Latest Fieldnotes

I have added a number of images of stones that I suspect may have originally have been used in the Shap Avenues. These images were taken over the summer solstice June 21-22nd 2007

The main piece of evidence I have to support my suspicion that these stones were once used in the avenues is that just as when Stu and I looked for these stones*, all of these boulders occur along the route of the avenues, the southern end of the village. Once you move to the northern end of the village there is a distinct lack of large granite boulders to be found.

*see my weblog; The Shap Avenues or Caught by the Bullocks

The Harberwain Stone is named on the Cumbria County Council’s historic sites website as a ‘Standing Monument’. The stone is a beautiful egg-shaped Shap granite erratic.
Access to the stone is the same as access to the Iron Hill circles. Finding the stone is easy, it is situated just off the slope of Haberwain Rigg 30m east of the Iron Hill circle.

This is about 3 miles down the B9134 from Aberlemno.You can park just into the lane and walk about 150yds up the lane. On the left is a drive way leading to some cottages, the Stones are in the yard. best to ask at the cottage for politeness sake. There are two large Stones one Tall and narrow the other wide but about the same height. There seem to be cupmarks on the back of the wide Stone. The lady of the house said it may be the remains of a Circle, There were three Stones but one was demolished to make the driveway. She was at pains to tell me it was before her time.

Take the first left off the road between Dunecht and Kintore onto the minor road. The stones are on the left below you in a field a hundred yards on your left. You can park in the field entrance opposite the bunalow and walk between the furrows.

In fact, there are at least three stones – the recumbant and the flankers – and the farmer has given them a nice circular setting

The grassy limestone meadows are lovely at this time of year. There are dozens of wheatears making themselves busy amongst the limestone outcrops, there are banded snails and delicate little cranesbills to be seen in the grykes of the limestone pavements.
To access White Hag from the north I would recommend that you park up at Oddendale and follow the Coast to Coast footpath. The route is well marked. Leave the path at the Wicker Street limestone pavement and head south east for 30-40 metres aiming for the field wall. You can’t miss it.

A word to the wise. The horseflies (cleggs) seems to be a bit thick on the ground this year and I’m told the tick population is currently booming, so splash on your favoured repellant and check the places where the sun don’t shine when you get home.

A further word of advice
If you ever encounter anything like this
themodernantiquarian.com/post/59885/images/white_hag.html
Don’t touch it as there is a remote chance that it could explode.
Many of our upland areas were used as training grounds during WWI & WWII. After the war most of the ordnance was removed but the odd mortar and shell are still laying around. Most of these items are practice rounds but some of them aren’t so harmless and may contain high explosive or phosphorus.
If you find anything like this, make a note of the location and report it to the police. A photograph may help to remove the patronising grin of the duty sargeant.

The cairn and hut circle are just a couple of examples of the many structures that can be seen in this area. Our ancestors obviously found these high limestone plains an attractive place to live.
Access to this site is via the Coast to Coast footpath from either Oddendale or Orton.

Can’t believe people find this a happy place. Coming back from the Orkney tombs which have such a loveliness, these tombs seemed dark and strange to us – particular the end chamber of the linked pair.

Something sad happened here I think – and I had bad dreams for three nights afterwards!

Extraordinary though..

During the spell of dry weather earlier in the year a massive fire consumed a lot of the vegetation on the southern slopes of Piperstown Hill. I’d passed by a couple of times and wondered if the fire had burnt back any of the gorse and heather at the cairns. I got my answer today. Yes… and it also exposed what I believe to be 2 more, unmarked burial mounds/cairns! That makes 5 in this small area, 4 in the north-south alignment and a small one to the west of the largest, what I once thought of as the middle cairn.

The 2 ‘new’ ones are barely visible, both about half a metre proud of the surrounding terrain, but I suspect there is much more under the peat.

The bottom cairn of the 4 aligned cairns finishes just above a natural platform. From here, the views west across the Glenasmole valley and up to Ballymorefin, Seahan and Corrig are splendid. South there are two very deep cuts in the horizon, one where the Dodder falls towards Glenasmole, the other called Cot Brook, a stream that meets the Dodder at Cunard.

This burial mound with its modern cairn and ruined bield is situated on one of the high points of moor. It is certainly visible from the Oddendale circle.
There is a stone situated between the two rings of the Oddendale circle. When viewed from the centre of the circle the stone lines up with this mound.
Access. stoney, hilly and at times muddy. Close to the Coast to Coast path with a slight detour.

