Latest Fieldnotes

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.

I have now managed to take a picture of this barely visible site. It is north of the hillfort in a barrow cemetery of mixed types. The long barrow is very denuded by ploughing and can only be seen in certain light conditions. Grinsell thought it “a doubtful long barrow” English Heritage have done a geophysical survey and found ditches and a bank consistent with a long barrow.

Another ploughed round barrow north east of Little Bredy. Grinsell gives it the number 18 and said it was 30 feet across by 7 feet high, I very much doubt its that high now. There are other barrows in the vicinity and more will appear as I see them.

This single round barrow sits on top of Creech Barrow Hill. To the south east is Stone Hill Down long barrow.
The name incidentally means hill in three different languages :
Creech = cruic = celtic
Barrow = beorh = saxon
Hill = hille = norse.
Pendle hill in Lancashire is similar and there are others with names for hill in multiple languages or dialects.

There appear to be three bowl barrows and a long barrow here. I could only see two and one of those had recently been heavily ploughed. The long barrow is below the ridge of the hill and could not be seen from the road.

This is a nice set of five bowl and one very large pond barrow. The round barrows increase in size as you move east along the footpath. Three of them are in the field to the south of the wood. The barrow in the wood is to the immediate north of the pond barrow and appears to mirror it. This is the same as the pond barrow at Came Woods, is this a local thing or does this occur elsewhere?
To the immediate south of these barrows are another set of four which includes a double bowl barrow.
The pond barrow is 65 feet in diameter and 1 1/2 feet deep. The biggest bowl barrow is 30 feet across and 10 feet tall.

This group of barrows are to the east of the Poor Lot group. The Broad stone is just below them in the valley. Despite the name there appear to be five or six barrows in the group and are sited on the false crest of a hill. They vary in size and appear to be in reasonable condition, this area abounds with barrows of all kinds.
Below the ridge can be seen the bank of a pond barrow close to the A35.

I didn’t expect to find this stone and the official guidance is confusing. What you will find is an irregular parallelogram set into the base of the left-hand pillar before the doors of the town hall in High Street and set within an inscribed ring. Couldn’t see it as in anyways bluish myself. The local museum lies not many yards away, slighly nearer Inverness Castle than the stone (a lovely museum with several examples of Pictish Symbol Stones, alas a little late to go on TMA).

This is the fourth time I tried looking for this panel. Somehow I always ended up arriving late in the day and with fading light levels and plenty of discouragement from the people in the house next door, I never managed to locate it.

This time I beat my way into the wildly overgrown disused graveyard with my tripod and began inspecting the fallen gravestone, mostly barely squared off rocks. After half an hour searching the small clearing I was just about to give up. Wading through the waist-high thorn bushes, my feet kept hitting larger and larger stones, one stone in particular had a large flat triangular face and more hacking revealed a faint arc formed by dirt resting in a groove.

Five minutes of jungle clearing later, the full face and some nice deep cup marks could be seen. With a little side flash, a rather wonderful panel appeared on the camera screen.

Fetteresso is the site of a Bronze Age cairn near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Numerous sepulchral urns have been recovered from the tomb. Evidence of a prehistoric cursus also has been discovered on the site from aerial photography. The site has a further burial discovery from the Early Middle Ages, and has moreover been developed by a Late Middle Ages monument, Fetteresso Castle.

AREA PREHISTORY The local area contains considerable Neolithic and Bronze Age history including standing stones at Kempstone Hill, Raedykes and locations further north along the Causey Mounth. Bronze Age finds have been also been made at Cantlayhills, (Society) Ury and Spurryhillock It is not unlikely that the Elsick Mounth ancient trackway leading north was an early connection between this locus and the important Mesolithic and Neolithic settlements (Balbridie, Ardlair, Bucharn) along the southern Deeside. The Elsick Mounth was certainly a major route between these north-south destinations during conflicts between the Romans and Caladonians in the first century AD. (Hogan)

SITE DETAILS Fetteresso has yielded a number of urns from its Bronze Age cairn, but whether they were principally for cinerary or food vessels is not clear. (Proceedings) A sizable flat granitic stone overlay the pit itself (RCAHMS) One of the most ornate finds is a cordoned urn found in the top of a glacial mound: “inverted; decorated on its upper cordon with horizontal lines and large triangles; the inner rim also evinced decoration. The contents of this cordoned urn contained elements of cremated bone, but no ashes. A stone pavement was discovered near the cairn, on which, from the residue of ashes, it has been suggested that bodies had been burnt.

