Latest Fieldnotes

visited sunday morning 13/7/08. deserted...in stark comparison with the areas toward rivington/winter hill. only approachable through peat bogland ,which had a good 3 inch of give in it this day, but well worth it.

cairn on summit ought to be removed in my opinion, obviously not ancient. some signs of erosion on top of mound (or this may be due to an attempt at digging)

great atmosphere though, with wonderful views over lancs plain. on the way down to white coppice the monument dominates, even though surrounded by the higher spots of great hill and winter hill

I didnt think such a lovely site could be located so close to Dublin.
However it appears that its vicinity to Dublin could also be its downfall with plans for a port here.
The bay really is lovely and my thinking would be that the mounds are located here due to the abundance of sea food that would have been obtainable here.
The 5 mounds are covered with crops this time of year so it is best to access via the shoreline if this is possible.

This is an intriguing site, which if it is genuinely megalithic would certainly add greatly to the small amount of stones in Dorset.
The site itself falls into three groups in a valley bottom south of the village of Corscombe. The whole area of the stones is about 50 metres north / south by about 20 metres east / west.
The southern are two recumbent stones laying next to each other, giving the appearance of having been toppled. These are the largest stones, one being 8 1/2 feet long, the other about 6 feet. The smaller of the two has a blackthorn tree growing around it’s base.
The three standing stones are to the north, the central and largest stone is 6 1/2 feet high and has a pointed top. The next in size leans against the other and has a broken lower corner. The smallest of the three is reputedly known as the “Devil’s Seat” or “Granny’s Armchair” and does resemble a chair.
To the west of these are a group of six smaller stones laying in the grass in an arc. In amongst these and between them and the standing stones are smaller stones or fragments of larger, broken stones.
This site has been variously described as a destroyed long barrow, a disrupted stone circle or just a random colection of stones at the bottom of a steep sided valley.
Whatever the answer to this place is, someone has made an effort to lean two of the stones against each other, and the two southern stones have been there long enough for an elderly tree to have grown around one of them. Although not a scheduled ancient monument, english heritage does give it the monument number 195903.
It may be pure coincidence but just to the north of the site is a road and track named barrow lane.
If anyone knows any more about these stones I’d be very interested to know about them.

This is another heathland barrow cemetery, the third I’ve visited today. These are the three most accessible on the site and all are in good condition. They vary in size from one of the smallest I’ve seen anywhere to a 2 1/2 metre high example. They are on a plateau which overlooks the valley of the river Piddle to the north and the Purbeck hills to the south.
There is another set of barrows on a lower slope of the heath to the east which I will try to visit soon.

Another visit to this barrow cemetery, this time with more success in terms of finding the mounds on it. I found another five bowl types and a bell barrow.
Four of the bowl barrows were strung out along a ridge at the southern edge of the site and were very overgrown. All appeared in good condition and were on the smaller end of the scale.
The most westerly was close to the first barrow I found last time and appeared to be the largest on the hilltop.
The bell barrow is lower down the hill, to the east of the main group and is behind a large modern reservoir. It is in reasonable condition with a wide berm and part of the outer bank is visible on the northern edge. This barrow is surrounded by trees and is difficult to get a decent photo of as you have to get very close to it.

This barrow cemetery is south of Whitcombe vale and southwest of Blacknoll hill. There are four bowl barrows in the group in a line which runs northwest to south east. The three most northern barrows are on prominent rises on the heathland. The most easterly is on pasture with horses grazing on it, from the fence which surrounds the field it appears to have a sarsen type boulder on top of it.
All the heathland barrows are fully covered with gorse and bracken at this time of the year and are difficult to get close to.

Visited July 2008CE. This is a nice site in a quiet location. Unfortunately most of the trees in the low-walled enclosure had been blown down when I visited. Consequently, most of the south east of the cairn was not visible. From the debris on the ground it looks like it has been like this for a while.

