Visited 1.8.09 in persistent drizzle, after a stop at Tump Belt round barrow. The long barrow is right next to the footpath, the unploughed corner of an otherwise ploughed field. It is completely covered in nettles and other assorted vegetation, so it’s impossible at this time of year to make out any shape. A winter viewing is obviously a better bet.
Tump Belt round barrow is visible on the edge of the small copse across the field to the NNE.
Visited on a drizzly day, walking from Oakridge (1.8.09). The barrow lies on the southern edge of a small copse (Three Ash Belt or Tump Belt) down a farm track leading from Field Barn. Back in 1959 when visited by Leslie Grinsell, the barrow was crowned by an ash tree. This tree has now fallen over, causing extensive damage to the barrow in the process.
Nearby Westwood long barrow is intervisible with this barrow, in a common example of later round barrows respecting the earlier neolithic structures.
Visited 25.7.09. There is only one barrow shown on the OS map, although Tim Darvill and Leslie Grinsell (“Gloucestershire Barrows: Supplement 1961-1988” – Trans. Bristol and Glos Arc. Soc. 1989) indicate that there are two, both very large.
The barrow is within easy reach of Cirencester town centre, lying in a field half a mile to the north-east. Unfortunately at this time of year the field was planted within ripening wheat, making access to the barrow itself impossible unless you’re prepared to trample the crop. However, even from across the field it is obvious that this is a massive barrow, rather like the ones that line the Ridgway north of Overton Hill, covered with mature trees.
Definitely one to re-visit in the winter, as the mound will be much more visible once the leaves have dropped and the crop has been harvested.
Walked here from Shawswell Farm long barrow to the north, via Woodmancote. The first part of the extensive earthwork encountered from this direction is Scrubditch, at SP011077. Most of this is obscured by undergrowth and is not visible from the footpath.
Carry on along Cutham Lane and the best preserved section lies immediately adjacent to the west side of the road. Other lines of ramparts are extant on the east side, but were invisible in the ploughed fields. The section along the west of the road is a bank and ditch, getting deeper/higher the further south it goes. The undergrowth also gets thinner and access is easier. This is the best section to see.
Another large section runs east-west along the side of Welsh Way, but much of this is fenced off.
Today I went with some friends to visit Stoney Littleton for the first time. The visit left me with a lot of mental impressions and images to digest – not ready to write about them just yet. On the way back however, the friend who was driving us suggested calling off at Lanhill Barrow, near Chippenham.
What a lovely and unexpected surprise – this long barrow is tucked away in a field quite close to a busy road. In spite of the background traffic noise it was incredibly peaceful ... hay baled up in the field, the route of a now dried up river leaving an indentation in the centre of the field. There was a stream on the far boundary of the meadow along with a small ‘water works’. The barrow is sealed but with one of its side chambers open – our guide today, the ever knowledgeable PeteG took us to the end of the barrow by two old oaks and pointed to a short stone wall which had been build with the stones from the exterior of the barrow.
Compared to Stoney Littleton, Lanhill is unspectacular in its setting but I found visiting it curiously satisfying ... very much the cherry on the cake.
Walked here from Boy’s Grove round barrow. Access is from the south, up the side of a valley that’s wet with springs. Typical Cotswold long barrow position, on the side of a hill rather than on the top.
This one has been seriously reduced over the years, to the point where it appears to be two separate mounds. The larger part is very reminiscent of Lineover long barrow a few miles to the north of here. Total length is around 40 metres, but height (even of the larger mound) is only a little more than a metre.
Off to Bagendon earthworks from here.
Visited 25.7.09 on walk from Colesbourne to Cirencester. Hadn’t necessarily intended to make a special detour off the nearby bridleway, but was forced to climb the fence to avoid the attentions of some very unfriendly bullocks in the field to the north.
Anyway, not much to see. A unusually situated round barrow, as it sits on the side of a slope (more like a long barrow position if anything). Very ploughed down to less than a metre in height, there are a couple of reasonable sized (18” across or so) pieces of limestone on top of the barrow, as well as numerous smaller lumps. The diameter would be about 12 paces across.
From here went south to Shawswell Farm long barrow.
Do not walk from Pendine with its fantastic beach unless your into the coast path going up and down, instead turn right to Marros before you get to Pentywyn then turn left by a campsite and drive through a long thin wood and you’ll get to a lovely little beach between Ragwen point and Gilman point. the burial chambers are on the cliffs to your right/west.
If we had started here, it still would have been an ordeal getting up to them and then finding them amongst the rocks and ferns, unfortunatly
we started in Pendine and my daughter only had on her imperfectly fitting wellies because her always tired dad forgot to find her boots. Boooo !
