Latest Fieldnotes

Visited 9.5.10.
Thanks to Gladman’s directions I eventually got to visit this site. One little thing I would add is that the field gate you are looking for is more or less on the junction of the lanes. Park where you can at the junction and the stones are eaily seen the other side of the gate – only about 10 yards into the field. When I visited the gate was wide open with plenty of rubbish around the area but not much actually next to the stones. Plenty of nettles though! There also appeared to be a large bone ‘offering’ left near the top of one of the standing stones.

Passing visit 9.5.10.
Whilst driving from Bonvilston towards Cardiff on the A48, I noticed that for a second or two, the top of the stone can just be seen over the hedge opposite the golf course entrance. The stone can’t be seen when driving in the oposite direction. Very difficult to park on the main road – be careful.

UPDATE: 19.6.10.
Whilst visiting Redland Farm to look at the stones there, the Cottrell Park stone is easily seen behind its wooden fence a couple of fields away. The farmer told me that a previous land owner (many years ago) removed the stone from the centre of the field and placed it in its current position to make farming easier. Bad luck then came to him as he fell down the stairs in his farm and broke his neck!!

Visited 9.5.10
Follow my direction notes for the Cairn Ring.
Once you have parked by the yellow grit/salt bin keep following the field surrounded by a stone wall (on your left) until you reach the SECOND metal field gate. From here you can see the burial chamber up the hill, towards your left.
The site comprises of several large, flat stones with the capstone propped up at the front by the other stones. Under the capstone were many smaller stones.

Visited (again) 9.5.10.
Back again – as I forgot to look at the burial chamber on my last visit! – and I didn’t manage to take Dafydd to Dan-Y-Ogof as promised as we both fell into the steam when visiting Cerrig Doun and the Maen Mawr!!! So, whilst in the area a chance for a repeat visit. As per my previous notes, there is an easier way to find the site. Once you have parked, keep following the field surrounded by a stone wall (on your left) until you reach the SECOND metal field gate. From here, if you look uphill, you can just about see the top of a couple of stones sticking out above the spikey grass – only a 5 minute walk uphill.
Since my last visit floral ‘offerings’ had been placed in the central cist.

As Jane states, about 100 metres further along the path past Parc Le Broes on the right hand side in the trees on the bank. It can be a little tricky to find but just look for the ‘path’ made by people through the undergrowth and you will soon see it – about half way up the valley side. Unfortunately when I visited I didn’t take a torch with me so I didn’t go too far into the cave. From what Jane ssasy it sounds like it goes backa fair bit. One to re-visit – with a torch!!

I visited this site last summer when spending a day ‘old stoning’ on the Gower. Signposted off the surrounding main roads with a large free parking area in the parkland. The site is visible from the carpark and only requires an easy, flat walk along a path down the valley. This is a lovely place to visit, amongst the trees, particularly on a warm, sunny day. Well worth it.

I visited this site last summer whilst staying in Bala for a few days. I parked just off the main road in a (school?) car park. This was just to the left of the path which takes you from the main road to the site. It is only a small walk and has chippings on the floor so you don’t get muddy. It was a lot larger than I expected and it it quite tricky walking over the loose stones to get right up close to the chambers. In fact I nearly broke my ankle here as little Dafydd first insisted on sitting on top of the higher capstone and then decided to throw himself off without any warning! This involved me catching him mid-air but then stumbling backwards over the stones. Thankfully, my ankle was sore but not broken. A very good site to visit with easy access.

When I added this site to TMA, it was just an intruiging feature on the OS map, I didn’t necessarily expect to be able to get here myself. But Gladman’s postings and my own growing fascination with the area have made it not only do-able but also necessary. I walked up here in light drizzle on 1.5.2010, after getting the bus to Bwlch and walking via Llangynidr. The route up was the same as that taken by Mr G, past Pant Llwyd farm. Once out onto the open moorland, it’s compass bearings only, as there’s not much to guide the visitor to the row. In fact, I managed to walk past it, slightly to the south, then veer back around it to the east, around the north, back round it to the west and then south again before actually spotting the low stones. I was probably no more than 10 or 15 yards away at each increasingly irritated pass. All the time, I watched a big black weather system moving eastwards and over the Black Mountains (how aptly named they are!) across the valley and was thankful that it didn’t come my way. Even in light drizzle, this is a lonely, boggy, unforgiving place and I wouldn’t want to be lost up here in mist and fog.