This is a set of three bowl barrows on the national trust site of Tulk’s hill. This is to the west of Abbottsbury Castle and is above the Chesil beach. The most westerly barrow is low in height with a wide base. The middle of the three has a large gouge taken out of it’s summit, signs of past excavation. The most easterly of the group is at the highest point on the hill and is the best in terms of preservation. It is the tallest in the group and has no obvious signs of damage. Between the second and third mounds there are signs of old ditches , a platform and a bank. From the top of the hill the hillfort can be clearly seen. The views from this site are panoramic and a 360 degree view of the local countryside can go for many miles on a clear day.
On the other side of the road is another barrow and something described as a mound on the o.s. map I will try to photograph these, but the road here is very busy and it was not possible on this visit.
The best place to park and approach these barrows is to park in the national trust car park marked Lime Kiln hill, this is adjacent to Tulk’s hill which is about a quarter of a mile to the east.

I had no such trouble finding the Hurlers, with a great sign heralding its proximity and boasting its own car park. I half expected a neon sign, Vegas style, to guide me, such was the heralding!

It wasthe pity but the rain was coming down in sheets and with the occupants of the other vehicles parked up questioning my sanity, I was drenched within one minute.

I didn’t get to appreciate what must be an amazing site when the weather is fairer.

I couldn’t even get a feeling for the size or quality of the circle, the rain was so hard and clouds so oblique, it was almost as if I wasn’t welcome. I took a few stolen snaps and ran back to the car. I have unfinished business here.

I had stopped and asked for directions from Blisland and told to go up to the hamlet of Bradford, right at the phone box and follow the road toward the A30. This I did, although locating the stones was going to be trickier now I had killed the GPS and the map had gone missing. I nearly crashed trying to keep an eye on the road whilst looking along the sight line for the circle.

The rudimentary A-Z of Cornwall’s Visitor’s map I was working by listed the stones near the track but I knew it wasn’t so straightforward. I’d headed down the track towards the farm but couldn’t see anything so headed back and over toward Hawkstor. Again nothing. I spent over an hour searching, my eye led toward any stone formation, which when you’ve been up there, you’ll see is a lot.

Finally they revealed themselves, as if having grown bored with mocking me were now prepared to grant me an audience.

They were further away from the road than I had expected but I raced the 300 or so metres to the circle. What a place!

A good mile from the A30 they are located ¼ mile to the left of the road, 100 metres before you hit a cross roads. Luckily I was upwind from the main road so couldn’t hear the traffic. Just the silence of the moor.

I had to brave a herd of bison but having heard they’re vegetarian, walked past them with no incident.

I counted nine stones and a smaller central stone with a carved ‘C’. To me it looked as if they were alternate male and female stones. The beauty of this place is overwhelming and even the weather felt sorry for me and relented, the sun prying out to see what I was doing, allowing me to take some pictures in peace.

The only company were the bison and ponies and this suited me as I acquainted myself with my new friends. I was sorry to leave, I could have stayed there all afternoon.

With Roughtor bearing down on you and the wind whipping in your ears, this is a marvelous place, one of the few places in the country where you can imagine the view has pretty much stayed the same as when this circle was built.

Not far from the track, the views here are amazing. The noisy silence of the place strikes you. It is quite a moving place to be. I stayed for 20 minutes, wishing I could know more of why this circle was made.

The circle itself is made up of modestly sized stones, close together. More of a boundary for a leader’s hut than a place of worship, I’d have said. But I’m a monkey who leaves his GPS on his car roof to be run over by a lorry so what do I know?

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. I think I’d been spoilt by the sight of Men Gurta earlier in the day so I was a bit deflated to see the Magi Stone.

This must have been a very proud stone once apon a time but, alas, it now lies prostrate all on its own away from the maidens.

It was a gloomy evening it was getting quite dark so I didn’t take any photos of the stone

The Nine Maidens was marked on my Visitors to Cornwall map but, because of the gloomy evening, it took about three drive by’s and ten minutes aimless traipsing before I finally spied the Maidens at the far end of the field.

Maybe it was the evening or the light, or that I was alone but I gained a sense of uneasiness approaching the stones, almost forboding. It passed when I reached them and was snapping away.

