Latest Fieldnotes

Owned by Lord Anglesey... so that’s why we were made to feel so unwelcome by some bloke with shotgun. Admittedly he didn’t say or do anything, but I was glad to get back in the car.

On a dull day last August (06) we’d driven back down the lane from Bryn Celli Ddu & straight across the A4080. Turn 1st left through a gateway (well it didn’t say ‘Private Road’) and I parked at the junction some 500 yards further on. On foot straight ahead on the clear path through the gate for about half a mile on the edge of some woods, and you can see the very large chambered cairn/barrow in the field on your right.

There are trees on top of the barrow, and it looks very forlorn, but its size alone (as big as West Kennett) suggests former glory. One broken down entrance still exists half way along the bottom side but no way in.

On our return to the car we were watched from the safety of his garden by the shotgun bloke. I would like to go back in drier weather to get a better look at the site, but need to persuade June & Sam they weren’t gonna get shot!

This is not a double bank as I put in my miscellaneous entry, but a large single rampart with a deep ditch on its east side. The rampart is about twenty feet in height and at its deepest the ditch is ten feet deep. It is about 250 yards long and is to the west of a complex of cross dykes and ancient sunken trackways. To the northeast Rawlesbury castle can be seen and views across the landscape must stretch to many tens of miles.
I wanted to visit the Dorsetshire gap which is just below to the east, but chickened out when I saw the field leading to it was full of young steers. This will have to wait for another day.

There is no sign of the cursus at this point, despite the markings on O.S. maps. I agree with treehouse that the long barrow here looks like one continuous barrow with a gap in it. It appears very much like Long Bredy bank barrow, the gap being at a similar place, i.e about a third of the length from the northern end, where the trees end.It cannot be much shorter in length. What the difference between a long barrow and a bank barrow I have yet to see satisfactorily explained.

Another visit to this varied site which is still the border between Hampshire and Dorset. This time I was interested in the southern end around Blagdon hill and the junction with Grim’s ditch. At this point there are two pairs of round barrows either side of the dyke.
It is here that Bokerley is at its most impressive, the bank and ditch are at their highest and deepest at this place. This would be a major civil engineering feat now and must have taken huge effort in pre-history. In length it is the equivalent of several large hillforts. It enabled the romanised tribe of Dorset to remain largely untouched by the post roman saxon invaders until about 700 c.e.

This is an interesting site as it’s at a junction of Bokerley dyke and Grim’s ditch. The barrows are on a show jumping ring and are in very nice condition, one is large and the other is a tiny round barrow, right next to the ditch.
At this point Grim’s ditch runs into Dorset from Hampshire, going straight through Bokerley dyke.

This is a really nice pear shaped long barrow. It is to the south of the eastern terminal of the great Dorset Cursus. It is to the west of Bokerley dyke and is oriented north/south.

These round barrows are to the east of Bokerley dyke, three are in a group next to part of Grim’s ditch. The three graduate in size with the largest south and the smallest north. I saw another single bowl barrow at the northern edge of the down, there are more on the map, but I didn’t see them this time.

This is a site that would bear further investigation. The top of Barretstown Hill is surrounded by a ditch and bank close on a kilometre in circumference. The bank and ditch are overgrown with hawthorn trees.
An archaeological survey of Co. Kildare mentions four round barrows here but it’s hard to make them out. Are they inside the enclosure? Would that be likely, presuming that the enclosure was a habitation site? They’re marked on the map as being at the south end of the top of the hill and this puts them inside. However, there are a great many earthworks to the north of the hill, scooped out quarries with small, barrow-like mounds that may be of a more modern vintage.
Barretstown Hill is the highest point for miles around and would have been easily defended. So where are the barrows?

What seems to be a very common type of standing stone around here, it’s about one and a half metres tall, very square from its base to almost its top where it seems to have been broken.

There are 6 barrows marked on the map just west of Killucan. They range across 4 townlands: Sarsfieldstown, Rathwire Upper, Lisnabin and Rathnarrow. The large one depicted here is just over the fence beside the R156 in Sarsfieldstown. It’s the biggest barrow I’ve ever seen, flat-topped, about 45 metres long, 10 metres across and rises to about 2 metres. Erosion from cattle grazing has exposed some of the mound. From its top you can clearly see the much smaller barrow in Rathwire Upper about 400 metres to the north-north-east.
The other four barrows are not visible from here, 3 on a spur between 2 hillocks in Lisnabin and Newdown at Rathnarrow and 1 on the peak of Lisnabin itself.