Before finally finding the row, I headed slightly uphill to get a better vantage point and just under the band of rocks to the south I came across what may be a small bronze age cairn – not really sure if it’s the one mentioned on Coflein or something else. My navigating skills are not sophisticated enough to be sure. And then, poking out of some reedy grass, I saw one of the stones! Once spotted it’s unmistakable. At the southern end is a huge recumbent stone, tapering to a point at its eastern end, which suggests it may have been upright at one time. It measures about 2.8m in length (height), 55cm ‘deep’, and now forms a ‘T’ shaped cross-piece to the row.

There are a number of stones in the row, some of which may just be fragments rather than individual stones themselves. The row is on a bearing of 54 degrees (from grid north) and points towards the Black Mountains saddle between Pen Cerrig-calch and Pen Gloch-y-pibwr. Working north from the recumbent stone, I took the following measurements, as best as I could given the tall grass the stones are sticking out of:

1. Stone 75cm tall
2. Stone 58cm tall
4. Stone 20cm tall
5. Stone 38cm tall
6. Stone 90cm tall, appears to have been shattered at some time (by frost?) and and may have been taller
7. Stone 20cm tall

11 paces north of this one, hidden in the grass, is a short stump of stone which appears to be on the alignment (I didn’t see it until pacing back to the row from the outlier).

There is then a small outlier (48cm tall) 47 rather approximate paces north of the row.

I had intended to go from here to Carreg Waun Llech, but Mr G’s photos of Garn Caws and Pant Llwyd cairns were recent and it wasn’t far away from my route (one day this will be the kind of thing that gets me into trouble), so I headed up there for a look...

Monday 19/4/2010: walked along the fairly quiet B road to the well which is clearly signposted. Stopped of at the site of a cairn en route – we entered by a wooden gate and were dismayed at the sight that lay before us. Like other parts of the country, West Penwith has a policy of rhododendron clearance and what lay before us was acres of rhododendron stumps – probably necessary though not an attractive sight. i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm200/TJJackson66/046-2.jpg
The wooded walk to the well was lovely; the low growing trees not yet in leaf and the lichen covered branches gave them a silvery quality. Spent a bit of time at the cloutie tree – I did a few jumps across onto some moss covered boulders to get a better feel of the place. I understand this is not the source the well and I have to admit I didn’t get a sense of it being a ‘holy’ or mystical place. On to to the Baptistry where we sat for a bit before continuing the walk along the wooded path to a field before retracing our steps. I have since read the wellspring is hidden a bit away from the path – this I can believe as I came away feeling I had missed something.

Visited this site last summer whilst spending a few days in Bala. This is a lovely place to visit on a warm summers day. The chamber itself was larger than I expected and in better condition. It was a nice experience to sit under the capstone and admire the dry stone walling. While we were there the local farmer was using two sheep dogs to round his flock up – something we all enjoyed watching.

Approaching from Pind Howes to the south (25.4.2010), the first feature seen is the triple dyke, surrounded by neat drystone grouse butts. From there you’re walking across an area of open moorland without a huge number of prehistoric monuments, before reaching another, single, dyke to the north.

In between the two dykes the OS map shows a “settlement” which I couldn’t really see amongst the heather and a cairn, which we did find. The cairn is a low mound, with a visible kerb of large stones. The heather over the cairn has been cleared, but I imagine this would be difficult to find at other times.

Heading NE, there is a tall stone next to the trig point (presumably a medieval way-marker rather than anything older) and then the single dyke.

After this, the path carries on NE along the edge of the Rigg, where it passes a very large cairn made up of sizeable stones, including one which has been inscribed to record the 1955 excavation.

A little way north, a bridleway crosses the path heading NW, taking this leads us across the Rigg to the lovely cairn circle with its impressive standing stone. The stone itself carries some interesting erosion marks from millenia of standing in this exposed spot. There are good views across the Esk Valley to Danby Low Moor.

It’s an easy stroll from here down off the Rigg to Danby village, which has a pub, the Moors Centre, a train station and is visited by the Moors Bus on Spring Sundays and daily during the summer. Well worth the trip!

We passed this way after a visit to Wolf Pit barrow (25.4.2010). What we took to be the southern cairn has been exposed by fire and reveals the remains of a kerb, as well as one very large stone on the northern side of the monument. There’s little trace of any mound however.

The northern monument is a decent stone and earthwork round cairn, about 5m in diameter with an excavation hollow in the top.

Approached from the south (25.4.2010), there are a couple of mounds here – the smaller is one of the neatly constructed drystone grouse butts that dot the moors, the second (next to a bridleway sign) is this huge round barrow, 35m across and sporting the usual evidence of excavation on its top.

