Latest Fieldnotes

*Important*
The landowner of this site can be very hostile to unannounced visitors, please do not attempt to visit this site without securing proper permission. Please be warned.

This is a very eroded panel on a lozenge shaped outcrop. Eight cup and ring marks are reported in the Co. Louth survey but I noticed some parallel lines that look suspiciously artificial. The whole panel is about 1.5m long and on two levels.

Description from Co. Louth Survey:
“Lozenge-shaped tabular rock outcrop, with eight cup and ring motifs. These range from a triple-ringed example to simple cup and ring. There is a much-eroded single cup and ring mark on a nearby rock outcrop. (CLAJ 1981, 111)”

On our visit on 12/4/08, the whole site was very overgrown and required quite a bit of clearing and careful removal of dead foliage before the markings became apparent. Permission was not easy to obtain, only for the fact that he remembered Blaze from her previous visit did we finally get the ok. The landowner lives on the main road, not down the lane, look for the boarded up windows and bullet holed windows and do approach with caution. Do not park near the stones blocking the driveway as he does not like this.

La Hougue de Vinde is a cist-in-circle, a type of monument peculiar to the Channel Islands.

We liked this place – and it seemed to like us. It’s been robbed – the cist has long since gone; damaged, overgrown and neglected; not easy to find in the trees. Branches overhang and encroach into the inner space. A saw is needed here. There’s a geocache. Yet, despite all the setbacks, we were pleased to be there in its stillness to share its existence.

We kissed in a circle.

A pair of quite large barrows at the top of Compton Down, nicely preserved despite being in a thoroughly ploughed field that has covered up any ditch that they may have been. The GPO stuck a telephone pole in the middle of one too. I like telephone poles but there is a limit.

There is one barrow considerably larger than the other and they overlap a bit. They have been excavated in the past but no mention of any findings on the official record. MAGIC notes worked flints visible on the surface. Many barrows around these parts are conspicuously off to one side of a hilltop so they can be seen from down below (or indeed so they can see down there!) but these are right on top and invisible until you get fairly close.

Close-up access requires going across the field which is of course supposed to be rather naughty, though all the dog walkers of Oliver’s Battery seem to do it. I used to live very nearby and even my neighbours whose houses backed onto the field didn’t know what these mounds were! Approach on foot by Texas Drive or from the end of Old Kennels Lane; both involve reasonably flat and easy dirt tracks.

Within the Iron age hillfort at Denbury are two Bronze age round barrows, that pre date the hillfort by at least a 1000 yrs. They are situated to the N/E & S/W of the site . There is a small upright on top of the S/W barrow its unclear if its contemporary with the barrows.

I think this is definitely a hitherto unrecorded menhir – and a gurt beauty it is too! Noticed it on a meander around the lesser known paths of the northern Carnmenellis district just last week. Some 7 feet high and more than 4 feet broad, it nestles near the boundary of Stithians and Lanner parishes on an underused and occasionally thicketed footpath down from the nearby Carvannel Farm – thought it was only fair to name it so.

There is coal beneath this round barrow. It’s shown on the 1932 Geological Survey as the ‘Margery Band’ and it’s just a shallow seam. Trouble is that it’s thirty metres below ground level and that’s way beyond the depth of any bell pit. Other means of mining it would have left surface traces – which aren’t there – such as a road, a shed, a mineshaft etc. The stone that’s pictured on the barrow, with a carved ‘M’, is probably an ancient boundary stone – it was common to use tumuli as boundary markers – and the ‘M’ probably represents Margaret – Bolton’s patron saint.

Have just checked and when looking along the line of the cursus in the opposite direction to the Samhain ,Imbolc orientation , the sun will rise just to the south of the prominent Deuchary Hill on the Beltane (May 1 )and Lughnasadh August 1 ) . This is not necessarily expected as it is due to the the differing heights of the horizon . What it does is double the likelihood of intentionality .

One way to avoid the problems of parking on the A4 lay-by and risking your wordly belongings, is to walk to WKLB from the village of East Kennet.

If you walk past the church (and the groovy house with the amazing wood carvings) and follow the bridle path, it takes about 15-20 mins and affords fabulous views of both East Kennet Long Barrow (on your left hand side) and Silbury.

This way, you approach WKLB from the “front”, walking up the field directly opposite. Excellent.

When we visited last week, some idiot had chalked graffitti all over the stones. At least it was only chalk but it was still infuriating. Noticed the same thing at Woodhenge and was even more annoyed by the “peace and love” messages scrawled there.