After many years of thinking about it I finally got out to this stone this week. It takes a bit of doing and there are plenty of interesting diversions along the way. I parked at the Hurlers and took the track north that leads out to Golddiggings Quarry (passing Craddock circle). Once at the Quarry I dropped down to a lower level and followed a very rough track along the side of the Witheybrook marsh. This brings you to a gate which allows the only access into a section of open access land that is well fenced off with horizontal barbed wire all along its boundary.
Keeping low you have to follow the edge of the marsh, avoiding the wet bits, to reach the area known as Newell Tor. (this does include going through small areas that are not open access, so you do it off your own backs and don’t quote me if you get approached by landowners telling you to bugger off!)
The stone sits at the west end of the enclosed fields that make up the mediaeval settlement area on the slope of Newell Tor, it stands proud and is easily seen from below. On the hillside behind it are several hut circles including one circular enclosure inside the field to the right. I was unsure if this was an ‘antiquity’, it is undoubtedly old but there was no sign of a doorway...
I did not venture far up the hillside and I am sure there is more to explore. As far as I know a detailed survey of the area has not been undertaken and so there could be other sites lurking.
Despite the fact that the hill is within site of the Cheesewring it is a difficult place to get to. I would not recommend it to the casual visitor but I will endeavour to get out there again and explore further.

A very interesting site.

This mountain called Bisalta (or Besimauda) it’s interesting not only because has a nice menhir and few engravings but also because holds mystery.

The name Bisalta means something like “twice high” probably because has two tops instead of one. It overlooks the all plain. And its also defined “Door of the Alps”. And, mostly...there are lots of stories telling of UFO apparitions about this mountain.

An evidence can be found in the “strange” sculpture (see the pictures) wich stands not far from the menhir on its left. Both are on the southern slopes of the mountain.

Those findings were all made by members of ARS (Scientific Research Association), Villanova Mondovì (CN).ars2000.it/index.htm
I wanna thanks them all here.

Nothing relevant to megalithia, but I was up past here today and my son shouted; “Look at the rabbits Daddy!” A pale brown patch in the hedge behind the stones had risen and separated into three wild deer. The rare warm day and the calm must have invited them out of the forest. Fauna, don’t ya love it?

Permission to visit both Knockawaddra rows should be obtained at the farmhouse at the beginning of the access-track, on the by-road to the east. Very nice people and interested in the monuments on their land.

Sited inside the Park of Belbo river’s spring.

I think this menhir it’s been moved from its original setting, to be re-used as milestone or border-stone.
But before of that use it’s been christianised.

Under christian’s crosses can be guessed, almost completly erased, engraved traces of a fertility’s cult.

My thanks to Mr.Giovanni & Mr.Sergio Piazzo (my greats local guides).

I found it beside a spring where wildboars go to play with mud. In the heart of a deep forest. (In the past this forest was called “bosco scuro”-dark wood).
The next year when I went back there I had a bad surprise. I found that unknown woodcutters chopped down almost all the trees around it.
The “atmosphere” was gone but happily the menhir was still there. I wonder for how long it’ll be found still there. Maybe until somebody will not think to throw away those “useless stone” from the wood...
On his front surface there are two small cup-shaped engravings with small drainage canals, and another cup engraving on the backside.
His front side reminds me of a female shape.
On the backside the margin of the stone has a strange shape as it has melted...
Around the menhir there are two stones, appearing pulled down, with some engravings.

Barmekin of Echt is an astounding Hill Fort with five dry stone walls and ditches surrounding the top of the hill. Getting to the top of Barmekin is for dry days, the heather is knee deep and the dense ferns are over 6 feet in places, not an easy climb, if you can find a path you are one of the lucky few.

Maudagna Valley’s engraved stone
(abstract from-“Roccia Incisa in Val Maudagna (CN)“- Bulletin of Survey 1991-1992, n.7-8. by Italo Pucci and Flavio Gastaldi).

“The rock stands out on the side of a hill facing the Maudagna valley. It is located inside a wood and near Bellino House (Frabosa Sottana). The place was important for its stock-raising, exploitation of chestnut trees and has been populated by Ligurians.

The rock shows some cups connected by linear engravings that in their terminal parts come out from the surface.
It is possible to deem that the engravings are connected to the rituals of the waters cult.”

Very simple engravings made by very simple people, for a simple essential use.

