Latest Fieldnotes

Access: Fairly easy – it’s pretty close to the road & unlike Cromlech de Lacam de Peyrarines, there are gates (I think!) It is on a bit of a slope, but it’s fairly gentle.

Visited Saturday 8 September 2007
I couldn’t believe it! Nearly as amazing & bonkers as Cromlech de Lacam de Peyrarines that I’d just come from! Another of the most spectacular sites I’ve ever been to and a bit more photogenic than Lacam de Peyrarines as it’s on a slope.

Like Peyrarines, it’s HUGE although quite a lot of stones are fallen or missing, especially on the east side (& the south I think, and others are hidden by bushes).

I (rightly in the end) figured the day could only go downhill from here, as I sat eating my lunch in the tiny bit of shade behind the largest stone to shelter from the blazing sun.

Carnaveron is about 2 miles south of the Gallow Hill, near Alford on the same minor road. I followed the the farm track until the first major corner finding plenty of room to pull in.

The cairn is on the west ridge of the hill behind and has been badly robbed and is barely recognisable. However at least 5 kerbs are in place with probably more hidden amongst the bushes and gorse. Canmore estimates that the cairn would have been 34 meters wide and 0.6 meters high. To make matters worse cows have wandered everywhere churning up the grass and deposited their markers everywhere. So be warned and take more than one pair of boots!

Up and down the hill is no more than a mile. Scenery looking down onto the Muir Of Fowlis village is lovely.

Visited 26/11/09.

Entering Alford from the east on the A944, find Greystone Road near the town centre. Travel the length of this road, going past the Auld Kirk Of Alford (ring cairn) and turn left (south). Gallow Hill farm is the first road to the right, west, with the stone situated slightly more than 200 meters north west into a field behind the farmhouse.

The stone is 1.85 meters in height and looks down onto the River Don and is perhaps aligned to Bennachie clearly visible to the east. It looks like somebody took a drill to the top of the stone. Today was a good day, it didn’t rain.

Visited 26/11/09.

Access: Should be easy – it’s right next to the road. However, there was no easy access to the field (that I could find) other than hopping over the fence. I’m also sure I got some weird looks from passing locals. Perhaps it’s supposed to be no access, so you ain’t seen me, right?

Visited Saturday 8 September 2007
Amazing! Bonkers! One of the most spectacular sites I’ve ever been to. It’s HUGE and although some stones are fallen or missing, there are still far more than I could be bothered to count!

Spent ages trying, fairly unsuccessfully, to just get my head around the place & trying to photograph it. And I was virtually trotting around it as a result of a growing feeling that I wasn’t really supposed to be there (I could just be paranoid!)

One thing I learnt – if you ask me, it’s impossible to do the site as a whole justice in a photograph, except mebbe from the air.

Access: Easy – right next to road. Not sure if there any gates to go through – sorry, it was 2 years ago....

Visited Saturday 8 September 2007
Oo, nice! A dolmen still in its mound with a nice (exposed) entrance passage.

Allegedly, between here & Menhir de Serre de la Gleisa there is a ruined cromlech. I suspect there’s nothing to see, as Bruno Marc doesn’t mention it in Dolmens et Menhirs en Languedoc et Roussillon, but I could be wrong.

Access: Not sure, I only looked at it from the road as I had an ambitious itinerary. (Too ambitious as it turned out, in more ways than one.) Looks a little bit of an uphill tromp to me, for ‘just’ a menhir.

Visited Saturday 8 September 2007
Looks like a nice big (for the area, at least) menhir, but unfortunately I couldn’t afford the time for a closer look. So I whipped out the big lens – which means it’s a longer walk from the road than it might look in the photos....

Access: Nightmare to find anything on this plain which seems to be covered with sites at various sites of wreckedness. Just across the dirt road from Ciste de Lacam. Luckily this one is fairly near the main track – still difficult to spot!

Visited Saturday 8 September 2007
I knew this was ruined, but all I found was just a few likely looking stones in a vague line. They were the most likely candidates I saw, but absolutely no guarantees that these are the remains of the monument!

Approximate coordinates only

Access: Nightmare to find anything on this plain which seems to be covered with sites at various sites of wreckedness. Dirt road, so you’ll probably need to not care too much about your car, especially if you want to leave the ‘main’ track!

Luckily this one is very near said main track – still difficult to spot! It’s also surprisingly easy to lose your sense of direction & mine’s usually pretty good.

Visited Saturday 8 September 2007
Not exactly spectacular, but traces of a little cairn with a very nice cist left in the middle. This was to be one of the few things I’d find out here in the barren wilderness!

