Latest Fieldnotes

Partner tried but couldn’t make it. Gorgeous walk, blackberrying again. Keep wondering why a few folk have looked at me a little oddly untill fella points out that I’m smeared in berry juice!
Over a stile & there it is. Cow pats galore. Thought about squeezing through the ring stone but surrounding area very muddy;also a few people about & I felt a bit of a burk. Now of course I wish I’d done it, silly git.
Crags in view panoramic. Realised in hindsight that Boskednan stone circle is up the hill from here & didn’t go. One of Sweetcheat’s favourites & I bloody missed it. Bah!
On the way to Men an Tol we passed a little arrangement of stones by the side of the road next to a Zennor & St Ives signpost, between Morvah & Madron. Don’t know if it’s built. Will put a photo up.
I liked the stones but they looked a little odd, the immediate surroundings are very lumpy. I know it was originally a circle so thought. Fantastic views & craggy skylines.

Like Carl before me this huge stone seemed to leap out in front of the car. It’s bloody huge & such a pleasing shape. A massive granite boulder. Imagine having this in the border of your garden albeit slap bang next to the road.

Oh you TMA ers what have you started! Holy wells loads of them. Lovely walk to this well, overhanging gnarly hawthorne. Mossy green hewn steps down to the well. Candles & coins, bouquets of flowers. Had a drink of the radioactive water, living dangerously! Now glow in the dark!
There are ruins of an old building & two overgrown slate gravestones by the well. Two big old stones in the hedge of adjoining field where a horse came up for a pet & handfuls of grass.
Evocative place, noisy with the cawing of lots of crows in the trees near the church.

Just down from the Merry Maidens I found this entrance grave delightful, even though literally roadside it’s peculiar how affecting to me it still was. I could picture the rest of the grave stretching over the destroying road.
Again, like the maidens, very pretty & neat. I hope the road doesn’t encroach on it further. The aforementioned tourists at the maidens barely paused to look. Aren’t I superior? Im becoming aware of a slightly sneering edge to my posts. I don’t like it, it’s not really how I feel around these places & who do I think I am anyway. Will concentrate on the wonder.
We drove all the way to Carn Euny but partner unable to manage & I felt guilty at abandoning him again so we turned round & drove back again. Stupid. Am kicking myself now after viewing the place on here. Never mind.

Lots of sunshine. Cornwall shining like the jewel it is. The maidens are very pretty. Lots of Yanks, & maybe some Confederates too! Germans & Japanese. All being guided. Bloke talking about ley lines, dowsing & feeling the power whist standing on the omphalos. One of the Americans had Cherokee ancestry & stood quietly chanting a mantra . He was great.
At the top of the gently sloping field in an adjoining field there’s a collection of stones grouped around a telegraph pole, with what I thought was a little mound/henge. Over imagination? Sunstroke? Field clearance probably.
Whilst searching for the Pipers we spotted the re erected menhir in the corner of the hedgerow over the road. We didn’t find the Pipers; felt a bit narky about that, I mean they’re huge! We are a pair of imbeciles, next time hopefully.

Took us an age to find.
One of the most beautifully placed monuments I’ve seen. Atop a hill looking out over vast swathes of glorious countryside; next to a lovely field of emerald green grass blowing in the wind. It is breathtaking. Sat for ages watching before even entering the fogou.
The fogou area is landscaped charmingly, a little grotto.
Picked my way very carefully down some very steep slippery steps. Exquisite stone walling entrance courtesy of the Victorians apparently. My pathetic torch was almost completely ineffective once inside. The rain began ripping it down outside;watching it from the entrance chamber was enthralling, diamond drops glittering in the breaking sunlight. Not so good for hop a long who was stuck outside, another broken hip not being worth the risk.
Ducked down to the left into the curving chamber, what a marvel this place is, standing upright once through the entrance. Chickened out at crawling through to the creep spaces. I felt transported here, almost dizzy with it.
Some striations on some of the stones. No litter, no offerings that I could see. Such fantastic construction.
Coming out from the dark into the light was very disorienting. Ferns frame the entrance.
The rain had stopped & the whole place was bathed in sunshine. The sky was dramatic, the clouds scudding along, the wind wild but not too cold. A place to mess with the mind, well mine at least. Dramatic & profound; exquisite & ageless.

