Latest Fieldnotes

On probably the last nice bright winter day before I go back to work on Wednesday, I headed up here today on a long walk out West along the Roman Road and back again. Cold but bright, one of those days that seems almost warm when you are sheltered by trees and catching the sun, but the yellowish snow clouds were never far away with the odd flurry.

And as it’s the best time of the year to see tiny bumps in the ground, I wasn’t disappointed. In fact I was delighted to find the slight ditch and bank visible as crop marks on aerial photos. This is variable and the tufty grass makes it hard to follow except for where it crosses a farm track at the North side of the field. The variation in the surface is generally no more than six inches (!) but there is a startlingly clear curving line of higher cornflowers which follow exactly the crop marks. If you are still reading at this point, then you might just find the images interesting, though I get the feeling I ought to draw a diagram on a napkin and scan it in.

The circle of crop marks seems to cut slightly across the path to the north so I was keen to have a poke around in the hedges and see if any better-preserved ditch was evident. Well, nothing is very conclusive because the path itself has quite deep ditches on either side which certainly post-date the enclosure, but there are deeper sections at two points where one would expect the enclosure ditch to be cutting across. Sheer conjecture and coincidence, I hear you scoff. Probably true. On the other side of the path, between these two intersection points, there is a little bank of about 18 inches height in the yew hedge which may or may not be of significance; it stops where I would expect it to if it was a relic of the enclosure.

One last observation before hitting the road home: the view once the snow clouds cleared is unparalled in this district. Danebury, Popham Beacons, some faraway stuff down southeast (is that Old Winchester Hill? Can’t be Portsdown Hill can it?), St Catherines on the Isle of Wight. 270 degrees of fantastic views.

This mound is located in a lovely little village just outside of Cashel.
It is an interesting place, there are the remains of two castles, a church dedicated to St John the Baptist and a very defensive looking Motte to the north of this site all in the vicinity.
When I travelled to Ardmayle after reading the Waterford Arch journal (which mentions there is a possible passage tomb at Ardmayle) I assumed it was the motte marked to the north that would be the burial mound. So I passed this mound thinking that it looks very interesting.
However after seeing the motte it was pretty obvious that it wasnt a reused mound. So I went back to investigate the first mound I had seen.
The mound itself seemed to be much tampered with, a wall has been built into with a stone arch feature at one side (north-east?).
It is classified as a burial mound according to archaeology.ie.

I was surprised that this bullaun still existed. It is in the third field in from the road. This field is very boggy/marshy and even during a spell of dry weather was still very wet.
The bullaun is lower than the level of the rushes in the field so I would say in summer when they are probably higher it would be even harder to find. It is situated (when looking north) in the middle and left quadrant of the field.
To the north of the stone is an unusual looking double mound with a stream running through it (It may be natural Im not sure).
The bullaun itself has two cups, one that holds water and the other doesnt / broken.

My local site, approached either directly from the north straight up the steep scarp slope from footpaths off Daisybank Lane, or from the south from the carpark off the road to Hartley Farm. Terrific views over Cheltenham, across to Gloucester, the Malverns, etc. A great spot for a picnic, but watch out for extreme cyclists! The ramparts themselves are not the most impressive, but more than made up for by the setting and views. Outside the south-eastern entrance there is the remains of a round “barrow” inside a square embanked enclosure (see Miscellaneous).

Passed on 22.6.2006 as part of a walk from Troon via Hangmans Barrow, Nine Maidens, Calvadnack, etc. The barrows are very ploughed down but are visible on the top of hill to the south-east of Four Lanes. There are in fact three barrows, but I could only see two from the road (see pictures).

Visited in July (20.7.2008) as part of a walk to Lineover Long Barrow. Shown on the OS as “Settlement”, the site is accessed from a footpath leading north off the road to Castle Barn Farm. A rectangular earthwork consisting of a single bank, the ground slopes away sharply to the north towards the Chelt valley. A nice quiet spot, just me and the birds singing (and a distant hum from the A40 to the north).