Approximate coordinates only

Access: Not easy, unless you’re at least reasonably fit. Close-ish to Dolmen de la Claie-de-Driolle 4 & 6 a good few hundred metres along the same path. (You will also pass various less definite but suspicious bits of possible wrecked sites.)

Visited Monday 3 September 2007
I’ve taken the name of this monument from t4t35.fr

In Dolmens et Menhirs en Languedoc et Roussillon Bruno Marc refers to ‘le grand dolmen de l’Olivier’, which from t4t35.fr seems to be a little further along the same path, but I must have stopped just short of it before giving up for the day & turning back. (Gah!)

Bare remains of the chamber uprights & cairn only here, possibly with a fallen capstone at the front of the chamber according to some sources. As far as I can tell, Le Grand Dolmen de l’Olivier which I didn’t find seems to be similar, but larger and with more of its cairn. It also has an additional small (later?) cist in what remains of its chamber.

Approximate coordinates only. Also, there seems to be confusion in my sources on the numbering of the Claie-de-Driolle tombs. This seems to be 4 in Bruno Marc’s books, but I’ve seen it referred to as 5 elsewhere. (Incidentally, there seem to be gaps in the numbering sequence everywhere I’ve looked!)

Access: Not easy, unless you’re at least reasonably fit. Very close to Dolmen de la Claie-de-Driolle 3 along the same path.

Visited Monday 3 September 2007
Right next to Dolmen de la Claie-de-Driolle 6 (depending whose numbering you use!) The 2 sites together are gorgeous, though of the 2 this is slightly the ‘poor relation’!

Approximate coordinates only. Also, there seems to be confusion in my sources on the numbering of the Claie-de-Driolle tombs. This seems to be 6 in Bruno Marc’s books, but I’ve seen it referred to as 4 elsewhere. (Incidentally, there seem to be gaps in the numbering sequence everywhere I’ve looked!)

Access: Not easy, unless you’re at least reasonably fit. Very close to Dolmen de la Claie-de-Driolle 3 along the same path.

Visited Monday 3 September 2007
Right next to Dolmen de la Claie-de-Driolle 4 (depending whose numbering you use!) The 2 sites together are gorgeous. Similar to the other main monuments on this walk, but then again they’re (mostly) little beauties!

Approximate coordinates only

Access: Not easy, unless you’re at least reasonably fit. Very close to Dolmen de la Claie-de-Driolle 2 along the same path.

Visited Monday 3 September 2007
My favourite of the monuments we saw on this walk. Another beautiful dolmen in its cairn but with noteably more open views.

Approximate coordinates only

Access: Not easy, unless you’re at least reasonably fit. Maybe 1km or slightly more from the nearest parking place which is impossible to describe but to the SW! The path starts off quite steep as a wide-ish gravel track, which becomes a track through the woods. It continues to have steep bits & also slightly rocky bits. May also be muddy in wet weather.

Visited Monday 3 September 2007
Beautiful! Seemingly fairly complete but restored in its rocky cairn. Well worth the walk (which I enjoyed – but I like walking!)

Approximate coordinates only

Access: Not easy, unless you’re at least reasonably fit. Maybe 500m from Dolmen de la Bergerie-de-Panissière along the same path, which has steep bits & slightly rocky bits. May also be muddy in wet weather.

Visited Monday 3 September 2007
I liked this a lot. The pictures say it all really. Beautiful dolmen in its (perhaps somewhat denuded) cairn.

Access: Right by the roadside with a little area for parking.

Visted Monday 3 September 2007
A nice menhir with good views to the north. There is a destroyed menhir nearby on the road (though we didn’t spot it, and another nearby in the woods that we didn’t look for.

Scahanard Wedge tomb, Cairn & Standing stone are in the same field also known as the Bealick

Lackaduv wedge tomb is at the other side of the road on property owned by the same farmer, a very nice gent, loves to chat

Seems there is 3rd Wedge tomb not too far away at
51.96644N 9.0032W I will check this out

