Latest Fieldnotes

[visted 08/07/07] I have been a sucker for any rock art in wessexish ever since I saw a lot up north a few years back. It is however very rare about these parts and so I headed over to see this without high hopes. Sadly I completely failed to find a cup on this otherwise purty little stone. There are a couple of small depressions, but nothing I could positively say had been created by man.

Moving on, this somewhat misnamed stone comes up to about waist height nowadays and reminded me of the West Anstey Longstone. It is an absolute peach of a location overlooking the Bristol Chanel, Wales clearly visible in the distance. Also clearly visible is Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station, or as we like to think, the Pixies Mound. Can’t really say about the orientation though as it was re-erected in the 60s.

Access is for the fitish but is all footpaths and would be doable in a wheelchair that could handle reasonably rough ground and steep slopes. Feeling energetic I made it up there in 25 mins, about a third at a slow run, and back down in 15mins, running mostly. Walking would prolly take 30 mins mostly all up hill. The effort to reward ratio is quite high on this one!

I was able to park really close and went through just one gate, but still went the wrong way and then saw it on the way back to the car, d’oh.
Not enough room under the capstone for a person but enough for a camera .The capstone is maybe three metres long and propped up on smaller boulders at one end whilst the other end creeps under the grass. The whole thing sits at the eastern end of a mound about thirty feet long.

A truly beautiful place indeed. Try to resist parking right next to the monument as there’s a much better place 50 yards down the lane.
Though there’s not loads left of Branas Uchaf it’s still quite impressive, the largest stone is over four feet and the whole thing sits on a mound that on the eastern side is five feet tall.
Try to combine a visit with Tyfos, Moel ty Uchaf and Tan y coed and maybe Coed y Bedo.

Ledcharrie in Glen Dochart is midway between Killin and Crianlarich but is also where an important track goes south over the hill to Balquhidder . The area has no recorded cup marks or anything prehistoric. Until today . One of the rocks has what looks like a rosette which includes a dumbell surrounding two cups .

I dithered for a bit over this one, there was no easy access so I bit the bullet and asked for permission, glad I did so too.
I think the farm house was called Tir Bach aswell and the gates were tall and a bit hard to open, I walked amongst the curious chickens and knocked on the door, and again and again, hmm what to do ? In the near distance I could hear a tractor so I headed for that and bingo, I found the farmer and his wife digging a big hole in the corner of the field and there was the stone in the other corner. With them were two terrier type dogs which were now barking at me. The farmer saw me and came over so I asked if I could see their stone.
I think they were quite surprised that someone wanted to photograph their stone and they relayed this to me about it, Three boffins from CADW came over to inspect the stone after the farmer had told them of other boulders unearthed nearby, they said they were unrelated to the stone but then the boffins argued a bit about the stone and this was the gist, the menhir was in upside down but had been so for millenia on the western face of the stone was two small lumps of quartz with rings carved round them, and on the north face is an inordinate amount of recentish carved graffitti initials and dates mostly. One thing I noticed is the north face is really flat and precisly aligned east-west. It was about 6.5 ft tall and the western view is not visible due to high river bank

I approached from the north from the village of YFfor itself as a footpath goes more or less right past it . I think the stone is almost recumbent , but somehow it seems to be placed like that because it aligns perfectly on Mynnyd Carngwch the breast shaped mini mountain with its summit cairn. Half way between the sacred hill and the sea I quite liked this stone.

I stopped and asked a farmer at Penfras-uchaf farm he pointed me back down the lane and said I could park in front of the gate that leads to the path that leads to the stone....Ideal.
down the tree lined path turn left into a field then right into another field and there it is in the corner. About 7ft tall and taking Mynydd Carngwch as it’s inspiration possibly dating to the same time as the giant hilltop cairn.

Fwoaaar look at the shape of that hill it even has a .......now that’s enough of that . This hill with it’s really conspicuous cairn on top is visible for miles all around .The walk up to the top is tiring to say the least but really worth while a great view of tre’r ceiri and most of the Lleyn aswell.
As you walk up to the cairn it reminded me of Loughcrew but there’s no passage and no chamber, pity. The cairn itself is actually built on a natural bump which pokes through in places and the top is hollowed out slightly to hide oneself from the wind.
I sat here for quite a while watching two buzzards showing off.