Found a couple of weeks ago , previously unrecorded .The site is on the northern side of Loch Tummel . It is approx a mile west of the more ornate Craig Balnabodach .The most obvious hills in view are Schiehallion and Farragon .

Removal of whins from the cursus and trees either side have given an improved view of the monument and possible orientation on North Ballo Hill . The declination is -15.8 and indicates where the sun would rise on the cross quarter days of Imbolc and Samhain whether this was intentional or mattered to the builders is open to debate .Originally considered to be a Roman vallum . It extends 2.3 k although it may originally been even longer .
RC dates from 1993 confirmed it being pre Roman giving a date of 3600 BC.
The building of the monument began at the NW with a sub circular burial mound ,subsequently an 80 m –long barrow was added to the SE. a bank on the same alignment as the barrow followed by realignment to the S.The monument was then constructed in segments with gaps in the bank and ditches breaking the monument into five sections.

Thanks to TMA, I was able to track down the three other sites on Stanton Moor (North, Central and South). It took me a while to find the “T56” marker as it was quite overgrown with heather. Not sure whether its allowed, but I did take out my trusty Swiss Army knife and cleared back the heather from this marker in the hope that it will make it easier to identify for others (see photos I just posted).

After visiting this area quite a few times now, I am amazed that I had walked past it without realizing.

A rare type of round barrow. According to L.V.Grinsell; ” 93 feet overall diameter. On OWERMOIGNE boundary. The central mound is surrounded by a narrow berm, bank, and outer ditch. The bank and outer ditch are more massive than with the normal tree-clump circle, and may be ancient because the road, which follows the parish boundary, cuts through them, and is presumably later. The barrow is covered with firs.”
Information taken from Dorset Barrows 1959 P.D.N.H.A.S.
This describes accurately what can be seen today, the plastic portaloo is there for some road works a few feet away!

A note re: the Out of Hours Access.

If you can afford it, do it!

To see the stones up close and with only 12 other people present, as we did on Saturday evening, was a completely different experience to the standard “tourist” one.

Forget about the security man in his bright yellow coat, texting his friends and ignoring all questions; forget about the fact that they close the toilets and the cafe, so the fact that you may have paid TWICE as much as other visitors doesn’t count for anything when you need to go to the loo or want a hot cuppa whilst you are waiting to go in; forget about the fact that you know EH are cashing in on the fact that some people feel a need to see more than a quick view from behind a guarded wire. Forget all that because.....

.....we spent an hour, walking among the stones, kiddy as kippers with a dozen like-minded folk and were able to take some fantastic photos. As the sun set, the golden glow of the sun against the blue sky was contrasted with the grey of snowclouds gathering. And just as the first few spots of sleety rain fell, a rainbow arched over the site. Just beautiful.

I got to nosey into the excavtion site (only shown to “day tourists” on a live feed in a  marquee by the car park) and we could wander round freely (as long as we didn’t stand on the stones or light any flames) enjoying this site in all of it’s glory (almost)

I had been wary of visiting SH for a number of reasons but this was actually a very impressive visit and one which, whilst not ideal, is better than most get these days. As a birthday present, it was hard to beat.

Whilst doing fieldwork for A-level courswork I pursuaded the family to drive me around Penwith so I could measure and photograph what my younger sister termed as “a pile of old rocks!“. As it was our first visit to Mulfra, we firstly drove past the footpath, pulled over next to Try Farm, checked the map, turned around and parked in a layby just behind us.
From there we followed a footpath up the hill, as it looked to be going the wrong way we turned off, and followed what turned out to be an animal track, that soon disapeared.
Freezing cold wind didn’t discourage us and we plouged on, shins scratched and bleeding by low lying gorse, we arrived on top of the hill to the fantastic site of Mulfra Quoit!
The qouit itself is fantastic, big enough to squeeze inside for a moments rest and to open the flask of tea!
The views in all directions are fantastic, and many photo’s were taken.
When hands and face was numb, we followed a clearer path back down to the car, was steeper going but much quicker.

Easy access. Park at the cafe/shop next to the beach and walk towards the dunes across the road, bearing NE ( I would guess). The Ossuary, The Little Menhir and The Broken Menhir are all close to each other. I failed to find The Great Menhir.

A great example of a gallery grave, but unfortunately not too easy to access (at least using the route which I chose, which saw me descending a steep overgrown path on a crappy hired bike; I would probably try and get access from the road that goes along the coast in the future). Another bummer about this site is that there’s a brick building not 3 meters from the tomb. This, in combination with the brambles, makes photography quite tricky.

