This site lies next to the A96, slightly to the south in a field between the Balloch and Culloden junctions. Although ruined most of the stones lie in an oval shape with one stone standing seeming to indicate the entrance. If taking a car there is room to park if you pull up on to the verge.
Visited during an extremely frosty day 29/12/08.
A bronze age bowl barrow. I would say it is just over a meter high as you can see it above the oil seed rape wich surrounds it. it is situated 300 yds south of Goddards Barn below the ridgeway, thus the name.
I just thought I’d add, in relation to the posts below, that having visited the Cove in May 2009, there is now no wire or fence, and the field has open access from Nash Road. The area around the stones is uncultivated, and the large dog that loiters nearby is very friendly!
Coles says in his writings that this was a hard place to find and the locals didn’t have much of a clue either! When I finally found the circle after several visits of looking in the wrong woods, walking the wrong way I ignored all given directions and asked at one of the houses before the official car park. A lady answered and she explained that it was about a 3/4 mile behind her house and gave the proper directions. With my friend John Porter we reached the site only to find a white witch, complete with strange hat and robe, doing some funny things with a divining stick. The witch said that he was looking for denergy-looking for energy coming from the rocks and had been at Auchmachar in the morning as well. He also had placed lots of white markers on the ground on places energy had been felt. Pagans also visit Louden Wood, probably because it is well hidden. I’ve never seen anything like this before and to be honest I’d thought he’d lost touch with reality. However some of the suggestions and plans found in the “Tims World” web site suggest that there is something about divining rocks. Maybe it isn’t so far fetched after all.
3/5/08
I headed up to East Kennett Longbarrow by following the bridle path from Gunstile Road, in May 2009.
It appears that the farmer whose land this stands on now accepts that people are going to come and visit the barrow, as the corner of the field the barrow stands in is no longer being cultivated, and is indeed marked off by what can only be described as a path all the way around the barrow.
As others have stated, the barrow itself is huge, in terms of height and length, and it’s amazing to think it hasn’t really been investigated, and it’s all the more wondrous for it.
It was quite a hike South out of my way to visit, but well worth the effort for the solitude and the mystery.
This is a beautiful site tragically vandalised in 1988. The local authorities did their best and restored it as best they could. It is quite difficult to find as some map directions and local signposts aren’t very accurate. I managed to find it with the guidance of Julie Perkins, who unwittingly found it by sitting on it . Glad to say no damage was done! Only marginally easier to find than Louden Wood. There is car parking.
Visited 8/9/08
Only after visiting the stones in Oxfordshire for some years did I finally bother to pull off the A361 down the quiet lane which passes Knollbury.
I’m glad I did.
I like this place.
Its steep-sided banks are easily seen from the road which runs parallel to the north-west side. In fact, the road is so close that the ground underneath it is scheduled as part of the monument.
Don’t stop the car until you come to the bottom corner; park up and go through the gate. You can see two openings in the south-eastern side; only one is original and that’s been enlarged.
Knollbury is classified as a hillfort, like many other similar univallate enclosures in Oxon. This one lies on a gentle slope, nowhere near the top of a hill.
The walls are steep-sided because they are made from stone. Walk along the outside of the north-eastern side and you will see.
Nowadays, when I’m in the area, I like to come back to Knollbury.
It’s my kind of place.
The main cairn on top of Knockma is huge, easily up there in size with Queen Maeves Cairn on Knocknaree.
Its very difficult to see with the trees around it and does call into question how some hill-top cairns would have been visible if foliage began to encroach.
Its also a welcome change from having to climb over ditches and rivers as there is a path all the way up to the cairn. There is a parking area on the north side of the hill and the walk up to it seems to very well used.
Although funnily enough the cairns themselves arent easily viewed from the path. So either you need to go up here when the trees dont have leaves or else bring a GPS.
There are amazing views to the south and west with many interesting mountain ranges.
There is a second smaller cairn which seems to have been modified into a defensive structure.
A group of five round barrows on Wash Common. Probably of Bronze Age origin, although local tradition identifies them as burial mounds for soldiers killed during the English Civil War Battle of Newbury.
The individual monuments comprise: a circular enclosure defined by bank with external ditch (possibly a saucer barrow?); a large bowl barrow surviving to 2.7 metres in height, surrounded by a ditch; another bowl barrow previously described as being 2 feet high and 22 paces across, but which has been destroyed and two further bowl barrows, and measuring 1.6 metres in height
Situated on The A338 Wantage to Hungerford road by the turning to South Fawly there 3 barrows in total. The oldest is the believed to be from the late Bronze age and the larger 2 from the Iron age. The site is overgrown so i couldn’t find the smaller of the 3 barrows. There is a footpath that runs past barrows so access is not a problem.