We headed for the rock stack as it looked like it was in the right place and was visible from quite a distance, I was uncharacteristically bang on the money as at its foot was what looked like a badly damaged chamber I had a quick look and followed the cliff top ( with only a ten foot drop I hesitate to call it a cliff) down towards the sea, untill we came upon the chamber featured by coflein.
The chamber orthostats were taller than I anticipated, the capstone was bigger too and the view more inspiring than I’d thought possible.
We cleared some of the ferns to get a better look at the place and we found it to be perfect in almost every way.
Going back up the hill to the rock stack we pass two big rocks and the next chamber arrives on the conveyer belt of antiquity. The upright stones of the chamber are more skewed and broken and the capstone lies broken but identifiable at their feet.
Then just ten feet from the rock stack is the most forlorn of the four chambers only three stones of the chamber survive all the others lie around broken indistinguishable from the light smattering of cairn material that is also here.
I was about to give up on the last chamber, we had ascended the cliff top and were walking along looking for anything likely, when I spotted a long flat stone and I went down to have a look and nearly fell in. I had stumbled upon what seemed to be the fourth and most intact of the chambers. The capstone was at floor level and at one corner was an opening going underneath the heavy looking capstone, after clearing the ferns we discovered a step going down which is what I nearly tumbled into. I peeked the camera through the opening and took a photo with the flash on, it revealed all the uprights in place and the cairn material peeped through the orthostatic windows, it was indeed the other chamber, or first one depending on which way you came ?
The walk back to the car was nice but the little one needed bags of encouragement and bribes
Definatly dont confuse with the other longstones further east, this is the three metre tall, 3 in 1 stone at St Ishmael’s. Easily found just 80 yards from the road but cant be seen from the road because the land owner has put up some big green square box type shed, but if you have the os map and looked on google earth you’ll know about it before hand.
Iv’e dubbed it the 3 in 1 stone because, as it first came into view and as I approached it looked like a big phallic type stone, but then changed into a tall thin skinny, and then into wide broad ‘playing card’ (?) type stone. was it just a product of my direction/approach or was it erected because of it’s triality (wide and thin).
This is one of a number of barrows on the East Holme Firing range. The range is on heathland between the river Frome and the coast, to the north of the Purbeck hills. The only way to see the barrow is from the hills above with binoculars or a long camera lens.
The nearby Povington barrow was not visible, at only a metre in height it is probably obscured by vegetation at this time of year.
It appears to be in good condition when viewed through binoculars, MAGIC says it is 2 metres in height and 27 in diameter.
Recent find from above Loch Earn .
On Saturday I walked up to Painswick Beacon and hillfort from the village of Painswick. I was surprised to find that much of the walk up towards the beacon is a golf course. Even more surprised when reaching the top, to find the golf course is also inside the ramparts of the hillfort.
I understand the hillfort to be a scheduled ancient monument, is a golf course on one unusual I wonder?
Terrific views, now inspired to explore some of the long barrows in Gloucestershire.
Thanks to Rhiannon for putting the folklore here, it slowly galvanised me to finally get my sorry carcass ‘Up The Gyle’ and pay a visit to this far-flung edge of two countries.
There’s not much to say about the cairn that you wouldn’t be able to determine from the photo. It’s been used as a trig point and has the usual beacon sangar, unsurprising, given the spectacular views.
What did strike me about it was the variation of different kinds of stone represented in the cobbles and boulders. Were they brought from afar, were they brought in the bronze age, or have they been added by walkers on the last stretch of the Pennine Way? I’ve no idea.
I expected this place to be quiet, and was thus surprised to find I waited for over an hour before getting the place all to myself. The majority of other visitors were following the border line, some of them having completed the whole Pennine way. Kudos unto them. If you’re doing the Pennine way, you can’t really miss the thing. But if you’re coming from the east, it’s quite a decent walk up from Barrowburn, and on the path between Barrowburn and Murder Cleugh at about NT866118, there appears to be the remains of a prehistoric boundary in the form of the grounding stones of a cross dyke. I’d like to think it’s BA, there are quite a few of those hereabouts. As it’s not been recorded anywhere I’ve been able to find (Must get around to informing the CA about it), I can’t be sure. I also took no photos, nor did I gps the location. Lazy me.