This very early site is a beautifully small burial chamber, near to the coast, that once had a corbelled roof. I could have spent much longer at this very quiet site, but was keen to visit as many of the others on Jersey as I could.

Quite simply the most impressive site on Jersey. A 20-meter long passage leads to a largish central region, from which 2 side chambers and a rear ‘terminal cell’ join. Four small standing stones (called ‘betyles’) were found in the chambers. Although much smaller, perhaps these held the same ‘purpose’ as the central stone at Bryn Celli Ddu? Excavation in the 1920s revealed the remains of at least 8 individuals. Also found in the tomb was a quern (mill grinder), found buried upside-down beneath the upright slab at the entrance to the terminal cell.
At the equinox, the sun shines down the passage and illuminates the terminal cell. La Pouquelaye de Faldouet is also aligned to the east.

In the 6th century an attempt was made to Christianise the site and in medieval times a chapel was built on top of the mound. During the German Occupation of Jersey, a command bunker was built in the grounds as part of Hitler’s extensive fortification programme.

There is a smallish but excellent museum showing many finds from the area, including a few prehistoric sites that have been relocated here. There’s also a shop, but its a beautiful and not over-visited site to visit.

A gallery grave and cist-in-circle within spitting distance of each other. Easily found in St Andrew’s park, but unfortunately the site is fenced off. Around a dozen beakers were recovered from this site.

Down a path at the side of the road (and incidentally near the YH where the police have been searching recently...). This is a great site, aligned bang on east, with a 5-meter long passage and several cists built into the walls of the passage. The whole chamber is surrounded by a small mound, which has a sort of dry-stone walling effect going on at the eastern side.

Visited 6/4/08, and took the Rock Art Tour. This costs six pounds, which some might say was pretty dear for a couple of definite images and a couple of possibles.

Having said that, the moment when you ‘see’ the reindeer carving reveal itself from under the modern graffiti and natural markings as the guide outlines it with her laser pointer is pretty incredible.

Our guide was very good with the children in the group, some of whom were quite young. There are no restrictions on photographing the art, although you are advised not to use a flash, this is because you get better pictures without then with.

As others have said, the gorge seems to have been transplanted into a very bog-standard midlands landscape from elsewhere. According to our guide there are some other smaller ones nearby some of which also had rock shelters.

Completely non-MA, but a short walk to the E of the site along Robin Hoods Way takes you to the remains of subterranean structures built by the ‘Mole’ Duke of Portland in the C19th including a chapel and art gallery. Strange to have such an unconscious echo of the ancient past constructed in the industrial era....

This visit I had time to have a proper look at this site. The feature you see when you first get here is an impressively big pair of banks and ditches, known as the double dykes. These are the main defensive feature for the settlement. They run north to south and cut across the narrowest point here.
Behind the banks is a field called Barn field in which there is a large bowl barrow in pretty good condition.
The next feature is Warren hill which is 90 metres in height and has steep sea cliffs on one side. It is a steep climb all the way round this hill, and it is an easily defensible position. On the hill there are several round barrows, the most easy to see was a low bowl type, gorse covered another 2 low ones.

A medium sized hillfort just inside the New Forest national park. Its in reasonable condition for the most part although it is cut through by a track leading to houses.
This is a univallte hillfort enclosing five acres. The bank is at its highest on the eastern side, as the west side slopes steeply away.

A large bowl barrow on heathland on the edge of the New Forest. This is in good condition with a complete outer bank and ditch. It has a flattish top and appears to have been excavated at some point. Its scheduled monument number is 20293.
The barrow is 25 metres in diameter and just over 2 metres high, the surrounding ditch is nearly 2 metres wide.
About three hundred metres to the west is a small bowl barrow. It is on OS maps, but not marked as a scheduled monument on M.A.G.I.C.

Copney Stone Circles are very impressive. There seems to be 2 smaller circles (about 16m in diameter) and a 3rd larger one (about 22m diameter) which is only one quarter exposed. A stone row of about 9 stones leads off one of the smaller circles. The circles are stone filled with a central cairn. The central cairn has a stone lined hole in the centre, one of the circles has a cap stone at the base. Like spokes in a wheel, the stones radiate from the centre out to the edge in rows of a bout 7 stones. As you can see by the images it is very over grown and some stones are extremely weathered. Obviously there has been some movement of the stones so it is hard to make any definate observations. Apparently there are another 6 stone circles beneath the bog yet to be uncovered.