Latest Fieldnotes

Forecast was good , had to be home to write out Machine Head’s “Imperium” for a student and then watch Celtic . So decided on a non archaeo day out on Ben Vrackie the wee hill that sits above Pitlochry ,time to nip up and down and get everything done , nothing archaeo except the two old goats that haunt the summit . Sadly /luckily on the the early part of the route there is a land rover track and I spotted a stone right next to it , uncovered it and there were some cup marks and even a ring , bit more scouting around and found another two , all unrecorded by this time Ben Vrackie was out of the picture so went over to Balnacraig found another then a further two later at Upper Ballachandy . I have only posted the most glamorous pair .

Went to Wet Withins again today (27th August 2007). It was easier to find this time, the paths seem more defined.
Well worth a visit. Main reason for posting is that we had GPS and tried to get a point but there was no signal anywhere near the stones.
Also, someone had been there quite recently and left lots of cigarette buts and remnants of a fire in the centre of the circle. Cheers.

A truly beautiful and magical place.

25/8/07
Leitrim bullan rests flush with the ground at the back of the cemetery, lost and ignored. There’s two massive army caterpillar diggers parked up about 200 metres away. These have been in action near the stone and you can see the track impressions on the stone. So, it’s only a small, single basin bullaun, less than a metre square. It’s probably not that important in the bigger scheme of things – who cares?

25/8/07
It’s hard not to stop by here when I’m in the vicinity. Late August is probably not the best time of year though, what with all the summer growth. The track to the main 2 bullauns is worn, but not hugely; somebody visits these powerful stones now and again. These 2 could easily get overgrown and ‘lost’.
Finding the double and the single in the forestry plantation to the east is a challenge. Head high heather blocks you. The fifth one, a double, broken through its larger basin, is moss-covered; there’s also grass coming up through the fracture.
If the little cottage beside this place ever came up for sale…

Although not as impressive or large as the nearby bank barrow on St. Martin’s down to the west, a pair of banks so close to each other is a rarity. The eastern most lies at the head of a small north facing valley and is orientated west/east parallel to the ridge of the hill. It shows itself as a low bank with a ditch either side of it.
The more westerly of the two is at a slight angle to the ridge and is much more visible, standing about two metres at it’s highest point, it too has a ditch on both sides of it.
Perhaps the most interesting barrow on the site is to the west of the banks. It is a medium sized bowl barrow with a large sarsen stone on top of it. The stone is a concretion of pebbles very much like the stones which make up the Hellstone cromlech a few miles to the south of this site.
There are various other barrows to the west and east of this site and it is of course directly north of the poor lot barrows.

We parked on the grass near two gates on the lane up to the hill . It was a long walk up but well worth it the views are awsome. Unlike the other forts round here (theres about 6)it isn’t on the highest ground but is on a hilltop surrounded by mountains .Entrances are on the west and east , west goes down onto the vale ,east goes up into the mountains.
There are three sets of ramparts, up here away from agriculture the defences are well preserved.
Two thousand years ago, on the valley floor these fortified mountains must have been far more than intimidating, I wonder if the palisades were painted, for that final scary touch
no-one could move a muscle round here without being seen from somewhere.

I have to agree with Scubi – the elder tree is getting huge and the right hand stone is completely inaccessible behind brambles. I feel like something ought to be done before the whole lot disappears under a mound of vegetation. Not that I want a pristine site devoid of plants, but this is starting to go too far. The big slab is still relatively clear and touchable though, with its lovely pinky colour and soft dips. The size of the stones makes this place really Monumental.

As I was walking up from Little Sodbury, I suddenly realised what a racket I was making – I came here for a bit of peace, right? – so I made more effort to move quietly. It turned out this was totally futile, as when I found myself in the fort’s ditches, all I could hear was the reverberation of shotguns. I snuck along the ditch wondering what would happen if I stuck my head above the banks. Actually it was only some people clay-pigeon shooting inside the fort. But it did made me think about the (prehistoric) advantages of sneaking up invisibly to a hillfort, but the disadvantages of being totally ignorant of what might be waiting inside.

If you only see this fort from the main road, you’d think there was no view at all – but actually the land drops away on the west side, and you can see for miles and miles, out into Wales. Because I’ve never understood this, I’ve always thought of it as a ‘little fort’ but seeing the double banks and ditch made me realise what a mammoth effort went into building this place. Like Moss, this, together with the violence of the guns, made me think about the nice and not so nice things that might have happened here. But (as I ate my crisps) my thoughts turned to more everyday arrangements, like what the inhabitants ate and drank, and what they might have carried their own packed lunch in.