It’d be easy to be so taken by the view from it’s place on top of Windy Gyle, that you’d assume the view was the reason for the choice of location for the cairn, and the handful of satellite cairns nearby. But I reckon the exact location on The Gyle is possibly influenced by the Routin Well and the strange chasm of Scotchman’s Ford. It would be redundant to list intervisible monuments, as there the extensive view means you could probably see half of the hill top cairns in Northumberland, and an equal number of the ones in what is now Scotland. Excellent views of Cheviot and Simonside for those who like a nice bit of ‘Sacred Hill’.
I had a quick skank about for the stone that used to be listed on the county SMR as a standing stone, in the area marked on the map as ‘Split the Deil’ (A peculiar name for a place where there’s nothing in particular, which no-one seems to be able to agree upon the etymology of). I found zilch, but it made for a nice excuse to hop about in the heather.
My return route was down what looks like a drove road, following the path amrked on the map down the western side of Wardlaw Burn, which comes out at Rowhope. I reckon this would be the sensible place to park a car for those who drove up this way. For those of a cycling bent, the Border County ride passes within spitting distance.
To the north of the Ringing Stone the Hill Of New Leslie stands looking up and down the Gadie Burn valley. This at one time must have been one of the biggest forts in the area although hardly any remains can be seen. Earthworks, barely visible, are on the northern slopes but most have long gone mainly thanks to agriculture. The best evidence for the fort is on aerial images so up goes the Canmore post.
As is usual, up here, the Tap O Noth and Bennachie can be seen. The climb is fairly steep but rewarding for the views at the top.
Visited 16/08/09.
The sprawling mass of Waun Leuci sits between South Wales’ great Mynydd Du mountain range and the Fforest Fawr to the east. The whole area is teeming with prehistoric sites – predominately hilltop burial cairns and standing stones, the best known probably being the Maen Mawr and its attendant stone circle, which oversees the Tawe Valley below to the immediate west.
Waun Leuci, at 1,844ft, doesn’t quite make the ‘magical’ (to some, anyway) 2000ft mark but is nevertheless a fine viewpoint – a prerequisite for a burial cairn, it would seem – particularly looking across to Bannau Brycheiniog (Mynydd Du’s highest point at 2,631ft) and the aforementioned stone circle. In fact the view up and down the Tawe valley is quite breathtaking.
The summit is crowned by the remains of a large Bronze Age funerary cairn and there are a number of other ‘probables’ nearby. Coflein states:
“..on the summit of Waun Leuci, at approximately 560m above OD., are two cairns. The southern most consists of a pile of grass-grown rubble, measuring approximately 7m in diameter and 0.7m high..”
We approached via a near vertical ascent from the west – where it is possible to park (and visit the Maen Mawr, of course). However this proved deceptively difficult due to the rough, tussocky grass. Note that there is also a fine Bronze Age standing stone below to the NW.
This long barrow lies on the side of a hill above the village of Collingbourne Kingston. Very easy to reach, it appears to have escaped any serious excavation, although the uneven surface suggests partial excavation of the site, probably in the 19th century.
The B road running along the crest of the hill, named fair mile, seemed to me to be as ancient as the long barrow itself and could be traced running for miles through and past many Neolithic sites. This is worthy of a separate blog in it’s own right.
To the east of the road lies another long barrow, Tow Barrow and a km south, the Grafton disc barrow group.
I cycled the area and came in along the fair mile. There is no sign for any of these barrows, but a byway sign and a convenient pull in off the road marks the track leading down the hill and past the long barrow. I cycled down this and left the bike by the fence just before the wood. I climbed over a fence and walk along the field boundary until I reached the field with the barrow in it. Gates have been provided to access the barrow and the land owner should be praised at the level of upkeep this barrow affords.
The barrow itself is fenced off but a gate is provided and access could not be easier. The only problem I encountered was a herd of bullocks who where over friendly and came a bit to close for comfort. I armed myself with a big stick and kept the at arms length as I made my way into the barrows compound. Once inside I made a little offering to the ancestors in the form of a cap full of water anointing the barrow. It might sound a bit daft to some people but I fell it is a mark of respect and I always like to make an effort to get into the right mind space when visiting these burial sites. I don’t know quite what happened next but something spooked the cattle and they all turned and fled to the furthest part of the field and left me in peace for then on.
As you can see from the pictures, the long barrow survives as a substantial earthwork, a length of 41.5m, is 20m wide and 2.5m high at the higher east-end. The orientation is east-west and is ovoid in plan.
Flanking ditches, from which material used to construct the mound was quarried, run parallel to the north and south sides of the mound. The northern ditch adjoins the barrow mound and is 7m wide and 0.75m deep. The southern ditch, which is separated from the mound by a narrow berm 2m wide, is 9m wide and 1.5m deep.
