From on top of this rock you can clearly see the standing stone of Longstone.
themodernantiquarian.com/site/7744/longstone.html
The Rock itself is a massive natural landmark and this combined with its views of the surrounding hills and the fact there is a church dedicated to St. Bridget beside make me think that it may have had some importance dating back to pre-christain times.
There are 5 standing stones clearly shown on the OS map to the norht of Lough Gur.
They are two far apart to be called a stone row I thing and may be more of an avenue.
Eogan in the North Munster Project suggests they may be leading towards a ford on the river camoge or may be a territorial marker between two different areas.
The stones arent particulary dramatic all smaller than 0.5m high.
The fourth stone is missing and talking to a local guy he told me there was a deal made over its removal.
The North Munster Project shows a few more stones to the south of this that arent on the OS map and I will try and investigate these also.
I think they may be a route from the ceremonial Lough Gur to the defensive hill-fort at Knockroe.
A lovely stone row and its just in off the road so access is easy.
The tallest stone (beside the tree) is maybe 1m high while the stone at the western end is a lovely craggy rock.
I had this on my list to visit for a long time because I thought Cnoc Firinne may be visible from here.
However the row seems more to be leaning towards the mountains to the south, the Ballyhouras I think.
This site is close to Friarstown hill. However there is no sign of a stone here. There is a blackthorn thicket in the spot where the stone should be but it clearly isnt in the thicket.
This standing stone is about 1.5m high by about 1.5m wide. It may be white-washed though I wasnt sure. It it can actually be seen from the road although it is about 1km in from where I parked. There is a spot on the road where it is only about 300m in but parking is very dangerous here.
The standing stone itself is on a hill with about five ring-forts marked on the map. Two I could clearly see on the day. I read in a book by a guy called Tom O’Connor that this was the capital of Munster at one stage and called Teamhair Luachra.
I dont know how trustworthy the reference is though.
This standing stone is no longer here.
It would have stood about 2km to the south of Cnoc Greine.
I spoke to a local man who said that it was toppled because people thought it could have fallen on people or animals! It was then broken up and removed.
It seems to have happened within living memory. I should have asked some more questions of him at the time.
Three fields in from the really rather good farm park. Great selection of ride-ons for kids.
According to Frances Lynch (Prehistoric Anglesey 1970, 167):
“More is known about the burials close to the large stones at Henblas, Llangristiolus, but a good deal of confusion remains. The stones in question, which are huge glacial erratics, were long considered to be an artificial structure, some monstrous megalithic tomb, and have naturally attracted a good deal of legend and speculation. It seems clear that there were originally other stones,” (see Rhiannon below) “probably more erratics, in the vicinity, and that in removing these an urn containing burnt bones and a ring of blue glass were found. Even though the stones are a natural feature, this burial need not be doubted for they are a very remarkable phenomenon which must have attracted the attention and admiration of a people used to setting up meini hirion and other large stone monuments”
Those who venture west of the Hurlers will come across these two cairns over near the small engine house known as Silver Valley. From here it is a pleasant walk towards the Craddock Moor sites.
One of the most featurless hills on Bodmin Moor, best known for its man made tin streaming remains that encircle it. It is a large rounded lump to the east of Roughtor and Brown Willy best approached from the ford at Bowithick.
I last ventured on to its barren slopes about 20 years ago and my memory was of feeling quite disorientated by the lack of landmarks.
Today, 12 Aug 07, there is a good clear sky and plenty of daylight to let me explore the hill further.
I start up by climbing a gully to where I remember there being some mining remains, these are easily found and I continue on towards the summit, not sure exactly where it is.
I pass what could be a stone row but is more likely to be an ancient field boundry and suddenly Roughtor and Showery Tor can be seen away to the west. Brown Willy appears soon after.
On reaching a highpoint I turn left and make for the summit. Two low cairns can be seen, looking like any other robbed out cornish cairns but as I get closer I can see that the nearest has a stone standing inside it. This cairn is about 12 ft across with the central stone about 3ft high. From this cairn it is a short walk to the larger cairn that crowns the summit. Even from this close all I expect to find is a low pile of stones, all be it larger than the last cairn.
How wrong could I be! The low bank of the cairn, about 30 to 35ft across, surrounds a cist with all four walls intact and the capstone perched over it. The cist is about 6ft long and 3 ft wide with a solid granite floor. How come I have not read about it before? This is one of the best preserved cists I have found on the moor. Part of me starts to think it has been built in later times to fool people like me but....
The OS map marks five cairns on the hilltop, I can only find another two, one of which is just a platform of stones adjecent to the summit cairn. The other sits a little distance downslope to the SE.
From the summit my journey took me down to the source of the River Fowey, which once gave its name to the moor. It is a quiet place, rarely visited by man, and yet his handywork is all around in the form of tin streaming channels, something started on the moor by bronze age man. Somewhere in the area there is a stone row, but today I fail to find it. perhaps next time.....