Magic faeries at Carwynnen quoit.
Drove down a one horse track, knackered jalopy rattling alarmingly. My first quoit, stood on its lonesome at the bottom of the field. Lovely, lovely.
Great old photo of 1925 Cornish society picnickers, fascinating – one of them looked like a bohemian.
Quite tastefully done circular benches with saplings planted around them as a viewing area.
Huge capstone, (hadn’t yet seen Trethevy Quoit); sparkling quartz stone. As others have mentioned odd mysterious little pits with stones in them dotted around the field.
It was very windy, with sunshine breaking through. As we wandered around we were accompanied by a whistling tune borne on the air, coming & going with each gust. We were enthralled & became increasingly excited, this tune could not be denied. We investigated the whole field boundary hedges & peered into the surrounding woodland; no lone flautist to be seen! At last evidence of the supernatural! Don’t accept any food or drink from the faeries Nick says.
It’s following me around says the limping one & indeed it was, or rather his metal walking stick, through the holes of which the gale was blowing scales! NOT faeries then! Bugger!
A bit magical all the same.

17/09/2015 – Binsey is one of the last humps and bumps of the Lake District going north. Good parking and access from the west, track all the way to the summit. Cairn on top is pretty trashed but must have been a good one when first built. The walk up is fine and not too steep. The view from the top is very good and probably the better reason to go then the cairn. Nice view of the north side of Skiddaw and looking north Dumfries and Galloway looks almost touchable.

Forvie is a wondrous place with its beautiful nature reserve, medieval church/village, ever changing sand dunes, the Ythan estuary and prehistory. There are a lot of various cairns and hut circles. Reasons to go this place are endless but an important reason to return, for me, was the constant mention by the folks of Newburgh of the circle under the sea. I teach in the area and learned about most of the local sites purely by listening. (on most occasions the music was good as well!!!) This site will also feature in book I’m writing about the Ythan’s prehistory once I get back to that project. (still going to happen GC and SC the mojo is back)

As for visiting the cairns amongst the dunes park just north of Newburgh and the Waterside (Ythan) Bridge. (narrow entrance to car park!). On my first hike to the circle on the 10/9/2015 I followed the track following the river Ythan towards its meeting with North Sea. However after going thru a section that looks like deep swimming pool the path runs out. Sand dunes are in front so with my best Lawrence Of Arabia impersonation I ploughed on eventually reaching the dunes overlooking the beach/sea. From here I headed south spying a pillbox and a few hundred seals basking in the warm sun. Near the pillbox there was a deep pool with a rock, the recumbent, poking its head above the water. However the tide was coming quickly in so back I headed to the Waterside Bridge complete with my Peter O’Toole impersonations.

Tide times are variable but a good guide so one week later I ventured to the same spot but this time kept to the rivers edge until its entry to the North Sea, Man From Atlantis impersonations on way back!!. Various birds of can be seen waders, gulls, herons, cormorants, plus birds I hadn’t seen and hundreds upon hundreds of very friendly seals.

The site is to the north of the river mouth and this time the pool was empty of water. The circle was revealed, several stones which had once stood had been toppled by the sea or attempts to destroy it. Smaller rocks probably part of some washed about cairn and chokes. The previous week, seals were sitting on top of these and they watched closely as I explored. Flankers are minus their bigger friend and sadly the reason is close by. Further to the north the recumbent had been hauled away and left for some pointless reason. I have reason to back this up as a stone circle, like a few others. There are no rocks anywhere else this side of the Ythan and a collection like this on land would have people gleefully jumping up and down like at Stonehenge. But this is Scotland, the North East we move at our own pace, there is no rush and in Forvie time stands still except for the ever moving dunes.

After soaking the atmosphere both prehistoric and present nature it was time for a wee hunt around the pillbox (note the jaunty angle) and a look for an elusive hut circle. Scarily after this the site had gone, the tide was rushing in. With that it was to retrace my steps back along the Ythan, but they were under water. So hugging the bank I headed back to the path rejoining it as the bridge comes into view far away in the distance.

For nature, both on land and aquatic, the Ythan Estuary is hard to beat. Good footwear needed for this and please take note of the tide times.

Visited 17/9/2015.

Drove from Hetty Peglar to Stanton Drew, still a sunny Sunday. It felt like we were driving through a posh private housing estate to the site itself. I think it was my headspace being off kilter but I found this place difficult.
The stones glittering pink & hoary are lovely. The earth here is a great rust colour; it looks so rich & fecund!
Unfortunately fecundity; “she”, “mother” & “healing” was all I heard for the next hour as a group of people pranced about with flowers & bongos in the smaller circle. Oh dear what do I sound like? Each to their own, peace & love & all that! Can’t we have designated days!
Some huge stones; odd rectangular shapes. Seems to have a henge? Benevolent cows everywhere, I even petted one! Hurrah.
Overheard a comment that we weren’t in the vibe cos we were taking photos on a mobile phone; better than a conversation we heard from a female group member telling “Jemima” that she’d better use the rotivator on that particularly awkward part of the garden! Right Carol, shut up.
Really it’s a fantastic place, we’ll pick a better time on our next visit.
The Cove is lovely.

