Latest Fieldnotes

Access: Short walk of less than 50 metres gently uphill over grass. Park at edge of road.

Kong Renes høj, as it is also known, is very near other monuments in the woods near Frellesvig on Langeland. For full directions see Ringlehøj i Snave Skov.

From Ringlehøj i Snave Skov, head east, back out of the woods and take the first left turn, north along Pæregårdsvej. As you enter the woods, you may glimpse a barrow on your left through the trees. (Actually, I seem to remember that it’s on a bend and is initially right in front of you.)

This is Gravhøje i Pæregård Skov, which we didn’t stop at – it seems as though it’s probably ‘just’ a mound – of course I now wish we’d had a quick look!

Continue through the woods, and after just over 0.5km you will emerge into fields. The road winds along to the monument just under 1.5km ahead, on the left (north) of the road just before re-entering trees.

Visited 7 April 2006
In a pretty rolling area of cultivated land in the middle of woodland stand 2 chambers on a large mound, along with a couple of trees.

The southern one is a passage grave (jættestue) dating from 3,500-3,100bc and the other a (very ruined) passageless chamber added around 3,000bc.

The latter has been brutally butchered – its capstone has big chunks cut from it. The edges of these cuts are so straight that they speak of (at least relatively) recent damage. And as if to emphasise the damage, at least one piece cut from the largest piece is still right beside it.

Despite the frankly shocking state of this northern chamber, the monument retains an impressive majesty – certainly living up to its billing as “King Rene’s hill”.

Blimey! There’re some big buggers here. And according to the books, it’s not very long ago since the fields at St Barbe were littered with some pretty complete alignments. But 19th and 20th century activities felled many of them. Despite the driving rain, I had to get out of the car and walk right up to these stones. And I’m glad I did, because sometimes it’s not until you actually stand next to something you realise just how massive it is. The biggest stone of St Barbe is seriously whopping – have a look at TME and see just how teeny weeny Spaceship Mark* looks standing next to it.

*and he’s no short-arse!

I was looking forward to the sites in and around the village of Crucuno. The Crucuno dolmen is bang slap in the middle of the village, now looking more like an extension to a farm building these days, but no less impressive for it.

I made a little sketch of it while I sat in the car out of the rain while Moth went off exploring.

Julian’s instructions in TME to find this lovely horseshoe cromlech are unnecessarily complicated! Simply follow the path at the back of the Moulin de St Pierre alignments past the tennis court and turn left at the top. About 50 metres in front of you, under the massive pine trees is the monument.

Thirty seven stones form an incredibly graceful arc maybe 50 metres wide, which cannot be photographed adequately. The arc now embraces a nice middle class tennis court. Fortunately, the land immediately in front of the cromlech is clear of development, so you can stand well back and contemplate the whole thing. I loved this. I loved that there were so many stones still up and that this quiet part of town had grown up around it without encroaching on it.

“Where now, Spaceship Mark?” I asked. The last monument of the day was to be what I wrote down as Dolmen de Kermané (I wrote down ‘Kerangoff’ for some reason I now can’t remember?) At the end of a lane in a tiny little hamlet this is yet another of those corking local dolmens that is overlooked by visitors to the area in favour of the larger “Hollywood” monuments. If this was in the UK people would drive miles to see it. This one’s capstone had to be supported by an iron girder, but hey, at least it meant someone cared!

I loved it here and made a really quick sketch while Moth set up the tripod.

Approximate long/lat coordinates, as I couldn’t see the site among the trees on the aerial photomap. Shouldn’t be too far out though.

Access: Walk is about 0.5km south to wood down a track, then on forestry path and finally by small vague paths into the SE corner of the wood. There are good paths most of the way, but keeping on course is quite tricky and there are deep gullies (sometimes with water in) to navigate past or to cross.

Not far from monuments near Frellesvig on Langeland. From the 305 heading north, pass Frellesvig and continue on through Tranekær and out the other side, past the park and its castle.

Just over 2km past the castle, you need a left (west) towards Helletofte. At the next junction (a road heads off north, to the right) park. There is plenty of room.

Just east of the junction, on the south side of the road you have just come along, you will see a track heading south towards the woods. Follow this and enter the woods on a good foresters’ track.

