Latest Fieldnotes

From the “pheasant prison” walk east, this cairn is thankfully undisturbed. But for how long? It’s eastern side is covered in colourful ferns whilst the other directions are moss and grass covered. Several quartz rocks can also be seen sticking their heads thru the moss as if gasping for air. At present Canmore are correct in saying the cairn is 9 meters wide and 2 meters tall. With the snow flaking down this cairn was a peaceful end to a day that started with raging seas and heavy snow.

Visited 30/11/09.

Follow as for Foulford Bridge and follow the North East track keeping an eye for the now defunct pheasant prison, this badly robbed Bronze Age cairn, next to the unused prison, is almost destroyed on it’s western flank with only a scattering of small stones. What’s left on the eastern side rises to 2 meters tall being a 11 meters in width. Even here there has been a trench dug out.

Visited 30/11/09.

This is a very neglected site but worth visiting, it is one field above Knockshanbrittas (A) Wedge Tomb and easy to locate just inside a gate, a wall has been built around it, you can see the remains of an old gate thrown near the tomb, the chamber itself it quite large

This Neolithic Long Cairn, which surprisingly couldn’t be found by the Canmore people, is no more than 200 meters north of the A98 about a 1/2 mile east of the Buckie junction. What is difficult is the job of taking decent pictures because of the overgrowth. Eventually I found two spots that showed at least the bottom of the cairn. At the eastern end some stones can be seen after a battle with various “jabby things”.

Plenty car parking as a lay by is on the opposite side of the road.

Visited 30/11/09.

There is a maze of country tracks to walk before reaching the cairn so take an OS map of the area. Even then, some of the tracks can’t be found. Travelling west on the A98 after the Cullen Bay Hotel (pretty good as is the ice cream shop in Cullen) take the first farm track south. With permission I parked at Bruntown farm.

After what seemed ages I found the Foulford Bridge which crosses a small burn, at least it’s on the map. There is a track that goes North East, which heads in the general direction of the other two cairns, but I headed thru the heather/bog/fallen trees and luckily walked straight to the cairn.

The cairn is made of boulders and earth being covered in moss, grass and trees. It has been dug out leaving a trench 5 meters long and 2 meters wide. However this does let the visitor see how the cairn was constructed. At it’s widest it is 14 meters being some 2 meters tall. Not the most spectacular of finds but a pleasant walk despite heavy snow showers.

Visited 30/11/09.

This cairn is situated an a hillside, approx 1/2 mile from the Boath road, by a forestry track.
The entire cairn is covered in a thick layer of heather and ferns and stones are very difficult to see – unless you fall off one!
There is a very deep depression (about 1.5m) close to the centre with a large flat stone lying 3-4m away.
A 2nd cairn apparently lies a short distance to the North, but I couldnt see it.
Visited 23rd Nov09

This relatively small cairn has been heavily robbed out and unfortunately has suffered damage by forestry thinning operations fairly recently (makes a bit of a nonsense of its Scheduled Status).
Access is pretty easy, the cairn lying on the crest of a small hill within a pine plantation about 100m from a forestry track.(Although the “Danger Archery” sign and the forbidding feel of the thick conifer plantation give it a bit of a “Deliverance” feel!
The cairn consists of an almost complete circle of outer kerb stones which are just visible beneath a mossy covering. One section of this has been damaged by a forestry vehicle.
The central cairn is a large mound approx 1m tall with no individual stones visible beneath the moss.
There is a large depression on the SE side between the central cairn and the outer kerb stones.
The mature conifers growing through the entire cairn look a wee bit out of place!!
Visited 23rd Nov09

Nine Barrow Down

Moving on from Rempstone Circle I climbed the steep slope leading to the Dorset Coastal Path. The stony path winds its way up East Hill through some beautiful woodland to the windblown summit of Nine Barrow Down, a complete contrast to the calm sheltered mystical stone circle below. From this high point an almost complete view of the Purbecks can be admired. Magnificent views across Poole Harbour to Poole and the Sandbanks peninsular, around to Swanage in the south east and the English Channel to the south.
On the ridge of Nine Barrow Down lie a group of 10 early Bronze Age round barrows of different sizes, the two largest surrounded by ditches. An earlier Neolithic long barrow sits with other round barrows on slightly lower ground towards the sea positioned to be seen from the valley settlements to the south. The strong penetrating north wind meant my visit to the site was a short one. I made a hasty retreat back down the hill to the calm of the valley and back to my motorbike parked beside the B3351.

