Latest Fieldnotes

What an absolute belter of a stone this is set between two hills, called Green Hill and White Hill. These two colours seem very very familiar to me but I’ll know I’ll try hard not to make a football connection. Possibly it was put up by the Ancient Celts, well that didn’t last long!!!!

I reached the site via Whitehill RSC, easily reached following the forestry track. After that, according to the forestry map take the next path west and uphill. This I did. Several problems here, very rubbly, lots of fallen down trees and then it eventually vanishes opposite a massive pile of stones over a wee valley. Without injuring myself I headed west and uphill which to my surprise led to the path I was supposed to on. From here over the top of White Hill and about 100 meters from the summit northern side look south over the fence. (the middle bit isn’t barbed) Luath’s stone is fantastically situated with tremendous views south. I’ve never been here before but I instantly love it even managing, skillfully in my opinion, to trip and take a photograph at the same time. So I sat for a time, no noise except birds and a slight wind, perfect peace in the summer heat.

To get back down there is a type of path but its basically guess. I went down the valley until I saw the main path reappear. Long legs are a good idea as well. Take care not to be pancaked by mountain cyclists. From there back down the hill past the RSC to the car park.

Visited 4/07/2011.

Loved it here... such an unassuming monument, yet nonetheless utterly beguiling, set upon a natural, grassy knoll beneath a canopy of trees, the latter helping to diffuse the trademark Cairngorm downpour. However, unlike that much more (in)famous grassy knoll far to the west, there is no conspiracy here. Just an overwhelming aura of peace, quiet, calm..... which is pretty unexpected, considering the site is within sight of the busy A95 and the parallel A9.

Although there is, sadly, now no sign of a surrounding stone circle, Avielochan is a Clava-style passage grave, retaining a pretty substantial kerb and classic, well defined ‘womb’ chamber within. Nice. Thanks to the landowner – open gate, no barbed-wire fence – I’ve rarely encountered a more welcoming ancient site. The visitor, lying within, feels as safe and secure as.... well, a baby in its mother’s womb. Fancy that? Almost caught myself sucking my thumb, so I did.

The clava cairn name-checks the nearby loch, a fine stretch of water notable for being a favourite with, appropriately enough, water birds. Holiday homes upon the shoreline allow ‘twitchers’ to keep watch without leaving their armchairs. As a result parking is (probably) iffy, assuming the ‘no unauthorised vehicles’ sign at the A95 entrance to the estate is anything to go by. Consequently I would recommend parking in said layby and walking. Upon approaching a footbridge over a railway line (after walking alongside the northern shore line of the loch) look for what appears to be a long barrow within the field to your left, tucked up beside the track. It’s not, of course, but none the worse for that. According to Canmore records (A S Henshall 1963; C G Cash 1910) there was ‘another smaller and much robbed cairn about 36ft to the SW on an extension of the knoll; about 24ft in diameter with a few low kerbstones projecting through the roof’. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of this addition at the time....

Note that there are the remains of a hillfort upon Tor Beag, a rocky promontory rising beyond the aforementioned roads to the approx north-west.

Visited 2.7.11
Easy enough to access once you know which field gate to go through!
The one you need is at the junction on the minor road immediately to the south of the stone – under the electricity pylon cables. There is room to squeeze a car in at the gate opposite.
The stone itself is quite large; approx 6ft high x 2.5ft wide x 1.5 ft thick.
The stone is dark in colour and square(ish) in shape
Well worth a visit when in the area.

‘Visited’ 2.7.11
My O/S map shows that there are 4 standing stone here but I could only see 3.
This was my last site of the day and we were already running very late.
We continued down the minor road south west from the Gwempa Standing Stone and pulled over by a field gate. From here the stones could be easily seen across the valley and with the help of my trusty binoculars I had a very good view of the stones.
There is a single triangular shaped stone on its own and a short distance away the other two stones. One was also triangular (looked about twice as big as the first stone) and the other was more of a traditional ‘standing stone’ shape.
It looked as if access to the stone would be easy enough although you would need to ask permission at the nearby farm. It would only be a short, flat walk from the farm
Unfortunately I only had time for a ‘distance view’ as we had to start the journey home. This wasn’t helped when I discovered I had left my sun glasses on the gate post and we had to turn around to get them.
Karen wasn’t impressed……………………

Visited 2.7.11
I failed to spot the stone from the road and it took a little searching through the fields before I eventually found it.