On the west of this path, there are lines of trees as you head south. Before long, you will reach the south east corner of the regimented lines, at which point you need to try to follow paths into the SE of the main part of the wood.

From here it gets difficult to give directions and you may need patience and persistence! You should be able to see a steep hill in the woods to the SE. Generally head for the SE side of that hill, avoiding or crossing the gullies mentioned above as seems best in your quest!

The monument is near the SE corner of the woods – sufficiently close to be able to see the fields beyond, but not right at the edge and right among trees – not in a clearing to speak of. Look out for a slight raise in the ground with a few largish – but not really properly megalithic (!) moss-covered stones, just visible through the trees. Good luck!

7 April 2006
Gah. Quite difficult to find and hardly worth it once you do, I’m afraid.

This is a pretty badly trashed passage grave. There is a fairly slight mound in which most of the small orthostats of the chamber survive. The chamber is actually relatively long for the size of the mound (which is obviously much reduced) and as the ortostats are small, the chamber must presumably have been low.

Astonishingly, the tiny passage on the ESE side has somehow managed to retain one of its capstones, but there are only a couple of stones left at the foot of the ‘mound’ that look as though they are (or were!) probably kerbstones.

Other than Jelling, this was the last site we visited in Denmark, and not a good way to say ‘goodbye’ to the wonders of Langeland. It was also one of the most badly mistreated and damaged sites we saw on the whole trip.

At last, fair enough weather to make an attempt on the fantastic hillfort of Tre’r Ceiri . City of the Giants, What a cool name.
Parking is available on the road to the south, a foopath winds it’s way up giving a good view of Mynnyd Carnguwch .Nearer the top, firstly an information board tells us precious little about the place, and then the little path takes us through the western entrance which is well preserved at a hieght of about 5ft. The Southern wall (which is about 7ft thick all the way round) hangs precariously above jagged rocky cliffs and has a rock outcrop incorperated into it, following the wall to the top of the hill it brings us to Carnedd Tre’r Ceiri a 20m wide cairn which was once like a step pyramid with three tiers. The wall loops around the cairn then takes care of the northern hillside, which also has a covered entrance incorparating six capstones . Inside the fort walls are supposedly the remains of 150 hutcircles. Some are very well preserved more so than the more often visited Holyhead hutcircles if it wasn’t left to nature and had a full time gardener it would be better than Chysauster in Cornwall. Some circle walls and entrances are 6ft tall, and the way the stones fit together is little short of magic, some are huge with natural basins and cupmarks. Back to the northern wall, and the main entrance, going out, the wall (8ft tall) sweeps the pedestrian to the right and down to another wall and entrance, here there is another info board and a virtual path over to cairn topped Yr Eifl which I climbed about two thirds the way up to get a higher up picture.

An absolute wonder this place I couldv’e stayed for hours, it’s long walk up ensures peace and solitude and so much of the city remains.

Directions – Great Urswick; the stone is built into the field wall on the opposite side of the road to the school.

Now broken and set into the base of the field wall, this stone once stood in the adjacent field. Named the Priapus Stone, it was village custom to decorate the stone at Midsummer in the hope that harvests would be fruitful.

There is no definite record of it being ancient but this custom apparently died out at the begining of the 19th century.

If it was complete it would be similar in size and shape to the Middle Barrow stone, less than half a mile from here. From this field you can see Great Urswick burial chamber.

A local woman showed it to us but said she believed it was medieval. I’d like to believe it predates this period by a few thousand years!!

Ooooh, this is a fab site! The first time I headed out here I was alone and it was bucketing it down – trying to drive through torrential rain whilst looking over hedges on a windy road isn’t my greatest skill, so what I didn’t realise is this; you can see it quite clearly from the road!!!

I can’t think of a similar site anywhere else in this area, it looked like it should be in Cornwall or Wales or Ireland.

Although somewhat destroyed, there is still a sense of how this would’ve stood in the landscape and if you scrabble between the fallen stones and the prickly old hawthorne you can look through the remaining stones towards an obvious dip in the hill opposite. I loved the fact that the natural stone surrounding this chamber made if feel like it was part of the landscape. Fab.

Hunter’s Burgh lies right on one of the major corners on the Downs, with views to east and west that disappear as soon as one travels either way. It has a clear shape from three sides, particularly approaching from the top of the hill. From the north, down the slope, the edge is very unclear and seems teardrop shaped.

