Latest Fieldnotes

Visited the stones on Sunday and I am convinced that this is a burial site. Nice views and a nice day.

This is an unmarked standing stone to the west of the Barrow Cemetery. Its about 0.75m high and reminded me of “The surgeons photo” of Nessie! Its wafer thin so I couldnt see it being of any use as a scratching post for cows.
Its located just to the rear of a bungalow house.

For anyone that has visited Duntryleague and looked at the map and thought the barrow cemetery to the north must be amazing, well this is what remains of the cemetery. I found roughly about 7 barrows and the positions of approximately 5 others.
However saying that this is a reasonably interesting place. A lot of work has gone into draining the lands here and you wonder why anyone would have located a cemetery pre the drainage?
There is a very long avenue / bank to the east which to me doesnt serve any purpose in terms of drainage etc and I would suggest that maybe this bank signifies the limit of the cemetery.
Also to the north of the main field of the cemetery the ground undulates a lot and looks to me like it could be part of the cemetery.

A small standing stone about 500mm high just on the cork / limerick border. It seems to be looking towards the peak on Carrigeenamronety.

This is a small standing stone outside Mitchelstown here the Labbamolaga standing stones.

This is another tomb that has disappeared in dense pine forest plantation. I have seen it marked on a few information boards around the area so there is a possiblity that it is there.
However there doesnt appear to have been any clearing left for it and there is a lot of stone lying around within the forest so makes it very difficult to pin down.

I went back to this a second time with a 10 digit ordnance survey reference.
Still couldnt find it and had a good root around some pretty scary looking forest so dont think it remains.

I dont know how well the cupmarks come out of this stone. Unfortunately capturing light etc isnt my area.
According to the North Tipp Inventory these are possible cupmarks. Ill give the reference
“According to an OPW field report (30-12-1997) there are cupmarks on the external faces of some of the kerbstones in the SE quadrant; these are now covered with lichen. A possible cupmark was noted on the internal face of a stone in the NNW quadrant and onthe external face of a stone at ESE”
This sounds to me like they couldnt find the cupmarks in the SE quadrant due to lichen but these are the ones I pictured. There are least 20-25 cupmarks on the stone and I would love to get a really good pic of it

This site is Missing in Action underneath dense pine plantation. May be possible to find it once they are harvested.

This fallen standing stone is about 2m long and lies at the west end of the barrow.
What is really interesting about it are the incisions made in the stone which the North Tipp Inventory believe to be ‘faked’ ogham script that was put their to confuse antiquarians!
The stone was standing in recent memory.

This barrow doesnt appear on the OS map but can be found in the North Tipp inventory where there is a picture of it. This and the little bit of folklore that is attached to it were the main reasons why I wanted to see it. It is located about 2 miles from the village of Upperchurch.
According to local tradition this site was the burial site of the “Great Dane” and part of the “Jewel of the Dane” estate whatever that means!

The tipp inventory gives it dims as (diam 0.26m: D 0.11m) which sounds about right. The stone itself is in the North Eastern quadrant of the ring-fort.
Its an unusual stone in that there is no evidence that I know of any early religious sites within the vicinity. The stone itself is tricky to find. Its off a back-road near Borrisoleigh, I stopped at a wall with a no dumping sign that is adjacent to a ring-fort up on the summit of a hill (on opposite side of road to the wall). (If you find this spot you will know it!)
Then the stone is about 3 fields in directly to the rear of a farm stead but just far enough away that you wont look too suspicious walking around.

This cairn is only a few miles from Cairn and access to it is pretty good. Its about 2 fields in from the road.
When I first saw it from about a field back I couldnt believe its size. I actually thought it was a ring-fort and I was imagining this big pile of stones. The main reason I was surprised at its size was due to it being in the middle of farm-land I presumed it would have been cleared or used for road-building by now.
It must be about 4m high and the diameter must be about 20-25m. As above it is in great condition and I would say that nothing has been removed from it. To the east there is a slight depression on top of the cairn which may point to where a chamber has fallen in.
Another interesting feature is the ‘alignment’ with Galtymore / Galtybeg which seem to form a pair of breasts at this point. Either that or a psychotherpist would have a field-day with me!