Directions: On the minor road to the south east there is a house and just up the road a little a dilapidated shed/barn. Next to said shed/barn is a metal field gate where you can just about squeeze next to. Up and over the gate, go directly across the field and through the gap in the hedge on the far side. Once through the gap, go into the field on your right and you will see the stone on a small rise.
(Somehow I managed to get lost in the field going back to the car – it’s surprising how fields can all look the same!)
The stone itself is very large – approximately 10ft x 3ft x 2ft deep. There doesn’t appear to be much of a view although this could be blocked by the surrounding high field hedgerows?
There is no public right of way to the stone and I have no idea who you should ask?

Well worth a look when in the area.

Leave the A93 between Bieldside and Milltimber heading in a north west direction on the Hillhead Road, loosely described as a minor road and in some bits a disgrace. Keep going until it becomes a track and stop about 100 yards before a closed gate at an entrance to the field on the southern side. The site is in the south east corner of the field.

It is a very pretty place on a summers day and even the stone seemed happy basking in the sunlight. Standing at 1.5 meters, with no markings, it has pleasant views of countryside above the busy A93.

Visited 3/07/2011.

(Monte Musinè, is sure one of the most famous place for misteries. Peter Kolosimo wrote about it and about some stones on it. It’s known for UFO too! But anyway, it’s sure that this place it’s allways been a very special place since prehistoric times).

Along the way to the top of the mountain you can find a lot of standing stones, but most of them are surely natural. I found this “alignement” on a book about megalitism on italian and swiss alps called “spiriti di pietra” by Massimo Centini, and I decided to go and to find it.

New find with five cup marks, 2 good ones next to each other plus 3 weathered cups. The large mark is a depression in the stone.

Visited 24/06/2011.

Due to one of life’s quirky little detours I found myself in Petersfield today visiting family of a friend. A lovely afternoon so we walked around Petersfield Heath which, is spite of having a prosperous market town right next to it, still feels like a heath. Surprisingly there are several round barrows dotted about, some hidden among the trees. Not much to add to Jimit’s fieldnote except to say that the person showing us the barrows also told us that they were aligned to the midwinter sunset between the gap in the two westerly hills which can be seen from the nearby lake (formerly marshland). One of these, Butser Hill, being the highest hill in South Downs. It would be difficult to test this theory now as there the area is quite wooded – a treat though to have a little bit of prehistory come my way without any real effort on my behalf.

A long and lovely ride up hill and down dale into the South Parish. Before getting to the branch road there is the one that passes the post office where you need to go for the key to the church (along the road to Burwick) that now holds the Ladykirk Stone (a.k.a. St Magnus Boat) once in another now gone. This stone has two foot hollows. A sandstone block bearing the ‘impression’ of a right foot alone was found in St Andrew’s in the area where you find Mine Howe [Stoney Howe], Round Howe and Long Howe so is likely to have been similarly in (St Ninian’s) Chapel.

Going by road it is not difficult to miss the turn-off for the Tomb of The Eagles despite the direction marker. Should have one opposite the junction as well. Once on the right road you then need to make sure to take the correct piece for the Banks Bistro rather than that for Liddel/Liddle and the Isbister tomb. To the right of the final stretch I see a large conical mound, too large to have been missed before now and too clean-cut to be prehistoric (unlike CANMAP on the newer Canmore Mapping they do mark the Banks tomb). On leaving the bus the horizon presented several panoramas; long lines of cliff and Muckle Skerry with its lighthouse. Nearer to my left I saw a section of cliff lit up on the far side of a narrow inlet. At its far end the earth dips down and there is what I take for a mound though my photo only resembles two horns of stripped turf. Further away and near the horizon there is a wall of weather coming in across the waters to my right. The ‘Tomb of The Otters’ is slap bang by the customer car park. Only now do I find out none of my companions had realised about the tomb being here, they’ve come for the culinary experience after their walk. My gaffe. The weather arrives light summer rain. Decide it would be a good idea to check whether I can publish photos to the Net. A young lady passes me on to the finder, Hamish Mowatt, who guesses that I am Wideford but has no firm opinion in response to my question.