Visited on a clear but very cold January day, the settlement at Catshole requires a bit of hunting. From the western side of the outcrops look for the remains of a square enclosure and ruined building (all very low), the settlement is to the north of them.
There are supposedly 12 hut circles/storage buildings in the complex, myself and Mrs Hamhead found five without looking too hard...and were too cold to search for the rest. The huts make great use of the natural rocks as walls..but this also leads to confusion over which are huts and which are just natural formations.
The two most westerly huts I thought to be cairns, they are just a collection of stones with a few uprights around the edges and would have been very small buildings.

Mistycal Bric Aliberti
(the child in me likes to play with the words misty and mystical because this site it has a mystical atmosphere and it’s very often covered by mist).

On western slopes of Sacred Mount Beigua this hill called Bric Aliberti has on its own slopes an engraved stone and on its top a pinewood with this particular zone.
Displayed on a wide field between pine trees there’s a ruined rough-hewn menhir, about two meters long, a small standing stone and lots of “strange stones” all around (I’ve reported here only some of them).
But what I like the most here is the particular atmosphere.

Visited on a sunny July day (20.7.2008), walking from Cheltenham through Charlton Kings/Little Herberts, joining the Cotswold Way for a while and approaching through Lineover Woods. The woods are a lovely spot, very quiet and there were signs of restoration of one of the old drystone boundary walls running through the wood, which was great to see. Coming out of the wood I went slightly wrong, first of all going into a small triangular field covered in wild flowers. However I soon found the grass field containing the barrow (at the time of visit grass-covered, with some weeds). The barrow has a good setting, with views to the north and east over the edge of the Cotswolds. Unfortunately the barrow itself is very reduced in size and hard to imagine as a Belas Knap style long barrow. One note for visitors coming by road – the current OS 1:25000 (Explorer) shows another field adjoining the eastern side of the one containing the barrow (with a “Mound” marked in it). This field and the barrow field are now a single field and the footpath entrance/exit onto the road to the SE of the barrow is actually in this same field (a very dilapidated and narrow gate).

Visited on a nice July day (13.7.08), walking from Cheltenham up Leckhampton Hill and then via Coberley village (more of a hamlet I suppose, but does have a village church tucked away behind the manor house). The walk up to the barrow from the east is a reasonably gentle uphill (particularly compared with the scarp face of Leckhampton hill!). The barrow is set in a private field, but is very close to the fence and to the Gloucestershire Way, so I didn’t go onto the site itself. The barrow itself is in a bit of a state, resembling two joined round barrows more than a long barrow, due to a deep 19th century excavation trench effectively cutting it in two. There is also an abandoned vehicle parked immediately adjacent to the northern side of the barrow in the field (this has obviously been there a while). The setting is pleasant rather than spectacular, with views across to the east and south. Worth a visit if you’re passing, and lovely countryside around, but not necessarily one to come from far away to see!

As Hampshire Treasures rightly says, the entire parish of Kilmeston is in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Not rich in prehistoric sites, but what a pleasure to meander around these deserted lanes visting what there is. These three barrows are ploughed low so best seen in the bleak midwinter when the crops and the sun are both low. They were once pretty big but are near the bottom of a dip in the undulating landscape so not visible except from within a mile or so’s radius. OS maps show the middle of the three to be oval in shape with major axis roughly along the line of the three barrows (NE-SW).

If you read the link about the site, it is a very interesting multi phase site. The cairn being bronze age, the hill-fort Iron Age and being reused as a site for votice offering in the late Iron Age.
Its a pleasant walk although Im not sure about access. There doesnt seem to be any public paths or access. I walked up the hill from the north side of the hill near where a holy-well is marked on the map. This follows the natural contours of the hill. There were a few horses on the hill so keep so be aware of this.
The remains of the cairn on top of the hill are very low with most of it removed. However what is left looks almost like what you would imagine the plan of the cairn to be.
The ditch around the cairn is a later Iron Age enclosure. The hill-fort enclosure is much larger.
The link mentions that this may have been an area of dispute between two fiefdoms in early christain times and that ogham inscriptions on the churches at Clara and Gowran attest to this.

