Latest Fieldnotes

Visited 6.4.2015

Directions:
In the village of Defynnog on the A4215 – just south of the A40 – west of Brecon.

A few months ago I came across an article reporting that ‘Britain’s oldest tree’ had been identified in St Cynog’s churchyard in the village of Defynnog. It was reported that the yew tree is estimated to be 5,000 years old and is possibly even older than the famous Yew in Fortingall in Scotland. It also said the tree ‘was planted on the north side of an ancient burial mound which is now the churchyard, probably in honour of a Neolithic Chieftain’. How much truth there is in this I don’t know? However, needless to say I was eager to visit!

It was a gloriously sunny Bank Holiday morning and today was the day. Dafydd decided to stay home and watch his Dad’s Army DVDs so it was just myself and Sophie ‘out exploring’ this time. The drive up the A470 and over the Brecon Beacons was lovely and, judging by the amount of cars parked on the verges, plenty of other people were making the most of the weather. We soon found the church, parked outside and headed through the metal gate into the grave yard.

Walking down the path there is a large (and clearly old) yew tree to the left but this clearly wasn’t the tree I was looking for. Sophie was enjoying herself walking around the graves and looking at the headstones and sculptures. She asked me to read out several of the inscriptions. One was for a 5 year old child which was particularly sad as Sophie herself is only 4.

We made our way around the back of the church and there it was – in all it’s glory. The tree looks for all the world like two separate trees. It is hard to believe what you are looking at is two sides of the same tree. If the trunk was still as one it would be massive! Sophie climbed up inside the hollow trunk and I spotted a ribbon tied to one of the lower branches. Around the trunk were propped up several old headstones, some from the 1700s – no age at all compared with the tree.

I then decided to have a look inside the church but unfortunately it was locked. However, much to my surprise, there was a tall old stone affixed to the inside of the porch wall. A small information sign next to it explained that this was a 4th/5th C Roman burial marker which has a Latin inscription carved along its side (the inscription was very easy to see). The stone was later re-used in the 6th/7th C and had a lattice design carved on its upper part (again easy to make out). It is also said to have traces of Ogham script but I was unable to spot this. Discovering this stone was a very welcome surprise indeed.

If you happen to be in the area this is a church which is well worth a visit

***
Tree ageing expert Janis Fry, who has studied yews for more than 40 years said ‘I’m convinced this is the oldest tree in Europe. It is so old it has split into two halves – one 40ft wide and the other 20ft wide. Its DNA has been tested by the Forestry institute and its ring count is 120 per inch which makes it more than 5,000 years old’.

Richard Marriott who lives at the North Lodge, Fetteresso has collected thumb, hand scrapers and broken flints. These he found in this garden from 1992-2008, centred around NO 83882 85881.

Taking a keen interest in prehistory I was also told about the urn found near Fetteresso Castle and The Hawk Stone.

Lovely way to end the day.

Visited 5/4/2015.

What is entirely certain though, is the massive Cefn Coch (“Red Ridge”) cairn. It would be impressive anywhere, but what sets it apart from comparable sites is the stunning backdrop of the Carneddau.

Turning its face resolutely from the sea hidden behind a ridge to the north, the cairn unquestionably looks inland towards the mountains. The very highest peaks of the range are hidden from here, but the skyline is filled with an array of summits all well above the 2000ft mark, several of which boast contemporary monuments.

It’s a breathtaking sight and we sit in awe for quite a while.

Having singularly failed to realise we’d missed Circle 278, we continue west along the main track. Cors y Carneddau circle is supposedly on the north side of the track. Surely this should be easy to find?
Well, no. Part of the problem lies in the fact that there are quite of lot of random stones in the grass here. Which ones do you choose?