The mound is said to be low. It actually stands a couple of feet proud of the surrounding land, which is nae bad really. We decide that I shall concentrate on the recently restored chamber that first brought attention to the cairn – you can still see a circle above the top of the rock-cut rear wall where he frst peered in. Last year he found a long heavy slab buried alongside the damaged chamber. All that had been above ground had been a few inches of litch covered corner. On the edge facing into the ground Hamish found a host of markings made in antiquity. An attempt was made to downplay its relationship to the tomb itself – ah, that sacred phrase “in situ” is being applied way too restrictively here, because not only had the stone been buried alongside the disturbed chamber but it also slots into place to complete the capping in the chamber’s restoration, not merely somewhere in the vicinity as “not in situ” implies. In April the owner and a Rousay mason affectionately known as Colin ‘Bin Laden’ followed Orcadian tradition and sensitively restored the damaged chamber. The stones added to complete the passage were keyed into the existing stones at two key points. To roof the chamber they put back the slab hit by the digger and placed the buried stone over the front of the chamber, where the way that it slotted in confirmed the original fit. In between was filled in by a new slab taken from the shore below. Altogether, even using the digger, it took two days to finish the job – from seven in the morning to seven in the evening of the first day and until four in the afternoon of the second day. The final result justifies the decision to ignore the archaeological authorities leave the capstone over the eastern chamber in place, giving the public a proper idea of how the tomb looked – the purpose of a capstone is to stop the whole falling apart. It is interesting to speculate about when the tomb was ‘decommissioned’ by the removal of that roofing slab, especially in relation to the otter incursions chronology.

The man’s a gae good yarn teller, can tell you all kinds of stuff to do with the locality and his experience of the archaeologist in the field. Could have listened to him until the cows came home, as it were. Only the truth of it comes from him, though a visiting archaeological student will give good tours when he comes to work here. Hamish mentioned that he had more marked stones in a shed. Whilst he answered the phone I took my photos of this end of the tomb as agreed – unfortunately my foties of the chamber’s actual insides weren’t up to snuff, but the important ones were. When I moved away his work on the phone came to a close and he was gracious enough to show me the writings. The shed turned out to be a fair sized new wooden rotunda that acted as his peedie interpretation centre, with info around the walls and a camera feed to the chamber at the other end of the long axis. On a table in the middle are three stones full of promise. One is dominated visually by a single vee of large size and broad lines upside-down at the edge [from a larger slab I would hazard]. Some authority tried to claim that this sign owes its existence to contact with the digger, which is bull (as you can see by comparing its mark on the roofing slab with this, no comparison at all !). Indeed along the left channel you can see the individual tool marks made in gouging the channel in antiquity. Lines criss-cross other two stones, both singletons and simple sets. The next day I visited St Magnus Cathedral and noticed some of the blocks have thin straight lines of crystal inclusion gathered in similar groups, imitation using grooves the sincerest form of flattery possibly. If the vees are seen as chevrons it brings up the thorny question of which came first, scribed stones or decorated pot. Of course this assumes that all the ‘inscriptions’ are art rather than palaeoepigraphy [pre-writing].One of the stones seems to me to distantly foreshadow the Pictish symbol stone as it is more a geometrical shape than a split slab or found rock.

Next week Alice Roberts will be followed by 360 Production as they continue their behind the scenes look at “Digging for Britain”. Perhaps Sigurd Towrie could use the opportunity to bring the story up to date from material gathered since his last report. Hamish Mowatt had been hoping to start up a webpage but a family death and pressure of work have meant that this has had to be put on the backburner, for this year at least. Though not wishing to be involved with material remains such as bones it is possible that he might eventually follow further in the steps of Ronnie Simison (though not alone) if he ends up in the same position – several times in the local papers from 1825 on I have come across reports where the excavator stated his intent to dig the next year or come back for a continuance, and then decades or even a century later still nothing has happened. Of course the modern reasoning is that these sites are being left to posterity and its advances rather than in reality lack of funding or the search for the next big/new site. He has learned about the different factions amongst the archaeologists, and having found that there are still digs in Orkney where finds are collared by those who did not find them now only has faith in ORCA and the County Archaeologist, like Ronnie having been disparaged by some who should know better.
Speaking of which I was surprised to learn that John Hedges is still renting a nearby cottage, over towards Liddle, as he further investigates the prehistoric landscape brought to light by Ronnie Simison. ‘Wedgie’ would love another major site to crown his life’s work, after an hiatus due to debilitating illness, but apart from one eventually disappointing ‘settlement’ has been unlucky thus far. Apparently the great man has made many reports and such on his work at this time. However I must imagine this has been in the nature of what they call ‘grey literature’ as apart from a initial outline in “The Orcadian” things have been quiet [one would dread it going the same way as the digs at Skaill in Deerness]. We would love an interim ‘work in progress’ article in the paper guv.