To the East lies Eastbourne, and above it the Neolithic Combe Hill Causwayed Camp with its associated round barrows. to the west Firle Beacon, with its Long Barrow, and Mount Caburn, with its Iron Age hill fort and possible earlier use in the Bronze Age.

This is the largest barrow on Wilmington Hill. If I am right about the barrows on the summit they may only be smaller due to ploughing out, or similar activity, as they lie on level ground. Hunter’s Burgh’s saving grace may have been the slope it lies upon, suited only to grazing.

Or maybe it was always the largest, in which case why so far down the hill?

This cemetery is not marked on OS maps. It lies around the trig-station on the summit of Wilmington Hill, consisting of one definite round barrow to the west of it and two more possible barrows to the east.

In the picture I posted above I show the stones as viewed from a distance of about 45 feet.

According to Burl (Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany 1995, 2005), quoting the Reverend Henry Rowlands, this site contained a circle of ‘eight or nine great pillar-stones... about twelve or fourteen yards diameter’.

Is it possible to imagine a stone just in front of my position and an arc of maybe three or four megaliths continuing on either side to meet at the pair opposite?

This long barrow is in nice condition and is about two hundred yards from the nearby bank barrow. It’s orientation is roughly west to east and is at right angles to the bank barrow. About twenty yards away to the east is a low disc like barrow with a ditch and a slight, possibly ploughed out bank. This could be a rare saucer type.

This is huge and as Juamei says it cannot be photographed along it’s full length as it runs down the hill. At it’s highest points it is about twelve feet high, the gap about a third away from the north end is about six feet in height.
Although the drawing on the O.S. map shows it to be similar in length to the Bincombe bank barrow it is at least a third longer.
Both sides of the barrow, which is orientated roughly north/south has pronounced ditches either side of it. These ditches are up to two feet deep and run along it’s entire length.
Also within the same field and adjacent to it are three low round barrows and one medium sized bowl barrow which is very close to the bank at it’s south eastern end.
To the north of the site, across the very busy A35 are two large bowl barrows, both of which show signs of past excavation.

Wanting a photo of a cliff on Shap at the junction before Work farm I took the LH turn towards the waterworks. The beach you see between here and the start of the Carness headland is the result of man’s works. Earl George of Caithness in 1614 made first landing at Carness in the campaign against our Earl Patrick. Until modern times all cattle headed for the Scottish mainland were ferried from Carness past Shapinsay, but the ferry point is unknown AFAIK.

At the turn-off for Water Board property the wartime road continues up to the headland. You need to go through two fieldgates, the first of which is chained against vehicles, then along the north coastline keeping to the coast edge. It wasn’t truly damp – there are numerous small drainage deltas, however they all have a smattering of what amount to stepping stones.

As you come to The Castle geo (not quite a rock stack yet) you see Long Cairn across the moss to your right. The long horned cairn [Yarrows type] is 47m long by 12-17m wide, on which is a 15-17m oval mound (Davidson and Henshall report that the ruined chamber was dug before 1928, in which case when RCAMS in 1946 give the mound’s height as 11’9” this must have been prior to that as later authorities give a total height of 2-2.1m and the RCAMS Inventory side elevation shows nothing above this chamber) an Orkney-Cromarty cairn. It is generally accepted with a site such as this that the chambered cairn was completed long before its incorporation by the horned cairn. This site, the Helliar Holm cairn (above the lighthouse to the north of here), and that at Haco’s Ness (on Shapinsay away to the east as you look there), are all intervisible – from which some intended guardianship of Shapinsay Sound has been inferred.

Along the higher ground on this northern side of the headland as well as the various purple orchids I was delighted to see Grass of Parnassus. What most struck me, though, was a darker form of eyebright mingling with the usual form – it appeared that they both grew on the same plant, the same coloured throat but violet instead of white elsewhere on the flower. I expected The Castle, a geological feature, to be difficult to recognise. Plain as a pikestaff really, a future stack with a short modern cairn (possibly hollow) of brown stones on top. I could have climbed down up the narrow neck... coming back might have been trickier. In the neck’s ‘valley’ there is an angled wall, of the same material and equally modern looking, at the eastern side. Beside this what resembles a solid cartwheel is apparently covering a well or something. The other side of the wall a large slump of water-worn rocks goes to the rocky beach far below (only after seein a picture I took have I seen steps on the southern side of the wall that go down to this [or I would have myself !]). By the cifftop the other end of the narrow beach is a bank of soil where the earth has been scraped up fairly recently.

