Latest Fieldnotes

Visited 8.11.2009, as part of a walk to the spectacular waterfalls nearby, with a group of friends. The fort itself was at the very end of a 10 mile circular route up the Nedd valley and back down the Afon Mellte valley.

According to the information board the name means “Fortress Rock”. Approached from the north-east (bridleway from Sgwd yr Eira waterfall), there is not a great deal to see in the way of defences. There appear to be two low banks running on the NW and SE sides of the promontory, but not much else. However, once on the promontory itself, it is clear that the site is well protected on the north, west and south by forbidding cliffs. There is a steep path down from the fort to the car park, hemmed in by rocks on either side – not somewhere you’d happily attack in earnest.

On the SE bank stands an upright stone, not sure if this is natural or artificially erected – it’s not mentioned anywhere that I’ve found and seems rather odd on a grass bank.

If you’re in the area, the woods and rivers nearby are beautiful and the waterfalls spectacular, so well worth a trip out. As this was a rare trip by car for me, I’m not sure what the local public transport is like for getting here.

We got up early and drove for three hours to get to this double dolmen, parked by the school as it was early on saturday.
For the past hour it has been snowing and it snowed all the time we were there, we indulged in a little snowball fight, Iv’e been lead to believe its compulsory to have one but not to enjoy it.
If only the big dolmen was still held aloft on its own instead of the distracting brickwork, a good place to sort your camera out, out of the rain/snow.
The smaller older dolmen is as perfect a little structure as you could hope for, Ive probably said that more than once though.
Walking in a winter wonderland....

I’m not really a fan of rusty railings, others may find interest in them but I dont see their appeal, I just can’t get past the imposition on the land, an electric cow fence might be more aesthetic if crowd control is what your after. But if you intend to keep them away, to bind them, to deny them, then a big rusty fence is what your after.
Visit the stones when ever you can, visting hours are between now and then.

I found pictures of this stone on the megalithic portal, and added the site here a couple of months ago. The stone we found is not the same stone that is on the other websitehttps://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&pid=20312, (though it does sound like coflein’s discription)but we did find something much more interesting.
Eric and me walked up the lane to the farm which owns the land the stone is on, and as we scanned the fields either side of the lane, for the stone is not on the map and I was going on memory from coflein, I was unsure exactly where the stone was. Too soon we were in the farm yard, which has a standing stone next to the gate by the road, instantly I knew this might not be ancient, so we walked past it and to the house where an older gent was by his car, I asked him if this was the prehistoric stone that was on his land, to my suprise he either couldnt or wouldnt speak English to me, though he did have a lot to say.
He beckoned us over towards his house , I looked over to my young son who was looking back at me as unsure as I was to him, cautiously we approached the house. He pointed down to a bush then lent over and pulled out a stone about a foot square
with a huge cupmark in it and a large round stone in it. All the time he was talking fluently in Welsh, only one word did I understand, Stonehenge, Stonehenge ? said I but he seemed oblivious to the fact that we didnt understand him, while we were inspecting the portable bulluan the guy went inside and came out with something quite unexpected, it was a large stone maul, heavy and smooth with a rough groove round its middle, it was obviously very old, all I could say was Wow.
Then he unfolded an old yellowed letter, written in English type and passed it to me, it was a letter of authentication saying that the stone maul had been in the family that occupies Penbryn Mawr farm since it was dug up in the vicinity, the groove round its middle is where it was lashed to a handle, or hung from an A frame.
I handed back the letter and stone in a sort of glazed way, what did this mean? why wouldn’t he speak proper? why did he mention Stonehenge ? was the maul stolen from a dig there years ago then brought here.
I was and am disappointed that I didn’t take more time to read the letter at least twice, it seemed quite important.
Then I asked if I could photograph the standing stone and he kind of nodded, perhaps in a non comprehending sort of way then spoke once more in his, seeing as I’m not welsh I can only presume he was speaking it but as far as I know he could have been talking complete gibberish, only one word did I understand, genuine, then with hand gestures he said go right. I don’t know if he was talking about the stone I saw on the mega port or the Maen Llwyd a mile back down the road. Another visit with a welsh speaking friend might find this other stone, and reveal more about the maul, he was very friendly.

