Latest Fieldnotes

From Cors-y-Gedol burial chamber carry on down the lane, over the river, up the lane, turn right then take the rough path right when it branches.This path will take you past the circle, come off the path when you see the big cairn then south through the wall up a little hill to the wall and you have just walked through the middle of the stone circle.
Unfortunately the circle is well and truly Knackered, I could only identify half a dozen stones with only one standing. Sad, but on the plus side its only a short walk to Fridd Newydd stone circles (also knackered) and the hidden gems that are Carneddau Hengwm and the hillfort Pen y Dinas.

From the A496 turn east in Coed-Ystungwern heading for Cwm Nantcol but instead of turning left go straight on through one or two gates and the chamber is set in a wall on the right .There is no-where to park and the wall must be climbed to inspect the whole place. Big capstone one orthostat and short door stone . Nice place, come before the bracken takes over

From Bron-y-foel-isaf keep driving along the little lane through two gates then park and walk . It’s a long walk for little stones but a great place . It may be easier to apprach from Cors-y-Gedol hall as a small lane goes all the way I think .The stone furthest west is about 2-3 feet tall and straight /flat on one side, Coflein suggests it might be the last stone of a destroyed circle. The slightly smaller stone 130paces east has no such suggestions made of it, it’s just a small squarish standing stone looking down into the valley and off to the mountains, fantastic place!

Because of its easy access and out of the wayness I decided here would be a good place to christen my new lightweight 2man tent.
We got there just after sunset, with just enough light to erect said tent and take one photo. As me and Eric sat about watching the bats scoop about I came up with a brilliant idea I got in the car angled it just so and put the lights on full beam, and took a quick photo I think it came out quite well.
Needless to say waking up in the morning (to cow noises too close) just 20 yards from a burial chamber was cool . It was bigger than I thought nearby is a hut circle which I didnt look for but a mile or so further south east is the almost gone stone circle of llecheiddior

Yet another cup-marked stone at Drummin. The cups in this one are less eroded than both Drummin II and Drummin III, but not as well preserved as Drummin I. It’s a large earthfast boulder, hidden in the gorse 40 metres or so west from Drummin III. There are about 15 cups in all, some more eroded than others.

I was surprised at the fine condition of the barrow. Called a bowl barrow in the Wicklow inventory, you can drive to within 100 metres of the site up the track, across the commons from the Kilmacanogue to Roundwood road. The fosse and bank are still very visible and the central mound is now home to many rabbits. The Sugar Loaf broods to the north-east.

Another stunning Cornish cliff castle, which is slightly north of another probable fortification at Cape Cornwall. There are the remains of a triple ditch defence line. Also a very well defined stone entrance. It doesn’t enclose a large area and would have been easy to defend and very hard to attack.

This must be the most westerly fortification in mainland Britain, lands end is only about a quarter of a mile away to the south. There is a definite entrance to the fort in stone. There is the vestige of a stone wall, I suspect it’s been robbed for other purposes.
The approaches to the fort appear to have been cleared of large boulders and the ditch can still be plainly seen. This is the oldest clif fort in Cornwall, dating from about 500 b.c.e. it has been excavated and nearby field systems are reckoned to be associated with the fort.

All the photos of the circle after the fire made me quite worried about the possible state of these stones. Thankfully all seems to be well, indeed any signs of there having been a fire are gone. There don’t seem to be any cracks in the stones nor does there seem to be any shifting of them.
Yet another fabulous Cornish setting, fairly easy to get to, but remote enough not to be a casual place to visit.
Carn Kenidjack stands on the hill to the north of the site and the Scilly islands can be seen to the south west on a clear day, which it was when I was there.

This is a stunning place for the views alone on a beautiful sunny day in June, I’m not sure how I would feel about being here in a howling gale in mid winter though. The perfect place to defend, the cliffs either side of the narrowest point are at least 100 feet in height. It’s a bit hard to see but there are the remains of walls and at least one entrance.
It’s name in the Cornish language is Ynyal which means desolate.

This is an ancient settlement site with the remains of two burial mounds at it’s highest point. The more southerly of these has a cist, square in shape still in situ and appears to have kerb stones around it’s edge. The more northerly mound is very sparse, only a few stones remain.
Also at the summit of the hill, next to the mounds is what appears to be a well or spring similar to that found in the interior of Chun Castle.
The information board says that there are field boundaries and hut circles which can be seen in the winter when the foliage has died back.
St Michael’s Mount can be clearly seen from this hilltop site and the small hillfort of Caer Bran is visible on the adjacent southern hill.

This stands in the middle of a field which had cattle in it when I visited it. As it stands at seven feet in height it’s probably too tall to be a lately erected rubbing post, anyway I’ve seen cows scratching themselves on the Men Scryfa and no one seems to doubt it’s age, well some do, but I don’t.

A very enigmatic place in the centre of the ancient landscape. Pronounced k’nijick by the locals it looks down over Tregeseal stone circle and other signs of long occupation.

If anyone finds these, I’d appreciate a full GPS grid ref. Have spent some time trying to track them down from this vague description of the location, but to no avail. Depending on how accurate ‘10 metres south of the drive’ is, is this in fact a duplicate entry for PRAWR238 and PRAWR241?