Three new panels uncovered last week .

Four of seven new marked rocks discovered on Saturday ,they are spread over a stretch of 2 miles on the eastern side of Glen Goulandie which has no previous recorded marked rocks . Access is easiest from the Coshieville -Tummel Bridge road , if you can get parked then head up hill , the rocks are on the 350 m contour .If anyone needs better grid refs etc , do ask .

This is well worth checking out, if only because there are many different sites of archaeological interest in close proximity.
I came here with the bullaun in mind, having seen it on archaeology.ie. It’s about a metre and a half long by half a metre wide and has one shallow basin. It’s now cemented into the side of a shrine to St. Brigid which in turn sits beside a dry holy well.
I had a delightful companion during my time here – a gorgeous little puppy that followed me down from the house where I attempted to ask for permission to visit the well.

There appear to be about seven barrows in this group according to O.S. / Dorset Barrows / MAGIC. The largest and most prominent is just south of the old roman road to Exeter. It is on a ridge to the north west of Clandon barrow which is fully visible from it. The Dorset ridgeway is to the south of this group and a lot of the barrows on the ridge are visible.
There are four other similar sized barrows in this group, most are covered with trees. One of them is all but obscured. The cleanest one has recently been cleared of trees and has a large excavation cleft in its summit.
One of the group is all but ploughed out and another, to the south of the road is marked as destroyed on all the maps I’ve seen.
I also found two pieces of worked flint on the field margin of this site, one of which was a late neolithic / early bronze age end scraper.

Was there last weekend in beautiful February sun. As robokid points out, a lot of the plantation has been chopped down recently. Consequently the circle is no longer halfway along northern edge of the plantation as it appears on the OS map; it is about 100 yards west of the northwest ‘corner’ of the plantation.
Had a quick look for the Thimbleby Moor carved rock, but its almost impossible with the large number of rocks up there.

We parked by the Pant Madog barrow and walked the mile or so over the almost barren moor to the circles. First into view comes the hill called Y Pigwyn with its roman camps, and in the distance at the foot of the hill from the path we can just make out the stones. It was cold and windy but the sun was shining and with the step ladders (inspired by Cope at Ardblair)we brought some good pictures were due. The large stone circle was almost perfect, at its southern side there are two stones one a pointy chair and the other a flat topped boulder I thought male and female maybe ?
The other smaller stone circle is only thirty yards away but its remaining stones are larger than its niegbours though only numbering four, with the other stones gone the last four make it look like an intentional four poster. Fifty yards to the south west is a prostrate stone nearly eight feet long, Coflein says it could have when standing marked the winter solstice from the large stone circle.
All in all a fantastic morning out, a long walk but well worth it
Thanks for carrying the ladders Dave

At the end of the lane south-west of Trecastle along the roman road is a carpark, It marks the ‘start walking’ point for the lovely Y Pigwn stone circles and is also fifty yards from this barrow. Ten metres across and one metre high with a trig point on top . Good views on a clear day.

North of Tretower and within sight of the ruined castle there is this seven and a half foot whopper, failing miserably to hide in a hedge, easily seen driving north on the A759. As we walked over to the stone a red fox ran past stopping momentarily to keep an eye on us. The ‘sacred hill’ Cribarth is to the south.

Polly and I trecked along here today.

The signs saying it was private looked old and out of use, and there was a much newer sign indicating the right to roam. We scared of several grouse and it seems to be managed land with numerous grouse butts. The only restriction we could see was that there were to be no dogs at all.

We made our way along the track and veered of to the left and along the edge of the stone wall that borders the plantation. Much of the plantation is now cut down and has exposed numerous large stones, some looking as if they had once stood upright and some in a distinct circle.

The main and obvious ones were on the North side of the wall.

Don’t get lured into boggy ground full of ponds by stones that you think might be the ones you’re looking for. Carry on past a few trees on the North side of the wall and it will become obvious.

The first two set relatively close together, with the next pair being a bit further appart. The Northernmost pair have a fallen stone between them. This also lines up with the middle of the Southerly gap by the wall, and another fallen stone between the two.

