Latest Fieldnotes

After the hot flush of Innisidgen Lower, the glorious treats go on! This one’s a turtle. Even better preserved than Bant’s Carn and with a handy rock outcrop above to serve as a viewing platform.

Had a good crawl inside this one, managed to avoid any head injuries. As our time on the island was limited by the ferry timetable we cut inland from Watermill Cove, sadly missing out the cairns above Gap Point and Deep Point. Then through the island interior (alright, it’s not the Congo) to Porth Hellick Down.

Following the main coast path round from Long Rock, we weren’t entirely sure where the tomb was, but by simply going along the path you can’t miss it.

Not as well preserved as Bant’s Carn, but this is still a joy. The tombs on this island are staggering really, the size and thickness of the granite roofing slabs alone make me feel in awe of the people who built them.

Whereas the other “showpiece” tombs here are circular, this one is built to an oval plan and on a slope.

But without further ado, off to Innisidgen.

There is very little information I can find about this small oval hillfort just to the north of the West Dorset village of Cattistock. The only written reference I can find is in a small book by Phil Wilton called the “Castles of Dorset”.
He says some people think it to be natural, but he thinks it to be clearly manmade. Having visited I am pretty sure he is right, also M.A.G.I.C and the OS describe it as a hillfort.
There appears to be a round barrow in the interior, which unfortunately I couldn’t see from the valley below.
There is no direct access to this site, as the only footpath is much lower down the hill, from it the hillfort is invisible. The hillfort appears to be on private land.
If anybody else knows any more about it I would be glad to know.

Travelling south from Banff on the A97 turn off at the Alvah signpost. Stay on this road for the next 2 miles following the River Deveron south. Go past North and South Sandlaw farms stopping at South Sandlaw cottage. The cairn is directly behind the house beside the small wood.

Nothing much remains as the cairn has been heavily robbed to make dry stane dykes. Only one large stone and a small pile of stones, possibly field clearance, indicate the cairns existance. Shame as this site has nice views of the Deveron and the Hill Of Alvah.

Visted 20/07/09.

Leave the A920 Huntly to Dufftown road at the Haugh of Glass sign post and follow this road till it’s end. Turn left at the war memorial and travel south for about 3 miles going past the Nether Dumeath RSC. The fort/hill are easily spotted thanks to it’s unusual shape.

There is no path to the top so beware of hidden holes and bogs. At the top a cairn has been built in the midst of the fort. All that remains are ditches and one or two bits of dyke. The view from the top gives spectacular views up and down the Deveron valley. Best visited on a sunny day!

Visited 23/07/09.

After leaving Halangy Down, the path passes the end of a row of houses to the south. Shortly afterwards there is a small wood on the left hand side – cut through the trees southwards. When we were there we came across a bivouac, the stone became visible just afterwards.

An atmospheric spot, the walk through the trees heightening the sense of anticipation. When the stone appeared it seemed to be in a clearing, but actually it’s not in the wood at all. A lovely, shaped granite stone with an unusual curving top, the stone stands at least 8 feet tall. The spot seems little visited and is not signposted, unlike the other sites we went to today. The ferns around the stone were at head height, leaving only the top in clear view.

After a few minutes enjoying the quiet, we followed another path from the stone back to the main footpath, and off round the coast to Innisidgen Lower.

Took my woof for a walk the other day here and i stumbled across these possible carvings.
I know theres been discussion here before about similliat markings and how they may be produced naturally. I just thought i’d put them here so you guys can give your opinions if anybody feels strongly that they shouldnt be here then i’ll glady remove them, anyway let me know what you Rock Art Peeps think.

Down the slope from Bant’s Carn, this is an excellently preserved settlement, like Carn Euny with a sea view. Plenty of people picnicing here.

We also got a good view of the village from the ferry leaving St Mary’s.

From here we went off to Long Rock.

Walking around the coast path from Harry’s Walls, we emerged right next to the chambered tomb – like Jane, our first one on the island. Wow! I was grinning like an idiot when I saw it, after all the pictures I have seen of these tombs, it’s nothing like actually being here in, in lovely sunshine, next to this amazing monument.

The slabs on the top are each enormous. Even though the tomb has been restored to some degree, it really is in a great state of preservation. It is possible to stand hunched over in the chamber, it’s not a crawl job. It sits near the top of the slope (but not on it) and looks across to Halangy Down, as well as west to Samson, Bryher, St Helen’s and Tresco. It seemed perfect, but there were better to come!