A large, irregular and apparently ditchless bowl barrow situated in a field east of Rowbury Farm. Excavation by a Dr Palmer in the 19th century reportedly found only charcoal and ashes. The mound now measures circa 26 metres by 15 metres and is a maximum of 1.25 metres high, and has been considerably dug away onthe southwestern side. Numerous flint flakes have been reported from the surface around it
Two very impressive flankers remain at South Fornet along with two fallen stones. Someone has also stupidly carved their initials on the eastern flanker. The other stones including the recumbent have long gone. Their places being taken by some field clearance.
Leave the B977 and head east at the Broomhill stores, the signpost indicates Fornet. The recently erected Breemies Stone Circle can be seen on the hill. Keep going until South Fornet farm. From here climb the hill into the small wood, over the fence and site has been found.
Visited 8/5/08
This is a very damaged site which could be a ring or clava cairn or perhaps the remains of a recumbent circle. Whatever it is a short but steep downhill walk is needed from the B9008, the circle can be seen from the road about a 1/2 mile north from the Drumin Castle junction, cross a stream, then a steep uphill and climb the fence. Only three stones remain erect with others left lying on the ground. Good boots are needed for this 2 mile walk.
About 1/2 mile to the south are the ruins of Drumin Castle. 2 miles further south is the ancient bridge at Blairfindy. Some distilleries are also in the area!
Visited 23/12/08.
The remains of the Pitchroy circle are to be found right next to the B9102, about a mile south from it’s junction with the B9138. Only two stones are left, one up and one down. There are some carvings on the bottom of the standing stone but what they are letters or a picture...I don’t know. A third stone has gone. Once again the views are great as the circle looks down into the Spey valley.
For “Biggles” fans Captain A. Jones wrote some of stories whilst staying at Pitchroy House only a short distance down the road.
Visited 23/12/08.
Nether Cluny can be found about 11/2 miles south of Dufftown near a single track road. From the square, on the A941, go past Mortlach Church (signposted) out of the town until Nether Cluny farm is reached. One stone remains situated about a 1/4 mile, downhill, in a field behind the farm.
The 4 feet stone has excellent all round views and hasn’t failed in it’s duties as cattle still use the park. To make doubly sure whoever re-erected it concreted the base to make sure it wouldn’t move in a hurry.
Make sure to leave enough time to visit the many local distilleries!
Visited 8/9/08.
Turn from the A920 Huntly/Dufftown road towards the Haugh Of Glass, and from there turn left towards the Cabrach. The site is about 1 mile south of the hamlet on the west side above the the road. Although badly ruined, because of drilling, gunpowder etc., 7 stones remain. The recumbent and flankers are still there whilst others are fallen or half up/half down. Parking can be found at the ruined farm with the site, which is fenced, no more than 50 meters into a field overlooking the River Deveron on the slopes of the Hill Of Dumeath.
The odd shaped tree a 1/2 before the site, nearer Glass, is known as the Hanging Tree. It’s obvious what happened here. Look closely and rope marks can still be seen on the remaining branches.
Visited 20/6/08
All that remains of this circle, maybe originally 9 stones, is a 9 feet tall fallen flanker which was probably left as a cow scratcher. However the other stones aren’t far away as they have been removed and put into the walls beside the wood and the lane. As the B993 leaves Kemnay, heading towards Tillyfourie and Monymusk, take Riverside Road and head out of the village. Turn south at the Bogs Of Coullie until the farm track crossroads and there turn left. The stone, to the right, lies in the field just before the wood. When I was there the circle size could be seen thanks to the different shade of green in the grass. It is only a short walk from the track climbing over the dyke with circle stones in it.
Visited 15/5/08
I have seen Cat Cairn many times on my visits to Aberdeen. The cairn sits on a high point on Tullos Hill overlooking the Altens industrial estate. I have often looked down Crawpeel Road and noticed the cairn sitting atop the furze-covered hill but have never taken time to visit it because whenever I’m in the area it’s work related and all I want to do is leave and head for home. Anyway, I was staying in Altens for a few days and had time to kill so decided to walk up to the cairn.
The hill is part of the Loriston Country Park and can be accessed from the car park on Hareness Road. Unfortunately you can’t park in the car park as the area was recently occupied by travellers. The travellers were evicted and then prevented from returning by blocking the entrance with huge boulders, however, parking alongside the road is not a problem unless you are driving a white transit van and towing a caravan.
It takes five to ten minutes to walk from the road to the cairn. The cairn is pretty much what you’d expect, a large round cairn of stones, If you look at the amount of stones in the field walls that lead up to and from the cairn it’s easy to imagine this cairn being two or three times as large, with stones being robbed for walling. Another thing about the walls is that they use this and the nearby Baron’s Cairn as boundaries, whether this reflects prehistoric boundaries is a matter for debate. It could also be argued that the walls start and terminate at the cairns because they were a good source of materials for the walls. Who knows?
What I really want to say about the cairn concerns the views and it is something that you can’t really appreciate unless you visit the site. The view here is spectacular, this small hilltop commands views across the sea, the coast, the Dee river mouth, the city of Aberdeen, the hills beyond the city and on a clear day I would imagine you could get a glimpse of the Cairngorms from this point. It is probably the perfect location for a monument and if you are in area I would definitely recommend a visit.
