Latest Fieldnotes

This site has two entries listed on Keys to the Past. One cites the cairn/barrow/cists at the top of the hill. The second cites the three ring features around this cairn but lists the date of these as “uncertain” stating they are probably “tree rings” and therefore not ancient. I’m less certain of this interpretation and list a number of the features here in support of this. This is one of the most interesting sites I’ve visited and given its closeness to Alnwick and the A1 I’d recommend others visit – if only to comment on my interpretations!

Have a look on Google Earth and a number of interesting features stand out; three ring features on the hill top ranging from 50m to 70m across, rock outcrops along the west side of the hill and large stone features to the north and south of the hill.

Park off the Alnwick to Eglingham road near White House farm and walk along the right of way to the west of the site going north. Cut east through the trees and approach the hill top from the south west. The first things you see are the rock “gate” (photo) to the south of the site and the rock overhangs (photo) in the forest plantation to the west of the site.

There are lots of rock outcrops in the slope before you reach the summit but only one I looked at (I didn’t check them all) had an interesting feature. This is vertical sided “bowl” (photo) around 15cm across. Pass this and climb to the top and you meet the first ring feature.

The main features of the site are:

1) Rock “gate” to south of site. This is probably made by a fallen overhang but gives a very dramatic “entrance” to the hill from the south.

2) SE Ring, this is the most prominent of the three.
The ring is around 50m across and lies on a slight slope towards the SE, to the SE of the Trig Point. There is a clear raised rock circle but no obvious ditch inside or out of this. There is an entrance on the SE (150 deg) and a flat “platform” (photo) inside the ring next to the tree and the NE of the ring. This platform has a semi-circle cut into the bedrock around 4m across and facing east. None of the rings look defensive in nature.

3) Cairn, Cist, Barrow, when you reach the top of the hill it’s obvious that the Trig Point is not at the highest point on the hill. The reason for this being the long (20m) rock cairn just to the north of the TP.
Multiple cists were opened here in the early 1800s.

4) NE Ring, largest of the three (around 70m) but less distinct than feature 1. Again with a raised ring (some rock showing) but no obvious ditch. Lying to the NE of the TP this again is on a slight slope, this time to the NE. Again there are “platform” features inside the ring, offset toward the TP from the centre of the ring. There are at least 2 of these but they are less clear than the platform in the SE ring.

5) NW Ring, this is the least distinct on the ground an unlike the first two has been cut by field boundaries so the whole ring is not clear. Construction appears similar to the other two. The exception being that there is a central rock “cairn” feature which looks disturbed. This is the only ring of the three to have a central feature.

6) Rock overhang outcrops along the west side of the hill. After looking at the rings I retraced my steps back to the south and descended the western slope to cut across to the first (from the south) overhang. The outcrops are in a forest plantation with young trees so is easy to view and access but will become less so as the trees grow. In 5-10 years or so the outcrops may not be visible.

There are about 5-6 major rock outcrops (photos). All have some form of overhang on the west side and offer both protection from the elements and great views to the west. The level of protection gets better as you move north.

6a) “Hole” feature (photos). This is in the second major outcrop from the south end of the plantation, slightly higher up the hill and north of the first outcrop. A crack in the rock face seems to have been enhanced by the addition of a deep horizontal hole in the rock face at the top. The whole thing could be natural but the possible sexual connotations are none too subtle. This hole feature is almost identical in size and context (west facing vertical face of rock outcrop) to one at the Beanley Plantation Site (see link below to photo there).

6b) “Cup” features (photo). These are on the top platform of the 3nd major rock outcrop on the west side.

6c) Potential vertical “Peck marks” (photo). One of the rock faces has twin vertical lines cutting directly downwards, offset from the natural grain of the rock. These could be natural weathering, I don’t have enough experience to tell.

7) The final feature is to the North of the site on the slope of the hill down to White House Folly farm. A large “standing” stone (photo) sits next to a pillbox. I wasn’t able to get close to this as it was lambing time and the field was full but this is an impressive piece of rock and shows up well on Google Earth.

The earliest maps in Keys to the Past show a circle of trees where the SE ring is now and this may be one reason for the interpretation given for the features. It is however interesting that the old northern boundary wall (since moved) for the site on the same map seems to respect the curves of the most northern part of the two rings north of the TP. Hinting that the rings pre-date that boundary wall?

Overall the whole site is fascinating and worthy of a visit. There is so much exposed rock that I probably looked at less than 5% of the total in the 2 hours I was on site.

One I’ll go back to again soon.

I notice that the other field notes are several years old. I just wanted to add that access is easy now, through 2 gates. The field no longer keeps crops and is just covered in weed and stone.