From the junction of the A590 and the A591 roundabout near Sedgwick, take the Sedgwick exit and once over the river turn right, after going over the A591 a parking place appears on the right, stop here and proceed on foot through the stile, you wont be able to take the car over it’s far too heavy.
The path will attempt to herd you left, ignore it and go straight on towards the river. Look for a large mound, hillock, knoll, bump, the ring cairn is between you and it.
The ring cairn is now more grassed over than in Greywethers photos, less distinct, but still large and obvious. A small cairn like thing is close by to the north east, it is a good place to look over the ring cairn. But not as good as the small hill, large mound, average sized knoll, and indeterminate sized hillock that is to the south. From up here the ring cairn looks like something from down south, some kind of flat barrow, a splash in the grass. I like it it. I didn’t like the wooden cage on the hillock, clearly what ever was in there has escaped, unless the grass round here has some evil plans.
Reading Fitzcoraldo’s misc note you get an inkling that this might be a complicated site to appreciate, it is. Strange linear bumps at odds with the overall circularity of it, inexplicable large stones randomly placed, it has a juicy history.
The river Kent is close by down a grassy slope, some men were hunting, I presume for fish, they were actually in the water waving sticks at them, damnedest thing I ever saw.

Seeing stars at Hetty Peglars tump! Tump must be one of my most favourite words ever. “Stars” courtesy of a hefty wallop to the head when crawling out of said tump. Mother used to call me Lizzie Dripping as a child, I haven’t changed ( banging into things..er talking to witches etc!)
Visited Hetty on the way down to Cornwall, our first monolith of the trip. Got there early on a warm sunny morning. Lovely mound with dips in the earthwork at the sides & the top. She has one chamber off to the left. Quiet & clean inside, though some man made scratching inside, why?
Led down on top of entrance stone to recover from head spinning & pain! Soon healed up & feel batteries charging up for neolithic journeying.

Oh my! How beautiful is this place? My favourite so far. Strolling along the paths through the gorse, obviously now a lot easier to access; blackberrying all the way, hands & lips stained purple.
Glimpsing the circle in between gaps in the hedges & from the top of Creeg Toll. Stones all over the place. Boscowan un flits in & out of view teasing us. Looking on it from above, on the Toll made me think of the scene from Stephen Kings / Stanley Kubricks The Shining ( of all things!) when Jack’s watching his family moving about in the maze from the model in the Overlook Hotel (there were a couple of people walking round the circle.)
However, nothing sinister to me about this place. I did the Julian thing & led on my back in the shadow of the angled stone & gazed round the circle seeing the stones from the ground up under the dome of a glorious blue sky. I dozed there, feeling protected & held.
We had this unreal place to ourselves. We were bathed in sunshine, warm & calm, peaceful & still. Forgot the rush to the other Lands End monuments & soaked it up. Heavenly.

14/09/2015 – I don’t think I’ve been as excited for ages as I was when walking to this circle. Having seen so many lovely photos on TMA of Castlerigg before I went, I couldn’t wait to see it for myself. A nice walk from Keswick along good footpaths set the scene before getting there. I know I shouldn’t have been, but I was still surprised to see it was as lovely in real life as on the screen. A wonderful circle of stones, with a near unparalleled backdrop of hills. The setting is just perfect. Yes, it’s busy with people, but they come and they go and we did manage to get the circle to ourselves for a few precious minutes. A megalithic must visit.

12/09/2015 – Not much to add to everyone else’s fieldnotes apart from to say I’ve been here and you know, I thought it was just great. Weather was a bit dull and rainy on the way there but luckily it stopped just as we arrived. I don’t know why but I wasn’t that excited about this one beforehand. Really went because it is so well known and I liked the name. A few people there when we arrived but we soon had the circle to ourselves. The longer I spent just dawdling around the stones, the more the place grew on me. Long Meg is a lovely big stone and some of the stones that make up this massive circle are just great. There is one big dobby stone on the west side near to where we parked that I really liked. All in all, a great visit and a fantastic circle.