In the year 2000 an aerial photograph revealed a cropmark of a possible ring-ditch not far from the Bronze Age cist (Air photography). The cursus clearly lay between two concentric arcs that run along the apex of a low lying ridge on a shelf at an altitude of 55 metres. (Greig) Neolithic cursi in Britain may have been used for ceremonial competitions.

Nearby the Bronze Age cairn has been discovered a later (probably Iron Age) tomb which has long been called Malcolm’s Mount, after the presumed burial of Malcolm I; although this find is clearly an ancient site, its provenance is disputed regarding the relationship to Malcolm.

ENVIRONMENT Situated near the perennial clear flowing Carron Water with its freshwater fishery and at the southern edge of the primeval Fetteresso Forest, this site’s appeal to prehistoric peoples is transparent. It is also proximate to the North Sea coastline and natural harbour at Stonehaven, for exploitation of marine resources and sea access; moreover, the slight buffering distance from the coast inhibits unwanted aspects of sea influence including saline mist and some of the ever-present local haar. Fetteresso is at an unusual position immediately south of the Highland Boundary Fault. As such it is within the fertile soils south of the Fault, but near to the coveted granitic stones north of the Fault.

REFERENCES
* Society for the Benefit of the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy (1845) ‘’The New Statistical Account of Scotland’’, W. Blackwood and Sons publisher
* C. Michael Hogan (2007) ‘’Elsick Mounth’’, The Megalithic Portal https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18037
* Proceedings of the Society.of Antiquaries.of Scotland. vi, 88; ‘’Scotland before the Scots’’, 108
* RCAHMS, Royal Commission of Archaeological and Historical Monuments of Scotland website (2007)
* Air Photography (2000) Aerial reconnaissance AAS/00/08/CT/73-80, flown 16 June, 2000
* M. Greig, (2000 ) ‘’Sites recorded during summer aerial reconnaissance, Aberdeenshire’’,Discovery Excav Scot, 1, 2000, 7

There are images of this included in the entry for the Dorset Cursus (north to Martin’s down) but I think it deserves an entry of its own. I can understand why its used as there is nothing to see of the cursus end, having been totally ploughed out.
I have asked the question before as to whether this is a bank barrow, although marked as two long barrows on O.S. maps. I thought the similarity between this and Long Bredy bank barrow could give it the classification of bank barrow.
Having done some further reading / internet searching it seems I am not alone in considering it so. R.C.H.M.E. do list it as separate barrows, it is listed as Pentridge 21 and 22 but do question the separateness of the two. They also include it as a bank barrow in their Monument Class Descriptions listing.
Grinsell denotes it as Pentridge IIa/b, possibly hedging his bets. R. Loveday in “Inscribed across the land” includes it in his list of bank barrows. He gives the dimensions as 149m. in length and 20m in width. He does say that it was lengthened, as were both Maiden Castle (twice) and Long Bredy.

The last time I came here it was high summer with T-shirts, so seeing as I was in the vicinity I thought I’d pop in. The best thing about a winter visit is the big stone is not covered by the tree next to it. The big stone is almost half buried inside the church yard and its true size is only apparent on the outside. If this was a stone circle and I believe it was, then the Christianizers didn’t do a good job (see Grey Yauds stone circle – you cant ‘cause it’s completely gone).

Even though I had seen Kammer’s picture of the chamber (with dad for scale) I was still surprised at how dinky it was, also those dastardly black crap bags are still there obviously the local farmer hasn’t got an artists eye, or just doesn’t appreciate where he lives. If you don’t mind a bit of rough ground there are two places to park. The cairn is still fairly big and the chamber capstone looks really precarious propped up on a pile of stones thats squiffy to say the least, I wouldn’t be getting into it for a minute never mind a whole night even if it did make me a poet, the dolmen on Tal y fan boasts similar and is much roomier. A climb up the hill right next to the cairn is worth it with great views out to the coast.

One of three Maen Llwyds in the area, the other two are further east. I liked this one, if only to sit next to it and watch the curtains twitching. There can’t be many standing stones you can see from the living room, I think I’ll move here.

Only a short walk from the car, follow the footpath through a farm, once your in a field the stone is in the next door field, but a fence must be jumped. The stone leans to the south-west and is maybe three feet tall, it isn’t on top of the hill or it would have terrific views, only the western horizon is visible.