I walked northwards through the camp centre and I wanted to walk back round along the east side – but I could not find the path round the back of the buildings. All signs were mysteriously missing (except the cotswold way ones) and even brandishing my map I didn’t fancy an earful from one of the posh house owners. So I gave it a miss – but it’s probably easier from other direction.

Visited here today on a gloriously sunny Bank Holiday weekend.

Access is fairly straighforward. On the road just sough of the camp, it’s possible to pull in by a marked bridleway. Follow the bridleway two fields north, then turn right. The camp is laid out in front of you, enclosed by a fence and gate.

Beware if sheep are in the enclosure (as they were today), as the gate does not meet properly, and it’s not possibile to secure it shut – remember the country code?

The camp itself is as JackSprat says, quite impressive in its size. The bank and ditch are still very well defined for the most part.

A most worthwhile stop on what was a pleasant BH drive.

My son Eric and me were given the opportunity to go to N.Wales again and jumped at the chance, as it was a nice day we headed for the Berwyn mountains and Carnedd Wen.
We parked on the B4391 and walked through a recently felled wood through 3 gates then turned right up the hill. It took a little time to find the round cairn mostly ‘cause I didn’t realise
it was right on top of the hill. The cairn is very strange, it appears to have a wall round it, at times 5-6 feet thick with entrances at the north and south, the south entrance has what looks like wind shelters built at the end of the wall. I pondered long to determine that this was really what I was looking for, it was in the right place and after rereading my misc post can safely say it was it, a strange cairn indeed, was the retaining wall a recent addition? or an original feature?, the blocks of stone on the bottom of the outside of the wall were really big. And so close to the outcrop/earthfast boulder with fantastic views of the mountains both near and far.
I was really glad we took the time to find this cairn, it was very different.

I went clomping through the heather and peat trying to find this, a “circular cairn of granite and some quartz (diam. 9m, H 0.5-1m)” but failed to find it.

The western cairn of a pair said to be 450m apart, follow the track all the way from the cul de sac at S947978. Ask permission at the farmhouse as the track, a right of way, crosses this farmers land. He’s very friendly!
The track follows the treeline for some way then cuts north into a high meadow studded with gleaming quartz. Keep going and the cairn appears around a few bends that lead you east.
The cairn has been robbed out but the rubble that remains shows quite a few flat slabs. It’s roughly circular and about 18 metres in diameter. The views onto Church mountain, Corriebracks, Sugarloaf, over to Keadeen at the south, and south-west into south Wicklow and Carlow are fantastic, probably the best reason for coming here!

This is a very important site in Dorset, being as it is a complete set of earthworks consisting of a farmstead and celtic field system. The most distinctive part of the site is a round enclosure not unlike a large disc barrow in form. This consists of a single bank and ditch. There is an entrance with a sunken trackway with a bank either side of it leading into the circular enclosure not unlike “banjo” type enclosures seen on Salisbury plain and elsewhere. These features are almost always referred to as farms, they often have excavated signs of a round house and other structures within their interiors.
The rest of the site is criss-crossed by the low banks of square shaped celtic fields. Also there are four deep depressions at various points around the site which appear to be ponds, indeed the most prominent appears to have a double ditched channel leading into it. This particular “pond” also has a bank at it’s lowest point.
At a place south of the circular feature is much larger bank and ditch than those marking the field edges, being about two metres in height.

The more we visit Gelli, the more it seems that this place is at the centre of a complete ancient ritual landscape. It’s very unusual in its riverside location – althoug it is possible that that uniqueness is a property of time rather than the tomb. Who knows what other burial sites have occupied places such as these but been eradiciated by the presence of people for millenia? It might be that more tombs survive in the uplands because the land is less obviously valuable but still, there is something strange and magical here which make you wonder whether the place itself was significant. It’s absolutely beautiful of course and well located in so many ways, but perhaps also it served as a focus for the communities around and that’s why it seems psychogeographically to be at the centre of a collection of sites including maen. hir, maen bach, cefn gwynnerd, Ty Newydd, crugiau merched etc.

Cova del Alarb is in the Alberes Mountains to the south of Argeles-Sur-Mer. It is quite easily reached by leaving the town and going under the motorway towards the Chateau de Valmy.

The path up from here is clearly marked as is the position of the dolmen when it is reached. It is around 10 km to the east of Balma del Moro.

The views from the path up the hill and from the dolmen itself are superb, making it well worth a visit if in the Languedoc-Rousillon area.