A really good stone this one, very shapely and gnarled it reminded me of Adam (or eve) to the west of Avebury. About eight feet tall with good views over towards the city of the giants (what a cool name)

Seeing as we started the day with a big burial chamber it felt right to end it with one too, from one side of Snowdonia to the other.
I can see why the farmer doesnt really like having folk over to gawp at the stones, there’s nowhere good to park and your made to feel like your intruding (which we are), but this is such an important site some money should be spent on parking, up by the road maybe.
Not quite the winter wonderland, more of a toenumbingarseendoftheyearland, but even in the snow and excepting the stick carrying farm dog, this is still a good place to be. The big capstone, the passage and side passage, with standing stones in the walls. Magnificent.
Not bad

The Highland Councils’ Environment Record is a great resource for unearthing little gems like this – far superior and much more user friendly than Canmore.

This small stone has been displaced by recent Forestry Thinning and lies approx 10m East of the car park for Inchindown Wood on the North Side of the Scotsburn road.

The cup mark was clearly visible, but I only noticed the ring when I downloaded the photo.

I looked carefully at the weather forecast and decided that it might be a reasonable sunset at the (near) solstice.
There was a marquee in the car park with an exhibition about astromony with telescopes looking at the sunspots. Sheltering from the bitter Arctic wind, I got into a long and very interesting conversation with an archeaoastronomer (Simon Banton) about various alignments in the area.
(He reckons that when the new visitor centre is built with its twin “pavilons” the sun will appear to rise between them at some date in the year! A new legend in the making?)
Paid my entrance fee and joined about 15 other people by the Heel Stone. The sunset didn’t disappoint. Dramatic clouds with the sun appearing and disappearing every few minutes, a wonderful half hour. I hope my “duplicate” photos don’t offend but the ambiance changed so quickly.

While chatting to the people there I found out that there were to be talks given by three experts within the circle after the general public had left. They might have a couple of spare spaces! Blagged my way in after a warming hot chocolate and mince pie!

Listened to a short talk by a chap from the Armagh Observatory(?) about Comets and the Zodaical Light and then went into the circle. I missed out on the other two lectures as I was fascinated by the way the stones took on a strange and mysterious presence in the pitch dark. The pictures I’ve added to the “Artistic/Interpretive section might give a flavour of the feeling.
By this time the extreme cold was beginning to get to me and I made a strategic retreat to a warm car.
A memorable experience.
Jim.

Now this is interesting. The stone is kept in a heritage museum in the former Church of Ireland at St. Mullins (the ruined abbey and high cross are in the same place) and I was told the National Musuem has the original and the heritage centre a copy.

Either Ireland is home to a master stone carver who lovingly spent years carving and applying very convincing weathering and wear on this stone or both the National Museum and the Heritage Centre have gotten themselves into a mixup. I’m 95% sure this is the original stone taken from the top of a field wall on Dranagh Mountain, and the carvings match a sketch taken from the piece in the National Museum. The Heritage Centre have original pics of the stone from not long after it was found and every contour of the stone matches yet not a single modern tool mark is visible. Remarkable!

It is a lovely stone with an unusual design, could be a sibling of the stone at Tinnacarrig in that the design seems to have been planned around the shape of the piece. And here, like at Spahill, we see a lip/groove carved around the edge of the stone and curling back into the space to the right of the cup and ring. A beauty, and either the best fake in the world or a little stone lost...

This is a huge stone, it must be 4m high. It is located past Castlegregory in a tiny hamlet called Candiha. An area that is beautiful on a calm day but on the day I was there it was windy and desolate.
The stone is only one small field from the road and so access it relatively easy.

From Nine stones Close circle and with your back to Robin Hoods stride walk downhill to the right hand corner of the field and go through the gateway, turn left and follow the wall to the gateway half way along and go through it, turn right and walk around 10 metres down the wall and the cup stone is on top of it.

I’ve never heard mention of this stone anywhere before, if you know different could you post the info please.

Listed as a possible ringfort in the ‘Archaeological Inventory for County Tipperary’ this certainly does looks like this is a rath. There is evidence of a bank but no fosse and is roughly 28m in diameter. The proximity to other ringforts in the area also suggests that this is a rath. I will let you judge for yourselves about this one. I didn’t set out to see this site but passed it on the way to another rath with a church built inside which is only about half a mile away.

Located in a field off the R491 this site is in a well drained cattle field.

Rather impressive rath located in a bend in the road in the Slieve Blooms and luckily it is signposted. The bank and fosse appear to be in good condition there are substantial earthworks on top of the rath also. It is very steep as raths go. There is also evidence of a souterrain in the NE section of the upper part of the rath. I was unable to locate this as the site is very overgrown.