At this point I was going to wax lyrically about a Bronze Age monument overlooking the Oil Age city but that all sounded a bit cheesy so I won’t bother.
The Wishing Stone is a single standing stone of flinty conglomerate material approximately 1.3m high and 1.0 m across in a hedgeline near to Cerne Abbas.
Access is via a bridleway which starts opposite Higher City Farm on the Cerne Abbas to Sydling St Nicholas road.
There is plenty of room to park in the entrance to the track as long as you do not block the gateways. Walk up the track and you will see a mobile phone mast ahead of you. Before you reach the mast and after about 0.5km, the track has a small dog leg to the right. (you will see a pair of galvanised gates ahead of you and the track skirts round to the right before continuing in the same direction). The Wishing Stone is approx 60 yard before this dog leg. It is in the hedge on the right hand side immediately next to the track.
The view of the Giant is obtained by continuing past the dog leg and going through the hedge on the right along a marked footpath. As soon as you are through the hedge you will see the Giant.
The views are outstanding and it is a lovely, if exposed, spot.
I visited the Nine Stanes after the two Esslie circles, parked-up at the forest car park and followed the short path to the stones.
This is a beautiful ruin of a circle, the forest, moss hung trees and lichen covered stones all blend together to produce a completely different sensory experience from the neighbouring Esslie rings. If it wasn’t for the regimented lines of the forestry plantation you could easily daydream yourself back into prehistory at this lovely circle.
I noticed Hamish’s outlier and its alignment with the recumbent stone and quite agree with him.
Nine Stanes is a lovely accessible site, one of the many jewels to be found in this part of the world.
I’d started off planning a visit to the circles around Old Bourtreebush but a wrong turn at Portlethen sent me heading forever westward along narrow lanes through the soft Aberdeenshire countryside. I revised my plan and decided to head towards the River Dee and the town of Banchory. After half an hour of being completely lost, not a completely new sensation, I found myself besides the river and heading the right way.
On the road to Esslie I passed a house called Standingstones, I parked up and took a look around but found nothing.
My next stop was at Esslie the Lesser. There were a few cows in the field so I decided content myself with the view from the verge. The stones of Esslie the Greater were just along the road and I could see that the field was clear so I headed off down the lane.
At Esslie the Greater the field gate was just tied with some band so entry wasn’t a problem. The site is a fairly jumbled affair but the main components of the circle and ring cairn are present. The setting, in common with many other RSCs, is one of rich, rolling Aberdeenshire farmland and higher hills in the distance. Esslie the Lesser is visible from the circle across the shallow valley. It led me to wondering why create three circles, the two Esslies and Nine Stanes, within such a small geographical area? No answers came to mind apart from the fact that the locals must have really loved their stones to expend so much effort into building these beautiful rings.
All in all this is a lovely accessible site; it’s a little damp underfoot but well worth a visit.
I managed to witness a fantastic sunrise for the Summer Solstice in 2004. But the sun did not rise in line with the row. It came up quite a bit North of it. It didn’t take any of it’s magic away especially as there was ground frost around. Summer in Dartmoor!
It would be quite interesting to go for the Winter Solstice sunset and stand at the bottom end of the row.
My guess is that the longstone was the terminal stone of the row, with a cairn circle at it’s end. It reminds me of the Down Tor complex(though different orientation).
There are a couple of big slabs lying around which could have been part of the cairn circle.
I live near to Evershot and my children have attended school there so I see the stones most days. Occasionally you see people sitting there eating their sandwiches, somehow it just doesn’t seem right.
JS Udall in Dorsetshire Folklore 1922 said: “Amongst my notes I find a reference to a tradition attaching to a field called the “Dumb Maids’ Plot” in the parish of Evershot, not far from Stutcombe Bottom (the fine weather musketry range of the old Evershot Volunteers), according to which three dumb sisters used to meet to while away the time by dancing on the green. This tradition was mentioned by the late Mr. S.R. Baskett, who acted as cicerone [guide for sightseers] at a meeting of the Dorset Field Club in that neighbourhood in August 1895; but no further particulars appear to have been given, nor can I find any reference to it in the published accounts of that meeting either in the Dorset County Chronicle or in the Proceedings of the [Folklore?] Society.”
Stutcombe Bottom is a wooded area to the south west of Melbury House according to The English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. It would not be far from the small village green on which the stones currently stand. Perhaps they have not been moved far if at all.
The Temple Stones are about 1/2 mile north of the village of Potterton. Leave the village by Panmure Road and keep going until the sign for Home farm is found. This is on the east side. From here follow the often muddy track to it’s end. Climb the fence and head towards the sea. The three massive boulders, the two fallen flankers and recumbent, are easily found. Field clearance has been dumped behind the remains. However cows often tramp the field into a sea of mud so wellington boots required! 11/2 miles there and back completes the walk from the farm. Also known as Potterton Stone Circle. Mundurno can be found further down the B999.
Visited 22/06/08