Eventually we decide that a group quite near to the drystone wall, just east of a corner, is the best bet. There are at least four stones in a sort-of arc, with a couple of additional possibles close by. But I could be persuaded otherwise…

Blossom has Frances Lynch’s excellent Gwynedd guide with her and we have a quick look to see what else there is around here. The prominent jumble of upright stones visible to the west is the most obvious place to head next. Unfortunately we don’t realise that Circle 278 is hidden away over a little crest and miss it completely. Drat.

Monument 280 (these numbers suggest a spectacular profusion of other sites crowding around us) is very difficult to get a handle on, even when you’re standing in its midst. A row of four uprights run north-south across the monument, while on the west an apparent kerb forms its edge. Shapes and patterns can be discerned, but are contradicted by other patterns. Truly an enigma.

It’s not much more of a pull upwards to reach the circle. There’s no-one else about so I can savour this beauty properly. The setting is as good as any stone circle I’ve been to, particularly on such a wondrous summer’s day. The sea to the north, the high peaks of the Carneddau mountains to the south. It’s a bit special this.

The stones are big, certainly bigger than you’d find in many Welsh circles. Each has character and there are veins of quartz here and there. Although some of the stones have fallen, it doesn’t detract from the overall impression.

Mountains, stones, silence, sea and sky.

I could write a few pages of superlatives, but really you should come and see for yourself. In the meantime, we have some lunch and take it all in.

05/04/2015 – After our trip down to Avebury last week, me and my feet were still not talking to each other but the sun was too nice to stay in. Sheldon stone circle is one I’ve not been to before. I’d been saving it and today felt and looked a perfect day to visit. With a lovely blue sky and warmth in the air, we made the short trip to the circle. Sometimes I get a little sad at sites when I think about the stones that have been lost and the neglected and forgotten state the circles are in, not today. Looking from the circle there are farmlands and fields as far as the eye can see, I just felt lucky that what is left is still just so wonderful. Like a little stone oasis. Maybe it was the weather or just how I felt today but the circle has a very calm and sleepy feel to it. We sat for awhile looking and not looking, from the stones to the landscape beyond. Bennachie, as ever, wonderful in the distance. When folk ask why I go to stone circles I never really know what to say. Days like today give me the answer, I now just have to find a way to put that into words. A wonderful circle and visit.

Coflein says this about the larger southern ring cairn.........
An oval penannular grassy ring bank measures overall 19.5m (N-S) by c.14m, open on the E where there is a gap 6m wide. The stony turfed-over bank has a maximum width of about 6m and an average height of c.0.5m. On the N part of the ring bank are set two small boulders, 2.5m apart, which appear to flank another gap though, in fact, the bank between them is only slightly lower than elsewhere. The interior is uneven.

and this about the smaller one.......
A slightly oval ring bank surrounding a sunken interior lies adjacent to a farm track.
The overall dimensions of the feature are 13m (N-S) by 12.2m, the interior 6.5m (N-S) by 6m. The crest of the stony turf-grown bank is 0.2m high above the exterior but 0.75m above the sunken interior. A small stony mound lies adjacent to the bank, on the NW.

Coflein also calls them possibles, but that they are bronze age funerary monuments.
Easier to find than I anticipated, though their not on any map but you’ll still need an OS map though.
They are wildly different in size, the larger one is like many other ring cairns I’ve seen but the smaller one is, well, its very small, and that sunken interior. There are stones poking out of the grass where the smaller one abuts the farm track, weather they are part of the cairn or part of the road I couldn’t say. This may be private property but I encountered no people and no barriers.

Parking was obtained on the B5121 to the north west of the cairn by the overgrown entrance to a footpath. But ignore the footpath and walk south down the road, then enter a field through the gate and walk across it, the cairn is in the next field. Its easy enough to get to with an OS map.

This is a good cairn, at least six feet high, made of white limestone like stones. Coflein says it has two trees growing on it, and there is a large boulder on it as well. Typically there are now more than two trees, and the boulder count has grown to three, though the other two are much smaller.