Our first trip to the Isles of Scilly (24.6.09) – we decided to come by ferry, rather than helicopter as it was a load cheaper, so we only had a limited time on the island (about 4hrs).

Knowing that time was short, we decided to limit ourselves to the sites in Craig Weatherhill’s “Cornovia”. We had perfect weather and St Mary’s basked in midsummer sun. After leaving the harbour through the town, we went north along the road, before coming to a path off to the left marked “Harry’s Walls” – how easy is this?

A short walk later, we emerged out onto the open area of the fort, and our first Scillonian prehistoric site. The standing stone is cemented in place and rather overshadowed by the daymark next to it. However it’s still an impressive stone, in a good situation overlooking the harbour and the islands to the south west. After a short stop here, it’s back to the coast path to Bant’s Carn.

Situated opposite the more famous Dunnydeer fort Christ’s Kirk is found on the south side of the B9002. Car parking is available as paths lead to the top with the last stretch being quite steep.
(The Christ’s Kirk, as in church, can be found to the south of the hill beside the farm of the same name.)
The real evidence for this prehistoric fort is with aerial photography which Canmore thankfully provides. Though some of the ditches of this unfinished fort can be seen by the naked eye.

Well worth a visit considering the amount of circles in the immediate area.

Visited 23/07/09.

This time I did the clever thing and went to the other end of the quarry and through an open field-gate into the field next door, which is the one with the stones – just follow the field edge over from the quarry tightly uphill if there are crops in it. Despite the crop able to do all the photography I wanted, circling as I had at the Staney Hill one, because this part of the field is rather patchy so that long steps and careful placement of the feet avoids damage. Does this patchiness imply something underlying this, possibly even archaeology ? Looking at the loose and loosened stones directly around the stone I wonder whether s.s. sockets are always contemporary – I can imagine standing stones being, as it were, bare rooted and then someone later noting a Pisa effect and then taking remedial action. Over in the next field towards Howe half-way along the field edge used to be a well (and small building but not a wellhouse), reached by a straight track from the Howe road, and it is likely that other stones noted in the vicinity are from its being filled in in like manner to that at Crossiecrown in St.Ola.

Ballard Down Barrows is a group of two round barrows and a pond barrow situated on the east Dorset coastal path between Swanage and Old Harry rocks.

Small triangular standing stone, in a open field near a wood rich of water springs. The shape of this rock resembles the Ceresa Menhir 1 but is a little smaller.

The name of the entire zone, Faiallo, remember the the word “Faie”, faeries in ligurian language. From pastoral culture

After the relatively easy climb at Wheedlemont I expected something similar here. First the directions. From the middle of Rhynie this time head east towards Clatt staying on the same road for at least 11/2 miles, turning south at the road in the Parkhead Wood (apt for a Celtic fan I thought). Follow this road to it’s end. There are two tracks at this point, take the track to the right, most used, and walk until the woods end. The fort is to the left and a small gap in the fence allows access to the field. A farmer waved from his tractor as I walked past, he grinned as well.

I walked until the field ended at the wood, climbed the fence and turned left, north. To save being stabbed by the furze, jabby things, I walked thru the trees for about 50 meters.

The northern end of the fort is marked pile of stones of various sizes. This is the only real remnant of the fort except for the summit which is almost clear and oval shaped. To get there is nightmare of climbing thru the jabbies and such. Flies are much more preferable. The heavy vegetation also covers up the the two lines of defence. Entry to the fort is supposedly to the south-east but covered. Views to the south are good but northern sights are hidden by the trees although the Top o’ Noth can be seen by glimpsing thru the treetops.

To get back I followed an old sheep trail which led back to the track without me getting stabbed.

Visited 23/07/09.

You’ll probably have to take your life in your hands crossing the A303, but walking along the track to the Normanton Down barrows is very pleasant. It does feel ancient (I imagine it is). Chalk and flint are everywhere. I liked the way there were apples (albeit a bit sour) and other fruit plants along the way. Once up on the ridge you get a great view of the Bush barrow and a disc barrow, with other barrows beyond. A board informs you that the barrows are all on private land. I was a little disappointed but hardly surprised. The sheep were happy running about on them at least. On one side you can see down to Stonehenge and over to the King Barrows on the horizon; on the other side there are the Lake Barrows, most of which are hidden in and behind the trees.