Very close to the road, but behind a barbed-wire-fence. Only one (?) of the stones is standing.

Burial-mounds in the background.

There are 7 stones at Grinde (the site is called Dukjen), they are known as Resa- or Sversteinane. The stones are 1,8 – 4 m. high and 0,5 -1,5 m. wide.

In 1919 only one of the stones were standing, 6 were used as building-material for bridges. The site was restored in 1952 and the stones were placed in a L.

The stones may come from an old quarry at Grindevatnet, about 550 m. north-east from Dukjen.

The Stødle-plautaux

Follow signs to “Stødle kyrkje”, there are several things to see here (mounds, stones and petroglyphs). There is a map on the parking at the church.

The stone on the mound beside the church (Kyrkjehaugen, i.e. the churchmound) have a standing stone on top. This stone is fairly recently put up here, it used to be a part of the stonefence around the church.

Eterwater is a beautiful place, full of lifelong memories for me. There is a supposed ancient cairn in the outskirts, but it’s scratchng at the truth. Many investigations leave me doubtful. I want a burial cairn at Elterwater.

13/04/09
Easter Monday in the Lakes, eh? Deserted on mine and Mrs. TEs’ walk. From Elterwater, over the shoulder of Lingmoor, into the twin valley of Little Langdale and a pastoral idyll. This is what Great Langdale must have been like before the internal (infernal more like) combustion engine.
We continued over the ancient (not prehistoric) Slater Bridge, and along to Fell Foot. In days gone bye, and in the second half of the 20th century, an old chap used to sit by the fell gate, opening and closing the gate to cars for a penny or two.
Sorry to go on, but we continued a couple of hundred yards up Wrynose Pass, before cutting across Blea Moss. According to local writer Bill Birkett, in his book (Great Langdale, A Year in the Life of), it’s a site of a neolithic/bronze age burial cairn, not that I’ve found it. We continued to delectable waterfalls, and on to Blea Tarn. Then we had our sarnies on the shoulder of Lingmoor, with Great Langdale below our boots.
I looked, through the bins, to the Pike of Stickle, and Harrison Stickle stone axe factories. Knowing where they are helps.
We descended soft, grassy, and mossy slopes to the Great Langdale campsite, stopping to admire the cup-marked boulder, amongst the sighing trees.
It does make you wonder what it was all about. Something to do with the axe factories? Why just the one boulder, when half-a-dozen similar ones lay about? Why just cup-marks, so near the axe factories, especially when the Copt Howe boulders are so elaborate?
The beer in the friendly, and familiar, beer garden at the Old Dungeon Ghyll finished off a perfect day.

Located in the trees to the west of Robin Hoods Stride. A short walk along the vehicle track of approximately 80m, with the stones visible in trees immediately to the right of the track.
One of the larger stones in the ring has a well carved number 3 on it, perhaps suggesting there are several other hut circles in the area.
3 is worth noting as Rooke mentioned 3 circles in the area around Durwood (Dudwood to Barnatt)....so is this one of them?

i’d just like to add, being the pedant that i am, that the cairn on the north-western edge of the circle is in fact prehistoric, and possibly roughly contemporary with the circle. bill pearson investigated it along with the circle in 1967 with the teeside archaeological society, & found that it was built on the prehistoric land surface. a number of flints were also found within the cairn, although no burials. the care with which the cairn had apparently been constructed suggests that it may have had a ritual purpose rather than being simply a clearance cairn.

it would be interesting to know if the cairn lines up with the summit of rosebery topping from the circle. i didn’t think to check when i visited the circle last year as i wasn’t privy to this information at that point and thought that the cairn was modern. it looks as though it might from the pictures i took but it’s hard to be certain. i do like the idea that the circle represents the area bounded by the ridges along the horizon, with the sacred hill reproduced in miniature on the periphary.

source:
pearson, bill 1995. two early bronze age sites in sleddale, in b. vyner (ed.), moorland monuments: studies in the archaeology of north-east yorkshire in honour of raymond hayes and don spratt. york: council for british archaeology research report 101.

In case it isn’t obvious, this enclosure and the adjacent hut circle are a short walk from the Kingston Russell stone circle.

Walk down the hill towards Little Bredy. There is a fence with two gates in it. Take the right hand and walk straight ahead. The hut circle (5m diameter) is the raised green doughnut in front with the similarly shaped but larger (15m diameter) enclosure a little further on and to the left.

The entrances of both (like the Grey Mare and possibly the circle) are aligned South East

They are beautifully sited on the slope of this amazing valley and, with the stone circle, grey mare and other adjacent tumuli, form part of a little Neolithic sequence – and presumably once, a linked community

The stone here is a real mixture of Oolite, flint and quartz. Pick a pebble up and you can see the sparks dance in the sunlight.

