Latest Fieldnotes

I drove all the way down the lane past the hillfort and hidden rock art, all the way to the entrance to Ardmarnock house, there is one questionable parking place, by a man made waterfall.
From this miniature crossroads between houses its about a 150yds to the stones, up the long curving driveway to the house turn off the drive on its corner and sneak up the hill about 60yds.
I suppose I could have asked permission, but as a postman i’m used to walking up garden paths unhindered.
The Rhodadendrons have been severely cut back and the stones are free and open to inspection.
There is a cup and ring on one wall of the cist like chamber, though I could only see the cup now. There look like two capstones both slipped off one of them looks like a big clam shell half.
The view is cut off by trees nearly 360 degrees all round except towards the loch, theyre a bit thinner there, and I suspect that if I come back after Tea it might be a good place for a sunset.

Travelling south on the B8000 turn right towards Ardmarnock house, the hillfort is signposted (by hand) and the trees and undergrowth have been cut back indicating a half path up to it.
I parked in the only place available, blocking a gate, sorry, but I got away with a quick half hour.
I wasnt really interested in the hillfort, well I am, but we’ve got them at home I was really looking for the cup and ring marks said to be just 50 metres south of the fort.
However I liked it in the fort, all the undergrowth has gone and the place is quite pretty, and the view was good too, the western entrance is still in good condition but some sections of the wall have gone completely.
The cup and rings eluded me yet again, how hard can it be to go in one direction for 50 metres and find a rock with all this on it...
five cups with two rings, six cups with single rings, and some fifty-nine plain cupmarks. Several of the ringed cups have gutters, and some of the plain cups are linked by channels...
Evidently too hard for me, where exactly does the hillfort stop? and from where do I count 50metres?, is it directly south from the centre of the fort?, is it exactly south?
I didnt find it though I tore the living moss out of a radius of about 50 metres of woodland, tearing moss off stones is very therapeutic for someone who is frustrated with not finding the right rock.

from the valley floor these are almost as omnipresent as the Bookan Tomb [to its right on the skyline though actually further uphill] although closer to the hill their bases are hidden. They lie next to the quarry, the track to which is just over the west fence next the tomb. Unfortunately the diarrhoea pills failed to work so foiled again – Brodgar has no toilets anywhere !

I passed within two metres of this profusely cupmarked sheet of rock just two years ago on my way to the stone row about half a mile south west.
Follow diections for Inveryne stone row and watch out for a small lake with a disused dam on your left and old tennis court to your right. Plenty of parking .
A long sheet of flat rock is right next to the track and dam, with maybe 63 cupmarks, the landowner says in low light rings can be seen round some cups, I couldnt see any rings and I don’t think I saw 63 cups (did see a lot though), but it was cool to see something after all my failures throughout the morning.
Normally this would be the end of my mornings stone hunt and I would now have the long and pianful trip back home, but not today, I’m staying on for another rough night in the car, a glutton for punishment ? no not at all, I hate sleeping in the car, but it is free, and what a view from the window.

From Canmore...
Some 200yds (183m) into the field opposite from the spring dedicated to P Rankin is a small outcrop knoll bearing 9 cups, one of which has half a ring around it and a long runnel from it.
Sponsor: Keltic Research Society
K Naddair and S Willet and B Bierley 1996

I parked on the road (B8000) and walked round the edge of farmers sheep filled field and jumped the gate in the corner. The rocky outcrop on top of the hill Ach Chreagach is a splendid place to admire the view up and down Loch Fyne. But the rock art is on a smaller outcrop south and a bit east of the bigger one, again it took some finding and what I did find wasnt what I was expecting, or if it was Im just crap at finding and looking at rock art. I may have missed it altogether, but I did find something.