Came time for lunch. Gourmet meals for £10.95 pretty as a picture and filling too. Half the price for a light meal, say £3.50 to a fiver. Had a toasted sandwich – they also do ordinary ones, paninis and baked tatties. Ignored the lovely sounding home made desserts and plumped for a clotted cream tea for four pounds fifty. Gosh it did me grand.

The Blide Trust were making enquiries about a fishing trip. Then on the skyline Hamish showed me the mounds Ronnie had investigated between here and the Tomb of The Eagles, and described one in particular, inviting me back to the neighbourhood to see more. I had to be virtually dragged away. Ah, if I had money or transport. Closest are four turf-covered mounds that may be natural. Next comes a group of six low stone cairns averaging 28 feet across and two high, with the largest a fraction over half as high again and forty-eight feet in diameter. These are now described as disturbed – in 1973 Ronnie had trenched two and it is easy to imagine him having gone on to the rest next. The NGR is given as ND46128326 but a 1997 survey gives this as ND460432 with additionally a possibly prehistoric mound at ND462833. Ronnie is known two have dug two mounds with drystane wall kerbs and the O.S. thought one might be linked by a causeway to yet another [double BA house ??]. Further along a probable animal pound (a term almost as useless for dating as “enclosure”) had been formed by walling off the SW end of a promontory an area some sixty by forty metres, and has another kerbed cairn within (at ND46338323) that he was investigating at the time of the O.S. visit [is that what I saw on first alighting ?? Too big]. Underneath a cairn of more recent vintage grass covers a mound 2’ high and about 8m diameter. There ws a double kerb found at the south around a body of stones with some earth, with small horizontal slabs between the twa kerbs – a trench at the SW, then unfinished, found two stones of purpose unknown but larger than the fill. The inner arc seemed to be drystane walling but the outer had been made from larger blocks, both being in courses. If you do go this way to the Tomb of The Eagles don’t forget to go back by way of the burnt mound to the Simison’s museum and cafe so you can pay the tomb’s entrance fee. Fair do’s.

Starting for Kirkwall the massively ugly tires at Burwick are offset for me by the sight of the grass dressed iron age fort (though you have to know where it is to see it).

Any errors and omissions are mine

Visiting an ancient site evokes emotions which I find very difficult to put into words. I suppose I could cite the stereotypical, dumb male reticence for emotion and pretend it’s just ‘something to do’... but at the end of the day you have to answer to the inner self, you know? So what is it which inspires me to seek out yet another obscure megalithic monument, when I could be doing what ‘normal’ men do, such as a ‘thrilling’ round of golf at the course across the way, perhaps? Is it an attempt to allay the uncertainty of purpose, of meaning, even – seemingly endemic within a society shorn of the mass anaesthesia of monotheistic religious belief – by returning to the places our ancestors gathered in an attempt to assuage the very same fundamental fears they clearly shared? A desire, perhaps, to achieve some sort of continuity of human experience through exposure to the same inspiring landscape and – just perhaps – learn from their mistakes? To feel I’m actually a part of some ongoing quest, one small piece of the human jigsaw spinning through an unimaginable void on a journey to Stephen-Hawkings-knows-where. In short, perhaps I feel the need to experience raw emotion, the ‘stuff’ that defines us as a species? Or is all this just pretentious delusion? The sort of discourse that ensures a woman’s eyes glaze over so you don’t get laid? ‘That’s a fascinating hobby.... oh, is that the time?‘

Or perhaps I could just take you to the centre of Upper Lagmore and say ‘this is why I do what I do’. To be here. Right now. Yeah, when all is said and done, the Neolithic and Bronze Age inhabitants of these islands left us with perhaps the most articulate, enigmatic statements of what it really means to live upon this Earth... in the form of their standing stones, mounds and cairns. Perhaps as a species we really do ‘say it best when we say nothing at all’? For me they achieved – hell, still achieve – the reconcilliation of this apparent contradiction by forming a ‘connection’ between the observer and the landscape itself... so that we appear to observe no more but, instead, are actually directly involved with the natural occurrences of this planet. No longer just some creatures plonked upon the surface by a ‘higher entity’, but an integral part of this evolving planet, making it up as we go along... with all the responsibilities that entails. Not children any more, but adults facing reality. Daunting, isn’t it?