I was really impressed with this cairn, I was expecting it to be much flatter, and the biggest boulder must have taken some great effort to get it up there, effort taken by a tractor or something I presume.
En route back to the car I took a different route across a recently ploughed field, I found a stone that is too flat and smooth on one side and a stoneware jar, it is now on the kitchen window with some small Naffodils in it.

150 meters east are two ring cairns, to where I’m off to next.

It’s a further steady slog of a climb up from Maen Crwn, and the excitement levels really ramp up from here on. Druid’s Circle is already visible on the skyline above, but it’s still worth restraining the urge to get there for a while with a pause at this lovely little circle.

Like something someone might build around a campfire, a simple ring of smooth stones, with a wonderful sea view. The dogs are very taken, sniffing around the inside of the ring. If it weren’t for the fact that the Big Attraction is so visibly close, it would be easy to stop here for a good while.

But we don’t.

After passing Red Farm stone circle without a proper look, the impressive boulder of Maen Crwn is the first proper stop on the walk up towards the Druid’s Circle.

Set in the V of a valley between higher hills, the long views are restricted. But it feels like a stone-on-the-way-to-somewhere stone, the kind you often find marking your path in upland Wales when on the way to exciting destinations. And given what waits above, it certainly performs that function beautifully.

The pull of the circles is too much to linger though...

I decided to do the Hackland Road in Rendall from north to south, starting from the junction near Skiddy. This section’s only purpose seems to be to separate the Seven Knowes from mounds formerly on the downhill side near the new housing where the road turns. Marked as tumuli on the map, though not prominent if you know they are there the two chief ones are quite easy to spot approaching uphill. The southern boundary of Seven Knowes is formed by a farmtrack that goes to Enyas Hill, and Gitterpitten on the road below is the Orcadian form of the term Picts Dyke. Along the track is the fieldgate by which I entered for a closer look at the two main mounds, it being open at the time. One of these seems completely intact, truly conical, whilst the other one has a large scrape in the south side and depressions on top from previous digging (best seen from uphill).

28/03/2015 – It must be 20 years since I was on The Wrekin. I remember it being a tough climb up and 20 years on it still felt pretty hard work. I was glad to get to the top for a sit even if the wind was pretty chilly. Maybe not the best hillfort in the world but the walk through Hell Gate and Heaven Gate is good. The view from the top is fantastic. Last site we visited on our trip and as I walked back down my feet were telling me it was time to go home.

28/03/2015 – Now this is my sort of hillfort. Same way up as postman. Great way to spend an afternoon. Nice fort near the start, lovely but steep walk over Pontesford Hill then onto the open ground of Earl’s Hill. Great fort, like a mini Caer Caradoc which it has a lovely view towards. Bit overcast whilst we were there but the sun did pop out now and again.

28/03/2015 – After a visit to Old Oswestry, we were making good time so we played our hillfort bonus card and went for a quick nosey at Nesscliffe Hill Camp. I liked this one. Little bit of up, nice trees to walk through, good ramparts and a fine view. Worth a visit if you are passing.

28/03/2015 – Rain started to clear as we arrived and there was a lovely rainbow over the ramparts to greet us as we walked through the west entrance and up to the top of the fort. Old Oswestry is one big place. If ramparts are your thing this is the place for you. Nice circuit of the top (clockwise), stopping occasionally to shake my head at the sheer number and size of the ramparts. It’s a must see site but I’ve got to admit not one of my favourites.

27/03/2015 – I drove down to Cornwall a few years back and remember looking across from the M5 and thinking the Malvern Hills looked a great place to visit. Finally made the trip on our little grand tour last week.

British Camp is such a famous site, it was great to get a chance to walk the ramparts. Luckily the weather was good and the views from the hill are very good. The hillfort is amazing, one of my favourites, I think. Would love to have spent more time there but Worcestershire Beacon and St Ann’s Well Cafe were calling. Time ain’t my friend sometimes.