more pics here .
rockartuk.fotopic.net/c1246620.html

Cup and ring marked rocks can be very difficult to find, they’re too small and all too easily concealed, I’m on a much better footing with stone circles and burial chambers, so here we go off into the dark wood again.
Like my burial chamber guru guide Greywether I parked just south of Auchnaha house and started up the hillside with forest to my right and recently felled mayhem to my left. As I climbed higher I came to a long tree free corridor in the forest with the power lines going along it, from here I could see what looked like a small standing stone, upon closer inspection it seemed to be that very thing, close by a fallen tree hid the entrance into a clearing, is it behind the fallen tree? I skirted around and under the obstacle only to find a site as horrific as someone like me could find, more trees had fallen onto the burial chamber.
Three tall conifers had fallen on to the stones themselves “oh dear god no” I said to no-one.
I couldnt tell if there were more stones under the trees than still free and open, after looking at Greywethers pictures I think it was lucky, the capstone is unmoved as are the facade stones, I dont even know how to make sense of what i can see, I cant find the inscribed cross stone, the whole place is a mess, granted the burial chamber wasnt exactly intact before the forest attacked it, a sad place, I hope the respective authorities know of and are about to do something about it rather than the onus being completely upon myself to help this Scottish war cry, let me hear you shout it AUCHNAHAAAAAAA !!!

At the centre of the level upper surface of a boulder, which lies immediately S of an unnamed stream and about 500m E of Pier House, there is an unusually finely worked cup-and-ring mark. The cup is only 20mm in diameter and the ring measures 165mm in diameter overall.
RCAHMS 1988, Visited May 1986.

Sounds easy enough and it sounds like a nice piece.
I parked on the B8000 next to the Pier house and walked back down the road to the unnamed stream and entered the dark wood, following the stream as it plunged over falls and through narrow moss filled gorges.
Trying to gauge 500metres east of the Pier house whilst not going in a straight line, going uphill dodging fallen trees and everything that comes with forrestry plantations isnt easy, so I just carried on going till I got to the track, nothing.
The rock art rock was somewhere between the road and the track next to the river how could I have missed it I dont know, I peeled away the mossy growth from more than twenty boulders and rocks but to no avail.
Even though I got stiffed on me cup and rings it was still nice in the forest with the ever present sound of falling water, cover from the rain, little birds flitting around and all the different kinds of bugs found in and under the moss and the way moss comes off a rock is quite appealing, like unwraping a christmas present, easy to get into but is it what you wanted.

This was my third rock art search of the day, and it was a bit different because instead of looking for just one rock, here they’re all over the place.
The farm sits in the middle of a hillside hemmed in almost completly by damned forestry plantation and the lovely Loch Fyne to the west.
There are at least a dozen panels to find, some in the forests and some in the fields around the farm, on my way up the track to the farm I internally debated weather to ask for permission to roam about the land and maybe get some inside information, but to tell you the truth , the rain hadn’t stopped all morning and my rock art oddyssey had failed so far to ignite any passion in me.
So I trespassed, just a wee bit, in doing so I came to realise that when the maps are drawn up, forests can be cut down as well as put up, making it difficult to guage exactly where on a hillside you are. Not for the last time today I felt weary and disoriented, with wet feet and dented spirits I gave up again, obviously I was still looking at every rock I could, walking through mires and droppings not looking where I was going, when I got some success.
A single cupmark next to a long maybe natural groove . (this maybe panel 10)

Then again not far away more success, and more cupmarks, not hard to lose this one as a telegraph pole is right next to it (this maybe panel 11)

This is what canmore says....