I have to thank Mr.Giovanni and Mr.Sergio Piazzo
of the ARS organisation Villanova Mondovì (Cuneo). They are my great local guides to it.

Field Notes

Barrow Copse Long Barrow, West Woods – April 20th 2008

Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 157 – Scale 1:25000
Marlborough and Savernake Forest Avebury and Devizes
ISBN 978-0-319-23611-6

I first visited this long barrow back in 1988 when we were updating the County’s SMR records. It lies on the edge of a wood or collection of separate pieces of woodland called West Woods. The area was once part of the Savernake Forest, but is now owned by the Forestry Commission.
West Woods is designated access land under the Countryside and Rights of way act 2000. See www.countrysideaccess.go.uk for all the details of these rights.

West Woods is well sign posted and has two car parks, one with a picnic area at SU 16250 66703. This is nearer to the long barrow when you travel up from the A4 and Clatford Bottom. The northern car park at SU 13257 66323, is at the top of the road from Lockerage Dean. If you park here, be prepared for a long, uphill walk into the western side of the wood and along the Wansdyke. This area of the woods has some of the oldest trees, particularly Oaks. When you reach the point that the Wansdyke turns directly into the woods, follow the track to the right and keep to the edge of the wood. The barrow lies just off the track, on the left.

When we visited back in 1988, we came along the track via the byway from Clatford Bottom, which skirts the southern edge of West Woods and the Wansdyke. The barrow seemed to have more oak trees growing over it back then, but little else seems changed. Although it stands on a slight rise, the features of this barrow are difficult to discern, for it is covered both by trees and by a carpet of bluebells.

Both the Ordnance Survey in 1815, (2-inch map) and Colt Hoare in 1821 (map of Marlborough station) depict it as a round barrow. A.C. Smith in 1885 and Goddard in 1913 recorded it as a ‘bowl-shaped’ barrow but it was not until 1923 the A.D. Passmore finally recognized it as a short long barrow, oriented E-W. He gives it dimensions as Length l20 ft, width 66 ft, and 10ft. high. The side ditches, which do not continue round the ends, were then 4ft. deep and 18ft. wide.

The disturbance resulting from the excavation of Sir Henry Meux in about 1880 is still evident; at the top centre of the barrow there is a small depression with a shallow cutting leading from this to the N edge of the mound. A.D. Passmore spoke to Mr. S. Hilliard, the chief woodman, who told him Meux employee six men (of whom he was one) to open the mound.
A trench was cut from the south side into what was thought to be the centre of the tumulus. At this point a small cairn of small sarsen stones was reached. In the centre of this was a dolmen consisting of four upright stones (the spaces between which were packed with large flints) and a capstone covering them, all of sarsen. The large top stone was levered off, as much as the six men could move and the inside was found to contain certain black matter, Mr. Hilliard was unable to say of what nature. He did not see any bones or pottery. The inside of the dolmen was about 6ft. by 3ft., its longer axis coinciding with that of the barrow. As it contained no relics it was left undisturbed, with the capstone replaced in its old position, and the excavation filled in.

When we examined the barrow, it was recorded as 38.0 m long with a maximum width of 30.0 m; being slightly higher at the E end, where it reaches 3.3 m. Well-defined but heavily silted ditches (9.0 m wide, 1.1m deep) flank both sides, and a ditch at the E end (0.5 m deep) is separated from the side-ditches by narrow causeways.

As the barrow has never been properly excavated, further detailed is examination is required to determine whether the central megalithic chamber, perhaps with intact tilling, is the only one within the mound, and whether it ever had a passage allowing repeated access. Side chambers may also have been constructed and lie undisturbed. Passmore muses that although exhibiting features which proclaim it to be a long barrow, this mound may, perhaps, more truly be called an oval mound of a transitional period, the stone chamber in the middle being unusual.

