the wood edge. Ahead, beyond a rough stone wall topped with remnants of an iron fence, which could easily have been 18thC, was pasture. I had to descend over the rampart and hunt in the wood below. It was clayey, leafmoulded and bloody slippery. I started to head back W, eyes peeled. Nada. I came to the point that those rills had tumbled to. Too far. Back E again, this time sticking to the flat area immediately below the rampart. The distressed tree’s fallen boughs came into view, a layered jumble of branches up to thirty feet long overlay a huge bough. Something under its cleft end caught my eye. It was totally covered in moss. I could tell if it was wood or stone even. Could it be..? One thing for it, getting my hands dirty. What I do for a living. No problem. What was the problem was all the branches on top of it. Heaving them out the way took twenty minutes before I could lay hands on the object of my curiosity. It was raining and I didn’t care. At last, I could start moss peeling. Stone. I will not forget gradually revealing what was underneath that moss. Cup mark, cup mark, cup mark, another, another, another....I scrabbled away, digging deeper into them, cleaning them out one by one, brushing off, looking....I counted fourteen, gingerly feeling under the huge bough that had missed resting directly on them by an inch or so. Only one cup mark was apparent when I cleared away the branch debris and then moss on the far side of the bough, which, judging by their spacing, could, if it existed, be directly resting on no more than one. Picture time. At last, the stone was ready for its closeup. Then, with reluctance, time to leave this rediscovered buried treasure. Pat, stroke, appreciate. I checked the old fenced stone wall by the pasture for any more cup marks, but found none. Certainly worth another look when I return, which I will – the wood will be a sea of bluebells in a few months..... I climbed back up to the rampart, walked back along it and then looked down after I passed that sad wreck of a tree. This time the formerly moss and branch covered stone looked back. I could see the cup marks from sixty feet away. Now I hope others will. Now for that fort.. Cheers, Terry.

RAMSOR FARM, not Ramshorn Farm, as stated above.

As stated by Stubob, cup marked stone and channel/groove, with concentric rings.

Like a quarter of an oval stone, the ‘squared off corner’ having an obvious area with 2 concentric arcs, ie. a quarter of another cup and ringed structure... clearly this stone is part of something much bigger.

The curved edges seems to be deliberately manmade such that I believe it to be part of an oval cist slab, with multiple cup and ring and simple cup marked areas of rock-art.

I’ve had the chance to examine the stone very thoroughly, measurements taken, recorded accurately, to photograph from all angles with oblique lighting, etc

Added in 3 images of the large stone slab with numerous simple cup marks.

Resides in Potteries Museum and Art Gallery (PMAG), Hanley, Stoke on Trent

Awful lighting... 1 dim light at 90 degrees to the cup marks! – needs some decent side lighting, or the stone erected vertically, to appreciate the cup marks.

Been repeatedly used, marked upon, as feint cup depressions visible as well as the more obvious ones.

Added simply as a site to gather thoughts and images relating to the large burial cairn-field -’cemetery’, largely found between barbrook I and barbrook II SC’s.

Visible either side of the track between the SC’s, but 1-2 ‘outsider’ rocky bumps exist also.

Kerbed cairns in part, some more simple in design, MOST are robbed out, some quite extensively so, forming neat little ‘halos’ upon the grounds’ surface

It’s a great shame that some of the best Rock Art in Derbyshire is sitting in such an overgrown, wet quagmire, ...as were the conditions I found the stones within, last Summer.

The stones were so algal covered and half buried in mud and vegetation, such a pity.

Scraping the algae and leaves away – the stones are of considerable size.

There is a great pity more stones were not discovered in the vicinity.

They were likely taken away and destroyed, the two stones remaining being discovered by accident

New photograph, showing well defined ditches in a near circle.. there is a defined flattened area and a perceived entrance

The following was written in May 2011, and therefore is an old blog. All I can say though is that they may have built a huge building over it by the time we had left!

Today we visited Springfield Lyons just up the road. Set in the centre of business and retail centres this late Bronze Age enclosure has something of a wow factor close up. From the road you can see the large banks (spoil heaps from the excavation) that surround an inner ditch broken by 6 causeways. So a ‘causewayed enclosure’ maybe, but it must not be forgotten that it was also used by early Saxons as a pagan cemetery and later as a settlement.

A description of this site must begin with its half wild aspect, today you approach through thickets of blackthorn and briar roses, the banks loom large covered with similar material. The central rounded area is grass eaten down to the root, rabbits must run amok, if their pellets are anything to go by. LS also glimpsed a fox, in excellent condition, his restaurant was well stocked!

The ditches had some water in them and reeds testified to their marshyness, but of course in these drought months we are experiencing the ditches are drying out.