Evanachan 10 and 11
3) 300m NE of Evanachan farm at NR 95067 86792 an outcrop bearing one cup 45 x 12mm.
4) 35m NE of 3) a prominent outcrop bearing at least 20 cup marks. One group of 11 has single rings and exceptionally large cups.
George Currie, 2007

Bouyed by my modest success, I had a look closer to the road on the rocky summit of Cnoc mor, and found one more cupmark quite a big one, so I’m guessing it might be Evanachan 3 or 4, canmore again....
NR 94761 86636
1) On Cnoc Mor to the W of Evanachan farm, a rock facing NW and sloping at 45 degrees, bearing a cup mark 50 x 20mm.
2) 80m SW of the above at NR 94707 86577 an outcrop bearing five cup marks.
3) 90m WSW of 2) at NR 94628 86542 an outcrop bearing one cup mark 45 x 20mm.
4) 20m S of 3 at NR 94621 86524 an outcrop bearing one cup mark 60 x 22mm.
George Currie, 2007.

Can be seen from the road, the B8000, two miles past Lachlan castle in a field opposite a smokery.
At Lephinmore there is a large rock outcrop with a long quartz seam running through it, Canmore says only....
On two of the lower shelves of a large angled prominent outcrop in a field opposite a smokery, 9 clear cups.
It was easy enough to find but I could only find two clear cups, perhaps the others were under the grass at the edges or under a clump of pull resistant moss. I was glad to have found something, but dissapointed not to find what I expected, is rock art hunting always like this?
It was beginning to be “one of those days”.

After another rediculously long midnight drive I parked up just a couple hundred yards from this cup and ring marked rock, and fell asleep almost imediately, three short hours later and the alarm went off, let the hunt begin .
Two or three miles south of St Catherines on the A815 turn left into forestry commision land, park here in sight of the road and walk up the track.
The track does two hairpin turns then straightens out, follow the path over two small streams and stop at the third, then either follow the stream downhill for 90metres like I did and not find anything, which is what the OS map and the Canmap map said to do, however after re-reading the details of the cup and rings, dont go west downhill but east uphill for 90metres, to be fair to myself I did go in both directions but spent so long in the wrong place that I ran out of time and had to abandon the search, it must be there somewhere.
Whilst tearing big sheets of moss off boulders looking for rock art I gained a new appreciation for moss and bare rock, mosses capability to completely cover everything in atleast a couple of inches of spongy carpet, and when removed from the rock it shines new and bright, blinking in the morning sun.
For anyone wanting to make another attempt on Tom Nam Clach here’s what Canmore says....

Cup and Ring marked Rock, Ardgowan – A level shelf of rough outcrop, 13’ x 7’, 125 yds E of forestry road, 45 yds SW of hill top, is sculptured with 2 cups-and-two-rings, 4 cups-and-one-ring, and over 26 cups. Biggest diameter 11”, deepest 2”. Much weathered. Eight cups-and-rings were found in 1962
R W B Morris 1969; G Christian and E B Rennie 1962.

Cup and Ring marked Rock as described by Morris.
R W B Morris 1977.

This badly weathered cup-and-ring marked rock outcrop is situated about 90m E of a trackway and lies in a small clearing within a forestry plantation. It bears two cups with two rings, six cups with single rings and at least twenty plain cupmarks.
Visited April 1986

Definatley east of the track yet mappy says west, please dont say maps can be wrong.

Bennachie translated from the Gaelic means ‘Hill Of The Breast’ which is an obvious reference to the Mither Tap, the ranges most famous peak. It is also famous for the stunning hillfort. Words can hardly describe this place. The walls are massive and shelter the Maidens Causeway which leads to the Maiden Castle at the foot of the hill. They also stretch most of the way round the peak the other defences being natural, it must have virtually impossible to attack. Being on the roof of Aberdeenshire the all round views are stunning and luckily I see this place every day. One flaw tho, no running water nearby except some melt streams. (no problem recently!)

On a day that would have Mr G and the Postie proud we made our way from Oxen Craig to the Mither Tap. But this can be reached by a few paths from the various centres surrounding the range. All of them are excellent and fairly well maintained being in reasonable condition despite the recent heavy snows. Snow still hangs about in deep drifts.

This is a must visit place, truly the most visible monument in the area. You can’t miss it.......literally!