This collection of stones, three standing and one lying across another is not noted on maps and I can find no references to it in any books. The uprights form a semi circle around the other stone which lies atop of another. Other stones may at one time have compleated the circle but are now fallen or lost. The setting lies in an area of the moor that has been heavily robbed of stone over the years and is only a short distance from a low lying quarried outcrop. Goldiggins Quarry is just to the NE, a good point to make for if trying to find this site.
This is a huge Bronze Age cairn, which, typically, for Cumbria, has been reduced down by fellwalkers, who, in their ignorance, have done what they do: mess about with summit cairns for their own shelter.
How ignorant “modern” man is. From the middle ages onwards we have helped to destroy numerous ancient monuments, and, on the Cumbrian fells, are still free to do so.
As Francis Pryor writes about in his outstanding book “Britain BC”, in the uplands of Britain the barrows change from earthen or megalithic to those made of stones: the cairns.
The cairns don’t seem to be protected very well. In fact, in reality, they don’t seem to have any protection. The archaeological records of these places in Cumbria are vague or non existant. Who cares about these remote cairns, which is what they all sem to be?
It’s a lonely summit – you won’t meet anyone up here. From the cairn the views are outstanding. On a clear day Scotland, North Wales, and the Isle of Man can be seen, and on exceptional days the mountains of Ireland have been claimed to be in view.
The Stockdale Moor (Sampson’s Bratfull) site is seen well from here, as is the modern eyesore of Sellafield (formerly Calder Hall, Windscale, etc.). Ancient and modern. Also, there is a good view of Burnmoor Tarn, and the cairn at the northern end, Maiden Castle. It makes me think of sightlines.
As well as the three stones of the alignment there is another similar shaped stone with cup marks approx 30metres to the west of the westernmost stone .
I’m not quite sure what the difference is between the hillfort and this site as they appear to be one and the same to me, but it is a large enclosure / fort with multiple banks and ditches. Although it is on a high hill it is not on the crown, it is on a slight slope into the valley.
This may well be secondary to nearby Chilcombe which is about a mile to the east of this site.
One of the last hills in the Clwydian range going north, only Prestatyn then it’s the Irish sea. It was a nice day and after an afternoon on Ffrith beach we found ourselves driving past this hillfort (coincidence ?) so I just had to go up didn’t I. It was quite a long walk, there is no direct way up, the western side is almost sheer cliffs and the path on the eastern side follows the hill south before going up. The hill fort is like the hill, long and thin 200m long by 50m wide, on the eastern edge there are maybe 3 ditches and banks, it’s hard to say because of very dense gorse and bracken , the worst thing about this hillfort are on top at one end is a mast and small building and at the other end is well actually the other end is gone eaten away by a massive quarry . On the plus side there is a cave (no time to find it though) and amazing views 360 degrees all round.
Despite the rather unattractive chicken wire which holds the renovated cairn in place, this site was really intriguing to me. Later than the other burial chambers, the remains of 5 people (3 adults and 2 children) were found here and it is the most elaborate of the sites at Carrowmore.
What fascinated me though was the fact that, despite it having been partially excavted, the packing stones which held the lovely big capstone in place on the orthostats are untouched. I love this fact – what we now see is exactly how it was when it was first built. Fab.
Unfortunatley, the weather was too overcast for us to see the curved rock art which is carved into the capstone.
This is one of those sites that takes your breath away. Despite the rain and mist, which meant we didn’t get to see the site in the context of the surrounding landscape, this felt like one of those places where things just fit together.
I was with my mum, so decided it would be worthwhile taking the guided tour, so that she could have a better understanding of what we were looking at. As it turned out, I too ended up feeling like I understood this place better after spending an hour with the fabulous OPW guide. She was interested AND interesting, answering questions but also asking for our opinions and she skillfully avoided responding to the only other 2 people on our tour who seemed to be into biblical/creationist archaeology and kept referring to Noah a lot! Odd. Mind you, it was raining quite heavily.
She led us on a (chronological) spiral journey through the various sites, explaining the relevance to the surrounding hills (which we couldn’t really see) She also advised us which of the other sites (which weren’t on the tour) we should visit and went into detail about which sites had been excavated and/or altered, so that we got a sense of how this landscape would’ve looked when littered with these amazing burial/ritual sites.
If you come here with non-stoney folk in tow, I would recommend taking the tour for their sake as my mum was as giddy as a kipper by the end of it all – she said she could now understand why I am so enthusaistic about all things old and stoney and spent most of the next day asking me hundreds of questions. Some achievement!
Louven Howe represents the highest point in this chain of barrows and stands just by the junction of several tracks. One leads north into Sneaton High Moor Woods, one south into Langdale Forest, one southeast towards Scarborough and one northwest along the same ridge as Ann Cross and Foster Howes.
About half a mile southeast of the Foster Howe barrows on the same ridge stands the lowish barrow at Ann Cross. EH record it as being about 18 metres diameter by 1.2 metres high although it seemed smaller to me (non megalithic push-bike included in photo for scale). They also mention a 2 metre wide ditch and some traces of a stone kerb neither of which I can confirm as I didn’t notice either feature in the short time I was there. It does however have the ubiquitous crater left behind by those naughty early antiquarians who seemed to love excavating barrows but weren’t so keen on actually recording what they found. Canon Greenwell had this to say on the subject in 1890 when he wrote about the barrows of the area – “Nearly all the barrows have been opened, and many of them in quite recent times, but no account of these examinations has been recorded, so far as I am aware, except a short notice of the openings of some on Cloughton Moor”.