If you’ve struggled through the above, thank you for obliging me. For, when all is said and done, Upper Langmore blew me away primarily because of its exquisite location, set upon a steep hillside overlooking the River Avon. OK, the aforementioned golf course, below to the east (with, incidentally, the shattered remnants of Lower Lagmore chambered cairn to its north), is out of context, but the horizon of distant, rounded mountain summits says all that is necessary. The monument is a clava-style passage grave surrounded by a stone circle, of which five stones remain upright... including a fine, lichen coated monolith upon the western arc. There’s also a much taller (c12ft) stone – sadly fallen, which I guess actually makes it ‘longer’ – to the south-east, near the entrance to a ruinous passageway (with displaced lintel – according to Burl). This passageway once gave access to the central chamber within the internal ring cairn, the circumference of the latter defined by heavy kerbing. Yeah, despite the broken remnants of what once were presumably circle stones littering the site, quite a lot of the original fabric of Upper Lagmore still remains intact.

A visit to what is left is arguably all the more necessary since it would appear that the landowner does not want anyone to see it. Actions speak louder than words, with two barbed-wire fences needing to be negotiated upon the steep, uphill approach from the east [although, having said that, the lower can (currently) be stepped over, the upper ‘rolled’ under without causing any damage to visitor or fence]. It would seem these boundaries are not in place to protect the monument, since – disgracefully – junk lies within the clava’s immediate environs. I’ve a feeling I’m being watched, both from the golf pavillion and farm to the west, but nevertheless the ‘sense of place’ here is too intense to contemplate withdrawal until lack of time calls a halt. Bring it on, since I’d like to have a word with anyone who, it would seem, denies the importance of this wondrous place to Scottish heritage! Ironically, as I eventually retire to the car, I hear the sound of a vehicle’s engine, the source of which remains out of sight upon the hill I’ve just vacated.

Looking back near the memorial, across the river to the east, I notice a landrover parked by the site. Hmm. Perhaps I wasn’t being paranoid after all? Obviously, in retrospect, I must recommend an official approach for access – it would be great to understand what the issues are from the landowner’s perspective. Whatever you choose, Upper Lagmore deserves to be seen. I just wish I had more time to check out the other ruined chambered cairns in the immediate vicinity.

My first visit to Bincknoll Castle – today as the culmination of a nine mile walk taken from a leaflet poduced by North West Downs AONB. The second half of the walk was from Clyffe Pypard to Broadtown, along to the lesser known Broad Town White Horse then following the bottom of an escarpment to the track leading up to Bincknoll Castle. Once up there, the distant sprawl of Swindon and constant flow of the M4 motorway became hidden behind trees, before me lay the Marlborough Downs and Ridgeway.

Note:
Apparently the Normans adapted the Bincknoll hillfort as a motte and bailey castle but all trace of this has disappeared.

Today I caught the 49 bus out towards Avebury, disembarking at the village of Broad Hinton; the objective being to ‘test’ walk one of the new ‘bus walks’ compiled by North Wessex Down AONB.

The first part of the walk took me onto the old trackway of Vize Lane, apparently an ancient trading route which once connected settlements now known as Wroughton and Devizes. The track comes out by the Winterbourne Bassett stone circle at Lambourne Ground and effectively forms a cross-roads; the large sarsen overlooking this junction becoming visible as I walked towards the crossroads. It struck me that on the other occasions I’ve visited this site I’ve always been in a car – walking towards it along Vize Lane gave it a different perspective. I found myself thinking that instead of being an outlier to the almost buried stone circle, the large sarsen might in fact be an prehistoric Mark Stone – as talked about by Alfred Watkins in The Old Straight Track.

Edit: Local antiquarian friend has kindly sent me this message:
The Winterbourne Bassett Stone was erected in memory of Rev W.F. Harrison who fell from his horse and died here in 1857.