A couple of new finds from yesterday raises the total to 22 for the area . One was particularly photogenic .

Access: See Dolmens du Font Mejanne page.

Visited Tuesday 11 September 2007
Similar to Dolmen du Font Mejanne No 1 & Dolmen du Font Mejanne No 2, but with a suspicion a rocky cairn.

The same angling and shaping of the sideslabs, creating the same portal tomb-type feeling. Being the highest up the valley of the 3, its setting is even more beautiful.

Access: See Dolmens du Font Mejanne page.

Visited Tuesday 11 September 2007
Similar to Dolmen du Font Mejanne No 1 but somewhat bigger, and to me, more nicely proportioned.

The sides are also similarly angled and shaped, seemingly to form a narrower entrance, creating an effect a bit like a portal tomb.

Access: See Dolmens du Font Mejanne page.

Visited Tuesday 11 September 2007
A quite large & rather boxy straightforward dolmen that somehow ‘fits’ perfectly into its landscape.

The sides are angled, seemingly to form a narrower entrance, creating an effect a bit like a portal tomb.

Access: Quite difficult. Not that easy to spot in the valley – we kept seeing bits that looked like the photos of the area they’re in.... But once you spot them you really know you’re in the right place! Also not that easy to park but we found somewhere on the left (west) – a little past the dolmens that we could see across the valley.

Also not easy to find the right place to scramble down into the valley & across the little (when we were there, anyway!) river & up the other side.

There are apparently 4 dolmens here but we only found 3, and there are a plethora nearby to the north. Details are in Bruno Marc’s Dolmens du l’Ardeche, but it seems that these 3 are the pick of the crop – all the others that Bruno has included photos of are (at least) fairly trashed.

Access: See Dolmens du Ranc d’Aven for general comments on finding the site. Only couple of hundred yards walk, but a bit of a scramble down into, across and up the other side of what seemed like dry river beds. Would probably be harder if the river(s) were flowing!

Visited Tuesday 11 September 2007
A nice little rock cairn with bare vestages of a cist or dolmen in the centre. Not altogether ‘whelming’, but in a gorgeous valley – and worth it for Dolmen du Ranc d’Aven No 3 apart from anything else!

Access: See Dolmens du Ranc d’Aven for general comments on finding the site.

As with Dolmen du Ranc d’Aven No 2, only a couple of hundred yards, but a bit of a scramble down into, across and up the other side of what seemed like dry river beds. Would probably be harder if the river(s) were flowing!

Visited Tuesday 11 September 2007
Another nice rock cairn with a fairly trashed small dolmen in the centre. In this setting – kinda lovely!

Access: The complex is reasonably easy to find using Googlemaps, on the north of a bend of the D208 between St Alban d’Auriolles and Chandolas. Turn onto the gravel road & park.

The cairns of ‘Dolmens’ 2 & 3 are to the left of the gravel road and fairly visible around 200-300m from the D208. If you view the site on Googlemaps, note that the path to Dolmen 1 is more obvious on the map than it was ‘on the ground’ when we were there. And the path goes up a very steep slope!!!

I’d say the path is only about 20-30m from the D208 at most, though this is from memory of 2 years ago! Look out for faint brown paint marks on the rocks.

Location slightly doubtful: Very difficult to find on Googlemaps.

Access: Difficult to find on the ground too, quite strenuous to walk to, and very strenuous to get back from! The dolmen is between the D290 and the Ardeche river, about halfway down the steep spectacular gorge.

We parked at a large layby/viewpoint on a bend of the D290 and then I walked north along the D290. The road curves slightly left and then fairly gently but distinctly right again. I scrambled over the armco crash barrier too early & had to come back up after meeting inpenetrable vegetation – don’t make the same mistake!

After a few hundred metres walking – I think it was just as the road stops swinging gently right – there is a gravelly path to the left, angled back the way you’ve just come. Take it. (There may also be a fairly small layby here which you could park at.)

The path meanders reasonably steeply (and at times quite steeply) down through the woods. There are a few sidepaths, but as I remember, I kept to the main path. Just as I was about to give up, there was a (blessed) noticeboard for the dolmen!!!

Visited Monday 10 September 2007
Wow!! What a place. The dolmen is set at the top of a little gravelly platform overlooking the gorge & river. It’s basic, in a nice state of (dis)repair & in itself worth seeing, but the setting is fantastic.