While the barrow has great views west, the eastward view towards the sea is now partly blocked by the trees of Louven Howe Side and Pike Hill.
Cross over from the ‘cairn’ on Prince William’s seat, down the track to a bog and up again to this very peculiar, altar-like outcrop. It stands proud of the surrounding peat to about 4 metres tall. It sits there brooding like some broken-down tank or an exhausted rhinoceros, completely out of place on these wind-swept hills. And yet, where else would it be? The only comparison I can think of is The Cheesewring, with its eroded formations.
There is one stone, the top stone, that seems to have been worked by human hand, with a shallow mini-bullaun. It’s quite an eerie place. My dog got quite antsy while we were here but that may have been because he smelt the local goats. Was this a ‘sacred’ place to the ancients? It affords the same type of views that Prince William’s Seat with its dubious cairn has, though there is very little else of megalithic significance hereabouts.
I started at the car-park at O185168 on the Glencree to Enniskerry road where the Wicklow Way crosses and heads around Knockree. Follow the Wicklow Way until you get above the forestry line and turn left. This track heads off south around the summit of Prince William’s Seat but there’s a right turn after about 200 metres. Take this and head up.
I’m not too sure about this being a cairn. The trig point in cemented onto an outcrop. There are very few signs of cairn rubble, just some large stones of the same conglomerate as the outcrop.
The views from here are spectacular, south and west over to Kippure, Tonduff and Djouce, east to the 2 Sugar Loafs, north-north-east to Howth and north down the Glencullen valley.
The OS 1:50000 map shows two barrows here but there are actually three that stand in an almost north-south line along Foster Howes Ridge with the land falling away gently on each side. The barrows are visible from some distance, particularly when approached from the northwest when they are silhouetted on the skyline and there are fine views across Goathland Moor to the southwest and down to the sea at Robin Hoods Bay to the east from the barrows themselves.
When approached by track from this northwest direction it is the smaller northern barrow that is met with first, with the central barrow just beyond it but on the other side of the fence. The third (and largest) barrow stands a little further away just to the west of a gate and stile. This southernmost barrow also had a stone kerb although a very quick rummage through the heather only turned up one stone – there may be more. All three barrows show the signs of previous diggings with craters in the top, the one to the south has a rough looking boundary stone in it’s crater, the central barrow is also said to have it’s own stone although I can’t confirm this.
This is a difficult mound to photograph as it is so badly covered in heather and is also the most low lying barrow of the group, indeed if you draw a line linking all the barrows together then Robbed Howe marks the lowest point of that line – from here it’s uphill in either direction.
The smaller stone here has been so regularly shaped that it would be impossible to tell if it had a prehistoric origin. The larger stone is a difficult one to call as far as I’m concerned, it may be prehistoric but has been tooled on one face and at least one side with the face bearing an inscription from 1784. The barrow is also a little suspicious due to it’s size and the fact that although it’s marked as tumulus on the map it doesn’t appear in my copy of the SMR.
Scratch head and file under Hmmm....
This is the easiest barrow of this group to visit as it stands just a few metres to the west of a small car parking area next to the Whitby – Goathland road. EH says it measures about 13 metres by 1 metre tall and like many of these barrows has a large hollow in its top – the result of antiquarian excavations or plundering in the past. While Breckon Howe is clearly visible from here, I don’t think the next barrow in the chain, Flass Brow, can be seen from this point (I need to check the sightline again)
Although Sil Howe appears on the SMR it is not shown on either the 1:50000 or 1:25000 OS maps. This seems rather strange as it was formerly the home of the Lilla cross between 1952-1962 which would have been a prominent local landmark.
Access: Easy to reach from the Dolmen de Crucuno, as it is right beside the road from Crucuno to the D105. The monument is up a high verge, which is short but quite steep.
Take the D781 between Erdeven and Plouharnel, turning NE to the village of Crucuno. You can’t miss the Dolmen of Crucuno as it is against the wall of a farmhouse-type building on the village green.
To reach Mané Groh, continue through the village for around 500 metres, just past a forestry road into the woods on the left. Park on the right (east) of the road, the dolmen is on the left. Or park at the little carpark a little way up the forestry road and walk back.
Coët-er-Bei is only a few hundred metres away along the forestry road, bearing right and is signposted from there.
Alternatively, include as part of a walk between the woods and Erdeven, taking in the Alignements de Kerzerho, the Menhirs de Kerjean, Mané Braz and Coët-er-Bei (including La Chaise de César).
Visited Sunday 17 April 2005
A beauty! I failed to find this when I was in Brittany in the late 90s, mainly because I had really lousy maps, no time, a partner who wasn’t very interested, and I thought it was in the woods....
Nothing really to add to Jane and Mark’s descriptions, so I’ll shut up!