It is easy to find as the road deliberately goes around it. There are ‘no trespassing’ signs on the site so permission is advisable. Be careful when climbing this site as it is overgrown and has many hidden ditches and holes...not to mention the barbed wire that surrounds it.

Another of those denuded, battered old South Walian long barrows which seem to exist in some sort of semi-urban time vacuum detached from reality, but are paradoxically as real as real can be........

Sited upon rising ground between the villages of Laleston and Tythegston, outliers of the great urban sprawl that is Bridgend, the monument is overgrown and defaced by what appears to be a waterlogged quarry at its eastern end. Nevertheless the earthworks are still quite substantial and there’s a pretty hefty capstone in situ, too. Always a good thing to have surmounting a long barrow, I find. Good for the soul.

And it is the satiation of this ‘soul’, whatever that might be, the appreciation of the intangible elements of a site – I guess you could call it ‘vibe’ – that is far more important for me these days than the number of orthostats and the like. Little details, initially seemingly irrelevant, that take on great significance as you sit and ponder... the fact that this, a monument built by the first farmers to work this area, overlooks the allotments of Laleston to the north east... serious agricultural continuity emphasising the fertile nature of this small sector of Glamorgan; the Bronze Age ‘tumulus’ – love that word – crowning a rise to the approx north-west. Was this sited specifically to be seen from the older long barrow and if so, does this imply a continued reverence for previous sacred places or just a cynical power play by the new elites?

Depeche Mode’s ‘Wrong’ periodically enters my head, perhaps my subconscious trying to remind me of one of many wrong courses of action I’ve no doubt taken recently. However, as cars speed along the A48, as I have many times previously, some swinging down the A4106 to Porthcawl, I’m quite satisfied there is nothing ‘wrong’ with Tythegston long barrow on this grey day. Quite the opposite.

Hamish’s directions, as usual, will get you here. If you come, don’t forget your thinking cap.......

Visited this afternoon and was kindly given permission to go up the tor.

There’s no public access to the tor but if you ask politely at the house they may let you up.

Be aware there are several large dogs roaming the grounds, if you don’t seek permission you may get bit, you have been warned. !

This stone rocks. !

Visited on an autumn walk to Nine Maidens. This is a very large cairn, with a kerb made up of massive granite slabs set on edge. More overgrown now than when Ocifant visited in 2007 (almost exactly two years previously).

This Cairn does not seem to have an official name which is a shame as its been a very substantial monument and it still dominates its immediate surroundings.

Access is easy – from the Inchindown Forestry Commission Car park on the Scotsburn road look North and there it is, about 200m away.

It has been thoroughly robbed, but what remains gives a clear indication as to what once was.

First, what remains? Well, virtually all of one quarter of the circumference on the SE side. The outer stonework is undisturbed and consists of small stone with a mossy covering. This is approx 5m in height from its base up to the top level of stonework – the base being on the downslope of a slight hill.
There is a huge boulder (about 2m x 1m x 1m)lying on the top of one section – it looks entirely out of place and lord knows how it got there.

The entire centre of the cairn has been robbed out and what remains is covered in ferns with no larger stones visible..

There are 2 things that strike me about this site.

1. This cairn is situated very close to the valley floor. Nearly all the local cairns are sited well upslope on hill and mountainsides. This is probably due to changing land use over the centuries – all lower lying cairns have been lost to agriculture ?

2.Its Height. It must have been enormous. What remains gives a good indication of scale. When you stand in the centre of the robbed out centre, the top of the remaining section is at least 1 -2m above headlevel, not forgetting the existing summit will be considerably lower now, than it was when it was built.

Although incomplete, this is a good site to visit due to its accessibility. Theres also a cup and ring marked stone 20m from the car park!

Visited 10th Dec 2009

Leaving Rempstone Circle and Nine Barrow Down behind I rode back to Corfe Castle, crossing the main Wareham/Swanage road towards Lulworth Cove. The road passes to the north of the castle ruins and twists its way west until a turn off towards Kimmeridge and the coast until I reach a car park at the top of the hill overlooking Kimmeridge Bay.
A footpath nearby leads down a steep field and a very muddy path brings me to a style leading to another field. This field was full of inquisitive sheep, wary of me all the way to the far side to a hawthorn hedgerow that hides the Harpstone until I am almost upon it. The sound of cannon and gun fire in the distance is slightly surreal and off-putting as the army plays war games nearby. This 7 foot tall monolith is cut by vertical grooves and is honeycombed by thousands of years of weathering. A close knit hawthorn hedgerow surrounds the stone which is separated from the field of sheep by a barbed wire fence. Luckily the fence is easy to climb through as it is worth the exploration of the river valley the stone sits in front of.
After some time the distant war games come to an end leaving me and the monolith at peace in each other’s company.

