SK17230 65405.
Cales Dale as with Calling Low Dale is a tributary valley to Lathkil Dale with stunning limestone scenery where the two meet.
Cales Dale Upper Cave is well hidden on a high shelf on the western side of the valley and requires a steep tricky climb up from the path.
The cave was used in the Iron Age and later Romano period.
This rock shelter is located just over half a mile away from Bee Low in the secluded Calling Low Dale (previously Callenge Dale). Access is pretty straight forward once you have permission; although once at the entrance to the dale itself the going is rough with no path and plenty of ankle twisters.
The wall across the face of the shelter, built by a 1980’s visitor, lets you know you’ve found the right place.
In the Neolithic it was used as a burial site and two cists were constructed within it, one containing human bones, arrowheads and a Peterborough ware bowl. Colonel Harris who excavated here in 1936-39 also found other burials placed outside the cists.
At the shelter amongst the crags and trees the place has a ‘lost world’ feel to it, some what aided by the fact that no one comes here anymore. Although the dale is a tributary to one of the most popular walking dales, Lathkil, in the Peak.
Seeing as I only live forty minutes away and this is my nearest ancient place I will come here several times every year, almost as if expecting to see something new,so far I’m not doing bad Once I came at sunset , next it had been snowing, this time I climbed a tree to look down on it slightly.Sometimes there is a big Rottwieller dog just ten metres from the chamber but he was elsewhere today and all was quiet. The only bad thing about this visit was the bushes were ever so slightly closer to the side of the chamber, the whole lot should be ruthlessly chopped leaving only the mature trees, somtimes there’s not even enough room to stretch ones imagination. I leaned the fallen information board against a tree said goodbye to the stones (as you do) and walked back to the car.
We parked by a small bay called Porth Cwyfan right opposite a motor racing circuit and for the whole time we were there the sound of screaming motor bikes fought with the sound of breaking waves, niether won but I know which sound I prefered. Although it was a nice walk by the sea to the cairn it was by far the longest route, further back along the road was a turning and sign for a footpath and a warning not to go any further by car. As we walked down to it there was two cars and plenty of places to park, no houses, nothing to get in the way, of so damn them and drive practiaclly down to the sea. The cairn was excavated 31 years ago because of coastal erosion, but the cairn is well above the crashing waves so I’m a bit nonplussed. Only five stones are above ground and there is a dip in the centre of the cairn. This place is entirely about the place, the beaches, the rolling waves, the seabirds the mountains over to the east a whole afternoon could be spent here. If you do come don’t leave your camera on show in the car as it’s a ten minute hard run back to the carpark.
Din Dryfol is sign posted from the road, so presuming you successfully navigated the small warren of lanes, park somewhat precariously by the sign and walk down the driveway to the farm. Further signs take you through two gates and a stile, then across one field heading towards the tiny mountain and more specifically the information board, and your there.
The majority of this burial chamber is gone but it’s in such a lovely place and there remains just enough to stay for several hours. A small dolmen and two standing stones one of which is huge, a long rocky outcrop runs parrallel to the stones and was used as a curb for the cairn material (or so I read somewhere)The hill or tiny mountain as my kids called it is the highest ground for some distance and is surely the reason the burial chamber is here, if your coming why not climb it for a good all round view, also keep your eyes open for a Cokin ND Grad camera filter which inexplicably broke free from me and refused to be found, Darn it !
judging the cold and windy conditions, i would asume the coast line was further out in mesolithic times, it is a very exposed area.
There’s a track marked on the map that runs north from the road that skirts the south of Slievecorragh. I headed along here past the 1st old farm building until I reached the 2nd ruined farmstead. The bullaun is in the marshy field to the west of this. I spent about 20 minutes scouring this field in increasing frustration and headed down to the rath for a look.
The rath is fascinating, with the deepest fosse I’ve yet seen on one of these. It’s easy to explore at this time of year but would be impossible in the summer months. The inventory says that there’s no sign of an entrance, but they visited in August and I saw a clear entrance in the north-east quadrant.
Heading back into the bullaun field I noticed a cluster of boulders beside a massive gorse bush. The bullaun is here, almost flush with the ground. It’s a little over a metre squared and the basin is one of the smallest I’ve seen, placed centrally in the stone. The sides are sheer, carved directly down into the flat-topped boulder to a depth of about 15 cms.
My fifth visit to this site and the first time there hasn’t been livestock in the field, so giving me a bit of time here.
Site L, the one nearer the main mound, is almost totally destroyed. Four stones remain, a kerbstone and 3 chamber orthostats. None of the passage is remaining, or could it be that it is buried?
