Latest Fieldnotes

This is very clearly a pretty impressive barrow, however for some reason it doesnt appear on the OS Map.

I was surprised to see this monument and at first I thought this was the hill-fort marked on the map.
However it appears to be some kind of three banked mound. Perhaps a ring-fort or a barrow.
It reminds me of the Tlachtga on the Hill of Ward in Meath.
So perhaps it may have had some kind of ceremonial function?

This Hut Circle is made up of maybe 8-10 stones most of them no more than 200-300mm high.

This is actually a hut circle not a stone circle. My mistake. It is called a stone circle on the information board at Lough Gur.

This fort is marked on the information board as you come into Lough Gur. What is interesting at this time of year is the circular patterns of growth within the Lough itself.
Obviously as one corner of the lake has been reclaimed/ filled in then it is likely that the overall level of the lake has risen. Perhaps there are more sites underwater.
Much of the folklore of the area speaks of an enchanted city beneath its waters.

This is a beautiful standing stone to the north of Knockfennel. It is on private land.
It is not shown on the OS Map for some reason (very unusual, I think the OS map for Limerick is missing a lot of stuff) however it is in the Discovery Programme book for the region.
It is about 1.75m high and seems to be carved at the tip into a semi-circular top.
To get there use the pathway that goes up Knockfennel and branch off along the lower northern ridges of it.
It is less than 0.5km from the main path.

The rain broke in the afternoon, and having some free time, I decided to scout the hillfort.

Herein lies the problem with some sites, some of them are private property (cue Marxist rants) and being of the opinion that it is better to err on the side of caution, I donned the trusty combats and DPM jacket and proceeded with caution in the horseless carriage up the road to the site.

Following the OS map, I meandered through the wonderful villages of the vale, made a few wrong turns (ok, nobody’s perfect), doubled back and eventually made landfall near the site. Parking in the access road for St. Mary (blesséd be her name) Lodge, I clambered out of the motor and grabbed the faithful digi (including spare battery) and eyed the landscape.

A hedge and a barbed wire fence pose little issue with a country lad, so I tramped in a straight line across from the motor and launched myself through the hedgerow and over the wire.

The field had many established trees in it (and a herd of cattle who thankfully were far away to my right – bulls and bullocks can be troublesome), and I could see the rise of the topography clearly ahead. A cracking view of Uffington and the White Horse is clearly visible from here. Was this place in opposition to the Atrebates? With the river Thames and its tributaries being the possible tribal boundary, it may be and it’s obvious from this hillfort location, that you could keep an eye on Uffington.

Across another fence (with the music from mission impossible rattling around me skull) I came across a road and could see the tell tale embankments of a hill fort in front of me. Being conspiciously camoflaged, I looked left and right and with confirmation of the coast being clear, dashed across into cover.

The whole site is very overgrown with mature trees and established ‘jungle’. This makes it very difficult to work out what it what and where is where. A little tree strewn valley led me up to the earthwork. It seemed small to me, until I realised that I was on the edge of the fort and not in it (init!). The bunnys had moved in and there was plenty of burrows to see.

I explored more and found a fence with open fields beyond. Was that it? Cos it seemed a tiny hillfort to me. I realised that the piece I’d been in was just part of the complex. Beyond the fence I could see the buildings of a large private house and more earthworks. Keen to explore without being exposed, I followed the fence line (crossing more barbed wire) and could then see the bigger picture. This hillfort runs the length of the contour and I’d just been at the beginning!

The ditches and banks are less defined than, say, Uffington, but if the field beyond is the interior of the fort, then it’s a biggy. Being in full view of the house didn’t seem like a good idea, so I grabbed some snaps (the bunny’s didn’t mind at all) and headed back whence I’d came to explore the other side.

A lovely tree lined avenue headed towards the house and looked tempting, but I avoided the temptation and went back to where I started. Whoops – a car came up the drive and I mingled nicely into the background. The site is adjacent to the road and every engine noise put me on edge.

I footed back over my original path and looked at the field below the site. Like all hillforts, you can see the problem with charging uphill and attacking – you’d be exhausted before you reached the fight!