The Ring lies on the north-western side of Cleeve Hill and can be visited easily either from the Hill itself or from the road skirting the north-west edge of the hill (Cheltenham – Winchcombe). It is low-lying earthwork bank and ditch, too small for defensive purposes and possibly constructed for stock-control purposes, most likely during the Iron Age.

Adjacent to The Ring is small circular feature which may be the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow (as recorded on the 1884 OS map), but which could equally be an Iron Age hut site (as recorded in the Royal Commission’s 1976 inventory).

Visited 22.12.2008, walking from Winchcombe via Belas Knap longbarrow and then along the Cotswold Way. This is the second time I have visited Cleeve Hill using this route, but since the last time the Cotswold Way appears to have been re-routed, so from Belas Knap the route now plunges down a steep wooded valley and then back up the other side onto the hill. By the time I reached the hill it was covered in thick fog and rather lacking in recognisable landmarks! Eventually I found the 13th hole of the golf course which rather spoils visits to this site. The golf course covers much of the top of the hill, around the summits – on a summer’s day visitors are advised to watch out for golf balls! Even in thick “pea-soup” fog on a Monday morning after the midwinter solstice, there were golfers (mainly heard rather than seen through the fog). Having said all of that, there is much to appreciate on the hill. At 330m it is the highest point in the Cotswolds. There is a hillfort, an impressive linear bank/ditch dyke, and an earthwork known as The Ring. There are remains of various barrows, but these are very difficult to see (even without the fog). Cleeve Hill can be visited by car if you have one and is also served by a good bus service from Cheltenham or Winchcombe.

The hillfort ramparts (double bank and ditch) are fairly well preserved and now enclose c. 3 acres along the edge of the escarpment. Quarrying has destroyed much of the western/south-western side of the fort (although it has emphasised the sheer drop away from the fort on that side). There are spectactular views towards the Malverns on a non-foggy day.

Taking a path over the edge and down the west, you come across the enigmatic stone block known as “Huddlestone’s Table” (see Folklore for more on this).

An Explorer map (1:25000) shows the detail. I went by at some speed today and it is indeed hard to spot them. The pub used to be called the Fox and Hounds but is now Milbury’s (geddit?) and is a well-known landmark to anyone plying the road between Winchester and the Meon Valley.

Psychologically it feels like a real crossing point from looking to the East (Meon) and the West (Itchen). Only once you reach this ridge does the landscape switch from one direction of views to the other. And they are pretty good views. It is very, very quiet and empty to the East, which is nice but gets a bit creepy after a while, so getting back to the ridge and seeing the roadsigns to Winchester (rather than Royston Vasey) feels like a homecoming of sorts.

Three and a bit years (gasp!) after Jimit’s fieldnotes, I dropped by today during a leg-knackering bike ride. Still being saved from the plough, hooray! And I was struck by its peaceful location above valleys in three directions. If you approach from the Itchen Valley west of Alresford and then up through Cheriton, you will be following the river to within half a mile of its source (at the other end it forms Southampton Docks). And I strongly recommend that as it’s fairly unspoilt swampland down there (particularly enjoyed the old single track road around Ovington – not to be confused with Lovington, Yavington or Avington, which are all nearby) and you can almost imagine yourself out in your Neolithic get up, hunting ducks and chasing beaver and whatever else they got up to. Then you emerge from the riverland to this peaceful spot.

It’s a rather short long barrow, and its ditches are lost under the plough as far as I can tell. Not clear if it has been excavated. The track which runs east-west past the south side of the field is in good nick and has a gap in the fence next to the long barrow where you can admire.

