Latest Fieldnotes

Not wanting to go home just yet I decided to pick a cairn from off the map more or less at random and go find it.
Having just come from the other side of the Brenig reservoir I headed into the Clocleinog forest, parked up and started into the forest with Arthur the 6mnth old Jack Russell.
The cairn is in a clearing on top of a hill, the map also said there is a monument up here too, so they shouldnt be hard to find.
Well the monument does stick out but the cairn is as hard to find as inner peace, only with prolonged map pondering could the site be ascertained. Covered in heather, ferns and 12inches of spongey moss the cairn still occupies the highest point in the clearing, though if you didnt know it was there you wouldnt know it was there...... I know its there.
The monument sqauts in an enclosure of an undifined date, and commemorates the planting of the surrounding forest, strange thing to commemorate. The views west to the Clwydian mountains and myriad hillforts is a good one.

This is a stunning wee museum and well worth an hour of anybody’s time. The collection of Pictish carved stones is just fabulous.

Hit the links for the HS website which has more details.

I went along here on the 14th May 2010. It’s easy to find and there’s parking nearby. Despite it being just along the road from Stirling I had never visited the site before.

The Broch is the victim of ongoing vandalism, negelect and wanton theft. There is a rumour of stone being spirited away by a local landscape gardener on a quad bike.

There is no sign of the “slab, 13.0cm in diameter, sculptured with three concentric rings, ... five stones into the stair lobby from the inner face of the broch” nor of the “complex carving on a recumbent stone slab at the end of the entrance passage, immediately inside the broch. The carving is of a bar, 19cm long, 9cm wide at one end, and a figure of eight at the other” mentioned on Canmore.

All in all it was quite a dispiriting visit and a real condemnation of the authorities responsible for conserving our heritage.

NMRS record no. HY21SE 19 is a small mound of earth and stones on the SE slope of the hill between the Ring of brodgar and Bookan farm which has/had a stone setting around the base. Its present dimensions of ~8m diameter by 0.6m high accords well with those of 27’ diameter and 18” high reported in 1946, meaning little or no erosion has happened since.
It can be seen by the northern fence of the field that also holds the Wasbister ‘disc barrow’ and the Bookan Cairn settlement (as well as a possible burnt mound by the pow/lochan). From below it appears as a bright green grassy mound on the hill’s SE slope skyline. Only a few yards away is a very rough mound. From some views the ragged mound is so big that this and the cairn could even possibly be a single item subjected to different fates at E and W. But I only found a single flat stone on the whole of the mound’s surface. I make the cairn round with a diameter varying from 6.4-6.5m, which is several feet short of the recorded 8m/27’. Though there are some loose stones around the base there are no signs that these have ever been embedded. But even sans stone setting my eyes thought there might be a cropmark ‘ring’ about the cairn of roughly the right size.

RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21SE 26, located on the south side of the Lyking road junction at Voy, now consists of two mounds at HY25351496 & 7. A likely cist slab was found at the centre of the N mound but the later discovery of burnt material led to its present designation. It is a metre high, its companion slighter at 0.7m, but the centre would also be the centre of a mound incorporating both present mounds – the two stone blocks at the N side most likely having come from the unrecorded excavation of a site similar to Hawell burnt mound say

From the A55 turn south as if heading for Aber falls, drive straight through the carpark and over the bridge, keep going till you run out of road, this is an official free carpark, fits a dozen or so.
Follow the wall and path up the hill, looking for sticky out stones in the wall for climbing easily over the wall. It is here that the ruined stone circle??? or hut circle or what ever it is, is hiding.
Keep climbing the hill following the wall and path untill you can see the stone walls of a large tumbled enclosure above you up the hill some more. Looking down on the enclosure you can also see the cairn stones of Carnedd y Saeson to the left, approach with caution and set your faces to stunned.
What a fantastic place, the monument is in appearance two concentric stone circles with cairn material here and there with a large capstone in the middle of it all. The only detractor is the abundant gorse all over this hillside, it impedes progress at the least and is doing its best to smother the stones at worst.
The cairn is itself very interesting, but the surroundings are what really stuns you, the wooded gorge and awesome mountains and hopefully like me deep blue skies, dont get too comfortable or you could spend a week up here,
just letting the place wash through you and soak you up.
Also, you so have to go to Aber falls if your here its one of the local wonders.