I did spot a lovely earthwork circle in the field below. Didn’t look like a barrow, but def a circular earthwork of some description. Maybe it was a hut circle? Feeling vulnerable in the middle of a field with no cover, I twitched as another car came up the drive – better safe than sorry I thought, and I guess my luck had run out, so I headed back to the car and over the hedge and barbed wire. Sat in the car, I couldn’t help thinking that I might be a looney-tune, and that it was OK to go a stomping and that we have a right to see our heritage. But, I know how precious landowners are ‘bout their little bit of land, and I know gamekeepers that carry shotguns (OK, so I’m a big rabbit) and was thankful that it’s better to be ‘invisible’ if you can.

I guess it’s a different mentality than wandering moors and fells, were nobody gives a toss what stones or lumps and bumps you’re looking at, in the South it’s more a case of ‘Get orf MY land’... or else!

And was it on a Mary or Michael Ley Line?

Dunno

WF

A quick flyby in the motor today and the hill that is Goldbury still fascinates. I often drive on the A417 and sometimes there is a lovely optical illusion of cows ‘flying’ on the downs.

Yes, the farmer hates people actually getting on it (his cow shed is at the bottom) – so don’t annoy him!

No, there is no/very little archaeology on it.

Yes, there’s an Anglo-Saxon cemetery near to it

But maybe, it is something...

I always describe this hill(ock) to people as ‘a perfect hill’. It’s cute, it’s round and attached to the ground! (cue football chant)

The name evidence seems attractive: ‘Gold’ and ‘Bury’, the bury bit seems straightforward – its a hill (not a barrow or an ancient fort). The Gold bit could be sun worship (i’m thinking temple like lowbury), but then these placenames do have a nasty habit of being corrupted and twisted over time. ‘Cold’ could be a contender (i’m thinking Mr Watkins) and therefore a folk memory of some ancient use.

It’s damn close to the Icknield Way, and I mean ‘an icknield way’ not ‘the Icknield Way’. A way is a way and not just a road. This is like the ridge ‘way‘. There were many tracks and paths and roads that would have been the Icknield Way, but modern agreement is that the A417 to the north is it. (What Wantogians like to call the Port ‘Way’). Confused? Can’t find your ‘way’?

At SU447882(ish) is the turn down to the Holy Trinity Church and next to a Thatch cottage. Look at the kerbstones in this little dead end road. There are two sarsens opposite each other, still in the kerb. I reckon they’re waymarkers for an Icknield Way. Through the church and crossing Ginge Brook are two more on the ‘ickle’ bridge. I’m quite open to the two on the bridge being reasonably modern and maybe ‘faux’ markers. But, those ones in the kerb... When the workmen originally surfaced that road and added kerbstones, why didn’t they just move the two old pieces of stone and fit a new kerb? I’m guessing (again!) but if those workers were local (highly likely) and those stones had always been there, then the cheeky little buggers built the kerb around them.

If you scout around the area, you’ll find more waymarkers of sarsen and I see plenty of ‘em around the Vale.

And this is my point on the Icknield ‘Way’, there are many of them not just one. Look at the OS map for the area and you’ll see many paths and tracks heading in a generally E-W direction and they are all the Icknield Way. There’s one that you can see from East Lockinge that runs past Hagbourne Hill and turns into the Chilton Road before reaching Upton and then becomes ‘Common Lane’. (for example).

Given the proximity to Ginge Brook (and the Treacle Mines! – ask a local) and the Icknield Way, I’d say Goldbury is something. What (sacred hill?), is still a mystery. Will someone please dig?

12/5/07

The clearance of the chamber continues. Last time I was here (24/12/06) I had to lay flat and shimmy down from the rubble in the chamber to get access into the passage. Not any more. The entrance has been cleared, exposing the sillstone that separates chamber from passage. Even more of the roof rubble has been cleared from the chamber itself, revealing more of the giant capstone and some more of the collapsed corbelling. All this moving of stones, while it exposes more of the chamber, cannot be good for the structure. The collapse of the roof had settled for god knows how many years and seems to have supported parts of the chamber that may well collapse if any more is removed. Some of the lintels and roofstones around the chamber entrance are looking in a very precarious condition. While the clearing of the stones opens up the monument that bit more, the inexpert nature of the ‘excavation’ doesn’t instill confidence. Lighting fires on the old capstone can’t help either.

This site occupies a South East facing hill side, just above Ingleton. There are a number of hut circle remains, the scooped out hollows still obvious.

There are also what look like a few enclosures, albeit feinter than the hut sites.

The crown of the hill side is topped with what could be three standing stones. I’m a bit sceptical about this though, as there are a number of other stones probably deposited by glacial action.