A very fine, mid to late Neolithic long barrow and one I would highly recommend visiting, along with the other barrows mentioned above. I would suggest winter or early spring the best time as the pasture would not have become so dense and the cattle in the field.
Chance – June 2009
After spending a pleasant afternoon at the football I went to the spectacular cliff fort at Cullykhan, near Gardenstown. With the lovely weather it was time well spent.
This place has been used thru time as a Cliff Fort, Castle and Battery. Various ditches and ramparts can be seen as well as some stone work. Like Cleaved Head on the western side is sheer cliff face, on the eastern a natural harbour. To reach the fort a path four feet wide with severe drops either side must be walked. Various finds are described on the Canmore pages below.
Cullykhan is further east than Gardenstown, on the B9031, and is signposted as Fort Fiddes. The road leads to a car park. There are two paths one to the fort, the other to the beach. If taking children heed the warnings signposted, the cliffs are imposing. Just to the west is a natural feature called Hells Lum. Pennan, the setting for Local Hero, can be seen from the fort in the east. Further along this road, near New Aberdour, is the cliff fort at Dundarg.
We won 3-1, still smiling and this place was the icing on the cake.
Visited 15/08/09.
On top of a mountain called Drum 770metres up and on the edge of Snowdonia national park this cairn occupies an epic position above Llyn Anafon, across the valley Foel Fras (942m) and Llwytmor (849m) flank in the hidden valley below, and behind us the Conway valley.
The cairn has been badly ruined, being turned into a very effective wind break, the cairn material has been cleared from the interior down to the bedrock.
We parked at the end of the road under the power lines at Bwlch y ddeufaen, walked up to the standing stones past the cairn and when we reached the wall, we followed it up to the top, 670 metres high, to find this large cairn and the most spectacular of views.
Although it was raining lightly the ferocious wind whipped the tiny raindrops into your face like a micro meteor shower, a bright and vibrant rainbow arched right the way across the valley below, and disappearing into the brightening sky a crescent moon hung low above the peak of Foel Fras.
Wow it was windy, but another hundred metres further up is another cairn,I wondered if maybe it was too windy to be wandrin’ round up here, soaked and cold but smilin’.
Field Notes – 26-08-07
Ashdown Park natural sarsen drift SU: 28496 82083
Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 170 – Scale 1:25000
Abingdon, Wantage and the Vale of the White Horse
ISBN 978-0-319-23611-6
When describing the remains of this natural sarsen drift, it is important to view them as one piece of the overall landscape. The majority of the remaining sarsens lie in Sarsen Field, although sarsens are scattered along the length of the estate boundary, as well as, the medieval farmstead at the rear of Ashdown house. Sarsen Field is fenced off and does not seem to have public access but lies right beside the B4000. This road may be a prehistoric trackway and appears to have been used to transport the stones north to the Ridgeway and south to Lambourn.
Stones from this sarsen drift can be found in the prehistoric monuments of Waylands Smithy and Segbury Hillfort. Even the Blowing Stones’ of Aldbourne and Uffington may have come from this drift, if not from this area.
The drift lies at the bottom of a dry valley named Kingstone Down over looked by the magnificent Weathercock Hill to the east and to the West, by the Bronze age barrow cemetery of Idestone Down, Alfred’s Castle and the Ridgeway. The ancient trackway, The Sugar Way, also passes to the south as it makes it way from Botley copse over Fognam Down and on to Upper Lambourn and the Seven Barrows group.
This area is very confusing to classify using the county boundaries. Ashdown Park appears to have had the county lines drawn around it’s estate and since 1974, now lies in Oxfordshire, while much of it’s history is claimed by both Berkshire and Wiltshire.
The area has seen constant cultivation from the earliest times and the downs above the site show the Celtic field systems and their later Roman replacements. The woodland to the north of the park also contains many Celtic field systems.
Ashdown lies in the manor the Ashberry, which was formed in Saxon times. The estate passed to Glastonbury abbey in the 10th century, and by 1342 it had been partially enclosed (fenced) to create a deer park to supply Venison.
It is unclear to the number of sarsens removed during this period, but the beautiful medieval farmstead at the rear of Ashdown down house is testament to their use by stonemasons of that period. John Aubrey gives an account of large sarsens being taken from Alfred’s castle, at the back of the estate, in 1662-3 to build part of the present house. This might indicate that the drift had already been severely depleted by this time.