25/03/2015 – Starting from Craven Arms train station we did the Three Woods Walk (in reverse and with a quick bob up View Edge) to visit Norton Camp. Link to the route below. If you have the time, it’s a great way to visit the hillfort and take in the surrounding area including both hills mentioned in Rhiannon’s folklore post. A story about giants always makes a visit better in my eyes.

Norton Camp is well worth a visit. One side looks over the ramparts, down a very steep 100 meters or so drop down to the valley below. A great natural defence. The rest of the hillfort is protected by a double rampart and ditch and they are massive. Must have been some place back in its day. You can walk round the outside of the ramparts (did I mention they were massive?) but the interior is a private field. The hill top is covered in trees and that makes for a lovely walk through. Best of all is that the stones and rocks used to build the ramparts of Norton Camp Iron Age hillfort contain shell fossils everywhere. What was once at the bottom of the sea, ends up in a fort rampart on top of a hill millions of years later, I like that.

With your shiny Ordnance survey map these two barrows should be very easy to find despite the densely packed trees, they are only ten yards from the side of the road and one of the barrows is helpfully massive, three meters high.

Coflein says........
The larger of a pair of barrows (see also Nprn306939), 23m NW-SE – 26m in diameter and 3.0m high, truncated by a modern field boundary on the SE.
Upon opening, in 1908, the mound revealed a central collection of calcined human and animal bones, a possibly secondary in-urned cremation and a further deposit of animal bones and sherds.
and,
the lesser of a pair of barrows (see also Nprn306938), greatly mutilated, 16-17m in diameter and c.1.0m high. A NW-SE trench has been driven through the mound.

I would only add, oh the trees, the god damn trees.

Coflein says....
A round barrow, 14m in diameter and 1.3m high, excavated 1899, producing a possibly disturbed cremation.
I will add just a few things. South east a few hundred yards is Coed Bron Fawr barrow, 3 meters high.
A couple hundred yards west is what looks like another barrow, but Coflein assures us it is a garden feature, nudge, nudge.
If not for the trees on the west side of the road the barrow would enjoy a good view if the Clwydian range.
Grassy mound in field.

I came across this place on the portal, and couldn’t quite believe that such a place could go entirely overlooked by us. So I remedied this immediately, give or take six months.
It’s no wonder we’d never heard of it , it’s not on any map, but, of course my mate Coflein knew all about it. this is what he said.....
Hut circle measuring 8m diameter internally defined by a 1.5m wide bank faced with orthostatic limestone slabs up to 1m high. There are two opposed entrances, on the E and W, each flanked by orthostats, on the N and S sides respectively.
A line of orthostats to the immediate NW of the circle runs NE-SW
At SH 80008092, to the NE of the above, is a small depression, possibly a second hut or pond but more likely a quarry hollow.

Two entrances? in a round house? not heard of that before, ever.

There is no where good to park. I’d Google street viewed the area so I knew I was there when I got there, but it didn’t help with parking, the small road only leads to three houses, all with Private property no parking signs. So I decided to be equally as helpful and took up half a passing place. It was at the top of the road and it’s not like there’s even enough traffic to warrant a passing place, so there you are.
Eric and me had been laid up all weekend with the mother of all colds and neither of us was back on top form. So we hobbled off, well overdressed for the weather in the direction of the trees that hide this little known wonder of Llandudno.
We were not on a footpath, and after we’d climbed over the wall I’m not at all sure if we were trespassing or not. Like it’s ever mattered to me.

There was a path on the other side of the wall, and parallel to it, sheltered by wind twisted Beech trees (I think) the effect was to simultaneously be afraid of and in awe of the woods. Such feelings are often evoked in these places.
Then, through the trees, I spied some stones, we headed for them despite not knowing if these were them, they were them.