I’d heard of the recent fire attack at the stones, so decided to pop up and take a look at the damage for myself.

I’d arrived early, so as to avoid the tourists, and had the circle to myself for all of 5 minutes. I nearly cried when I saw the aftermath of the damage, both in the circle and to the King Stone sign.

At least 4 inches of wood ash surrounded the base of the stone at the right of the entrance to the circle, and the entire top was blackened, presumably where the tyre was hung and filled with wood. Looking at the ashes, it was plain that the wood used had been brought deliberately for the attack, rather than just using saplings etc from the adjoining brush, as the wood that hadn’t been fully burnt was worked, like short strips of 10mmx2mm. This wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, but had obviously been carefully planned.

Across the way, the cast iron sign by the King Stone had also been attacked, looking like it had been set to with a gemmy bar, as the iron was split and buckled.

Luckily, it looks as if the Whispering Knights were left alone.

I’ve tried to understand the mindset of people who would do such a pointless thing. I’ve failed. Maybe it was because there was only £7 in the collection box that they also raided?

Apparently the police aren’t particularly interested in following this one through, presumably because there’s so little to go on. Which means the perps may be encouraged to come back and have another go? I sincerely hope not. Very sad.

This was a long, arduous trek, began at Raheenakit and along the Wicklow Way. The forest tracks are fine, but the last 80 metres ascent through the heather, gorse and tumbledown mess nearly did me in.

The cairn is being reclaimed by mother nature, with it’s lower sections covered in peat. It’s very roughly 20 metres in diameter with cairn rubble showing in a few places at its top.

The gorgeous views on a sunny mid-September evening made the trek worthwhile: south-west to the Blackstairs, north to Keadeen and Lybagh, and south-east into Wexford. I could see the sea off Gorey. Directly west you can see forever.

I was able to pick out the wedge tomb at Moylisha to the south-east. Descending down through the ruined pine plantation I went arse over tit and nearly broke me wrist.

If there is a standing stone here it’s buried deep in impenetrable pine woods.

A stone may have once stood on Cullentragh mountain, but alas no more. There were one or two candidates for the former standing stone but I could scarcely be bothered after the hike and the disappointment. In fact, I’m really very doubtful that there ever was a standing stone here. However, the views up here are stunning.

This is a substantial barrow, which is almost hidden in the undergrowth of a small copse, I walked past it twice with a map in my hand. It is on an east to west axis and is about 60 feet long (actually 58 metres as I have since discovered) and 10 – 12 feet high. It’s near neighbour at Chettle house is a better bet to visit, you can see it for a start. The survival of this barrow between two heavily ploughed fields must be down to it’s large size.

It’s really very nice here. I’ve put off a visit for a long time because I wasn’t sure about the access: it looks like one of those sly long dashes from a footpath, with the potential of shotgun pellets in the rear. However, fear not, because the local farmer(s) make the footpaths very clear, and there is actually a permissive bridleway to the barrow (from ST810532). What nice people.

To me, the obvious thing in the landscape as I sat at the middle of the barrow, was Cley Hill on the sw-ish horizon. Of course, certain modern features do tend to make you look this way (the chestnut trees and the hedge behind you, the field margin to the left all block the view), so it could be irrelevant, but it didn’t feel it.

The stones are a soft orangey pink, flat, and pocked with tiny holes on their narrow edges. The Countryside Stewardship notice about the path mentions ‘nine stones’ but there are certainly more than nine.

I think the atmosphere would make it easy to stay hours here.

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Looking for more information on the web, I see there’s supposed to be a ‘geocache’ here. Well if I’d known (because the site was beautifully litter free on the surface) I’d have dug it up and blown it to smithereens. So that’s something to do next time. Miserable, unappreciative dimwits.

AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT REALLY MAKES ME CROSS?? The git who left it there copied MY cheesy phrase from this website.
geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=07f8c21b-bcc6-4edb-ac19-91a47a85eb80
It makes you want to give up doesn’t it. TMA is surely an attempt to make people value their environment and prehistory. What can you do if some people use that information for making a mess of the place? The box apparently contains golf tees and ‘dinos’ and all sorts of shite. Why do people leave this 21st century detritus at these special places?