It didn’t strike me as a stone circle and finding all stones required stretching my imagination. However, they were definately positioned, though it seemed to me to be as some kind of a gateway.

The stones in the plantation were more difficult to work out, though as ive mentioned, there are some that appear to have fallen and seem to form part of a definate circle. Plantation harvesting looks to be the cause of some damage, but not all. On one hand its a shame, but on the other hand, the lack of plantation allows a better view of the stones.

Aiming for SE667399 we immediately crossed off the dirt road, under some power lines and hopped over a ditch to it’s right and into some pine woods. It is open access land so CROW applies. I had an idea we were getting near and saw a slightly raised mound. We headed towards it and it was riddled with burrows. At this point, Em suggested we bear right. This took us into a different section of woodland which was fenced off for paint-balling. We carried on exploring there then arched round to the left again.

We saw a mound at about the same time as our chests tightened and I felt loads of pressure against the sides of my neck. Where we turned off to the right previously had been the front of what seemed to be a long barrow, right on the edge of the pine plantation. Taking some bearings and comparing them with a map charting local ley-lines, we found the direction we’d gone off in was along one of the lines.

We looked around the woods some more in case we’d missed something but kept getting drawn back to the barrow. It was definitely the place, looking more regular that the surrounding terrain, but overgrown and with a definite foreboding feel. We decided we probably needed the advice of someone local.

Heading back towards the car, we stumbled across a small circular mound that we must have missed when entering the woods. It felt very calming but confused us as we were unsure how many there were meant to be. The current OS map record tumuli, whereas and older one shows a barrow as well, and positions on both are different.

We crossed back towards the dirt road and bumped into a gentleman who seemed to know some of the history of the area. He mentioned that Danes Hills was the name given as the Norsemen had camped in the vicinity. It was part of their route overland to Ricall, but had been in existence since the Iron Age. He also mentioned a few more on Skipworth Common nearby (these are shown on the older OS maps, but not the newer ones, although there are others that are nearby, which are shown on new maps but not older ones!). Coincidently our local gentleman didn’t think we were lunatics when Em mentioned ley lines and dowsing as it seemed that he too was a dowser.

We headed for SE644377 and though we found slight raised ground, they didn’t fit in with the map, and not all felt entirely man made.
A GPS would have been useful for accurately pinpointing the various mounds.

This is a group of five barrows to the north east of Eggardon hillfort. Four of the five are loosely surrounding a large disc barrow, it has openings in the outer bank. Grinsell suggests it could be a form of henge or a disc barrow with some hengelike features. One of the round barrows impinges on the bank and is presumably later.
The southern most barrow has a trig point on it and is immediately east of the hillfort. Given that these sites are bronze age and in the case of the disc barrow/possible henge, neolithic they pre date the hillfort in it’s current form.

There is a long, steep climb to get to this site whichever route you take. It is situated on sea cliffs between the river valley outlets of Branscombe Mouth and Weston Mouth. Also the cliff on which it sits falls sharply on the landward side. This would have been a very safe place to be for a short time, defending it would have been easy, attack a nightmare.
Sadly about half of it has already fallen into the sea and the erosion is carrying on all the time. It shows itself now as single a low bank and silted up ditch, used as grazing for cattle. The surrounding cliffs are a confusing mess of banks and ditches of old quarry sites.
This is worth a visit but you do need to be pretty fit (it nearly did for me) and I wouldn’t do it in the rain.

Castle Haven is a D shaped Iron-age Dun more common to the northwest than the southwest of Scotland and is in excellent condition thanks to reconstruction by the landowner in the 1900’s, most academics seem to think he made a good job of it too. The Dun is easy to reach from a minor coast road off the B727 but not easy to see, it is only a short walk from the road but the fort is much overgrown and blends perfectly with its landscape. It is not sign posted so you will need a decent map to locate the site. The Dun itself is enclosed by a similar shaped outer defensive wall of uncertain date and is of a unique, for this area, galleried wall construction. The chord of the “D” is built to run along the top of the line of cliff and there is a seaward entrance with steps leading to the beach below.