To get here I walked from the centre of Charlestown Of Aberlour on the banks of one of Scotland’s best known rivers, the Spey. This is also distillery central so plenty for taste buds to sample.

From the High Street, walk south down Queen Street and keep going up the hill till the tarred road ends. (approx 11/2 miles) Turn east and walk uphill as the first buildings, Hatton, Leachmells alternate name. Over the gate in the next field and the cairn can be seen just south of the buildings.

It is easy to see why this was placed, the views of the Moray highlands are stunning. A stone circle stood here at one point but it was destroyed before 1692 but the kerb cairn defiantly remains. I counted 6 kerbs still in situ. It is 11.5 meters wide and almost 1 meter tall.

Visited 16/07/2010.

Had been wanting to get here for a while and finally did on the end of May bank holiday. Access is ok although the road leading up to it is very narrow and had to reverse down the hill when I met another car.

There is space to park and turn at the top although the ‘monument’ is on private land. It is a weird one, unique in the Peak District and I’ve read that the only comparable site is something like Long Bredy bank barrow. It has been dug into a fair bit and the mound was divided up into stalls radiating off a central stone spine. Lots of skeletons were found dating to the neolithic.

It’s a funny one to make sense of, 2 bronze age barrows are surplanted onto each end although they’re pretty battered. Good site with amazing views across the area and lots of other barrowed hill tops.

I’d photographed the main panels and was turning to go when I saw a strange looking crack in the steep step of rock in the ground between the cup and ring panels. I looked again. And again! My heart went into overdrive and I had to sit down. I thought it was going to burst out of my chest. I was looking at a three foor long, two foot high bird like a Raven. I stood up. I sat down again and approached it sliding along the peaty grass. I ran my fingers along the deeply carved beak and around the beautifully shaped head. I simply could not believe what I was seeing and touching. I took a photo with my other half’s new camera.
When I looked back at the image on the camera screen under the trees, I saw what appeared to be a pair of bird’s feet above the Raven’s head. I walked over to check. As I looked in disbelief a Heron took shape. I could make out a bird below the Raven’s beak. It looked like a Curlew. It wasn’t carved out in deep relief like the Raven and Heron.
I resisted the temptation to wash off the deep coating of lichen, mossy slime and the peaty discoloured patina on the carvings and just started taking pictures as they were. The wind suddenly dropped and a horrendous midge attack ensued. I fled their bites shaking with utter joy. A sense of elemental elation carried me out of the wood and back to the car. I drove back to Lamlash. My head swam. I had to pull over at the top of the hill between Brodick and Lamlash and get out and get my breath back.

I returned a number of times that week. On the last day Mrs HD and The Boy came with me. They spotted the birds straight away (when I showed them the direction to look!). Suitably amazed, Alison took some nice photos. There had been a lot of rain the night before and that morning so the Raven was standing in a puddle of water and the carvings showed up better.

Reported the carvings by email to RCAHMS early in the week. Notified the Brodick Museum and Arran Heritage. Sent on the photos to both. I simply could not understand how these carvings sat in plain sight for so long without being noticed. A quick examination of photos on TMA and on BRAC showed the carvings visible but far in the background of Hob and Greywether’s photos. In the 1901 PSAS illustration the carvings lie under a strip of peat and turf separating the known cup and ring panels. Hmm... I thought... When exactly did the peat and turf wear away? Drove to Edinburgh to examine Stan Beckensall’s 2004 manuscript report and the photo archive at RCAHMS on Thursday. Beckensall never noticed them, his report contains no photographs. But I found M van Hoek’s photo, it was exactly the view I needed and showed the strip of peat to be there in 1980 but a bit of the rock is beginning to show through. I paid the very helpful member of staff £1.18 for the colour photocopy of it and left.
RCAHMS got in touch today and asked me to pass the details on to Discovery and Excavation Scotland. So that’s that.
So anybody going to Arran this summer, get along to Stronach Wood (very easy access and very close to Brodick) and catch some elemental revelation for free.

Having visited this site today I would add the following tip: DO NOT visit when it has rained solidly for days on end and there is little or no sunlight to cast any kind of shadow!

We clambered onto the very slippy rocks and both nearly met our maker at various points!

Ramsey, however, enjoyed drinking rain water out of the more defined cup marks!