As a second fieldnote I must give a huge and sincere thanks to Roland Buchan and his partner Margaret Middleton for allowing to take pictures of their fantastic collection. Its not often such kindness is shown to somebody who is a complete stranger, and lets face it everybody here knows I’m bonkers, then feed and water them as well. They have a friend called Willie Adie, who has a story to tell and the finds as well, hopefully more about him in the near future. The adventure in this part of Aberdeenshire, for me, is about to begin. I hope somebody listens as it might be significant for Willie’s sake and the Methlick area, he has Lady Aberdeen at Haddo House on his side and detailed hand drawn maps as well. Now I’ll spread the word far and wide so we’ll see what happens. Of course the news will be here first, pics, fieldnotes etc.

Revisited 29/06/2011.

Visited 19.6.11

This is a difficult site to access.
We parked next to a house on a minor road to the south of the hamlet of Carrow Hill. Karen and the children stayed in the car whilst I walked up the road to climb over the wooden stile near the trees. The stile was overgrown but at least it was there.
The O/S map shows another public right of way directly opposite the house we parked next to. It doesn’t exist – just an impenetrable 10ft high hedgerow!
The field was full of crop so I walked along its edge, keeping the woods to my left. Again, I was faced by a seemingly solid ‘wall’ of bushes/hedge etc but kept walking in the hope of finding a gap. Eventually I did and started the steep and slippery climb up towards the Hillfort.
The undergrowth was very bad and on several occasions I was tempted to give up but kept at it. As I climbed higher it started to thin out a bit. Eventually I got to the top and as luck would have it came out bang on top of the Hillfort!
It wasn’t very easy to make things out clearly due to the undergrowth but when I got my eye in I could make out the arc of the single bank / ditch – about 2 metres high in places when standing in the ditch. I followed the bank around for a short while before getting fed up of battling through brambles etc.
I was then faced with the onerous task of slipping and sliding back down the hill.
Although the defences are fairly well preserved a visit to this site is not one for the faint hearted. Unless you are reasonably fit you would have no chance.
To be honest I can’t say it was really worth the effort.
(But glad I did nonetheless!)

COFLEIN describes the site thus:
‘A roughly D-Shaped enclosure c52 m by 46 m, defined by a bank and ditch, except on the N, where it rests on steep natural slopes. There is a W facing entrance’.

Visited 12.6.11

My last site of the day.
By now I was soaked and leaving puddles in Karen’s car!
We parked at the turn off for St Donats and I walked down the road towards the Barrow. Cars whizzed passed me and the spray from he tyres made me even wetter!
The contour of the Barrow was visible as a low mound in a field of wheat; next to the road hedgerow.
Like all the others Barrows I had visited today there wasn’t much to see and in all honesty one for only the very keen only. I am sure people must think I am mad trapsing about in the pouring rain to look at ‘lumps and bumps’ in fields? – but I enjoyed myself all the same!

p.s – I used to live in the famous area of Cardiff called Splott so visiting this site added a little ‘extra’!

COFLEIN describes the site thus:
A circular mound, 23m in diameter and 0.4m high.
(source Os495card; SS97SW30)

Visited 12.6.11

I parked outside the church in the village of Wick and walked up the sign posted footpath directly opposite. Although it was a little overgrown it wasn’t too bad at all. The path takes you between the houses and once over a stile, out into a field. Just before the field you pass an old derelict windmill, its walls still standing to a height of about 20 feet.
Unfortunately it seems to have become a local fly tipping spot so what could be a lovely local icon is in fact a rubbish strewn disgrace – very sad.
As for the remains of any Barrow it was hard to say. Although the grass was short the ground was very undulating so what could possibly be the remains of a Barrow could also be a natural ‘lump or bump’?
No point in visiting unless you want to check out the windmill.

COFLEIN describes site thus:
‘A circular mound, 18m in diameter and 0.3m high, destroyed 1978-82.‘
(source Os495card; SS97SW14)
Possible traces apparent on AP.

Visited 12.6.11

On the way home from a pleasant (but wet) visit to Slade Farm (Open Farm Sunday) I took the opportunity to check out this Barrow just north of Wick village. There is a lay by to the south of the site which I parked in and walked back up the road to the field gate. I jumped over the gate and walked a little way into the field. All that remains of the Barrow is a small bump in the field – just about recognisable.
To be honest not really worth a visit.

COFLEIN records the site as:
‘A ploughed down, circular mound, 15.2 metres in diameter and 0.4m high’.