George, once again showed his posing qualities, led from the western approach. After that Mel led the way back down, we’d walked for more than ten miles. Time like the squalls had flown past. Brilliant day!

Visited 22/3/2010.

When you look at Bennachie the pointy shaped one (technical terms of the highest quality) Mither Tap at 1699 ft looks highest. However it isn’t, Oxen Craig stands at 1733 feet and on its peak is a cairn with fantastic views especially of the Mither Tap but also all the way to Tap O Noth, Durn, Knock and the nearer hillforts.

The cairn originally stood at 12 meters in width and was at least one meter high. Some of the stones have been used to make a shelter and who could blame these early shepherds/quarry workers. The weather can change quickly in these parts. Last week there was still over a foot of snow lying.

From Tillymuick look up and follow your nose or use an OS map or Bennachie guide. The paths are fairly steep but quite well maintained. Wrap up tho, normally it is very cold and exposed at the top.

Easy for Mel and George (who posed on Little Oxen Craig), they run up and down these hills for fun. Not me, I walk and then forget to stop!

Visited 22/3/2010.

Leave the B9002 after Oyne turning east at Premnay/Leslie junction. Follow this road until the refurbished church. A path heading south crossing the Gadie burn leads eventually to the ancient village, in a large clearing in the woods. Best to take an OS/Phillips map.

Canmore correctly suggests that this was a hillfort but it is more likely to be a small village with fortifications. Unfortunately this is a site covered in grass, heather and gorse but there is more than enough even for the untrained eyes. Several hut circles can be seen, including two with obvious build work still standing. A massive rampart must have surrounded the settlement. This can be best viewed on the eastern flank.

Some damage has been done by de-forestation but to be fair the site is well protected. As for the rampart an entrance can be seen on the best kept remains being 4-5 feet wide. A full scale excavation could find many objects here. However the best place to see the fort/settlement is way above on the way to the Oxen Craig cairn. Just before the cairn is Little Oxen Craig, one of Bennachies quarries. It looks straight down onto the site giving a full scale insight to builders intentions.

Other forts are clearly visible, views up and down the valley, access to a small stream and agricultural systems. Very clever, very sensible.

Thanks to Mel and her dog George for showing the way, and for making sure I didn’t go to slow!

Visited 22/3/2010.

Bucks county council call this a Bronze Age burial mound on which a windmill was built.

I don’t know if this is significant but it lies almost exactly opposite Danesborough Camp seven miles away on the Brickhills.

There are some old wooden planks on top partially buried, perhaps part of the windmill.

I seem to be following in the footsteps of Glennancy who visited these sites around MK eight years ago. Do you still come on here ?

With the risk of criticism from some quarters, I think that this site should be included as its early history certainly falls within the TMA remit.

The late IA town’s defensive earthworks covered almost as much area as the later (and more famous) Roman town. They are best seen on the N side by the car park where the ditch and bank are well preserved.

silchester.rdg.ac.uk/guide/preroman

The Atrebates who lived here were a sophisticated lot who traded extensively with the Roman Empire and their “Kings” minted coins to claim their authority.

Passing over the later period, which of course is of more interest to Romanophiles, we come to the problem of why it was abandoned.
It had great trade and road links, a fertile hinterland which was well watered and a presumably stable and integrated population. Why didn’t it become another Winchester?
The later pages of the University of Reading’s website addresses these problems.

silchester.rdg.ac.uk/guide/end

Access
For such a famous site the access and information is rather poor.Go slowly down the narrow roads as the signs suddenly spring up and the car park on the N is very easy to miss. There are pamphlets available there.

This stone is only ten meters from the tragic cairn at the Hawk Law being possibly one of the stones that once stood there. Bennachie is in clear view as are hillforts at Barra and further afield at Dunnydeer and Tap O Noth. Now it stands at a jaunty angle and if standing at attention would be 1.5 meters tall.

Follow the directions for the Hawk Law and the stone will be easily found.