A really good cliff top walk takes you from Carnedd y Saeson to the hillfort Maes Y Gaer, totally stunning views down the valley that has Aber falls falling into it.
Winter would best serve as a visiting time as ferns obscured much, some wide tumbled walls are all thats left on its south side, no sign of an entrance at all.
At the western extremity of the fort are the best views outside of snowdonia yet still in north wales. Anglesey and the Straits, or down to the wooded valley or along the wooded valley to the sometimes thundering Aber falls (its all gorge-ous)today its just a thin ribbon of white water due to insufficient rains, you cant have everything, don’t know why though.

I stumbled upon this poor mans Grimspound by chance whilst hunting down Carnedd y saeson, it was a good place for a breather as it was getting hotter and my drink had been drunk some time ago.
The low tumbled wall describes an egg shaped enclosure with a large upright stone suggesting a possible north facing entrance.
The blunt end of the egg to the east is made up of large boulders, whilst the rest is constructed out of large yet managable rocks/pebbles.
For good views across the site go up the hill behind the enclosure, this will also make clear the exact whereabouts of Carnedd y saeson, you can hide but you can’t run.

From the Druids circle head west to monument 280 then head up the hill to your south, not the one with crap walkers cairn, the bigger one to the right, that is Moelfre (435m)
It isnt a big hill but the view from the top is a big hill kind of view, to the south are the tall mountains, west is Anglesey and the Straits, east is the north wales coast and north is The Great Orme and open Irish sea.
The cairn isnt well presreved, reduced to a broken donut shape, but further along the hill top you can look down on Cors y Carneddau and other sites, the walk up is worth it just for the views it affords.

Another aptly named stone circle, this one is a ring cairn, composed of pebbles more or less fist sized, the entrance faces east and directly opposite the entry on the other side is a large fat boulder much bigger than anything else in the ring cairn.
Possibly the best hidden monument up here, you cant see it from the druids circle or monument 280, you have to look for it, to do that you must know its there first, only a low long hillock sperates it from 280.
If you do come up here,every effort must be made to find all the major sites or your not really getting your petrol moneys worth.

From the druids circle head towards Tal y Fan veering slightly to the left, there is no path and is squelchy in the extreme at all times.
Its not quite half way to the mountain, soon an old and knackered sheep pen? is visible go there the cairn is just 50 metres eastish.
Coflein, the scoundrels, led me to beleive that this cairn was four metres tall, which means it would be visible from the Druids circle, it is not.
The cairn barely rises above the surrounding heathland and is at best one metre tall, but the cist is just as described. The cairns position is open to the east and north and has splendid views of the north coast and Tal y fan, the local sacred mountain. The cist is aligned on either the summit of said mountain or a V shaped notch on its ridge.

From the Tullos cairn I headed back up the hill towards the fence and followed it to it’s end. This leads back to the main track. From here head east till the track a steel gate is reached.

This cairn was damaged during the war but it is still visible and stands at 11 meters wide and 1.1 meters tall. It is impossible to get close tho, as hard as tried I couldn’t break thru the jabby things. But at least it’s still here.

With that its a long walk back to the car via Cat Cairn 2. A chance to grab some foties in silence except for the constant hum of vuvu, sorry I mean traffic.

Visited 13/07/2010.

From the Baron’s Cairn keep heading east until another path heads north towards Balnagask (in student days I lived in nearby Torry). The cairn is situated to the west of the path and is well guarded by the jabby things but there is a way thru.

What is obvious is the fact that some people use the cairn going by the remains of flowers. Just a shame that plastic wrappers a left behind tho. The cairn still sits at 19 meters in width being 1.8 meters high. Good views all round again. To be honest I spent most of the time trying to imagine the countryside without Aberdeen. The rivers Don and Dee must have been major players here.

Visited 13/07/2010.

The Baron’s cairn can be seen in east from both of the Cat Cairns so follow the undulating path for a 1/2 mile. Go thru a new steel gate and a path leads to the cairns summit on which a trig point is perched. The much robbed cairn still stands at 19 meters wide and is some 1.3 meters tall. It seems to have been tidied up a bit as saw no fence or bricks that canmore go on about.

Industrial estates are very close, in fact immediately next door. The large brand new fence topped with razor wire making the place seem like a prisoner of war camp. Good views tho.

Visited 13/07/2010.