It has been excavated in the past several times, and the ground is full of holes in which regenerating elm tries to take hold. The explanation given for the late Bronze Age occupation, (approximately 800 bc) is that it may have been a fortified stronghold for a local chief. Excavation has shown that there is a large central hut facing the gateway with an elaborate porch, which would probably have been his home. There was also a working area and it was here that two moulds for making swords were found at the terminals of one of the causeways, of a type called Ewart Park, but no metal elsewhere.

There was also evidence of Iron Age recognition of the site, a ‘broken’ sword was found in the centre of the circular area in a pit and further to the west of the pit a horse skull was found with an iron bit and two studs. Presumably a ritual burial of some kind.

The banks are in fact very large spoil heaps, the actual bank would have been inside the segmented ditches. There would have been a wooden type ‘verandah, all the way round the bank, giving a roofed walking/working area. Looking at the interim report on the excavation, and an artistic representation shows a very neat settlement set in an idyllic pastoral countryside. There is also an early photograph of the fields before development took place and it descended into what we see today. The area had been ploughed flat over the centuries before the excavation, so what we see now is the excavated ditches.

The pagan Saxon cremation cemetery had the usual range of intricately worked Saxon brooches also metalwork, including a funny rounded hat and of course beads, twelve strings were found, and it is though that the beads hung between pairs of the brooches; the brooches of course clasping the dress at the shoulder. There were some 225 certain or possible burials,of which 103 were certain inhumation burials but the cremation pots had been buried very close to the surface, and the surface was to a degree ploughed out.

Given its close proximity to houses, there is a lot of rubbish around, some dumped in the ditch, and the site looks distinctly uncared for. Not sure of its scheduling as far as a monument goes, but it is in grave danger of being built over.

Just down the road, and starting from the Asda car park is a Neolithic cursus, excavated about 30 years ago, when this area of suburban houses was being built, it followed the line of the river before you reach the mill at the Fox and Raven pub.

Interesting in itself but not part of this blog. Now whether this earlier monument had anything to do with the settlement at Springfield Lyons is a matter of conjecture.

Edit – a link;

theheritagetrust.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/the-chelmer-springfield-cursus/

Like nearby Court Hill there’s not a great deal to see here in terms of the Causewayed Enclosure which once dominated this hill top, but there has been a great deal of activity since then and you certainly get your money’s worth. The most noticeable thing is the windmill (visible from the A27 between Arundel and Chichester) which has been here since 1740, though the original mill was built in 1540 for the nearby Goodwood Estate. The 1740 mill was destroyed by fire in 1913 and then vandals came back in the summer of 2015 to try and torch it again which is why it currently has no sails and you can no longer go inside. The enclosure is largely defined by a bank surrounding about 2 hectares, with the main entrance in the Southern part, where the modern gate stands today. The outer ditch has largely disappeared through centuries of ploughing. There are also three WWII structures, one inside, one in the bank and another just outside to the west of the entrance. These were either searchlight emplacements or Radio Directional Finding towers (nobody seems to agree which!) that would have served Goodwood and Tangmere airfields. It’s clearly always been a strategic and prominent point as Bronze Age and Roman artefacts have been found here as well and the Roman Stane Street runs about 200m to the South past the bottom of the hill. The views from here are also quite stunning with the rolling South Downs to the North and Chichester and the Channel to the South.

Pictures included of both areas of rock art.

The main rock-art image appears almost like an iron-age banjo enclosure, with numerous bulbous structures in positive relief within.

Interpretations vary, but I am of the opinion that the positive relief ‘mounds’ represent the neighbouring hills (Win hill, Crook hill, Ladybower Tor and the raised areas of Bamford moor to the East), the grooves within, effectively represent the Rivers Ashop and Derwent, and small river from accumulations of water from areas north of Moscar Moor (to the East)

The rock art seems to represent the hills and valleys and rivers before the formation of the Ladybower reservoir...in effect ‘a map’ in the truest sense.

additional images included of the extra ring-marked art...

cheers

Aron

Relating to the picture of a possible megalithic female (?mother goddess) figure that I’ve just posted. Herm has many prehistoric sites, unfortunately not all extant*. If this is indeed a figure, and if it stood where it now lies (by the path down to Belvoir just after the Carrefour, by Le Manoir), it would be more or less in the centre of the island, by the crossroads, and on a high point.

*Links to Durham University excavations
community.dur.ac.uk/herm.project/

Stone within a wall near the Moor at Holymoorside, and it’s associated cup/ring marked boulder.

2 cup marks visible albeit the one on the right rather ‘knocked about’/damaged.

Left cup mark, well ground out, rounded 48mm diameter and quite deep, slight pock marked.

Stone rather pallid in appearance cf. other stones of the wall, more in keeping with the dense, pallid, gritstone of the nearby multi- cup-marked boulder, on the moor.
A contemporary cup marked stone?, perhaps one of many such decorated stones, of a presumed burial cairn, long since decimated, the large boulder now being part of a very obvious ‘clearance’ cairn.