Ironically named, the stones all seem to be male, if you go by the shaping if they were in a circle. They bear the now familiar quartz scarring and stretch some fifty metres in total alignment length.

Set at the far end from the road, there is a style for easy access about 200 metres from the layby I parked in.

Having stumbled across the Menhir, the sheep pointed me in the direction of the Barrow, located in the bottom right hand corner of the field, about 200 yards from the stone itself.

Clearly visible from the road, although it’s not the most spectacular of barrows, it’s there none the less!

The St Broeck Down’s (or ups) Menhir.

I wasn’t sure if or how we were supposed to get close and was considering cycling backto the entrance to the wind farm but at the bottom edge there was a gap in the fencing so I left FMJ with the bike and jumped over.

Like Men Gurta this stone is scarred thorugh with the distinctive quartz markings. Standing about 7ft high, there is a distinct fissure through the stone.

It reminds me a little of the Lynham Barrow Stone in Oxfordshire and I wonder if the angle of it’s erection is deliberate or if it’s down to subsidence. Both mark the locations of barrows and are at a 10 degree tilt. This is a bigger stone to the monolith at Lynham however and beautfully marked. Wonderful.

This amazing monolith’s markings give it an almost reptilian quality, scarred through with quartz. Striped, it gave me the impression of a dinosaur.

Peaking over the hedgerow as you approach, It is hugely impressive the closer you get. Towering 12 ft above you, it is a wonderful sight and well worth the hike up here.

There was no rubbish either, which had been a concern reading other field notes.

The gentle swoosh of the wind turbines in the distance got me to thinking what the erectors of this masterly stone would have made of the surroundings 3000 years on.

The silence was shattered by the FMJ screaming at the site of a grass snake. I should think it was more bothered at the interuption of it’s sunbathing

Group of three cairns associated in legend with the nearby Haltadans stone circle. The cairns are more readily visible than the circle, but still quite hard to distinguish from the geology of the area. As with Haltadans please be aware that the area is a nesting site for birds.

Access is by a fairly obvious track out along the promontory from the end of the minor road signposted ‘Scatness’. Its about a mile to the fort, part of which is along a narrow rocky strip with chain hand rails. It was a fine day when I visited, but this would be very dangerous in rough weather. Please avoid the pool to the left as you start off if visiting in the nesting season, as it is home to a tern colony.

The Historic Scotland guidebook for Shetland suggests that the fort is contemporary with the brochs, but represents the efforts of a community with less resources than those who could ‘afford’ brochs.

The fort itself consists of a double ditch and bank, once stonefaced, which cuts off the headland. There’s a stonelined passage through this and into a ‘blockhouse’ with two cells and the remains of a third.

Please note that the first assemblage of stones you see is the misguided result of ‘tidying’ the site.

Only seen from roadside as on way to ferry and there are no ready parking spots on the single track road, but this stone is one of the most impressive I’ve seen. It really does look like the figure of a woman.

Would recommend taking advantage of the audio guide which comes included in the admission fee, and does a very good job of explaining the various layers of settlement here. Takes about 30 mins for the basic package, though there are optional extras which would take it over an hour.

Visited June 2007. Could not readily identify the site at the grid ref given by the O.S. Best reached by driving to the airstrip or the waterworks along a rough track, and then striking out in the direction of the summit in front of you. Please be aware that the area is a nesting site for many birds – including skuas! RSPB ask that you do not approach the lochside as this will disturb rare species.

In the summer months you can visit Mousa at night, and not only experience this site in the atmospheric ‘summer dim’, but also see the amazing sight of the Storm Petrels who nest there flitting back to their nests after a day out at sea. Highly recommended.

Drive past Bron y foel isaf burial chamber and where the lane turns too rough to drive park and walk. Just up the path a sign points right, follow the sign, past the ruined house, and this is where it gets tricky, the path fades in and out but if you can follow it across two little bridges then now is the time to veer left and go up hill wading through cow grass( not quite as big as elephant grass )and the occasional quagmire.
The ring cairn is a complete circle and I kinda liked it once I’d found it, even though it was almost hidden in the grass and bracken.I tramped around it revealing the stones as I went some are quite big. Not the most impressive site in this part of Wales but I cant help myself, I love it round here and I’ll keep on coming back until I’ve seen them all.