Some 60 meters in a north east direction from the Cat cairn, follow the path, my luck was in. A kerb cairn had been found and an archaeological team led by Ian Suddaby, of CFA Archaeology was busy uncovering the the newish site.

Ian explained that the site had been discovered in 2004 and Aberdeenshire Council had given the go ahead to excavate the Neolithic site. (The council acting wisely..........) The cairn itself is some 8.3 meters wide and at its tallest is possibly a meter high. Two very large kerbs can be seen to the south east and these seem to continue their way round. This part of the site is still to be uncovered so another visit will be required. The western side is excavated but here the kerb seems to have gone. Also the centre of the cairn has been slightly robbed.

Thanks to Ian Suddaby and his team. Hopefully when they have finished I’ll get a copy of their discoveries and I’ll post them as a link.

Visited 13/07/2010.

Like Fitz I worked in and around Aberdeen for various oil companies. But today was finally the day for the Tullos Hill stravaig.

Moving onto Hareness Road at the roundabout on the A956 I parked near the caravan site on Altens Farm Road. Immediately north of the caravans is a path. Ten minutes later and site can be seen. Basically it is still the same as Fitz describes. I will wax lyrical, since I come from here. There are fantastic views all around. Just a shame some of it is industrial.

Plus I’m going to add a new site. Something very good happened on the way to the Baron’s cairn.

Visited 13/07/2010.

Must stress again [after what I saw today] that this is no walk-in, no incline or few steps but a narrow metal ladder going down. Gate no longer stiff. Coming along the farm road you can look across to the remains of Ingshowe broch. At low tide the shallowness of the inlet means it hasn’t been that long archaeologically since it was dry land.

This gem is really easy to get to, if you disregard the fact that you have to cross a railway line. To reach the site, drive on the R294 from Boyle to Cloonloogh. Around 2.5km after you leave Boyle you come to a railway underpass, where the R295 bends right. Another 400m later you see a house on the right side, where you can easily park you car. Walk the farm track for about 100m and you reach two gates that help to safely cross the railway line. Be warned, as we visited the site, there were two trains that passed by.

This is really a magnificent portal tomb with a huge capstone, that sits in a threateningly angle on two massive portal stones. I’m not sure, if the capstone is in its original position, but there is now a supporting pillar, that stabilizes the whole structure. I only wonder why this site is not more mentioned in guidebooks of this area, because it really deserves more attention.

If you are in this area, I definitely recommend visiting this tomb!

Visited May 2010

An elderly lady who originally comes from Alford, but now lives in Turriff, told me about this stone. Many years ago her grandfather (along with her) would go for long Sunday afternnoon walks via The Auld Kirk (ring cairn), Gallow Hill (standing stone), North Strone (RSC) and a standing stone at Baldyvin. They must have been fit but its a nice walk which I’ve done a couple of times except for Baldyvin. So with a spare hour and being in the area I went to have a ‘ganner’.

Head east from Alford on the A944 taking the first minor road north. This road will also turn east sharply but head straight on to the farm track. Stop at the first gate on the west. Plenty room to park. From here walk dead straight west and the stone lies on the other side of a high fence. No fears a gate is nearby so access is ok. The stone originally stood in the middle of the field I walked across. It probably was aligned to Bennachie, north east. There are tremendous views of that hill in this area. The stone would have stood at 2 meters high.

It also seems to me that Canmore describe the wrong stone, this stone is a few meters to the north of the stone they mention.

Cheers Marianne.

Visited 11/07/2010.

There’s a cup marked stone laying within the rectangular cairn adjoining the circle, it’s laying face down as i left it, top left hand corner.
Paulus discovered it on our visit there, it was by the head of the quarry.
Someone had camped there and built a little stone windbreak and a fireplace, the stone was besides it, i think a little modern rock carving was going on.
The face the cup is on is obviously a clean “face”, no lichens, no sign of age as you’d expect etc.
I was gonna lob it in the quarry or smash the fucker up but it could have been a well meant “offering” so i left it there.

Nicely done piece but don’t be taken in by it. ; )

This Stone stands in what seems to be a ring fort and is a very interesting place, access to this track/road is best from the R584 through what at first seems to be private property, there are two sets of gates to go through, make sure these are closed after you, the trail exits at 51.80570 N 09.23999 W and is suitable for cars