Rempstone Circle – Purbecks 995821
The air was crisp and still when I parked my motorbike in a lay-by on the B3351 between Corfe Castle and Studland. It had been raining during the night so the ground was wet and soft. I crossed the quiet road to a wooden gate and a path that led up the steep bank of East Hill to Nine Barrow Down on the Dorset Coastal Path. Just inside the gate on the right stands Rempstone Woods and the main purpose of my visit, Rempstone Stone Circle. With Samhain recently celebrated the trees were mostly leafless allowing light into the woods that reflected in the puddles that dominated the forest floor giving a surreal atmosphere! Heading into the woods I first come across scattered dark sandstone blocks, believed to be a part of an avenue that led to the stone circle. Corn dollies and flowers sat atop these recumbent monoliths. Further on I was soon standing among several 4 foot high stones that was Rempstone Circle. Most of the circle has disappeared over time and those that are left are half hidden behind undergrowth. Rempstone circle was only discovered as recently as a hundred years ago by Mrs Goddard, a vicar’s wife out walking.
Bronze Age man moved the gritstone, a quartz rich deposit from a local Bagshot bed about 3,500 years ago to form a circle around 85 foot in diameter with an alignment on the autumn/spring equinox. These ancient people used ox shoulder blade shovels and deer antler pick axes to erect their temple. A ley line runs from this place westerly through Corfe Castle, Creechbarrow Hill, Chaldon Herring Cross, Combe Bottom and ends at Chalbury Hillfort near Weymouth. I discovered Rempstone Circle through a car guide called ‘Exploring Ancient Dorset with George Osborn’ and have visited the site several times. My favourite time to visit being late spring when a blanket of bluebells dominate the forest floor and the smell of summer is in the air.

Scott Irvine

Travel west along the A941 towards Dufftown, Newseat is the first farm on the road, to the right. Climb up the hill for a 1/2 mile behind the farm, beyond the rusting hut. If you keep going up and up the walk will lead straight up the Tap O Noth.

At least six kerb stones of an inner ring are still earthfast, alternatively it could be a hut circle. There also appears to be an outer ring with at least two stones of over a meter in height fallen. This might possibly be a ring cairn and looks down onto the village of Rhynie. On the way back down I met an elderly chap, who lives at Newseat farm, who told me all about the Giants Stone.

Visited 23/11/09.

When parking for visiting the Bell Knowe, hear Rhynie, there is a hut that contains three Pictish stones each with beautiful carvings. On the back of the tallest, called Rhynie 5, there are numerous cup marks suggesting that the Picts were recycling stones used by their Neolithic forebears. The stone is connected to the wall with an iron rod making the taking of photos very tricky indeed. As I’ve said elsewhere the wooden shack covering these stones is a disgrace and hardly gives the stones any protection!

Visited 23/11/09.

Leave Rhynie via the A941, Cabrach/Dufftown, and stop at the Mains of Lesmoir a couple of miles west. Plenty parking space here. Then walk further, 100 meters west, along the road where a track can be found heading south over the hill. This is also necessary as the Lesmoir Burn is in spate and this is the only bridge this side of the hill. (This could be found by walking thru Templand to the south, Wheedlemont, Upper Ord etc.)

The cairn can be seen quite clearly between two hills which are covered in rocks and hut circles perhaps. At 19 meters wide and 3 meters high the grass covered cairn has views that are magnificent with Tap O Noth clearly dominating the area. Originally used for burial the cairn was used as a Gallows in feudal disputes. The cairn is still known as Gallows Hill. Today it was peaceful and the sun was out. But not for long!

Visited 23/11/09.

The Giants Stone is much nearer Newseat Farm than Scardargue it’s alternative name and the footprint is very weathered. This was found on the way to the Newseat Cairn heading west from Rhynie on the A941, Cabrach road.

Visited 23/11/09.

Cheers Rhiannon!

Access: Easy, as it’s right on the street, but not sure how accurate coordinates are.

Visted Saturday 16 April 2005
An obscure wonder! Another ‘menhir brise’, thought possibly to have originally been part of the same alignment as the nearby Grand Menhir Brise (GMB) and pehaps the grand menhir(s) that form the capstones of Mane Rutuel & Er-Grah.

Very respectable size though not even vaguely near the GMB’s truly awesome magnitude.

Two pieces, the ‘top’ part has a bolt mounted in its bottom, broken side. Allegedly there were at some point plans to reassemble the 2 parts, but I somehow doubt whether it’s to do with that (or whether it’ll ever get done now, for that matter!)

The Bell Knowe, a Bronze Age cairn, is slightly to the south of Rhynie on the A97, eastern side. Best to park the Rhynie grave yard, complete with Pictish stones (one with cup marks). The cairn is unmissable. However at the moment walking to the cairn is impossible as the surrounding land is owned by the manse, as the occupant at Coach House said. By this he mean’t the Church of Scotland and is open between April and October. The site is surrounded by a deer fence and several padlocked gates. There was a lot of ribbons and such like attached to the fence, votive offerings perhaps.

Visited, nearly, 23/11/09.

Not convinced at all this stone is of any significance, there are many naturally standing stones in the area and most are much more convincing than this one.

The nearby cairn is a walkers cairn built by a local student from the stone of the collapsed wall.