Now I am here I am even more surprised that no ones been here before. This is much better than most of North Wales hut circles, this is more like Dartmoor.
Some of the bigger stones are at least a meter high, and it looks like it’s got two entrances, east and west, but not directly opposite each other, I dismissed it as missing stones, but Coflein says looks aint deceiving, two entrances. That could get drafty.

In the centre of the circle is a campfire spot, (probably right on top of the iron age hearth)often used it seems, but there’s not much litter so the midnight revellers at least clean up after them selves.
I saw the line of stones heading away north east, and I saw the hollow that is most probably a small quarry, but they’re gnats on a dinosaurs behind here, the hut circle is really very good.

24/03/2015 – Starting from Church Stretton, we took the lanes then fields north east to the start of the steep climb up Caer Caradoc Hill. Took the route straight up via Three Fingers Rock with its impressive view down to the village and beyond. The ramparts cover a fair amount of the top of the hill, with each step along them offering even better views. We had lovely weather at the start and after a brew at the top made our way to have a nosey at The Lawley. Looping back over Hope Bowdler Hill, after the sunny weather up Caer Caradoc, it started to snow. I love the ever changing weather. This really is a fine hill and fort, well worth going to. Top site.

22/03/2015 – Don’t really want to write individual fieldnotes for the various sites we visited today as other people have already written such lovely things about the places round here. I thought I’d just write about the place that in a way surprised me the most. Looking beforehand at the photos, I wasn’t expecting too much. In isolation, it just looked like a few concrete blocks in a field but can any site round here really be taken in isolation?

We started our walk at Silbury Hill and then onto Swallowhead Springs, West Kennett Long Barrow, River Kennet, The Sanctuary then back along West Kennett Avenue to Avebury stone circle and finishing at Adam and Eve. As megalithic walks go, I think this is the best I’ve ever done (just don’t tell them stones up at Stenness I said that).

My head was a little dizzy with happiness by the time we reached The Sanctuary. After a quick walk round the site, we just plonked ourselves down on the grass for a drink and a sandwich. From where we were sitting, the view over the post marks to the wider landscape beyond was lovely. The weather was nice with the early Spring sun having a little warmth in it now. It was a fine place to stop and rest and take in all we had seen in the morning before heading back to Avebury.

21/03/2015 – Early morning start from Aberdeen. After travelling by taxi, plane, coach, bus and Shanks’s pony we made it to Windmill Hill. We had decided to make the trip south to see Avebury a few months back and the excitement of finally being here was a little overwhelming. After reading the many fieldnotes on TMA about the various sites around Avebury I knew I wanted to see the landscape for the first time by walking over Windmill Hill. We got off the 49 (great bus) at Winterbourne and made our way west then south to make the short climb to the top of Windmill Hill. The top has a lot of interest but my eyes went straight to Silbury Hill . Familiar from photos, but seeing it for the first time was something quite special. We stood for ages just trying to take it all in. Just such a lovely landscape and the weather was kind to us. Finally we made our way round the top looking at the enclosure and many barrows. What a great site, location and view! Heading south we made our way down to enter Avebury stone circle for our first time. A wonderful day.

At the crossroads where the B9119 meets the B993 head south on the B993 taking the first minor road heading west. Take the road to Learney House, the home farm is, sadly, in a severe state of ruin. Still the house seems in fairly good condition and here I was allowed to park. The estate has a new ‘gamie’ or factor who didn’t know the area. He now knows the areas prehistory, nearby are a standing stone and chamber cairn (in the near area are several outstanding RSC’s.) and village pubs.

From the house I headed north east on a track for 1/2 mile, then headed sharp north west climbing steadily until a junction with another track. From here I headed straight west heading uphill. Recent forestry work made underfoot conditions much better.

The remains of the cairn are on top of Learney Hill amongst the trees and a clearing. The almost 10m wide turf covered cairn has a newer cairn built on top. It is almost 1m high.

After having a good look round it was back down the hill and time to find some of the aforementioned refreshment.

Visited 10/3/2015.