The site is described on the PastScape web site as an Iron Age\Romano British settlement consisting of a complex of stone built huts, enclosures and a field system.

Berryholme Round Cairn is situated just off the public right of way leading from Briggs House Farm, to Brigsteer some two miles away.

Initially it looks little more than a grassy mound in the corner of a field, however closer inspection reveals some of the exposed part of the stone core of the cairn. Not a very well preserved site, as there’s an old shelter of some sort built into the side of the mound itself....but seeing as it’s on a less well known footpath, the damage done will probably not be increased by too many tourists or walkers.

The fairy steps are an old funerary\corpse route used to transport the dead from villages in the area to the church at Beetham. The route is, in places, so narrow, for example up the two flights of man made steps, that the coffins had to be hauled up the cliff face using iron rings embedded in the stone. In a few places, these iron rings can still be seen.

The circle is remakably intact, which considering it’s right up against a wall, and obviously in a well used field, strikes me as a little suscpicious. The cynic in me thinks that this is merely a collection of stone moved from elsewhere.....but who knows!!

About 10 metres to the North is a flattened stone circle, consisting of about 7 semi buried stones, probably only noticable during winter when the grass is shorter. Not sure if this is another cirlce, another cairn or something altogether different.

A rare example of cup marks in Knapdale , there are another couple of marked rocks in the immediate area .

This trio are up to their necks in peat . It would be interesting to see their feet , which could be a long way down , after all this was how bits of Callanish looked before the peat was removed . A lot of the standing stones in the area are engraved so their may be rock art too. Access is awkward as it can be very wet underfoot even in the driest weather , wellies , flipper and snorkel or bollock naked reccomended attire , or lack of .

I have just walked this site again and have spotted what appears to be an unlisted pond barrow. I’m aware that these are notoriously difficult to tell from sink holes and the like, but this appears to have a well defined bank surrounding the parts of it which are not near the footpath, which runs very close to it. It is only several hundred yards from the Rainbarrows themselves. Photos to follow, you decide!
These barrows are much easier to see since much of the scrub has been cleared in order to reclaim the area as heathland. This is part of the Thomas Hardy heath project, which aims to re-create the heath of Hardy’s youth, which became the fictional Egdon heath in his writings.
The name does not appear to have anything to do with rain but is an Anglicised version of Hraefn or Hraevn meaning raven in Anglo Saxon – see A.D.Mills – Place Names of Dorset.

The marked stone is nicely looked after in it’s own puropse built niche in a wall. Apparently it was found in the field containing Shortflatt barrow, just to the east. Stan Beckensall has recorded three other cup-marked stones from the area, all of which are also in private hands.

This is definitely one that visitors should ask permission for before visiting, as it’s very much on private property.

I was struck by the strange veneer of reddish stuff that looked as if it had been splatterred onto the carved surface. No idea at all what it might be, but it doesn’t look like a natural feature.

If you go “around the houses” there will be a way in through gates, but this being the end of a decent dry period I took a shorter but naturally difficult route into the field containing the bulk of the cairn. By the field boundary is the mound with large exposed stones that I photographed on a previous visit believing it to be part of the cairn. Now I have my bearings this is not recorded as connected. But there is a strong suggestion, in my mind, that all is part of a bigger site that arcs around this hillslope. Perhaps it is all on some glacial feature, glacial action that is presumably the cause of the very large boulders being embedded in the banks of what I assume to be a former burn further upslope. On this part of the hill several features appear to run into one another, and a few of these also appear to have been trialled for archaeology..

Not actually marked on the map as a barrow but....that is what it looks like to me! The seaward side has dissapeared and a wall built through it. The whole mound is surounded by barbed wire to keep something out?
Great site to be buried!
Easilly reached from Gwithian Towans by NT road out to the lighthouse.

Follow the farm track from West Ardwell farm, sign-posted Ardwell bay, the track is passable by car (just) and leads to a small car park close to the beach. From here follow the coastal footpath southward around the point, a 5-minute walk, and the broch is un-mistakable and quite dramatic on its promontory. The site is accessible across a built causeway and the remains, although much reduced, are impressive with unusually two openings one to landward and the other to seaward both with checks. There is a mural chamber in the eastern side but we couldn’t find any evidence of stairways. Unfortunately we didn’t linger due the fact it was raining cats and dogs but this place will stand another visit in better weather as there is much to explore including some outwork.