Just visible over the hedge alongside the narrow lane running SE from Hailglower Farm, this is a very overgrown barrow, but has clear evidence of a kerb (couldn’t see if there was any kind of chamber).

A quick look at this little-known barrow after visiting Carn Bean. Not much to see, just a small grass-covered, ploughed down mound – just like being back in the Cotswolds!

Despite many visits to Carn Kenidjack and Truthwall Common, we have never bothered to walk up to Carn Bean before. On a very blustery October day, with a biting wind blowing we decided to abandon any ideas of a longer walk eastwards and instead plumped for a circuit back to St Just, taking in Carn Bean and a couple of other lesser-known barrows.

The Carn is a very visible landmark, as it is surmounted by a great big radio mast. The barrow sit very close to the mast, but is far less visible. There are nice views, across to the east to Watch Croft and south-east to Tregeseal stone circle. Even in October, with low bracken, the barrow itself is lost in the vegetation. It appears to be an earthen mound, if there are megaliths in the construction you can’t see them. After poking about for a while the thought of getting out of the wind became too much and we headed back towards St Just.

Seems you spoke too soon Stu, during a visit this summer i found the site looking like a tip, remains of fires on the edge of the henge and rubbish dumped everywhere, seems by all the dog shit i encountered some of the locals are using the site as a dog toilet.
Normal service has resumed. : (

Went to the coordinated given last Sunday, spoke to family in house nearest that spot, they knew nothing about this Stone row so I moved on

Checking further tonight I found another possible location 400m to the N/W
Latitude: 51.849867N Longitude: 9.179094W
I will check this out some time soon and report back

Gwern-y-Cleppa is one of those sites that gives rise to conflicting, contradictory emotions within the traveller. A fine, old longbarrow, with substantial chamber stones still in situ, sitting upon a South Walian hillside. Who could ask for more?

Indeed. Trouble is, this said hillside is yards away from Junction 28 of the M4, overlooking a Newport industrial estate. The noise of traffic queuing upon the slipway waiting to attend the Wales/Australia Rugby International is, er, somewhat distracting, similar to the experience of a visit to Mayburgh Henge, it might be said. But then you wouldn’t dream of missing a trip there because of the proximity of the M6, would you? Exactly.

This is why I finally take the plunge (pun not intended, but this being South Wales it’ll do) and park up in the Cleppa Park industrial estate in the teeming rain, feeling a little – OK, very – out of place in my waterproofs.... [by the way, thanks to Hamish for the canny directions]. Following the rough farm track across the aforementioned M4, a Welsh pony looks up from its lunch as if to enquire ‘English? Thought so..’ before resuming munching grass. Hmm – is this a good idea?

The (very) short answer is... Yes. Across the bridge a field of ploughed mud (apparently the Welsh are proud of their ability to ‘grow’ mud, judging by the tourist adverts) appears to my left, with a barbed wire fence at its far boundary. However I’d advise carrying on a little further before leaving the track and heading towards a ruined building upon the hillside. Here the barbed wire can currently be stepped over with relative ease, so allowing access to the long barrow. It’s a good, if not a great site, and I was certainly grateful for its continued survival against all the odds, if also sad for the loss of the landscape it once surveyed. Such is progress, such is economic reality. The tomb itself has othostats comprised of some kind of conglomerate and is graced with several hardy trees. A couple of (empty) vodka bottles – presumably not of Neolithic origin – were unwelcome additions, but note the past tense here. Hanging out in the rain, drinking my coffee and eating sausage rolls, the sheer bizzareness of the moment strikes home... Gwern-y-Cleppa is like the old spinster who won’t sell up to the unscrupilous property dealer, striking a defiant stance against the descent into the apparent banality of everyday existance. Yeah, almost as if the old, denuded mound seems to say to the passing cars ‘I’ve seen it all, so bring it on!‘

Come to Gwern-y-Cleppa if you get the chance. This impoverished, battered long barrow is a survivor and deserves our support!

Second visit of the year, in early autumn sunshine (4.10.2009). Different route taken this time, walking along the Cotswold Way NE from Cranham Corner. I was a bit surprised to cross a fairly prominent section of rampart and ditch as I climbed the slope – no sign of it on the 1:25000 map. The woods are lovely and well worth a visit, even if the archaeology is not so impressive.