Wheedlemont Hillfort, dating from the Iron Age, is on top of the hill, almost 400 meters west, opposite the farm of the same name. From Rhynie village centre take the Moss-Side road, south, go past the two circles and Templand, for about 2 miles.

It’s alias is Cnoc Cailliche which means “witches hill”, some folklore there then. Earthwork and an oval shaped ditch surround most of the summit and are clearly visible to the eye, as is the standing stone and hut circles in the valley below. The ditch at the bottom, to me , looked like an old wall and for a change Canmore and myself agree. As is usual the scenery is stunning with the nearby Tap o’ Noth dominating the area. The only things that attack here nowadays are the legions of flies.

Perhaps not the most important fort but still an excellent vantage point for the whole area.

I’m almost scared to say this but I will, there is a small cairn in the middle of the summit most definitely a hill climbers/walkers effort.

Visited 23/07/09.

Well Cursuswalker, the machine dispensing leaflets seems to have been dispensed with full stop. Oh well. It’ll save people having to enter the circus that is the Stonehenge car park on a summer afternoon. They want £3 off you if you’re not paying to see the stones. I, like many other people, chose to park for nothing on the side of the byway that runs up to the Cursus. And after queuing for a lockless and fairly mangy toilet I headed up the track. It’s not long before you get away from the mayhem. It’s amazing how few people bother – and yet, you get a completely different view and understanding of the stones.

It’s heresy, but I kind of feel that Stonehenge is, has to be, a sacrificial site – I mean, sacrificed to tourists. EH can make huge profits out of it, and they can sink those profits into other heritage sites. This is surely good. All this aspirational stuff about a new visitor centre far away, and ‘walking to the stones’... people on the whistle stop Stonehenge tour don’t want to walk. If they did, and they had time, they would already be walking over the landscape, and they’re not. I was virtually alone.

Just keep walking and before you know it (wafted along by painted lady butterflies) you are there slap bang in the middle of the cursus. It’s immense, disappearing off as far as you can see in both directions. Cows roam on one side, sheep on the other, and you can walk the length of it if you please. A board shows you the brawny prehistoric builders digging the ditches and building up the chalk sides – thus it was originally even more dazzly and impressive.

So I urge you to make the (relatively minimal) effort and walk up here. Maybe it’s for the slightly geeky – but that’s you anyway isn’t it.

I have to agree with the consensus that this “artificial mound” is enirely natural, although it does undoubtedly have many interesting tales associated with it.

I’ve never been to Woodhenge before, and I’m not sure what I was expecting – it looks so accessible near the road, and it’s so near Stonehenge, but surely there’s not much to really see? But I enjoyed my trip today. There’s a perfectly good carpark, but I felt like commandeering the bus stop below and walking up. It felt like more of an entrance – and it made me realise that Woodhenge is indeed raised up from its surroundings. It gave me that ‘top table’ feel, like it was quite deliberately sited here for its superiority of position. But for various trees, you’d have a super 360 view. The River Avon is extremely close by – again, hidden by those dastardly trees?

At the top of the path I stopped to look at an ‘interpretation board’ – and suddenly I realised I was staring out at Durrington Walls, which was quite a revelation. It’s huge and you can quite clearly see the banks. Durrington had post circles within it too. Such an enormous site must have been buzzing with activity once. The Riverside Project
shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/stonehenge/intro.html
suggests that there were once hundreds of dwellings inside.

Through the push-gate into the henge, and there are the rings of concrete posts in a nicely mown circle, surrounded by pleasantly unmown grassland full of wildlife (yellow rattle, scabious, butterflies, the peculiar sound of crickets). I sat down at the edge for some lunch. It was only by sitting down that I could really start to imagine how all the concentric circles of posts must have interacted – how your line of sight to the middle would have changed according to where you were. Some of the posts were just huge – one circle in particular has concrete markers a couple of feet? in diameter. That’s quite a size.. and then you start wondering about how tall these posts would have been, and if or how they might have been decorated. Would it have felt claustrophobic amongst them? Was that the intention??

I walked to the fence – one thing you really can’t see from here is Stonehenge, and I think that’s more a matter of slope than trees. If only I’d been more prepared I would have known that the Cuckoo Stone was somewhere in front of me.