When a place is called Faires (Faie) is enough to take a walk around with eyes wide open and the less it can happens it’s finding “something”.
Well, I don’t know if those are the menhirs I’ve read about in: archaeoastronomy.it/un_percorso_rituale.htm .(sorry in italian).
But what it’s written in the article corresponds to what I’ve found.
South of Faie’s Village, at the edge of a field and next to a river; three pulled down menhirs and one still standing but in precarious position, two and a half meters long each.
On the article it’s said that there are some old inhabitant of the village reminding of a stone’s alignment next to that river, still visible some decade ago.
Two ruined menhirs are clearly showing traces of human’s engravings as cups and rough-hewings.
I’d like to dedicate this finding to Canidia, Wido and Jonathan as sign of friendship.

Impressively large bowl barrow, visible as you walk along the top of Whiteshoot Hill / Broughton Down through the trees. It is however under large-scale ploughing so expect it to get less impressive with each passing year.

Hampshire Treasures says

“Also known locally as Bol’s or Bald Turret. Average diameter 43m, height 3m.”

A fine place for a walk to burn off yuletide excess. Actually it was bitterly cold in the easterly wind today, but the view, the teeming birds and the barrows more than made up for that. And the enormous lunch on the way back in Stockbridge helped too.

Hampshire Treasures lists three barrows here, one bell and two saucers. The saucers were not obvious to me as the whole area is quite lumpy with old field boundaries and trackways, which makes it really interesting to clamber over. A good place to bring non-antiquarian family members as there’s something for everyone. Having said that, there’s no Primark.

The large barrow here has less distinct berm and ditches on the downhill side, though ploughing seems unlikely on this steep hillside. I make both berm and ditch to be narrow, about 3m each and ditch is no more than a foot depression visible on the surface.

Minninglow can now be accessed by a concessionary footpath.

One access point is at SK205-575 on the High Peak Trail and the other is at SK208-569 on Gallowlow Lane.

On a sunny, frosty winters morning and with half a day free I decided to have a mooch around a part of Westerdale Moor known as Crown End. If you look at a map of the North York moors you’ll see that Westerdale Moor covers a fair swath, running from Farndale to the Esk valley. Crown End is only a small spur of the moor bounded by Baysdale and the Hob Hole Beck to the north and Westerdale and the infant River Esk to the south. The spur runs roughly west to east and is about a kilometre and a half long by about eight hundred metres wide.

The prehistoric remains on this section of the moor have been known about for the past couple of hundred years and were written about at some length by Frank Elgee. Essentially what you have is a cross ridge dyke running across the narrowest section of the spur, beyond that is a cairnfield and a possible enclosed settlement. The cross ridge dyke and cairnfield have been interpreted as Bronze Age and the settlement as Iron Age.

I parked up at Hob Hole, a local beauty spot popular with picnickers in the summer and generally deserted in the winter. It is also possible to access the moor by walking a mile or so from Castleton making this area accessible by bus or train.
If you use the Hob Hole car park you will need to cross over the beck using the ford, on my last visit there was a foot of water running over the ford so this wasn’t an option and I parked at the south side of the ford.

Once on the moor, the first monument you’ll encounter is the cross ridge dyke. This is a line of standing stones built into an embankment running north to south across the narrowest section of the spur. The southern section only contains a couple of decent sized stones; the northern section is more complete with a dozen or more stones remaining. It’s quite surprising that anything remains at all when you look at the grouse butts and other structures on the moor. It makes you wonder what this monument would have looked like prior to the introduction of grouse shooting.

The northern section of the dyke terminates just before the land begins to drop off into the valley of the Hob Hole Beck, the final large stone has a cross carved into it. This cross may well indicate that this stone, or possibly the whole monument, was used as a boundary marker beyond the prehistoric period. Marked stones such as this one are often mentioned in the perambulations of the moorland estates. There is a cross marked stone in another, nearby cross ridge dyke, the Bridestones.