Visted 21/3/2010.

Sadly this cairn is all but destroyed. In the past a circle was supposed to have surrounded the site basking in the view of Bennachie. At present it is encircled by trees and a dry stane dyke most probably made up of the cairn. Some of the stones in the dyke certainly look like they might have stood a some stage. Urns found at the site were taken to nearby museum. To make matters worse some farm wastage is also being dumped onto to it. Quite sad despite the scenery Barra, Bennachie et al. However a few yards away a somewhat different picture, The Hillhead of Barra stone.

Going south from Oldmeldrum on the B9170 take the first minor road east, indicated Kirkton Of Bourtie. Climb the hill and turn south pulling in at the trees. Within the trees are the remnants of the cairn which also has possibly two kerbs in place. Further up the road are the RSC’s at Bourtie and Sheldon, the Pipers Stone and the back path to the Barra Hillfort.

Visited 21/03/2010.

The area around the staunchly Republican South Armagh town of Crossmaglen, prosaically dubbed ‘Bandit Country’ by British soldiers during the Anglo-Irish troubles, was found to emanate a quite intimidating aura by this somewhat wide-eyed, head down traveller in search of megalithic treasures. Not so Mr Cope, who – if the legend is true – once brazenly drove through town sporting his enormous Luftwaffe cap. Mind you, there were what appeared to be 20mm cannon shell holes penetrating several road signs at the time of my visit, so please don’t be too harsh on me.....

From Crossmaglen head north on the B135 towards Cullyhanna, the trick being to pick up Annaghmare Road going left at some crossroads, then proceeding just under 1 mile down this road to locate a minor access track on the right. More difficult than it sounds, since clearly several promised signposts had been removed. Park at the end of the access track and there it is, the superbly preserved court tomb standing before you upon – or perhaps more accurately, engulfing – a small knoll backed by woodland.

Seeming only lacking capstones, the tomb possesses a fine facade of large orthostats either side of a central galley, this being aligned approx north/south and consisting of three linear chambers. Beyond, at the far (northern) end of the cairn, lie two lateral chambers, apparently later insertions, the cairn being therefore extended to accommodate them. The quality of construction is excellent, with high quality dry stone courses being utilised to fill the spaces between orthostats.

Both forecourt and entrance were apparently sealed sometime between c3100 and 2,800 BC, radio carbon dates in this range being obtained from charcoal found behind the blocking material. And there’s more... According to Carleton Jones (Temples of Stone) the relative positioning of the facade stones may well have represented an attempt to embody male/female symbolism within the structure. Specifically, the 3rd orthostat to the right of the gallery entrance is the largest of the entire tomb, potentially suggesting ‘masculinity’, whilst the 4th to the left is, bizarrely, set upon its narrower end as if to represent a ‘top-heavy’ female shape. This would certainly explain what is otherwise a very structurally unsound, not to mention difficult to achieve, architectural arrangement. Not quite ‘Page 3’, I grant you, but infinitely more ‘tasteful’, I’d have thought?

Annaghmare is thus a complex, damn interesting monument and... once a hovering army helicopter decides to bugger off.... possesses a great vibe within its woodland setting. I loved it and left South Armagh a little wiser in more ways than one.

The day dawns with perhaps as blue a sky as I ever thought possible in Northern Ireland. Certainly the weather is in distinct, sharp contrast to that which accompanied my first attempt to ascend Slieve Gullion a week before, that attempt aborted before even leaving the car due to a very low cloud base. In retrospect I’m glad I didn’t push my luck, although I admit it would have probably been easier, yet undeniably foolhardy to carry on with such a prize waiting at the summit.