I was left with the impression that Sarsen Field was a remnant of “the wild downs” and something to be viewed from the drawing rooms of the large house. Like the sarsen drifts on Fyfield Down and Piggledean, the Ashdown drift is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). The rest of the parkland is laid out in the formal styles of the 17th century, with four rides or avenues radiating from the house through dense trees.
After Lord Craven’s death in 1697, ownership of Ashdown house and the estate continued in the Craven family for nearly 300 years. The house, a derelict, and 40 acres of land, were given to the National trust in 1956 with an endowment and covenants for over 53 acres of surrounding land by Cornelia, the countess of Craven. 452 acres of farmland, woodland adjoining the house including the North Ride and Weathercock Hill, were all later purchased by the National trust in 1983. The last addition to the estate was the Iron Age hill fort of Alfred’s Castle, which was purchased by the National trust with grant aid from English Heritage in 1992.
Visited 19.7.09, walking from Cam & Dursley station, via a climb up Peaked Down. Sadly the weather was terrible, with heavy showers being the order of the day.
As reported previously, the interior of the fort is clear of vegetation and is being grazed by cattle (NB: the interior of the fort is not open to the public, but can be seen easily from the footpath that runs around the whole of the fort at the level of the rampart). The fort makes good use of an unusually rectangular promontory, with steep slopes on three of the four sides.
After leaving here I had intended a visit to Hetty Pegler’s Tump, but mistakenly took the Cotswold Way to avoid the busy main road – mistakenly as I hadn’t realised that the long barrow is not accessible from the footpath.
It’s in a terrible state, what were rabbit scrapes is now an extensive burrow system – it would be better excavated before it becomes a complete unstratifiable mess
This site shows how size isn’t everything. There was a complicated set of ceremonies surrounding matrimony involving all three rings and another Bookan site. Though nothing is recorded for this place, if the early name of Ulie Stane comes from dialect ullie ‘oil’ might I suggest a reference to chrism and perhaps ceremonies surrounding childbirth ? Note that this was the way to the Ring of Brodgar on the old track that ran through the “sacred monuments”, making it a gatekeeper kind-of – in the 19th century gentlemen still doffed their caps to it.
[My stone measurements are likely accurate but the distances between them and across the mound are as near as I could manage alone. {NMRS converted to metric} ]
The Comet Stone aligns NW/SE and sits in a depression presently measuring 2.7m by 2.3m and 20cm deep. The main stone stands 1.88m at the SE end {1.75m} and 1.97m at the NW, depth 27-28cm {29cm}, width 70cm at base increasing to 73 {76cm}. Measured height differs enough from NMRS to indicate surface erosion [there is a long scrape in the northern half too]. “Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky” by Trevor Garnham gives an alignment to Maes Howe. but unless my compass reading is absolutely useless is incorrect this is not so, explaining why the meticulous antiquarians would miss such a thing- the alignment would seem, rather, to carry on to the Ring of Bookan [though this is on the hillslope invisible from here unless it stood higher formerly or had a superstructure such as a stone ring or posts] and perhaps ? to something roughly in the Dowsgarth region in the other direction. This NW/SE alignment is shared by the Stanerandy Tumulus (for a long while thought to be standing stones) and the Deepdale Stones, both on Mainland, and the Langsteeen on Rousay – we know so few s.s. orientations that there could well be more. The relationship with the recorded ‘stubs’ is striking, forming a geometric unequal tee-formation. Following the alignment 2.97m {2.67m} brings you to the western edge of Stub i and from that 2.75m takes you to the eastern edge of Stub ii. These define the mound’s axes. Axis A , defined by Comet to Stub i ‘W’, is perpendicular to Axis B which is along the line of the two stubs (a NE/SW alignment shared with the Watch Stone stump and the Spurdagrove s.s. pair). Using ‘mound’ for the area currently left rough then the mound is 16~16.5m along Axis A and ~11m along Axis B – NMRS gives approximate size of 13.7x12.8 and ~80cm high. At the edge, 6.5m from the Comet Stone’s SE end only a few inches away [
Looking along the Comet Stone with stub i the Ness of Brodgar is perfectly framed, like looking down the barrel of a gun.
Leave the A96, south of Inverurie or north of Kintore, at the Thainstone Agricultural Centre. Take the second minor road to the right for a mile turning left at the first farm. Follow this road to it’s conclusion and turn left. The stone is situated to the south a short distance from the track.
At last there hasn’t been angry looking cattle to stop me getting to the stone. This time sheep peacefully kept watch. Camies stone, grey granite, stands at 11/4 meters high and has good views of the Garioch. The remains of Cairnton stone circle are on the other side of the A96.
Visited 13/08/09.