Once again I forgot to check out the church and yard, but then I was only here on default, waiting for cloud to lift off Tre’r Ceiri hillfort. But what a place to simply pass time, though the railings do nark me off a bit, but sitting under the capstone with eyes closed I could have been surrounded by marauding aliens for all I cared, the peace was super-calming, birds singing, the waves on the shore, wonderful.
I tried to count the cupmarks but stopped at about 30, how many are there? I don’t think I could see more than a hundred.

St Agnes Beacon is a landmark for anybody driving down the A30 towards the END. Surprisingly for such a large and conspicuous hill the barrows/cairns on the summit are just the opposite. My feelings are they have been robbed not only of any remains but also of stone over the years. What is left are a few scattered mounds, and even these can be mistaken for mining remains and vice versa. The hill is great for views..but don’t make a special trip for the archaeology.

Having taken three attempts at finding the somewhat overgrown path it was literally jaw-dropping to turn a corner and see Hoon Mount looming. It is huge: perhaps 30m in diameter and 5m or so in height. Certainly larger than Swarkestone and maybe a similar size to Round Hill (I’ve never been as close to the latter as I now have to this). The visibility of the mound on satellite maps underlines the size of the structure. There is some damage to the SW edge – I’m undecided if it’s from sheep or dickheads with detectors.

I sat on the summit and had swallows dance around me on a blustery July day. There is definitely a more pleasant air to this place than many others in South Derbyshire.

This embanked circle is very unusual. The outer ring is probably bigger than the Grange Lios and it also has a smaller inner circle.
The whole site is in a bad state and its very hard to photograph because its so overgrown.
It is marked as a mound on the OS map for some reason. It is marked on the information board at Lough Gur as a stone circle and also in O’Kellys works.

Daveyravey below appears to have been to it as well but I think the grid ref and the name he has given it is incorrect.
themodernantiquarian.com/site/8321/lough_gur_d.html

Iv’e heard that permission should be attained from the land owner, but the circle (or what ever it is) is passed on the way to the farmers house which is nigh on a mile further down a bumpy lane, and when asked for premission he seemed to think it strange that someone would want to see a block of stone about this big ( he uses his hands to show how big )
It’s a nice stone with good views, though it were a tad foggy when we got here the wind soon cleared it away a bit.

This is a really impressive site. I remember reading about it in the Discovery Programmes North Munster Project (I had a loan of it for a few days). I believe it is classified as a Bronze Age Barrow.
I would like to give the exact dims because it is huge and really the pictures don’t do it justice.
There are three rings around it as far as I could see. The inner one being about 1.5m high and the ditch in between is filled with water.
What really excited me was the views from it. To the east you have the many notches of the Galtys, south the Ballyhouras but even more importantly to the North you can clearly see the fairy mound of Cnoc Aine.
I think this mound/ barrow may be in some way related to the many monuments in the area.
The word rathanny is meant to come from Rath-eanaighe or the fort of the marsh. However I wonder is there any link to RathAine? With Anny being a corruption of this?
As for how to find it, I parked at the soccer field beside Hospital and walked thru the fields. It is about 1km from the soccer field.
There may be a track thru a farm but you will have to ask for permission etc. Basically you will need a GPS and to be honest I wouldnt fancy going down here in wet weather. I think it would live up to Rath of the marshes!

This standing stone is about 1m tall. However it has fallen. By the looks of it pretty recently

This stone is not marked on the OS map. It is about 500mm high. It could possibly be a scratching post. However with the quantity of monuments in the area I doubt it.

The graveyard on the left coming out of Lattin is located up on a height above the road.
On closer inspection it is obvious it is built into some kind of mound. Again I’m not sure of its age.

This mound is on the right as you come into Lattin on the R515. It is a quite huge mound. Must be at least 5m high. I’m not sure of its date, it may be a Motte but it is listed in the OS Map as a mound.

About 200m from the mound nearby. This is a tall standing stone of about 2m high.
Unusually for its size it is not marked on the OS map.