Finally I have found the time to visit this Devon hillfort. It’s a bit odd in it’s design as it seems to be split into two parts. The northern two thirds is a conventional enclosure, i.e. ramparts and ditches surrounding a large open interior on the ridge of a hill. The unusual part is the southern third which runs down the western facing slope of the hill, the east rampart runs along the crest of the hill and turns down the hill.
Another curious feature is at the north end and appears to be two large mounds, a bit like long barrows, which are separate from the main ditches and banks. Unfortunately they were so covered in gorse and bracken they could not be properly investigated, this gives me the excuse to go back in the winter for another look.

I really like this interesting little hillfort, I decided to visit it again because it looked similar in size and shape to Mistleberry fort which I had been to yesterday. This is in good condition and complete, unlike Mistleberry which is really knocked about and I believe incomplete.
The southern entrance is a great feature and I have included two photos of it from this visit.
Since Pure joy visited, this is now well sign posted from all directions, well done Devon council, I wish Dorset would do the same.

Incorrectly marked on the other side of the road (or maybe there is another panel there which I failed to locate), this large stone sits in a field beside a large B&B (’The Milestone’) and can be seen from the road and the large standing stone that now sits in the garden of the B&B.

It has been suggested that the stone once stood upright and on first sight it does look like a fallen menhir. Another smaller stone lies a few paces away so it may have made a two-stone row, another possibility is the other large standing stones close by all formed part of a longer stone row that would have been very impressive.

The stone is arrow shaped and most of the markings are near the broad end with just a single cup and ring near the point. The stone is about 4-5m in length, 2m wide and 1.5m high as it presently sits.

If the carvings were done while or before the stone stood, the radiating grooves and gutters (parrallel with each other) would have run across rather than up or down the stone which seems ‘wrong’. As the stone now sits, they run down the sloping surface from the cup and rings which are mostly along the top ridge and part of the way down the slope.

A small round univallate hillfort in woodland to the north of Sixpenny Handley. This is little known and I suspect little visited, it’s in dense deciduous woodland. The tree roots are damaging the banks and a large amount of badger setts aren’t helping either.
This fort is only about three quarters complete and appears to be unfinished originally. The missing ditch and rampart is mostly on the west side. On this side the ditch can be seen as a series of round pits, lessening in depth as they move south. It looks like the spoil from these holes would have been thrown up to make the rampart, which peters out at this point also. This looks like Ladle hill in Hampshire but only in it’s partial incompleteness on the west side.
Although quite remote it is easy to visit as it is next to an R.S.P.B. nature reserve with a good car park and is well served with footpaths. There are many other sites of interest very close to this site.

This is a large long barrow in the small village of Chettle. It is to the south east of another long barrow which O.S. calls Chettle long barrow.
This one is about a hundred metres long and about 3 – 4 metres high. It looks to be in good condition, but once on top of it’s northern end there is a large hole, which appears to be damage done in an old excavation. I will visit the other one in the near future, I ran out of time today.

Having spent best part of a week in the village, I got a few opportunities to examine the various chunks of oolitic stone dotted about the village. It’s difficult to avoid thoughts that these could so easily have once been part of something Rollrighty.

The larger stones forming the kerb of the church looked to me as if they were once fewer, larger stones that had been split to be the right size for the kerb. There are definite feather marks, and the more angular edges Jane mentions seemed to me to be the bits where larger stones had been split. Some of the others in the kerb are just as gnarly as the Rollrights themselves, making it easy to imagine them as part of a monument.

There are also a couple of the roadside stones that bore slight circular depressions that if they appeared on fell sandstone in Northumberland, I would have no hesitation in declaring them cupmarks. But as these Churchill stones are oolitic, its not so easy to say. Though the presence of the possible cups in Salford might lend a tiny sliver of credence to the possibility that they are artificial, and not just statistically inevitable natural cup-like formations.

Overall, I’m in agreement that these stones really do look like they could have been part of the circle that Hamish says was once down the way at Sarsgrove wood.

A set of three round barrows, the first of which is about 200 yards to the east of Abbotsbury castle. The western most is in poor condition and has been dug into, it is next to a second world war royal observer corp bunker. The middle one of the group is a nice medium sized bowl barrow overlooking St Catherine’s chapel and the fleet lagoon behind Chesil beach. The third, most easterly is similar to the central one and is about a quarter of a mile from the White hill barrow cemetery to the east.

A small, low, rather scruffy looking bowl barrow looking out over the channel. It has been badly excavated, at least once in the past. It is on national trust land near the village of Burton Bradstock.

A large low bowl barrow on the top of a 90 metre hill. Maiden castle is a mile to the west and in plain sight. The barrow is covered with trees and has two small round barrows either side of it.