Visible from the farm track and 82m southwest of the stone group, is a protruding rock, flat-faced on its northeastern side. Careful study of the larger, left-hand segment of this striated panel reveals an almost perfect semicircle of cup-shaped depressions, none wider than a stout fingertip. Close to the ground, on the lower, right-hand section, is a deeply scored lattice pattern.

This may well be the “cupmarked stone” recorded on archaeology.ie, but it sits in a different part of the field, 58m west of the given coordinates.

I headed for Bleasdale circle today on a dry but windy April day. I found the village of Bleasdale hard to find – you need to take a road off the beaten track that is signposted Bleasdale Cottages and then you are in the village centre.

Once in the village there are plenty of signs explaining whrere the circle is. The village was dead! Not a soul around so I carried on regardless and went over the kissing gate towards the circle. Still not a soul around apart from hundreds if sheep.

Heading towards the circle the views up Parlick and the other fells are breathtaking. What a view this site must have commanded many years ago. I also have to add that the fields on the way to the site were not muddy at all. It was a fine brisk walk to the site.

The site is nice and probably met my expectations. It commands a great spot and is bleak and almost enchanting. Its wonderful to imagine what went on there all those years ago.

My only disappointment is that the old timber posts have long gone and are replaced by concrete ones. This to me was a real shame. The trees also spoilt the view of the surrounding areas.

It’s been about 18 months since we last visited and rather stupidly, we went up last week, during the Easter holidays. I am not sure but I think this is the only stone circle I can think of that has an ice-cream van parked by it! It was heaving, as usual, which I was prepared for and once again I was infuriated by the folk who were climbing all over the stones.
Mark asked a group to show a bit of respect, as 2 teenagers kept climbing on the stones, shouting at their parents to take pictures of them (“this one will look great on Facebook” said mum!!)
I do appreciate that not everyone feels the same way about these places but it does bother me that they will climb all over the stones, with no regard to the damage they may be doing. Ah well, best just stick to the more remote places, then I won’t get wound up!

Visited in June 2006 and the weather was fantastically hot. We parked up and spent a good 30 minutes at the site before spotting a pair of eagles circling overhead! I think I may have been suffering from a combination of Hebridean heat stroke and prehistoric over-load because I really couldn’t take this site in....it was just too confusing at the time. Absolutely spectacular though.

Easily access from the A1 north of Alnwick to the west of B6341. Unfortunately the site was planted with trees sometime after 1865. The earliest map on the Key to the Past web site shows the outline of the site before these were planted.

Listed as an Iron Age defended settlement the ring shaped enclosure has an outer ditch with two inner ramparts.

Impressive defensive enclosure, listed as Iron Age in Keys to the Past. Around 80m across with what look like multiple entrypoints the triple ditch system shows up very well on Google Earth.

Disappointing one really. Visited 12.4.2009 from The Twizzle Stone long barrow. I was running late for getting back to Stroud to catch the last bus, so didn’t have chance to linger. The field was patrolled by over-inquisitive horses who took my attempts to peer over the gate as an opportunity to get a bit too nosey.

This is a good-sized barrow (Grinsell recorded the length as 280 feet), but it has been ploughed down to the point of non-existence, rather like Honeycombe Farm long barrow a couple of miles to the north. All that I could see was a slight rise in the contour of the field (although it might have been easier to see if I could have got past the horses and into the field itself!).

Certainly not worth a special trip though.

No sign of any stones, Twizzley or otherwise. Visited 12.4.09 after a trip to The Giant’s Stone. Approached from the north along a footpath, the first sign of the barrow is a knot of trees in the corner of the field.

The barrow itself, as described by Lesley Grinsell, is a collection of humps and hollows, currently used to store assorted farming equipment and chopped wood. Still, at least it’s here at all – Tim Darvill refers to its “total destruction”.

As far as I could tell, the barrow is aligned roughly north-south and as ever with Cotswold long barrows it sits off the top of the hill. A nearby limestone scatter could be from the barrow but could just as easily be part of the drystone field boundary.

From here I took the footpath off Limekiln Lane towards Avenis long barrow.

Visited on a grey Easter Sunday (12.4.09) after walking from Stroud via Bisley. Using Baza’s directions, the stones are quite easy to find and at this time of year the vegetation is only just starting to grow up – the stones can currently be seen from the lane.

There is little to be seen apart from the two upright slabs, covered in moss and positioned about 6 inches apart, on an east-west axis. From the east it is just about possible (by squinting/wishful thinking) to see what may be the remains of a low mound around the stones, but don’t hold me to that.