Slieve Gullion, at 1,894ft (573m) is the highest point in South Armagh and focal point of a vast ampitheatre of volcanic hills encircling the border town of Newry known as ‘The Ring of Gullion’. Newry, infamous within the context of recent Anglo-Irish relations, is, on a happier note, the birthplace of the great Arsenal/Tottenham goalkeeper Pat Jennings. Reaching much further back into the mists of time, legendary Irish heroes such as Cuchulain, Fionn MacCumhail and the Red Branch are closely linked with this fine little mountain.

Those megalithically inclined – or even simply looking for a majestic view – are helped by a well maintained, well signposted ‘Slieve Gullion Forest Drive’, itself offering panoramic views, which can be followed to a car-park on the western shoulder of the peak. Here, a steep path heads eastwards towards the southern summit.... apparently there was a sign, but it keeps getting periodically, er, removed by persons unknown, so please make sure valuables etc are locked away out of sight. The terrain consists of springy peat, although erosion has made the path steep in places. Nevertheless the trek should not be overly taxing, the retrospective views over the surrounding countryside stunning and ample compensation for any flagging limbs.

Then, upon reaching the top, there’s the magnificent passage grave crowning the summit, one of the highest ‘opened’ examples in Ireland. Although not quite in the same class as the Seefin cairn upon the Wicklows (it being much more accessible and thus bearing a little unsightly grafitti – but, hey, so does Maes Howe, albeit Viking!) it remains an outstanding example of this type of monument. The traveller is required to stoop in order to traverse the low entrance passage, the flanks of which are comprised of very large slabs, and emerge into the tall central chamber within the massive cairn. This is octagonal with a rear recess lined with orthostats, the interior illuminated with a stream of sunlight from a grilled sylight in the roof. Interestingly the aforementioned recess appears to contain a bowl-like receptacle similar to that within the great tomb at Newgrange.

I stay within the cool of the interior for a considerable time before finally emerging to take in the views; the Cooley Peninsular and sea to the south east, the Mountains of Mourne across Carlingford Lough to the east and, to the north beyond Callaigh Berra’s Lough, the northern summit of Slieve Gullion bearing another, although chamberless cairn. Sadly, however, I’ve spent so much time inside that I must now begin the descent...

Incidentally it would appear that ‘Callaigh Berra’ is a reference to the ‘hag’ incarnation of the Mother Goddess trinity. According to legend, the giant Finn Macool (him again) was persuaded by Callaigh Berra to take a dip within the lough only to be transformed into a grey haired old man. It seems he managed to get his youth back (ha!) but was nevertheless left with the dodgy peroxide barnet. Because he was ‘worth it’, probably. A lesson to us all.

I posted these photos last year as “The Two Barrows” before Exmoor was split between Devon and Somerset. I have now deleted that seperate post. Anyway the barrows lie to the east of the nearby Five Barrows group, actually nine in number.
The barrows I photographed are on opposite sides of a small road, the northern one is a fairly large bowl barrow. The southern one was hard to take pictures of as it is low and indistinct.
There are another two barrows nearby, slightly to the north and according to how they look on MAGIC these appear to be the actual Two Barrows. In the way of these things sometimes it is not easy to say which barrows are which purely from map sources, I will visit here soon again as there are other things I want to see nearby.

When I visited the Crannog Centre last July all the tours were full so I had to content myself with viewing the crannog from the loch side. If you are travelling from afar (as I was) I would suggest you ring and book on a tour before setting out to avoid dissapointment.

After you clear the trees I suggest you carry on walking along the Sarn Helen road a little until you come alongside the stone – you will see it easily on your left next to the fance. If you go through the gate before the stone the ground is very wet and marshy – at least it was when I visited.

I’m no expert but it didn’t look prehistoric to me. More like a rubbing stone.

Park somewhere near the large red brick pumping house (you can’t miss it) and walk down the narrow lane which runs alongside it. (Don’t try to drive down the lane – too narrow). When you come around the other side of the building you will see a path which takes you straight into the cliff fort. This is the only prehistoric site I have been to with a football pitch / goals in the middle of it!! Great views of the Severn Bridge.