Good job too!!! It was a sweltering day & it had been a hard descent, especially with such a sketchy idea of where I was going & where the monument is! I spent some time photographing & taking the place in, but was very aware that Jane was back at the car and I’d been some time. All too soon I had no choice to take the gruelling climb back up, dripping buckets of sweat back up to the road and back along it.

It was sooooo worth it though!

This place is a bit of a nightmare to find within the maze of roads in the Cushnie valley. Leave the A980 just south of the Muir Of Fowlis taking the minor road, west, to Leochel-Cushnie. Keep going until this road ends, then turn north, the next road east and don’t turn the corner keep going. The signpost, on the photo, can be seen at the top of another minor road, follow this until it turns into a farm track. From here you can drive to South Brideswell or walk. I took one look at the road and walked.

I counted 14 stones remaining in place of the outer ring, others having been robbed their places still noticeable by holes in the ground. It is almost 23 meters wide, unfortunately agriculture has caused damage to the southern side, tractor tracks. Canmore suggests that the central round cairn, some 14 meters wide, was made during a second phase of building. Whenever it was built it isn’t very high coming to less than a meter after the usual destructions.

Nearby is another cairn, and the hut circles of an ancient settlement. A hard place to find but well worth the effort. Some beautiful countryside is an added bonus, no rain was an unexpected bonus!

Visited 26/11/09.

Approximate coordinates only

I was unable find (or even look for) this for extremely frustrating reasons, see my notes for Dolmen de la Caucalière.

Approximate coordinates only

I didn’t find this but I didn’t really get a chance with some ill-luck. Bruno Marc’s description in Dolmens et Menhirs en Languedoc et Roussillon says it’s about 400m to the west of Flouirac farm with private access. (There’s also the Menhir de la Caucalière near it.)

When I arrived at the farm there was nobody about to ask even after knocking at the door. So I was was just going to write a note to put on the windscreen of my car & set off anyway, when an elderly woman called from the upstairs window. She spoke unusually perfect English but what she said, I didn’t want to hear. She claimed that there was no dolmen other than Dolmen de Flouirac back down on the road!

I’m not sure if this was a blatant lie, but there wasn’t much I could do. It did occur to me to drive back down to the road, park, and then sneak back on foot. But I didn’t really have time & wasn’t comfortable enough with that degree of subterfuge.

I’ve been unable to find any photos or confirmation that the site still exists, though a quick Google search shows it is mentioned on some geocaching websites – suggesting it’s still there....

Dispirited by 2 failures in a row & pressed for time, I went back down to the road & after another vague scan for Dolmen de Flouirac, I started the long drive back to Arles.

Approximate coordinates only

I couldn’t spot this one from the road, but had a long journey back to our cottage near Arles ahead of me and a couple of other more promising (I thought) dolmens to try to find. I’ve seen photos of it & it’s a nice little thing! (Curses – especially as I couldn’t find the others I’d got planned!)

Apparently it’s very close to the road but difficult to spot as it’s masked by bushes.

Location slightly doubtful: I’ve placed this where I remember it, which fits in with Bruno Marc’s description in Dolmens et Menhirs en Languedoc et Roussillon (which is how I found it) so I’d have thought it must be right. It also looks about right on Googlemaps. However, it may be worth knowing that t4t35.fr puts it at the other end of the village on the other side (south) of the road.

Access: Visible from the road across a field just past the last buildings of the little village of Le Barral. Bruno Marc & I reckon it’s on the eastern edge of the village, to the north of the road. Seems to be on private property with no obvious access.

Visited Saturday 8 September 2007
A ruined but easily recognisable little dolmen built into a field wall. I didn’t try to approach it (see above) but just used a big lens....

Access: Easy – a short 100-200m walk along the tarmaced road from the wide farmtrack junction to the west where I parked for Menhir d’Avernat. Not sure if there’s anywhere closer.

Visited Saturday 8 September 2007
Another nice large characterful menhir, perfectly matching its partner Menhir d’Avernat on the other side of the road to the west.

Access: Easy – right by the road & with a wide farmtrack junction to park in.

Visited Saturday 8 September 2007
A nice large characterful menhir. Look out for its partner Menhir des Combes on the other side of the road to the east.

This the largest of the cairns is situated within an ancient settlement being only a few metres from the ring cairn. It has been badly robbed, being now close to fourteen meters wide. As well as granites it contains a few quartzs.

In the same field are several hut circles and clearance cairns. Directions to this site are given on the field notes for the ring cairn.

Visited 26/11/09.