Another thing that set me wondering was the presence of ‘additional’ posts – posts that (to the untrained eye) look pretty randomly placed and aren’t in line with any of the concentric circles. What were they all about? The mind boggles. Also to confuse there are two posts straddling the apparent N entrance – but then two more at a Strange angle off to the NE.

So don’t just write this place off because it doesn’t have its own stones! From an empty little field with concrete posts, you can conjure something up that is huge and imposing and mysterious, and that starts to fit into its surrounding landscape.

Far less impressive than Trencrom Well, this lies on the eastern slopes of the hill.

The well itself is covered over and locked, and iron bars sunk into the granite look as though they may have formed part of a winding mechanism.

Not to be confused with the Giant’s Well, this lies to the NW of the hill fort and is reached by a narrow path through a rock outcrop.

This is a striking well, consisting of a square hole cut into the base of an enormous granite outcrop. I can’t even imagine how this was constructed! The water is lovely and clear.

The fort is visible from Penzance town, particularly from the bus station. Unfortunately, you’d not recognise it as a fort, as it has housing built over most of it.

We walked up from the town centre on 20.6.09. There is an entrance to the fort from Castle Road, which gives on to an open grassed area. Most of the ramparts are outside of this public area, covered by either gardens or allotments. However, there are nice views over Mount’s Bay, as far west as Penlee Point.

After a walk around the interior, we had a quick walk around the residential streets on the north, but there wasn’t much to be seen. From here we went down the slope and joined the byway that runs along the north side of the hill. Here the lower slopes would have formed a natural defence, and they are still unbuilt upon, albeit overgrown with trees making viewing and photography difficult. We had a quick poke about, then onto a “proper” hillfort: Trencrom Hill.

As the booklet says there is a haunting quality about this place and it’s true. I found probably 7 kerb cairns in this area which is surrounded by high dunes seemingly removed from the real world. Indeed it seems that the dunes are here to protect the ancient power and monuments. I went looking for the ring cairn and once again found everything else except the original reason for the visit. Thank goodness, it means another visit because in amongst the dunes are cairns and probably more kerbs appearing from nowhere.

Three kerb cairns can be found near to each other. The first cairn to be seen is in reasonable condition, the other two are visible but have some of their structure still covered in sand. But sand and heather can move so one day they might be completely apparent.

Walk fom these kerbs thru a small gap in the sands/dunes and a big boulder will come into view. Beside it are two stones that form the start of another kerb.

From there keep going almost in straight line and another three kerb cairns of varying size come into view. Canmore has the exact OS references so I’ll put up their link as their descriptions will do this better justice than me. From here I doubled back, the wind was picking up and the rain was coming on plus I’d no waterproofs.

I parked just north of Newburgh and the River Ythan at the Greenhill parking area, on the A975. Signposts and booklets show the nature reserve , old church and visitor centre at Stevenson but no indications to the kerbs. So here goes.

Go thru the tree lined avenue, from the car park, for about 1/4 mile, then turn left. Follow this road until the gate, beside a rail carriage and caravan. a further 1/2 mile. Walk about 200 meters and look for a trampled path winding thru the dunes. This goes past several turf covered cairns and climbs the highest dunes. I turned left and walked along the ridge and eventually spied the first of the kerbs. This would be about another mile.

Now I know there must be more and I can’t wait to get back as this must be a place of hugh historical interest. This must be a dream come true for the archeo types.

Fantastic!

Visited 21/07/09.

Craig Cwm-Silyn, at a relatively modest 2,408ft, is the highest point of Snowdonia’s Nantlle Ridge, known to connoisseurs as one of the finest ridge walks in Wales. Snowdon rises across the valley and, happily, takes virtually all the walking traffic.......

As an added bonus many of the Nantlle Ridge’s summits, not least Craig Cwm-Silyn, possess the remains of Bronze Age burial cairns [e.g see Y Garn to the NE] and – better still – the atmosphere to enjoy them in. This summit cairn has been amended to provide shelter from the wind, but nevertheless is a prize well worth seeing, if only as a spot to chill away from the ‘civilised’ world. To be frank, the views from it’s crest are staggering.

“Remains of a stone built cairn on the summit of Craig Cwm Silyn. Roughly circular on plan and measuring about 8.5m in diameter and up to 2m in height. A modern walker’s shelter has been constructed within its summit”..... so says Coflein.