Site K is more interesting. Much of the passage is here. There seems to be a sillstone or doorstone at the mouth of the passage. Some of the passage orthostats are collapsed in on their opposite stones. Overall length is approx 15 metres, with a slight widening about midway along. It terminates in an undifferentiated chamber, the backstone of which is missing. The kerb is best preserved on the north-western arc, but there are some stones to the north. One puzzling factor is that an imagined continuation of the kerb arc would not meet the mouth of the passage but hit the 3rd or 4th stone along. Don’t really know if this is significant.
The hillock that both tombs sit on is higher that any of the surrounding terrain, including the ground level of the main mound at Newgrange. Trees and shrubs block this feature when viewed from the road in front of Newgrange. Looking north-west, the main mound at Knowth can be seen in the distance.
It was very windy here today and my hands were freezing as I took photos. It would be lovely to sit here on a sunny summer’s day, drinking in the atmosphere. It’s hard to say what sense of place you get here, knowing that big brother is only yards away. None of the previously mentioned decorated stones were visible, though some of the passage stones seem to have very worn and vague pick-marks.
Nobberbeg townland, next (unfortunately) to Muff townland, is at the back of Gallow’s Hill, north-west of Nobber (An Obair) town in north Meath. On the old OS maps at archaeology.ie this site is marked as St. Patrick’s stone. The site sits at the edge of a ridge that falls away to its south.
There is an old cross base here, beside which sits this interesting bullaun. It’s one of those kneeling bullauns, both basins of which break the side of the stone. One holds water in its bottom, the other unable to do so. On the map mentioned above there is a second bullaun marked. I think I saw this too but it’s been smashed up, much like this unkempt and uncared for site.
This barrow is all that I could find of a barrow cemetery just on the eastern edge of the town of Hospital. There are seven other barrows marked however after a brief look the only one I could find was this giant.
This is another of the large barrows that are mentioned as part of the Discovery programme for this area.
This barrows outer diameter must be up around the 15-20m mark with two concentric rings and a small central mound. The mound and the diameter is a much smaller in size to Knockanny or Ballinascaula.
To find it park at the farm-gate just outside of the town of Hospital on the right. Follow the track that is shown on the map. When you come up to the disused farmyard that is shown at the end of the track you should be able to figure out where it is. Its lowlying and there are lot of rushes around it so can be difficult to spot.
This standing stone is maybe about 0.75m high. I marked at an entrance to a farm yard on the right leaving hospital. You can check the barrow out at Coolalough from here. I walked in thru the farmyard and over a ditch to take a picture of it. Nothing special really.
The last time I was up here they had removed the ditches around the mound and barrows.
This seems to reveal a fourth barrow to the three barrows that are marked in a line on the OS map.
Ive heard it said that you can see the Paps of Anu from up here but Ive never been able to make them out.
You can clearly see where the ditches have been removed from the variance in the grass colour.
Avebury somehow seems diminished these days. I suppose the world heritage status and higher public profile which have put it on the tourist map have had some positive effects but it’s difficult somehow not to think that like at Stonehenge, they have simultaneously taken something away.
Anyway, we were struck again last weekend by the fact that in a way what is really important here is the Henge. It is apparent that at its original full height it would have created an artificial and perfect horizon – in other words, it would have engendered an idealised world view from within its circumference. As well as facilitating astronomical observances this would have created a psychological sense of ‘interiorness’ – a major step on the human journey from the purely instinctual through the communal to the individual and then to the personal. We felt this time more than at any other that Avebury’s function is in the promotion of the ‘artificial’ -in the sense of artifice or artefact – an aesthetic appreciation of the world as embodying conciousness and human potential rather than merely survival and the randomness of action.
This standing stone is on the sacred hill of Aine between the mound on the eastern side and the ringfort on its western side.
It is about 1.25m high.
After scouring the fields for the rock art locations on archaeology.ie for a couple of hours I slowly accepted that these panels have either become turf covered, or, more alarmingly, been blown up with dynamite like many of the outcrops on the hillside obviously have been over the past few years.
The blown up outcrops in the first field from the road have not been cleared and the remaining stone still litters the hill, this is probably not a good sign since it seems to suggest clearance or building stone was not the reason for using dynamite.
I only found these carvings after a lot of staring at outcrop. There’s definite parallel grooves enclosed by lines but these are hugely weathered now and difficult to bring out in full. I also spotted a single cup surrounded by an almond or ‘eye’ shaped ring on the same outcrop.
Forecast was bright early on so decided to get some better pics of of two rocks discovered about 18 months ago . At the time the cups were not at all clear , particularly the markings on the horzontal face of one of the rocks , not a common feature . Managed to find another unrecorded one that I had missed previously ,before the sleet started . There are other recorded rocks in the area about 500 metres to the south .