This is a difficult cairn to find being situated in the Whiteash Hill Wood (forest would be a more apt title). Heading east from Fochabers on the A98 park opposite the first minor road south, signposted Clochan. This is easily spotted as there is a brightly red coloured wooden house next to the road.

From here walk along the track heading back to Fochabers for approximately 1.5 miles until a fork in the track. The southern track track leads down a small valley, whilst the northern track remains following but on top of the valley. I walked between the two tracks with the cairn finding dog who promptly did his duty and walked straight into the cairn.

The possibly Neolithic cairn, skeletons of a man and child were found along with an urn and charcoal, is over 16 meters wide and 1 meter tall. Traces of sand and the rounded stones mentioned in Canmore are also evident. As is usual the cairn has taken a houking and is covered in trees. However it is a very atmospheric place on a sunny quiet day.

With that it was time to head back sampling in more of the vibe by taking an alternative route back. Emphasis on alternative i.e. lost.

Visited 7/9/2015.

This site is slightly to the south of Rhynie on the east side of A97 (road to Strathdon, Deeside) near the impressive Pictish Craw Stane. It is surrounded by prehistory, 4 forts, 5 circles, 5 cairns, numerous rock art and the henge at Mytice. Tap O Noth, of course, dominates the whole area.

The fort is on an east facing slope with the River Bogie at the bottom of the hill. From the dig an enclosure can be clearly seen along with an entrance. The archaeologists from the dig have promised me a copy of the findings which I will post here in due course.

Lovely site, fantastic area.

Visited 7/9/2015.

11/09/2015 – Started from the car park in Abington. A fine walk up the old roman road to visit Castle Hill then onto Tewsgill Hill before making our way across to visit the fort on Arbory Hill. A great place for a walk. As others have mentioned the straight up the hill approach is a steep one, it was tough enough on the knees on the way down. It does give you a good idea of how good a location the fort has. I wouldn’t have wanted to have been part of any attacking group from this side. The fort is a good one, great walls, but for me the location is what makes this one special. Well worth a visit.

It must be ten years since I last saw this standing stone, and not one modern antiquarian has been here in the intervening years, I’m saddened and disappointed, a bit. Ok, there are bigger stones in the Lake district this ones just over five foot, and the view is agreeable but it’s no Castlerigg and the many other stone circles are much more interesting. But really ? no one?
There is parking for two by the gate with the no parking sign, the stone is less than two hundred yards from the road, no problem. This end of the long field has lumpy bumpy moraine type mounding in it, the stone stands defiantly at the edge of one of these lumpy bumps, not far away is a seemingly buried stone.
It is a good stone, not far up the off the beaten track, why not make a quick detour when visiting any of the sites in south Lakeland, poor stone, and poor me for feeling sorry for a rock in a field.

Visited: September 6, 2015

There’s a much easier approach to Dun Creag nam Meann. About 50 metres north of the turn-off to the village of Kingsburgh is a metalled farm track that connects with a section of old road, 100 metres roughly east, at a hairpin bend. There is ample space to park a car without blocking this exit. I was prompted to seek this alternative route because the sheep mentioned by Carl had been replaced by a bull and a number of cows. No point tempting fate!

Walk up to the sharp bend, then head to your left (north) along a rough path for 130 metres before ascending easy grassy slopes to a col. Turn left here and continue on to the fort.

The ascent in no way prepares you for the size of the fortification beyond: Canmore states it to be 91 metres long, with a width of about half that figure. The most notable features are a massive but completely tumbled wall along almost the entire eastern boundary, and a well proportioned hut circle. Two more hut circles will be encountered as you explore farther into the fort.

Visited: September 7, 2015

For several years, I have been stopping briefly in the village of Bernisdale, three km north of Skeabost on the A 850, to search for the small dun listed by Canmore. But I could never find it. This year, instead of parking in the village, I stopped in the lay-by on the main road: and there it was, staring me in the face, as a neat mound clad in purple heather, mid-way between the main road and the old road through the village.

Dun Bernisdale was a small fortification, even in its heyday: Canmore attributes it with a width of just three metres and an area of ten square metres. Very much a ‘pocket’ fortification.

Walking round the site I could understand how it proved so elusive. So little remains that, from almost every direction, the dun simply blends anonymously into the landscape. Only from the lay-by had it sufficient profile to be instantly recognisable. It was fortuitous that I chose to stop there.

Stone robbing has left very little remaining structure, save a few large foundation blocks to the south where the dun rises to its maximum height. In all other directions, the dun simply tapers gradually into its surroundings.