As the stones are placed so close together it is difficult to know what part of what kind of structure they formed.

A brief note on access. The stones are right next to the lane, in a gated (unlocked) field. The lane itself is metalled up to a hundred yards or so to the west of the site, after which it becomes a rough, stoney track. Rather oddly, as the track doesn’t seem to go anywhere, I saw two cars driving along it while I was there, one in each direction! It appears possible to park at the end of the metalled section and still leave room for other vehicles to pass. It’s then a short stroll along the lane to the field gate.

The monument is placed high up on the Cotswolds, with the hilltop being to the west – the spire of Bisley church is visible due west (which apparently was used as a landmark by bombers in WW2, due to its high situation). To the east the ground slopes away down to Holy Brook.

Worth a quick poke about in the undergrowth if you’re in the area.

Easy access through South Charlton village, less than a mile off the A1 north of Alnwick. Helpful details of the route to the site are given as part of a local Village Walk listed on the web with a downloadable PDF Map. Honey Hill enclosure is around 1.5km walk south from the village.

Circular enclosure with outer ditch system. Around 70-75m in diameter internally with what looks like an entrance on the eastern side.

The outer ring is very clear on the ground but the inner ring that appears well defined on Goggle Earth is less clearly defined on the ground. The inner part of the ring is very disturbed with lots of mounds and no distinct features.

Walking back to South Charlton it’s clear that this old track has been there a long time, becoming a hollow way in a number of places.

There appears to be a clear entrance on the west and the south east side. Both these have raised linear features extending outside the ring. These may be an old collapsed stone wall as they link in with old field boundaries (there is a linear feature to the west of the ring which shows as a field boundary/wall on older maps).

Easy access through South Charlton village, less than a mile off the A1 north of Alnwick. Helpful details of the route to the site are given as part of a local Village Walk listed on the web with a downloadable PDF Map. The cist is marked on the map as a “Cairn” early on the walk, south of Crag Hill.

As an alternate to the route shown on the map, turn left after the last house on the left going out of South Charlton and go through the gate onto a bridleway (shown branching left of the first section of the marked walk). You immediately enter a secluded “valley like” area with higher ground on each side, following what looks like an old riverbed, cutting east to west through the two slopes on either side. The top of the south slope seems to have earth works at the top. Impossible to tell if these are repeated on the north side due to heavy gorse. The path goes to the north side of the “valley” but Google earth and the eye shows what looks like a set of impressive trackways or terraces on the south side. This “valley” opens out into a secluded “hidden” boggy area surrounded by high ground on nearly all sides. As this is the first high ground encountered coming inland from the North Sea this valley could have made an impressive entrance route into the whole Langley Fell area?

The bridleway then cuts right and climbs towards the marked path on the map and towards “Crag Hill” alongside heavy gorse on the right and views to the south on the left.

Before reaching Crag Hill you will start to encounter a rather weird ditch feature. This is weakly defined east of Crag Hill but very strongly defined to the west. On the west side it is tightly “V” shaped (photo) and appears to have rocks and stones lining it. At first appearance it looks like a stream cutting but there is no obvious source of the amount of headwater that would be required to make such a cutting and the feature climbs from the west, over the sky line and descends to the east. As a result it’s almost certainly man made and looks like a ditch, but offers no obvious function either defensive or boundary. It is linear and appears unconnected with any other feature, but does follow the line of an old right of way running east to west towards Eglingham and the area of Beanley Moor and The Ringses. Looking across the “ditch” towards crag hill a small hump stands out to the south west of top of the hill. This is the burial “barrow” (photo).

Approaching the top of the barrow you quickly see the capping stop, lying on its side to the west of the cist. This stone is about 1m by 1.6m and very impressive bit of stone in its own right (photo). The cist, though full of stones and grass, stands out quite clearly. Roughly 1m long and ½m wide, the stones that line the west, north and east sides are clear to see (Photo). The cist looks like it was originally covered with a barrow. This barrow stands on the southwest edge of Crag Hill and offers great views to the west and southwest.

A History of Northumberland (Vol 2, 1893) states that the Barrow was excavated in 1824 and the remains are now at Alnwick Castle Museum. “In the
centre a fine urn or ‘food vessel’ was found, lying upon its side and filled
with ashes. It is 5 inches in height, 5 inches in diameter at the top, and 2
inches at the bottom. It is dark in colour, and is ornamented round the
shoulder by a grooved line, on which there are unpierced ears at regular
intervals. The urn is now preserved in the museum at Alnwick castle.” Other sources state that 9 other burials were found around the cist.