This was the fourth time I went looking for this fabled panel and I ended up returning four times, getting washed out each time by wild winds which sent the driving rain in every direction.
The panel has been moved recently from it’s last resting place, under some barbed wire beside a gate, to an altogether more picturesque spot under some trees alongside field clearance.
This is wonderful stuff, a really superbly executed set of ten (count them!) rings around a central cup with not one but two radial lines. These lines extend outside the rings and meander off the side of the surface.
The site is very easy to access and locate now, if you enter Malin from the south, cross the estuary and take the next right. Proceed past the crossroads and look out for two new yellow painted houses with white trimming on the right, park here. Cross the road and hop over the rickety gate, the panel is on the far side of the trees extending to your right from the field wall.
Pillsbury hills castle is a Norman non stone walled castle/fort/settlement, best approached from the south-east. Rght next to the earthworks is this tall leaning stone it does have a hole through it so could have been used in modern times, but the stone isn’t part of a wall nor does it look like it ever did. Not on the map or TMP. Anyone know owt about it?
To the east of Errwood and Fernilee reservoirs a small road leads over to Bollington and Rainow, when the forest ends park in the carpark on the left and go through the gate on to the footpath. The stone can be seen from here, a short walk up the hill. The stone leans a lot to the west (I think) and is maybe three and a half feet tall.
At the end of a long thin lane coming off the A53
is Brand end house, plenty of parking and a short walk to the stones. The tall squarish stone with a tapered top is about 7-8ft tall and seems to have packing stones, (unless its sighted on an old cairn or just dumped there) about thirty feet away is the smaller stone. Great views over to Hollins hill not so great is the view of Brand end house with its cronky old vans.
The two stones are just intervisible because the wall stops with only a foot to spare.
Because the site wasn’t on here before I’m a little suspect (surely Stubob would’ve come here) the square profile of the stone is also suspicous but the smaller one is very reminiscent of other Peak district stones like the Murder stone, also it looks down upon Hollins hill with it’s becairned summit .
The “NEW” carvings are found at between 100-200m from the main carvings. I took the longer route to find the carvings by looking for the fallen trees which were in an area behind the main carvings. The easier directions are as follows, park as you would at the main car park, follow the path until you come to the red tape which is where the cycle path turns.Follow the left trail up the hillside, follow the cycle track (which for obvious reasons is closed at the present time), until you see a square of yellow tape only 1m from the cycle track, this is where the carvings are. It is surprising to see the roots of the tree which covered this panel, who knows what else there is to find in the area.
I would imagine that the local archaeologist , Andy Bunton will be doing a fuller examination of the panel in due course.
A little cemetery not far from Knocklong. Not much to say about them really. there are 8 dots on the map I found 5 of them.
Limerick seems to be the county for unmarked standing stones. This one on a hill behind a old farm-house about 0.25km from the large barrow also in Ballinscaula.
Its about 0.75m high and although the day was cloudy you could make out Cnoc Aine to the north.
This is another huge barrow in Limerick similar to the one at Knockanny.
In fact the three rings or banks around it seem to be of a wider diameter to the ones in Rathanny but maybe the mound is slightly smaller. The barrow at Rathanny is only about 5km away from this one. The amount of work to construct these two mounds would have been huge. Reading the North Munster Project I believe there may be a few more of these in the area which along with Lough Gur only a few more kms to the north really points to a good size population here.
The outer ring diameter is huge could be 30m across and the height of the barrow / mound is about 5m high.
Similar to Knockanny this again is located in wetland area and when I visited the trenches between the rings were water-logged up to 400mm. Funnily enough there wasnt much variation in the depth and I didnt find myself walking into any holes and causing the water to go over my wellies. Obviously though be careful walking thru the water. You never know what kind of critters could be in stagnant water.
There is a track leading all the way to the barrow, its a good km from the road and leads past an old disused farmhouse.
There is also an unmarked standing stone on a hill behind the farmhouse as you walk in.
Visited the site after going to the duddo stone and the battle stone. It was only after leaving the site travelling home and arriving in Millfield I realised how easy it is to get there.
Never got down to the waterfall as the fiancee wanted to go home. All this around her and she wants her tea.
Anyway, what a place. The ditches are big and a puzzle. The rock art on the stone is in very condition and plenty of it.
I have got photos to put on, but I have not got photoshop after wiping my drive before christmas and I cannot find the disk.
At the back of the monument, is that a water channel or where rain water has worn away at the stone.
Also is that a grave at the back?