I’ve not got a lot to add here, given the fame of this site and its comprehensive coverage in all sorts of guide books. A great little volume written by the O’Kellys is available from the proud and committed landowner.

Aubrey Burl in his big ‘Stone Circles of...’ book remarks that the monument’s relationships lie with the Wicklow circles and not with the Scottish recumbent and Munster axial stone varieties. I’m not so sure that a connection to the ASCs should be written off completely. Two northeastern portals look along a main axis, with a winter sunset declination, to two stones at the southwest which, because they sit together, give the same shape as one more broad than high. A supplied v-notch sits in the middle of these ‘axial stones’, an effect also offered by natural valleys in the sightlines of the Winter Solstice circles of Drombeg and Lettergorman South. Maybe in 1000 years an idea could mutate and fuse with other influences and appear some distance to the South?

Said by some to be a passage grave, this robbed out mound is oval in shape and shows no signs of a kerb. It’s about 200 metres east-south-east of the excavated henge of the same name that has been cut into by a modern factory.
It’s roughly 25 metres on its long axis and has a dug out depression at its eastern end.

There are ten red dots on Sheet 36 denoting this barrow cemetery. Three of them are beside the road with two on the road itself. The other five are in an arc aligned roughly south-west to north-east. To be honest I wasn’t expecting to find much and I wasn’t greatly disappointed. I did however locate the remains of about seven of the barrows. They’re quite hard to make out and most of the mounds have been flattened, but a little scouring shows plenty of evidence of circular banks and interior fosses. The one mound that remains to any great height is the most northern one. It’s about 2.5 metres high, roughly circular.

Slieve Breagh falls dramatically away to the north-west from this place and the views across Meath, Monaghan and Cavan and north into Armagh and beyond are spectacular. There are many peaks away on the distant horizon. A quite lonely and windswept place but worth the trip on this cloudy, windy and sunny Irish day.

The entrance to this souterrain is in the ditch by the side of the road. It’s marked on the map well into the field and the farmer had just dug a hole in the vicinity of the mark so I thought this must be it. Happily the farmer happened by and showed me where to look. He said that I could crawl in, that there’s “a big cave in there”. “Thanks all the same,” said I.
The lintelled entrance is to the south. Immediately, after about a metre, there’s a sharp right turn and the souterrain heads down. It looks like an ideal spot for a badgers lair and I had no torch. I would love to come back here with some proper kit and a companion less claustrophobic than I.

In her book “Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne” (Cork University Press) Geraldine Stout has this marked on both of the overview maps of Brugh na Bóinne, and yet there is no mention of it in the index and I haven’t come across it in the text, so far. I did see it mentioned somewhere else but can’t remember where. Having bought Geraldine’s book I decided to see if I could find anything.

I approached from the eastern end of the complex and just where the bend of the road turns sharp right on the long approach up to Dowth there’s a small wall. Over this and about 100 metres further west are 2 bowl-like arenas, like hollowed out inverted mounds. Was this where the stone circle once stood? The one further west seems like the most probable. It has 2 large fallen stones that may have come from the circle. One, the northern of the 2, is huge and has definitely been worked/shaped, though, from what I remember, the stones were blasted when the circle was destroyed. The other lies to the south and is thinner and smaller, about 2 metres long.

I’ve had limited experience of stone circles so I don’t know if I’ve found the precise location. The bowl like depression is about 10 metres deep on its southern side. The floor opens out to the north and drops off until it reaches the modern road about 8 metres below.

Marked on the map as a Tumulus, as it’s never been dug, this is apparently a bona fide bronze age burial mound. There are traces of a ditch, and the remains of stone kerbs, though the latter are a bit obscured by the field clearance dumped on the mound.

It’s got a good line of sight to nearby Shaftoe Crags, and particularly to the striking natural feature of The Piper’s chair, on the horizon. Maybe this had something to do with the choice of this spot for a mound?

It does bear a striking resemblance to the nearby Poind and his man, only without the standing stone. Who knows, maybe one there was a stone here too, a few standing stones in the area have gone walkabout, see Wallington and Middleton for examples.

The field just to the NW of the mound has turned up a few examples of portable rock art over the years, thought to be from now vanished cairns. There are still many large clearance stones dotted all over the immediate vicinity.

Nice to see the sturdy fence protecting the mound from the drepidations of cattle.