Visited 18.5.11

Just in front of Gaulstown Portal Tomb is this cist. It has probably the largest capstone I have ever seen on a cist – approximately 2 metres x 1.5 metres – supported at both ends on a small mound of grass covered stones.
As with the tomb it is in its own little wooded area – a lovely setting.

I arrived at Little Gight looking for the remains of a souterrain. Sadly it was long gone it’s stones possibly used as lintils etc. So nothing to see, very wrong. Fortunately on my arrival I was met by Roland Buchan who showed all round his farm. Over to St Devenick’s Well, to something hopefully Tiompan will describe, to an old mill and some rocks but alas no rock art. Roland then mentioned he’d found some flints and arrow heads. So in his kitchen I manfully drank the cup of tea on offer and watched as my eyes grew wider and wider. Roland’s partner, Margaret Middleton brought thru some boxes. I only looked at half the contents as we had a pressing engagement with a genius later on (more of that later). Scrapers, knifes and arrow heads from Mesolithic and Neolithic times appeared as if by magic. I’ve never seen nothing like this outside a museum and my own discoveries. More and more they kept appearing, a prehistoric treasure chest.

I’ll be back to take foties of the rest, I’m invited, so I’ll put them up at a later date. First a pressing meeting with an extraordinary gentleman and things that I’ve never witnessed before.

28/06/2011.

The way from the the summit of Mulloch Hill is, as those familiar with the landscape of Scotland might expect, not an easy skate. Even taking the (more or less) direct line to the long cairn, avoiding Scar Hill and a further cairn to its left. Having said that, matters aren’t helped by what appears to be a certain (ahem) amount of conflict between the landowner and militant local walkers (surely not tourists?), judging by several (apparently) ‘sledge- hammered’ gates and copious use of barbed-wire fences. Hmm. As a result the path is not easy to follow, several ‘back-tracks’ being required as I come across fences too high to negotiate. Well, at least without damaging you know what. Nevertheless I eventually reach the afforested Craigie and continue to the hill’s eastern tree-line, whereby, beyond yet another high, barbed-wire fence, the long cairn is visible to the right. Or is it just a dry stone wall? There’s only one way to find out.

In actual fact both scenarios are correct, a dry stone wall abutting – and no doubt constructed from – what to all the world looks like a much disturbed, horned long cairn of significant proportions – albeit with a large chunk removed from its far (southern) flank. Canmore (see Misc post) doesn’t appear 100% sure the cairn is kosher – possibly due to the existance of a much less substantial , not to mention grassy and very unconvincing, clearance ‘long cairn’ sharing the pasture to the north. To be honest I can see no reason at all to doubt a prehistoric origin, particularly since another upstanding example (The Blue Cairn) sits within Balnagowan Woods a little further to the east. But there you are. Wishful, thinking perhaps?

The cairn is located upon an angled, natural ridge – or so it would appear – offering good views towards nearby Braeroddach Loch. The bare, staring windows of Balnacraig Farm, below to the south, are a little off-putting at first.... bearing in mind the apparent landowner/walker conflict in the area. But then that’s just me, I guess. Bit of a wuss. Or perhaps worried I might turn into Michael Douglas in ‘Falling Down’ in the event of someone having too much of a go, you know? In the event, no problem and Balnacraig is a fine early afternoon hang. I decide to return to the car by heading north, towards Scar Hill. A bridge crosses a small burn only to end at a barbed-wire fence. Fortunately persons unknown have covered the offending fence with plastic tape. Which is nice.

Once across, I stumble through woodland, trending west, before picking up a grassy track heading roughly in the same direction. According to the compass, anyway. Sure enough this leads eventually to a gate beside Burnside Farm..... and tarmac. Luckily.

Having managed – somehow, or other – to survive the night without a tree falling on my head, the arrival of dawn brings conflicting emotions... relief at still being in one piece after the storm, and regret at the leaving of Aberdeenshire for the much more brutal landscape of the Cairngorms. Jeez. Let’s hope the weather improves a bit, then.