Unremarked on the OS 1:25000 map, which just indicates ‘BS’ for boundary stone, I wasn’t looking out for this as we passed (25.4.2010) but couldn’t exactly miss it! This is a great big slab of rock, over 6ft tall and right next to the road. It has been inscribed with landowner’s (pah!) initials as well as a bench mark. Hopefully it’ll still be here long into the future, when landowners are all gone and no-one knows the (ritual) significance of the mysterious arrow symbol...

Visited this site last summer and although it involves a fair hike uphill it is easy enough to get to. Heading North along the A479 towards Talgarth you pass a pub on your right (can’t remember name). There is a parking area next to the pub with information boards. All you have to do is follow the fairly obvious path up hill. At the top are the scant remains of a castle which is said to be the highest castle in Britain – cracking views. From what I remember it took me about 20 minutes to reach the top.

I visited this site last summer with Dafydd. I parked in the parking area which lies between the two summits and it is a short walk up the hill to the left. There isn’t much to see although it is worth the effort to see the views looking down on Llangorse Lake.

The Green Cairn is a hillfort situated to the south west of Fettercairn a stones throw from Balbegno cottage a short walk to the north.

This is/was a superb site, on a superb day (fair degree of hindsight here!!) and one I’ve wanted to visit for a long, long time. A lot of important Scottish history has happened here so a lot of folklore.

The fort is some 50 meters in length by 18 meters wide. Ramparts still exist most of the way round with a possible entrance on the north east. Several trenches can be still be seen, the remains of excavation work. Part of the wall beneath the ramparts contains stonework from original. Vitrified rock can also be seen along with a long dried out bog. This was built with great all round views but would have taken some amount of defending, it isn’t very high, maybe there was a great deal of boggy stuff all round. I’d like to think so.

With that it was away to my favourite part of Scotland in the east end of Glasgow, via Templewood, to watch the modern day Celts.

Visited 4/05/2010.

Templewood is found by leaving the by turning north east onto the minor road after leaving the B966 on the Brechin side of the A90. Follow the road until a wood, keep going until a row of trees appears on the east side. Immediately west is the cairn, a few meters walk.

The cairn itself is in fairly decent condition. Some trees have been clean bowled as only the stumps remain on the grass covered mound. At almost 14 meters wide and 11/2 meters it still remains looking west to the Grampian mountains, especially to Cairn O’ Mount from where I’d came via the Green cairn, a hillfort. Once again a wonderful place so close to a large population centre. Magical!! (so was the result!)

Visited 4/05/2010.

A quick look (25.4.2010) before carrying on our walk to Danby. Decent sized barrow, topped with a neat standing stone that may or may not be prehistoric, but is certainly not a recent addition.

Lion Inn next door looks like a nice pub (food being served on the Sunday we passed).

Visited 25.4.2010 on a walk to Danby Rigg. We came on the Moors Bus (excellent services that run on bank holidays and sundays) – I had intended to get off at Young Ralph Cross but this thing came into view and looked too interesting to miss! The bus will drop you anywhere that’s safe, so this seemed ideal.

The barrow itself is quite a low mound, with a few kerb stones protruding, but it’s topped by an enormous megalithic willy. This is nothing like the other boundary stones around, and looks pretty prehistoric to me (the barrow is in any case).

This site used to be difficult to access and there was little to see as it was so overgrown. However, visiting it today (5 May 2010), access was easier (ie no longer was it surrounded by inpenetrable fencing and wire) but a lot of the vegetation that had previously obscured it had been cut back.

Visited the site today (5 May 2010) and found it had been considerably cleaned up with all the bracken and brambles cut away.

I visited this site last year although to be honest there is nothing to see – very shallow ‘lumps and bumps’ in a large grassed field. When I visited there was a very weather-worn hand painted wooden sign near the gate leading into the field where the enclosure is. But by now it has probably fallen down! Not really worth the effort in my opinion.

When I visited the Garth it was in the Winter and the whole site was swirlling in fog – very atmospheric – although you couldn’t see very far!!
As a life long resident of Cardiff I have given serious thought to having my ashes buried up here when the time comes – hopefully not for a long time! (on the quiet of course!)

The easiest way to access this site is via Porthkerry Caravan Park. As you enter the caravan park follow the road through the site to your left. You will shortly see a gap between the caravans and a small metal sign which gives information about the Bulwark. Access is then along a short path through the trees into the grassed Bulwark. As you walk through the trees you can see the remains of the defences in the undergrowth. You can also access the site via the beach but this involes a steep walk up a very muddy path.