This is the first Cist site I’ve visited and I found the site easy to find and the state of preservation to be surprisingly good. The views from the site in fine weather made the whole trip worthwhile.

Other points of interest:

1) There is a small circular enclosure around 22m across at the top of Crag Hill but Keys to the Past has this as probably a post-medieval animal enclosure.

2) The whole area of Longlee Moor looks big and interesting, viewed on Google it looks like there are lots and lots of earthworks over a wide area of higher ground bounded by streams on all sides. My first trip was very short and I decided to focus on finding the Cist. Some of the earthworks look like natural formations but I’m heading back again, it would be easy to spend a day just generally looking over the area. A Topographical Dictionary of England published in 1848 says of the area “A great portion of North and South Charlton is covered with ancient roads and earthworks; and graves of rude workmanship are frequently discovered, containing bones, urns, and armour.”

3) The access track to quarry at Crag Hill has some interesting rock groupings near it and on along the slope to the west hand side of it. These appear to be grouped in small collections of 5-8 large stones some of which have “star shaped” holes worked into them, possibly for lifting? Some of these appear to have quite sharp edges so are probably the result of steel chisels and as such reasonably recent in nature? Some of the natural outcrops of rocks on the west slope may have markings but I would guess all are natural features as light was fading at this point I didn’t have enough time to look at all the outcrops.

There is a parking place to the north of the circles and I presume this is where Elderford parked, but his route seemed a tad torturous so I drove through the forest to the east (Mynydd Wysg on the map) and parked by the two small rectangles on the map on the ground they are animal pens.
A short but uphill walk round the north side of the hill Foel Darw following the obvious path takes you up and over and down to “the bull brook” (Nant Tarw) Before going down to the river look across and you can see all the stones but most obvious is the big grey cairn head for that. When we reached the river I was a bit stunned to find a standing stone that isnt on any record,I don’t know if its really genuine but after seeing everything else on the moor it’s just got to be.

Above the stone is the cairn, it’s a spread of stones like any other cairn move on to the ESE circle. 300ft west of this circle is a fallen menhir ten feet long but I didnt bring Burl with me so couldnt find it. Some of the stones are gone and some are just sticking their noses above the surface of this grassy sea, but some are more than a metre tall. From here theres only one place to go...yep,uphill to the western circle.

Before reaching the circle is a fallen menhir about 8ft long and would have dwarfed the circle stones just a few feet away, the stones are on average larger than the other circles stones but still small enough to keep the other anoraks away.
Most intriguing of the whole place is the three stone row just 28feet away from the west circle,
the tallest stone is sadly fallen though thankfully not on the two smaller stones, it would be an almost carbon copy of the Maen Mawr at Cerrig Duon four miles south east and very similar to Pant Meddygon three miles north, it must mean something. Perhaps the big stone is the Astronomer priest and the other two his acolites
or maybe the circles builder and his mates,or is that just stupid.

On the way back we were sitting across the river appreciating the whole moor when Eric cried “Crow” it was actually a Red Kite just a few metres above us, Iv’e never been that close to a free bird of prey, it was so close I thought it was going to attack us....... Amazing Place marvelous mega minilithic paradise

This bell barrow is south of the extended cemetery on Waterston ridge. I have made it a seperate entry because it is a good example of the comparatively rare bell type of round barrow. Of the 1800 or so barrows in Dorset only 70 or so are of this type.
This barrow is in pretty good condition, particularly in comparison with most of the others in the nearby group. The farmer has deliberately ploughed around the monument , thus helping to preserve it. It is 20metres in diameter, 2.5 in height, has a berm of 2.5 metres in width and a 4 metre wide ditch, part of which has been lost to the plough.

This strung out barrow cemetery sits on and around a ridge of hills north-west of Dorchester. It is neatly split into east and west by the B3143 road to the Piddle valley to the north. Of the 8 or so barrows in the group the best preserved is Grinsell’s Puddletown 13 in the western part of the cemetery. Most of the rest in Grinsell’s book Dorset Barrows have been very much reduced by ploughing, the book having been published in the 1950’s.

Its a long walk from either west or east along the river, with maybe permission to be sought. So I did what any good postman would do and walked across the lawn, by that I mean I parked on the small road to the north of the stone ( theres only one place to park)and made my own quiet way down with only one old fence in the way it was just a ten minute walk, but quietly.
Amazing stone this one, Wales isnt really that into tall stones, there are some to be sure but most are about man height, So its awsome to find one thats about three mens height. It is fishy looking as is the stone at Battle away to the east, themodernantiquarian.com/site/4248/battle.html
but Eric wasnt having any of that it’s so very obviously a bird, with wings folded of course.