Field Notes

Everleigh Barrow Group – SU 184561 – Sep 2007

Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 130 – Scale 1:25000
Salisbury & Stonehenge inc. Wilton & Market Lavington.
ISBN 978-0-319-23599-7

Visited this barrow group after seeing the Giants Grave Long Barrow, on Milton Hill.
I travelled up the B Road from Pewsey to Everleigh. Pewsey hill is very step and Pewsey’s White Horse looks down upon the valley from up here. It has numerous drovers’ tracks running up it from ancient times and the whole area is criss-crossed with byways and bridleways. All the traffic stopped using these routes when the military moved onto the Plain a hundred or so years ago. The tank training station at Tidworth lies just a few miles to the south and the area is accessible but very churned up.
This barrow group is on the edge of this training range, hence the Star of David signs to show it is an ancient monument and not to be dug into or driven over in a tank. The military have made great strides to prevent more damage to some of the ancient sites on the Plain, but some were already destroyed before they found their wisdom.

Once you have reached the top of Pewsey, travel along the flat plateau until you reach the track marked for Milton Hill Farm on the right and Down Farm on the left (SU 185570). If you intend to visit the Giants Grave Long Barrow, you would turn right for Milton Hill. I would suggest you find somewhere to park around the back of the farm and walk down the track to the barrow group.

The Everleigh barrows group are classified as the five barrow cluster at SU 184561.
I have included a map based on the SMR numbering for clarity.
Prefix the numbers with SU15NE i.e. SU15NE655, for search at https://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/smr/

Bowl Barrow (654) – Excavated by Hoare c1800 and again opened by Thurnam who found it to be unproductive. 13.5m diam x 0.3m high.

Bowl Barrow (655) – Flattened

Disc Barrow (656) – Excavated by Thurnam in the 19th century, who found it unproductive.
Mound Overall diam 59m, mound 0.3m high, ditch 0.7m deep, bank 0.5m high.

Bell Barrow (657) – Opened by Thurnam who found a primary cremation which was probably male and an intrusive extended, undated skeleton. Mound 81ft x 11ft, berm 18ft, ditch 15ft x 2.5ft. It is well-preserved and grass covered.
Dr. Thurnam writes, “The most eastern of the bell-shaped barrows is upwards of thirteen feet in elevation; and in this, in a slight cist scooped out of the chalk, was a large deposit of burnt bones, probably those of a man, unaccompanied by urn, weapons, or ornaments; and proving, as Sir Richard Hoare often found, that ” we must not judge of the contents by the form of a barrow. Fronti nulla fides.” The upper part had been used in later times for a secondary interment; the skeleton of a tall man being met with, about a foot from the summit, laid at full length and with the head to the south. The arms were close to the sides of the skeleton; the thigh bones measured nineteen and a half inches. The skull has an ovoid form, the crowns of the teeth are flatly eroded; and, notwithstanding the discovery of a few fragments of coarse Roman pottery close by, the interment may be attributed to the Anglo-Saxon period.”

Bell Barrow (658) – Opened by Thurnam who found a primary cremation with a flat axe-dagger. Mound Overall dima 50m x 3.2m high, with a 0.5m deep ditch.
Of this barrow Dr. Thurnam writes, “The more western barrow is not quite so high as the eastern. At the depth of about eleven and a half feet, was a heap of burnt bones, apparently those of a man; and with these a small bronze blade three inches in length, retaining one of the rivets by which it had been attached to its handle, and altogether similar to that figured at page 329 (W.A.M. Vol 6). Adjoining the burnt bones, was a pile of grey ashes mixed with wood charcoal.”

A short distance north-east of the barrows is a square earthwork enclosure of possibly iron age date. 800 metres north-cast of the barrows (SU 187567) is the Down Farm group of eight barrows, including a badly damaged bell-barrow. Although these barrows were dug by Colt Hoare around 1800, there is some doubt as to which barrows contained what objects. Most seem to have contained cremation burials, one with a bronze awl, shale beads and perhaps an incense cup.