After passing The Castle I crossed over mushy ground to the long cairn, soft-going but I did avoid damper patches. On this side of the mound I could see middling-size stones, presumably from the small late structures referred to by Davidson & Henshall others perhaps connected with the reported rectangular hollow (west of the chambered mound) they also believe prehistoric but not original. In my initial approach from The Castle circling clockwise the south horn of the western hornworks was very visible as a long broad grassy strip with a rounded top, looking like a pseudopod or starfish arm.

Coming to the western end the inside of the eastern hornworks my first impression was a sharper, less obtuse angle than shown on plan. I wonder if they have eroded back where these ‘end’ as this appeared higher than the reported height to me (however the O.S. earlier did report this end of the mound as of greater height).

Up on the mound not much more than a step from the back of the hornworks I found a feature [my A] surely not previously noted, as D&H state that turf covers all except the high mound. It takes the form of an oval, 4.8m wide by 3.8m front to back, on which lie many slabs. These are in a slight depression but as I looked back from its eastern edge a very low bank was visible. Perhaps it is a chamber of the later long cairn, but if instead this is from a second original mound it would help explain why the later cairn has appeared too long hitherto (the Roseness cairn also has an apparent satellite, even lower than this).

Next along I saw a slab projecting a little, distinct from the glimpsed ‘wall-faces’, then further on again the base of the main mound. The latter is about 12m across. Continuing to the back there is a 0.68 long angle topped slab projecting 0.3m , and a little distance on at the high point a hollow [my B1] filled with stones and slabs that is is 3.1m wide. At 1.4m from the western edge by the back end of the hollow (2.1m front to back in D&H) is 0.6m of an orthostat 1.1m wide was plain to see – I think this is in D&H as 1.5 by 0.65, wary of getting too closeI may have missed a bit. It is unfortunate that though the RCAMS Inventory shows this chamber on side elevation it is not indicated on the plan view, because half-a-metre to the right of B1 is another slab- & stone-filled circular hollow [my B2]. This is 1.7m across and fractionally lower on the hill (there are orthostats in B1 whose level is given as 0.65m below that of the rear slab). A second stall or possibly another chamber I would imagine (I suppose it might be that the turf between the two is simply the result of archaeological methodology). Then, just behind this, the other side of an imaginary line from B1’s largest orthostat is a depression [my B3] 2.3m wide and 2.2-2.6m from front to back. Despite there being not much stonework poking through B3 I would hazard that this represents a robbed stall/chamber (hence its apparently more downslope position) resulting from digging prior to the 1920’s period in which B1 is likely to have been excavated.

At the eastern end of the long cairn the S horn survives over twice the height of its NE counterpart making the latter less eviden on first viewing. At the moment the forecourt is very clearly defined by a singular display of a bed of reeds. Full distances and dimensions, as far as I could measure on my own, are givn under miscellaneous.

Though the ground about the site is mostly damp and springy this is boggiest on the southern side where it slopes down to the cliffs. I tried to get back this way but it was way ‘boggy’. When I kept to the drier portions this brought me to a ‘mound’ which is presumably the western end of the ridge, and less than a metre in front of this a bank or dyke, both apparently composed of earth with a few stones. The latter is rather bulky and would seem to emphasise control over the approach to the cairns, as along most of the Head of Work what some call rough pasture most would think of as approaching shallow bog (Roseness is similar though heathery). This must be the route Moth and Jane took through Work farm, once site of a broch and perhaps a souterrain.

After heading down across to the cliffs I went along the clifftop under the watchful eyes of two seals, but came to stop where the drystane fieldwall reaches the cliff. At this spot there’s a girt big pile of slabs 3-5’ long and maybe 4-6” thick, like a fallen stack of dominoes. Followed the wall back up to a gate, but with the field having kie in it I left well alone. This would seem to be the normal route to the headland. Further up another gate had a sloped top ‘standing stone’ over five feet tall as one of the gateposts. Then I was back at the military road again.