However the excellence of the Blue Cairn last evening persuades me that, perhaps, a encore upon Mulloch Hill would be a good idea prior to penetrating the fastness of The Highlands once again. I choose a different approach to The Drewbhoy... but then variety is supposedly the spice of life, is it not? At Dinnet, a small settlement astride the A93 west of Aboyne, the A97 heads north towards The Grampian Mountains. Take this and, a little before Ordie, follow a minor road to your right (east)... if you pass Monadavan Farm you’re on the right track/road (delete as appropriate)... so carry on until, upon passing a right fork to Mullochdhu Farm, it should be possible to park upon the verge. Walk up the road, which terminates at Burnside Farm, and take the obvious track to the right, passing two drystone buildings, also on your right. One assumes the fallen tree blocking the track – no doubt a victim of last night’s winds – will no longer be an issue.... judging by the sounds of a chainsaw heard later in the morning, that is. Then, just beyond the ‘backdoor’ to Mullochdhu – once again on the right – veer steeply to your left (this time) and ascend Mulloch Hill.

That’s the theory, then. Trouble is there’s a caveat... in that the traveller needs to locate a path literally hacked through the gigantic, mutant heather (at least that’s what I think it is?) to stand any chance – at all – of reaching the summit from this direction. Seriously, the vegetation is otherwise impenetrable to these eyes.... not to mention shins. So, a seemingly simple, easy visit to a small hill turns into nothing of the sort. Consequently it’s a relief to eventually see the cairn emerge upon the horizon... of another such monument, which (apparently) lies upon the western flank of the hill, there is no sign. Not surprised, to be honest. It’s therefore a pleasure to report that Drewbhoy’s estimation of the summit cairn is quite correct... it’s a sizeable stone pile crowning an excellent viewpoint, the outlook particularly fine looking westwards towards the twin lochs Davan and Kinord (the latter with crannog) and the cairn crowned, high peak of Morven. Nice. Despite a shower front sweeping in, I reckon I ken why this hilltop was chosen as a suitable spot to send someone to eternity.

I’ve a bit less time than that, however... so... upon checking the map, head approx east towards the far side of the woods spied through the gloom. If my direction finding isn’t that off kilter the reward should be another long cairn. Yeah, as Mr Cope (himself) once sang whilst careering around in that jeep... ‘I long to accept my reward’. Da!da!dah! Da!da!dah!

Kammer found the going difficult from the road to the north west but ttTom found it easy enough coming from the east down off the mountain, can you guess which route I took.

There was room for one or two cars next to the footpaths on the road to the northwest of the cairn, but make sure your on the right path, not the big left one but the small steep single file path. I had read Kammers notes about this path but decided that it was summer now so hopefully it would be a bit drier, it wasn’t, in fact parts of the path are so worn by continuous water flow that its 5o% path and 50% stream, even though both my kids are old enough to take it, they still couldnt be bothered, so I left them fairy story style in the forest and carried on on my own. I’m not as bad as Hansel and Gretels dad though the cairn was only seventy yards away up the occasional path, I could hear them just fine messing about below me, if the trees were not there i would have been able to see them. Anyway there both children of nature so we were all ok.

The cairn is a big one, in a big clearing in a conifer plantation, the cairn isnt just the visible cairn material,( too many cairns?) its much bigger than that. The summer sun was streaming down upon me and I was just dripping in sweat, the midges were having a field day, and because of the slight chance that there may be a house made of sweets in the forest I walked around it once, inspected the exposed cist, noting the cast aside capstone which is still in one piece, then I proceeded to have a good tut about the shelter dug into its northern edge and the whacking great wall built across the cairn.
Then I made my way back down to the kids and off we went.
I told them we were just going up the road to turn round when wow would you look at that two standing stones “’ll just have a quick look”
awwwww daaaad ???

Aikey Brae ranks among the TOP5 RSC in Aberdeenshire for me. A splendid location, a huge recumbent, large stones (some fallen) and great views across the countryside. Even the track through a dense woods that leads to the circle is brilliant and mysterious.

Highly recommended!

In addition to a23’s directions, there is now a offical sign at the start of the field track to the circle, as Aikey Brae is part of the “The Stone Circle” trail.

Visited June 2011

This stone circle, excavated by Aubrey Burl, is now heavily overgrown. There is still a surrounding fence and a kissing gate to enter the site inside the litte wood, but inside the fence there are no traces of someone, who looks after the site in terms of cutting the grass and saplings.

So I guess that in a few years, this site will be completely vanished and overgrown, which is a pity, because what I was able to trace was quite nice and the spot in the little wood adds to the atmosphere.

Visited June 2011