The name on the OS map suggests there should be something here....alas, I can find no written evidence of any quoit ever being here and nothing to suggest why the rock strewn hill top should have such a name.
Quarrying was done here in the mid 1800s and all around the area moorstone has been cut and taken. Was there a quiot here that had fallen and was carted off to build a nearby farm?
Despite these facts it is a great place to visit if you like atmospheric woodland and moss covered rocks.

Just returned from a trip here and suffered the same fate as Jane and Treaclechops did on their trip – a party of 4 adults + dogs strewn across the circle which made photography and, more importantly, investigation of the site a no-no.

It didn’t help that I misread Cronezone’s directions and had walked back to the 2 footpath signs and taken the right one from here, rather than from where I had parked the car. So, I had already spent 45 minutes stagggering through pretty high bracken wondering where on earth the blighter was!

Anyhoo, I hung around for few minutes and explained that I wanted to take some photos but they weren’t for moving, so headed off again. At least I will know where it is, next time I visit! Oh, and the views across the bay are amazing.

2nd visit – 4 weeks later. Came back determined to get some good pictures and with Vicky and a picnic in tow. What we hadn’t expected was the travellers camp which had set up just across from here! Once again, there were a few folk around but this time they were more than happy to vacate the circle so we could get some pictures and have a proper nosey round. This is a cracking site but I think it is just too accessible in a way – there were the remnants of a fire bulit in the centre of the circle and evidence of a couple other fire pits on the path; this combined with the red paint on one of the stones made me think that this merely a party-spot for some. Ah well.....

Visited this site just south of Hadrian’s Wall at Shield on the Wall to look for a cup-marked boulder given in the Beckensall Archive as ‘Round Cairns west of Middle House’. According to the Archive, an English Heritage Field Warden had found a boulder with 16 cup-marks as part of the round cairns but only an approximate grid reference is given and no photographs. Although the moor is access land, getting to the site is problematical due to difficult car parking on the Military Road and a walk of about 1 mile over rough tussocky and often boggy terrain. Three round cairns dated to the Bronze Age stand on a slight ridge just south of Settlingstones Burn. Keys to the Past describes them as being between 8 and 10m in diameter and 1m high with one disturbed in the centre due to excavation, but I found the archaeology difficult to interpret on the ground. After a search of the numerous boulders, I eventually found a cup-marked stone, mostly turf-covered, about 40m east of the sheepfold fairly close to a stone setting which might indicate the original centre of one of the cairns. A second cup-marked rock can be found about 1m north of the first rock.

Some additional field notes....
It is possible to access the East Moor area (including Fox Tor and Nine Stones of Altarnun) from the A30 by turning off at Five Lanes and taking the lane to Halvana. After a while you will come to a small group of cottages with a track leading off to a gate on the left. Park here (making sure you are not blocking anybody) and go through the gate and head out onto the moor. Fox Tor towers over you to your left, the east Moor stones and cairns are ahead to the right.

Visited 13/04/07: As Merrick says, this isn’t an easy site to get to. Having looked at large scale maps since our visit I have a strong suspicion that one of the public footpaths that should pass close to the tomb is blocked by a fence.

The tomb stands just to the south of a rocky outcrop that’s clearly visible from the road (see Moss’ photo) but not marked on the Landranger. It’s in the corner of a field, with gorse obscuring the view of it from the south.

We found our way to Ffyst Samson with some difficulty. We tried working from Merrick’s directions, approaching from the south, but I wish I’d taken a better map with me. We ended up loosing the footpath, which I wasn’t really comfortable about, but it really wasn’t clear where it went. If I did it again I’d try an alternative route, approaching from the north east.

At last I found the time to visit the “bumps”. They are just off the inland coastal path on top of a very steep hill. There are six barrows in this group, three large bowl barrows and what looks to me like three conjoined, into a triple barrow.
All of these barrows have been excavated, the biggest and most westerly has a huge crater in it’s summit and the middle of the triple has been completely flattened. The first two bowl shapes have seperate ditches, but share a bank between them.
These six mounds diminish in size from west to east. The biggest is on the crown of the hill, with the others running slightly downhill.
The “bumps” are a distinct set of 6 barrows on the south side of the Ridgeway just above the hamlet of Bincombe, Grinsell goes up to 60g in numbers for the parish of Bincombe. Some these have now been destroyed or largely ploughed out.

On one of the suspect mounds 200yards to the north west(ish) amongst the plethora of stones is the big one with cupmarks, found by Mr Hugh Ross teacher at Farr public school

About 50 yards to the east of the A862 in a farmers field this stone is between 6 and 7 ft tall, broad on one side and thin on the other. Good views up and down the flat land between the Beauly Firth and the hills going up to Tor Breac and Cnoc Croit.

About 200 yards to the east of its partner with the A862 and some houses between them .Between 7 and 8 ft tall this stone is tall, roundish in section and really quite pretty, the nicest and most impressive of the two. Good views to the hills to the S.E, The Aird hills I think.

Just yards to the west of the A862 and sandwiched between two houses, if you get in the middle of the henge lie down and stare at the clouds you could be in the middle of nowhere.
Despite the long grass the entrance is quite clear,
RCAHMS says its hengiform rather than going all out and saying it is a henge and I can see why, its a funny little thing .

This single stone is visible from the Dorchester to Broadmayne road. It is however on private farm land along with the other stones that once may have formed a circle here. There are signs up here threatening legal action against trespassers, but apparently the people who live on the site will allow people on the place by prior arrangement.