Visited: September 9, 2015

Dun Chlo is prominent as a cliff-girt promontory in the seaward view from Tormore, about 3 km south of Armadale on the A851. On its summit stand the very scant remains of an Iron Age dun. RCAHMS describes these as ”a discontinuous grassy bank enclosing a roughly circular area 9 to 10 metres in diameter“.

In truth, there is almost nothing remaining, just a few kerbstones on the southwest. But the views from this eyrie are well worth the effort of the short walk from the road, past Tormore, and flanking the outhouses on the left to gain the slopes.

Visited 19.9.2015

No, it wasn’t the equinox but as close as I could get as I am in work tomorrow and the weather forecast for today wasn’t great. In fact it was 50/50 for yesterday but for once the weather gods were smiling.

I awoke at 6.00am to a grey morning but with most of the sky clear of any obvious cloud. I had wanted to see if my theory that the burial chamber lined up with the equinox was correct? I jumped into the car whilst everyone else slept and by 6.45am was stood inside the chamber.

It was very atmospheric. Low mist blanketed the surrounding fields while the sky above was becoming increasingly blue. A rabbit scurried across the field, geese noisily flew overhead and in the distance a cockeral was doing its thing. The herd of cows in the same field as the chamber came out of the mist and made their way towards me.

I scanned the horizon hoping that I would be able to see the sun clearly through the mist and any cloud. I wasn’t to be disapointed. At 7.10am a bright dark orange orb rose up over the horizon and through the far trees. As it rose it changed to light orange and then a bright light too strong to look at.

I stood inside the chamber and the sun rose perfectly in line with the entrance – I was right! This was the first time I had seen the sunrise from inside a burial chamber – what a feeling!! Magnificent! It was soooooo worth getting up for..........

By now the cows had surrounded the chamber (with me inside) and one was having a good old scratch against one of the side stones. This didn’t bother me as I have been in many fields with cows in so I just shooed them away when it became time to leave. Cows are nothing to be afraid of although they are large so you do need to be careful and use common sense.

On the way back to the car I bagged up a good pile of cow manure. That will do may veggie plot a bit of good next year. All in all a highly successful and rewarding morning. Something I intend to repeat at sometime. You should try it too.

Visited: September 7, 2015

Starting point was at Caroy, taking the 2 km road (boasting a recently tarmacked surface) to Balmeanach, and parking up at the start of the forestry road. One kilometre along this wide avenue through the woodlands, a path branches to the right, taking you out of the trees after 300 metres.

Ahead, grassy flats with patches of rushes in the damper areas slope gradually down to the River Ose. The going is very easy and there is only one wire fence to be straddled. Dun Arkaig is visible on the slopes across the stream, but quite difficult to discern unless you know exactly where to look.

The meandering River Ose is still quite broad, even this far up the valley, but it is, deceptively, very shallow, and is easily forded where, a short distance into its major meander, a shingle bank takes you most of the way: the remainder was no more than 5 cm deep, and I walked through it without water getting into my boots. This route of attack is very much easier—and shorter—than my attempted boggy tramp up the other side of the glen.

Dun Arkaig stands about 30 metres above the river beyond the far bank, and can be difficult to see. The broch itself is invisible as it sits beyond the brow of the convex slope ahead. Just head uphill to the obvious broad grassy area with a small outcrop of rock in it. The dun stands on top of the the rising ground beyond. The first thing you are likely to see is the small (modern) cairn built on its southern boundary.

There’s lots of good external masonry remaining at Dun Arkaig, with enough evidence to confirm it as a broch. The remains of one intramural chamber stand out and in several places two courses of neatly positioned large stones can be seen.

Canmore names this site as Garafad School and describes it as a ‘Galleried Dwelling’. It is situated at the foot of the cliffs east of Staffin. It is best visited in conjunction with the better known Cadha Riach chambered cairn. After following the footpath from Staffin to the cairn, the path continues down to the coast in a series of easy zig-zags. Dun Garafad sits on a low grassy mound about 150 metres from the shore.

Only a few scattered stones remain to mark the boundary of the Dun which, from its position in open, low-lying terrain, was hardly likely to have been a fort. A comparison with the location of the Glenelg brochs suggests that it may have been a broch, but there is little visual evidence to support this.

Nevertheless, on a fine day, the walk down the cliffs to Dun Garafad opens up stunning vistas towards Staffin Island in the north, and towards the mountains of Scotland’s northwest, to the east.