Drove past here recently on the way to check out St. Ailbes well in Emly.
I had to do a double take when I didnt see the familiar sight of the standing stone.
On the way back I investigated it and it looks as though it has been hit by lightening and broken up.
The stone itself was charred where it split. I was glad to have seen it when it was still standing.

This mound is located just off the R515 before the village of Lattin. It isn’t marked on the OS map however it is right beside an unmarked Standing Stone about 200m to the west. The mound itself must be about 2-3m high in parts and about 15m in diameter. It is more long than round.

This was the second panel of rock art on the itinerary of the Rock Art Meet 2007. The bushes meant that only three or four people could visit at a tme, so the viewing was done in shifts.

It tripped off the continuation of a discussion that’s been bubbling for a couple of years now, due to the way in which the complex three lobed motif at the centre of the panel emerges from a substantial natural cleft.

If there is anything in the theory that natural features, particularly fissures/clefts, influenced the choice of the rock to be marked, then the subsequent placing of motifs, then this panel is a good example.

To find this stone requires a bit of hedge hopping..and is on private land. Please make sure no fences are damaged as it allows sheep and cattle from the fields to get into Kilminorth Woods where they have caused great damage in the past.

This stone is mentioned in Paynes ‘Romance of the Stones’ as having been standing 5ft high when seen by OS inspectors in 1962. There is some thought that it might only have been a rubbing post...and who am I to say otherwise, but...

It sits (lies) on a north facing slope that drops steeply into the West Looe river valley. Woodland now hides the landscape and the view up river towards Bodmin Moor. Just behind it is an earth bank that I believe is part of the Giants Hedge or a Iron Age hillfort that was later turned into a rabbit warren. (viewing said hilltop from above the modern wall looks as if the field is circular, it isn’t but if it went right out to the earth bank it might be)

Naturally shaped stones like this do not occur in the Looe area and rubbing stones tend to be made of granite, brought down from the moor.

The stone features on the EH list of sites (hence me seeking it out). A similar but smaller stone lies hidden in the woods just to the south.

In my mind I was already composing my letter to John Waterhouse, Aubrey Burl and the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society. The subject of letter? How I had rediscovered the lost stone circle of Rawthey Bridge.
The plan
Drive to Rawthey bridge
Search the Hillside
Find, describe and photograph the circle.

I arrived at the bridge mid afternoon on the eve of the summer solstice. There is a good parking spot a few yards south of the bridge and a gated footpath on the opposite side of the road.
I had two grid references for the circle, one placed the site on the hillside close to the bridge, and the second reference placed the circle on the top of the nearby hill called Bluecaster.
Unusually for me I decided to use a sort of semi-methodological approach to my search for any trace of the circle. Starting at the bridge I followed the footpath for about a mile, checking out any possible sites either side of the path. I then turned back on myself and headed north east and uphill to the top of Bluecaster and then finally back down to the bridge. This triangular search would cover the two grid refs I had for the site and much more besides.
Unfortunately I didn’t find any trace of the circle. The hillside shows plenty of evidence of human activities mainly in the form of trackways and drilled rocks so fairly safe to say that good amounts of stone have been removed from this hillside to be used for building, road mending and also to feed the many lime kilns that operated in this area from Roman times to the eighteenth century.
So that was that, no circle, no glory but not a wasted day. The views of both the Howgill Fells and the limestone scars around Wild Boar Fell are spectacular.

In Nevern, off A487.

“A small area of modern Pembrokeshire, comprising the built-up area of Newport town. It lies within the medieval Cantref Cemaes. Cemaes was brought under Anglo-Norman control in c.1100 by the Fitzmartins who established their castle at Nevern on the site of an iron age fort. Cemaes remained in Angle-Norman hands until 1191 when Rhys ap Gruffudd retook it. He strengthened Nevern Castle, but Welsh supremacy was short-lived for Rhys died in 1197 and in the same year William Fitzmartin regained control of Cemaes”

cambria.org.uk/HLC/newportandcarningli/newport.htm

This must be one of the smallest , approx 3m at it’s widest internally . The gps is for scale , you could get more people in the average stone circle than gps’s in here .