Balma del Moro is at around 600 metres in the Alberes Mountains on the Col- del Pomers to the south of Laroque des Albere .This is in the Languedoc-Rousillon area. It can be reached by pathways , which are clearly marked , being in France, from either Laroque des Albere or Sorede. Markings on a board nearby put it at between 4000 and 2000 B.C.
The climb up is quite strenuous but the views and the dolmen are worth it. Both of the villages have some fine bars which we found very relaxing after the walk.

Two years ago ,almost to the day I found seven unrecorded marked rocks .Today it was only five new ones with one particularly photogenic . I’ll post the older pics soon .

There are two fabulous reconstructed crannogs here at Craggaunowen. I hoped they would be a further distance into the lake but are actually only a few metres from the mainland.

This portal tomb is located in Craggaunowen Folk Park near Sixmilebridge. I believe it is signposted from Shannon / Bunratty.
This portal tomb is so neat looking that at first I thought it was a fake. Seemingly it is genuine.
It is about 1.25m high and the cap stone is triangular making for a strange shaped chamber.

This standing stone is located in Craggaunowen folk park in Co. Clare.
It is about 1.5m high. It is mentioned on the information leaflet that they give out but is not on the OS Map.

Fields should not be this muddy at this time of year (august 07) but that aside, I was well surprised to see that this has its own little fógra. I’d say this is a bowl barrow, but with very little evidence of a ditch. It’s about 10 metres in diameter and rises to about 2 and a half metres high. Most of the views surrounding here are blocked by field boundaries and trees.

I took a wander down to the stones after checking out the yew and the cupmarked stone in the churchyard.
In looks as though the field is being left for hay and all three rings are currently pretty overgrown.
It’s a crackin’ spot on the valley floor, I guess these rings would have made quite an impression on prehistoric visitors to this beautiful Glen.

Frustratingly this large hillfort south of Eggardon hill is surrounded by foot paths and open access land but very little of it can be seen without going on to private land.
What can be seen is the southern outer rampart and two barrows to the west, on the hillslope of the valley which the hillfort runs down. The bank which can be seen looks in good condition and at this point is about two and a half metres in height.
The nearby round barrows are low in height and the more southerly is smaller in size than the northern one. Their condition gives the appearance of having been ploughed or dug into at some time. One of these barrows according to L.V.Grinsell has a five foot long sarsen stone on it’s top, although I haven’t seen it personally I have seen a recent photo of it still in situ.
This site is well worth a visit for the views of the surrounding hills and the nearby coast. To the north is Eggardon and to the south Abbotsbury castle and to the west is Shipton hill.

This lovely little stone, tucked away in the corner of the gated burial ground is a bit of an unexpected delight. It’s nice that the stone is still within the shadow of the yew tree. A lovely spot.

The terrier and I recently spent a couple of days camping on the shores of Loch Tay.
I could see by the map that getting to this site was going to be a bit of a struggle but Tiompans lovely pictures and Stan Beckensall’s description of the site in his lovely book Circles of Stone had this marked down as a must-see.
I parked up in a gap on the roadside at approx NN697422 and then passed through the field gate onto the steep hillside. The contours fall pretty close together here and the ground is pretty wet. It took the terrier and I a good bit of too’ing and fro’ing to pick our way through the chest-high bracken and shin-deep bogs to climb the steepest part of the hill. Eventually we reached the final stone wall, the slope eased off a little and the walking became a little easier.
As we worked our way up the slope I could see a group of people standing roughly where I had worked out that the carvings should be, just my luck I thought, having slogged up the hill to have my peace disturbed by a bunch of folk shooting rabbits or some such nonsense.
As I moved up the hill the figures began to take shape “that fella doesn’t half look like George” I thought, “that other fella is the dead pop of Stan Beckensall, blimey there’s Richard Bradley!” I began to think that perhaps the pot of expresso that I’d drunk before setting off was having some bizarre hallucinogenic effect. As I got closer I could see the bloke who looked like George squinting and smiling at me.

Basically what I’d stumbled upon was the tail-end of an excavation by Richard Bradley and his team with George, Stan with Paul Frodsham paying a visit. Here was me on my first visit to Perthshire, I pick an obscure upland site to visit and stumble across this jolly bunch.
As for the site itself, the excavations were coming to an end, Richard Bradley busied himself ensuring that the recording and back-filling was all going to plan. Stan kindly showed me around the site including some new carvings. I was fortunate enough to be able to lift the turf off some of the known carvings and basically drink the whole thing in.

From my point of view it was a real privilege to be able to sit down in the landscape and discuss archaeology and rock art with such lovely folk as George and Stan.
Beautiful rock art in a fantastic landscape shared with excellent company. Who could ask for more?