A copy of John Thurnam’s 1860 notes, page 332, from the Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine Vol 6 is available to download in pdf format here

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DK0UAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0CXB15IR7SUUL_bI&lr=&as_brr=1

Chance

Field Notes

Giants Grave Long Barrow – SU 18925819 – Sep 2007

Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 130 – Scale 1:25000
Salisbury & Stonehenge inc. Wilton & Market Lavington.
ISBN 978-0-319-23599-7

Visited this long barrow before seeing the Everley barrow group.
I travelled up the B Road from Pewsey to Everleigh. Pewsey hill is very step and Pewsey’s White Horse looks down upon the valley from up here. It has numerous drovers’ tracks running up it from ancient times and the whole area is criss-crossed with byways and bridleways. All the traffic stopped using these routes when the military moved onto the Plain a hundred or so years ago. The tank training station at Tidworth lies just a few miles to the south and the area is accessible but very churned up.

Once you have reached the top of Pewsey, travel along the flat plateau until you reach the track marked for Milton Hill Farm. (SU 185570) Turn left and travel down past the farm until you reach the tree lined hedge (SU 195580). There is a well used bridleway leading across the field and out to the top of Milton Hill Clump. The path round the back leads to the Long Barrow. An extensive ancient field system can be seen stretching across the hills, indicating it’s rich agricultural history. The area must have provided for a lot of people back in the Bronze age.

Giant’s Grave Long Barrow sits on the crest of Milton Hill overlooking the Pewsey Valley. Built of chalk, it measures 90 m long, 20 m wide and 2 m high.

It is very similar to Adam’s Grave Long Barrow, on the other side of the valley.

If you have time, check out the Everleigh Barrow Group at SU 184561.

Chance

Bassi’s dolmen.

I found it hidden in a deep forest. On the top of a small hill.
All around there are feeble traces that an “expert eye”(I’m jocking) can’t miss. Like the old track that leads to it, with its rocks alignment running on both sides.
Two big rocks (about two meters long each) on his sides looking as two pulled down menhirs. Stone traces of a foundation. And two suspect engravings.

Deversi. Sun adorer’s engrave.

An ancient engrave on an ancient site. Very close to Deversi Pietra delle Masche. Found by Professor Renzo Amedeo.

A single barrow in the middle of a field in the former hamlet of Fryer Mayne. This is now a suburb of Broadmayne and is a farm and a large house. The barrow has some animal damage and is obscured by foliage at the moment.

The site at Istrehågan (Jåberg, Tjølling in Larvik municipality) contains two shipshaped stonesettings and three stonerings. The stonesettings have been dated to 400–600 c.e.

Tjølling in Larvik has several prehistoric sites. On road 303 between Larvik and Sandefjord, about 500 meters after the takeoff to Ula, on the north side of the road some 50-100 meters out in an open field stands Hasle-steinen (i.e. The Hasle Stone). About 4,8 meter above ground it is one of the larger standing stones in Norway.

Placed at the highest point in a terrain that slopes towards Indre Viksfjord in the southwest and towards Hemskilen and the Istre-Syrist river in the north-east. The placement a few meters north of the absolute top can be explained by the fact that when the sealevel was higher (about 5 meters 500CE), the wind and waves on the the Viksfjord-side saved a bigger accumulation of matter to the south of the stone.

If the stone was raised as early as 200-400 BCE, there was a narrow isthmus, from the stone it was 50 meters to the beach of Hemskilen and about 150 meters to the sea at Viksfjord. It has been suggested that the stone was raised as a sign that boats could be dragged over land there.

A local tradition links the stone to the first Vestfold king, Halfdan Kvitbein (or Hvitbein, i.e. Halvdan Whitebone), that may have lived up to the mid-700. According to Snorre Sturlasson he was buried (“hauglagt”) in Skiringssal at Skjæreid. That the eid (i.e. isthmus) in Skjæreid is the same istmus were the stone stands is unlikely.

There have been several burialsites close by, even another standing stone (that was moved and parts of it used as a bridge over a brook on the farm). 10 to 15 meters from the stone, N. Nicolaysen found in the 1860-ies, a large flat stone that the local farmer called the giants grave. This may be one of the two flat stones that a later farmer, Hans A. Hasle, found when digging in may 1913, close to the standing stone. These flat stones was placed upon smaller stones, and there was a circle of smaller stones around (diameter 3 meter).