When I arrived at the stones the low winter sun was shining and everything was frosty and beautiful, however within half an hour the sun had disappeared and a dense fog enveloped the moor, you could almost hear the vegetation ‘crisping up’ in the freezing fog. The whole atmosphere of the moor was almost instantly transformed. Later, following a circular walk around the moor I returned to the dyke, as I approached I could see the stones emerging out of the fog like sentinels, perhaps this is how they were meant to be seen. It also made me think of nearby Hob Hole and its legendary inhabitants, perhaps these stones and the nearby ruined settlement gave rise to the lore of the Hobs or perhaps the legends started in prehistory when the Iron Age farmers founded their settlement Iron Age beside the Bronze Age remains.

Once beyond the stones you’ll notice a number of low cairns and once past these you’ll encounter a number of low rubble walls running through the heather. These can be quite subtle features but once you ‘get your eye in’ you’ll notice them everywhere.

There’s not a great deal else to say about this part of the moors. Crown End is a good place to visit as it offers plenty to see in a small area, it is also very accessible if you are using public transport and don’t mind a walk. Access on the moor itself may be difficult for anyone with restricted mobility as the paths are uneven, narrow and rocky in places, access from both Hob Hole and the Esk valley involves a short steep climb.

Chivasso’s menhir is one of 3 (Chivasso, Mazzè, Lugnacco) similar menhir survived trhough the centuries, part of bigger group in these area.
It’s 4 meters tall, it have a cup mark on it (and 2 holes made in medieval times) and now it’s conserved in a big glass box in a central square (piazza d’Armi) in Chivasso. The exact original position is not known.
Recently, the local historian Prof. Luciano Dell’Olmo recognized the importance of the piece and the town administration decided to restore it.

This valley it’s full of engraved rocks, and every years new sites are found.
Some of the most important rocks (cup marks, anthropomorphic figures, crosses and strange tables) are situated along the so called “Way of the souls” path (Sentiero delle Anime) near the village of Traversella (Torino). From prehistoryc times untill the the last centuries local alpine culture is rapresented here on the rocks: cup marks, anthropomorphic figures are the most ancient engravings, most of the rocks were cristianised with crosses.

Another important site (not rapresented here) in this valley is the “Pera dij Cros” (it means “Rock of the crosses” in piedmonteis) where it is possible to notice many prehistoric anthropomorphic figures.

Came across this beaut as we were leaving Ballater on the long journey back home. We had tried to walk here the day before but had been deterred by the boy racers who were speeding around the country lanes (and the thought of a pint of cider!) so made sure we drove this way.

As we pulled up on the side of the road, another car arrived and 2 rather gleeful people leapt out and started taking pictures too. We had to head off so didn’t have time to talk to them but I think they were possibly Dutch, so if you are reading this, sorry for being rude but we had a long drive ahead of us!!!

Anyway, this was just lovely, even though we didn’t have the time to get up close and personal with the stone, it was such a lush and verdant setting and made for a perfect last site before heading back south.

We parked the car by the church at Ysbyty Cynfyn, an interesting place on its own with up to four standing stones in its wall, but today Eric and me all but ignored them as we took the path up and over the hill behind it. The path then descends into a steeeep sided gorge thickly
covered in moss covered trees, the gorge is crossed by a not to sturdy bridge high above the dark swirling river. Once crossed, it’s up the
hill, head for the stiles in the fences and not only will you be in the comfort zone of “Right of way” but youll be just fifty feet from the circle
which admittedly is outside said comfort zone, but hey, sue me (no don’t).
Funny how they sneak up on you isn’t it ? I almost blundered on past the stones thinking they were more on top of the hill, untill they came
into view off to the right. I think I counted twelve stones all together from the two tallest stones of about three feet to the smallest one which
struggled to get above the grass, at about an inch,though the smaller stones just make the others look bigger.
There are a number of this type of circle with in just a few miles of each other, this one is marked on the map as cairn so I wonder how many
more there are hiding under the catch-all name.
The stones are lovely, with lichen and weathering giving them a hoary look of antiquity, and all around the rolling hills occasionally gather
themselves up to a lofty point, it was a quiet and beautiful morning made all the better for having the boy come with me, even if he does need
a small bribe or two.