The field is named Stenso from stens-a ‘standing stone burn’. Today the open gate gave entry. I found a N/S aligned stone at the top of the hill. It projects less than it is thick i.e. 6” or less. If this is the stone it has become further reduced this last couple of months, if not then it is previously unrecorded. I had my photos but a tractor man ordered me off before I could take measure of the thing. He said that I wasn’t allowed and the land was private [an English derived conceit]. After the bullying I forgot to check from the road for the proper s.s. if this wasn’t it and doubt I’ll dare again.

The Auld Wives Lifts sit in a natural amphitheatre on the Cragmaddie Muir above Milngavie near Glasgow.
They consist of three extremely large pieces of grey schist, one propped on top of the other two. There is a space between them through which it is possible to pass.
The rocks are covered in carved grafitti from as far back as the 18th century at least, as well as around eight or so carved ‘heads’ or ‘faces’. These have a primeval look about them but are probably fairly recent. The surrounding rocks have several cup and ring marks as well as other markings (including an ‘eye’).

Found it! Quite why I couldn’t find it before, I’ve no idea. The stone is 27 paces at a bearing of 120 deg. from the modern granite pillar inscribed with the number 7 (a waymarker for the Llanfairfechan Upland Walk). The markings can be clearly seen along one edge and on the surface of the stone. Somehow, perhaps because of the short lengths of the markings, I find the antiquity of this stone less convincing than that of the other arrow stones in the vicinity.

The stone marked with concentric squares is another 12 paces downhill at a bearing of 20 deg. from the arrow stone. It lies in a direct line with the signpost at the path junction and the granite pillar

Having spent a fruitless hour looking in the area 200 yards to the east of the sheep pen as described by Bezant Lowe, I gave up and walked away disconsolately. Then lo and behold about 150 yards away I suddenly walked over exactly what I had been looking for all that time. I’m sure I only noticed it because I was grumpily walking along staring at my feet!

It turns out to be about 150 yards SE of the sheep pen right at the NE side of the Afon Ddu. It is 3 yards to the south of a granite pillar with the number 5 inscribed on it, which I have since discovered is a waymarker for the Llanfairfechan Upland Walk marked out by Conwy council.

The markings on the stone are beautifully clear.

This cairn is at 726m and on the peak of Monavullagh mountain. The cairn itself has been artifically modified into a shelter for climbers and to be honest with the weather that we had on the day it was a welcome relief.
Again there is evidence of a kist in the bottom of it. The cairn itself must be about 7m in diameter.
Interestingly enough it is rock outcrop that can be viewed from ground level.

This cairn is the next marker on the trail up the slope of Monavullagh Mt. It is a low cairn with evidence of a kist in its centre with fabulous views both North and South. Interestingly enough the cairn on top of Poul-na-maddra-ruadh can not be viewed from here.

This is a lovely standing stone on the slope of Monavullagh. It is about 2m high and about 0.5m wide. One side of it appears to have been painted/ whitewashed. To the north in the heather there are three more large slabs that Fourwinds discovered and look like they may also once have been standing before.

I cant confirm 100% that this standing stone is gone but im 95% sure. I had a good root around looking for it and its location according to GPS is between a ringfort that is completely overgrown or a gravel / sandpit that has been opened for the restoration works on Aherlow Castle. There is a new road into the castle which isnt shown on the map.

This is a nice little standing stone to the north of the Galtees and on the slopes of the Glen of Aherlow.
The stone itself is about 1.25m high and has lovely views to the hills in the south. Perhaps it was some kind of marker to the various notches in the Galtees but nothing really stood out to me.
It is about 3-4 fields from the road and the way I went in was pretty mucky.
On an aside, two lovely terrier dogs followed me the whole way to stone on a little adventure for them. They were so covered in mud I cant have seen their owner been very happy with them when they returned!

“Teroy-Almost certainly a Broch” R W Feachem 1963 (Canmore).
Well it sure looks like it might have been a broch, although now much reduced. If you remove the surrounding forestry in the minds eye, Broch or galleried dun, Teroy fort must have been a commanding structure sat on its prominence over-looking the loch. There remains what could be an entrance with a possible intramural guard cell on the ENE side; a ditch of significant depth also protects this area with a steep slope protecting the opposite side. It is a bit tricky finding the place but is possible with a good map and for the broch obsessed, a must.