Doctor Arent Augestad, wrote down a story in 1903 that he had heard from an 80 year old woman of Hasle farm. She had heard it in her youth from an old woman (probably Sibille Eriksdatter, that died in 1847). Sibille once came from town with her child and heard noices in the wood, she thought it was her husband trying to scare her. They were both young and she was not scared. Then a large darkclad man runs towards the stone. Around the stone were many people, and the man flew into the crowd and caused great alarm, and then everything was gone. Sibilly still wasn’t scared, but when she came home it took a long time before the could tell anyone what she had seen – wrote doctor Augestad. (Source: Tjølling bygdebok, 1974, vol. 1 p. 131)

If you come from the south on E6, take road no 110 (Oldtidsveien) towards Fredrikstad.

From the north drive over Glomma at Sarpsborg, take road no 111 towards Fredrikstad, after a few hundred meters take the road (to the left) to Borge church, this road meets road no 110 (Oldtidsveien) after a few kilometers (at Borge school), take to the left again and you’ll soon be there. There are two parking lots, the rings are closest to the second.

There are 3 areas of interest at Hunn. The stonerings are in the southern area. This is the english text from the information-board:

On the slope in front of you, you see one of the biggest and most magnificient clusters of stone rings in Norway. There are in all nine big rings of upright stones. Moreover, there are a number of burial cairns and circular cromlechs. Each ring consists of 12, 13 or 15 stones. In earlier times it was assumed that trials had been held in such sites, the defendant standing in the middle, and the judges seated around, one on each stone. Archeological research, however, has proved the ring sites to be burialgrounds, probably from the Pre-Roman Iron Age (500 BC – AD). Apart from some charcoal and burned bones, nothing has been found in the rings, which clearly identifies them as fire graves, where the deceased had got elaborately shaped monuments – instead of equipment and gifts in their graves...

The norwegian infoboard elaborates a bit. Some of the rings and cairns were excavated in 1950-53, and several fallen stones were raised. The stones in the rings were connected with packed stones. In the centre of some the rings were found a large flat stone or a “package” of stones. (C-14-datings of charcoal from a similar stonering in the middle site at Hunn dates it prior to, or between 520-280 BC.) The cairns seems to be younger, six stone-pearls and two bronze-buckles dated viking-age (800-1050) were found in two of them. In the 1970-ies a few rockcarvings were found in the wood to the east close to this site. Locally this site is known as tinget.

Finally time to take slides. Even without livestock it seems every time I go there is more detail to be seen. Now there are short lines of smallish stones all over the circular mound forming part of the long cairn. Evidence for an outer covering of staggared faces (like Wideford Hill only far finer) or a stone cairn where erosion has chanced to form the appearance of lines ? One edge of the slab I think marks the start of the chambered area is where the ‘spine’ noted before looks to terminate, there is a well-defined row of stones forming one side of a small flat area in front of the slab – a cist removed maybe, or the top of a stall or even another chamber ?

Further down on the northern face is a prostrate rectangular slab I don’t recollect noticing before, which is strange as it has a distinctive notch, marked by white lichen, on one of the longer sides. For a moment I fancy it the result of illicit recent digging. One half has lichen, then there is some moss, then nothing – as if it had been an half-buried orthostat. Strange, though, that the notch isn’t in the lichened half.

Running my fingers along the edges the notch proved the only smooth piece, and very nicely rounded at that. We do have re-usable cists in Orkney (such as Arion) like the Argyll type, and the comparatively small notch would be because the whole cist was smaller. So had it indeed formed part of a cist [I ruled out a Ness of Brodgar type oddity staight out when this occured to me later] or only been intended for one then rejected ?

Lifting it carefuly revealed it and another smaller to be resting on unconnected stones with only a narrow slot a few centimetres deep between them, probably nothing relevant again. The simplest assumption is that antiquarian investigators had left it here when done.[why ?].

Well worth a visit, despite its rather gap-tooth appearance and easily accessible at the end of a farm track just north of the Argideen. Permission to nip in can be obtained from the farmhouse on the rise south of the river, on the first left hand turn. They will probably stress the importance of not leaving fences disconnected so obviously there have been some disasters in the past. Preaching to the converted, I know.