Latest Fieldnotes

Great place to visit and great views of north Wales. It’s the perfect natural vantage point for a hill fort.

Originally the area below would had been marsh land, with streams and the original course of the river conwy, now the afon ganol (see pic from across the valley and imagine it full of water and marsh below).

Little is visible of the hill fort now, the top has a limestone outcrop running around it which can be mistaken for a wall or steps. A good view point to look at the hill fort is actually from the Colwyn Bay mountain zoo, you can clearly see the hill fort defensive walls from there.
The road beneath the hill is called Dinerth Road, this is a word that derives from the hill fort chieftan’s (celtci tribe Deceangli) name ‘the bear’ and is also the name of the fort itself.
The Nant Semtpyr valley below (now the A55 runs along it- see second picture) is where (it is said and sometimes disputed) the romans were ambushed on their way to Angelsey, their leader Sepronious was said to be attacked there (Sepronious has connections with Hannibal).

In the Medieval times the hill was used as a rabbit warren. In WW2 it was used as an early warning signal outpost, a radio mast was fitted on top, signs of this are still visible. Behind the hill, from a small car park near a quarry, is the ruins of Llys Euryn with it’s connections too Ednyfed who was the chief advisor to Prince Llewelyn ap Iorwerth and an ancestor to the Tudor King Henry 8th.

I awoke to a lovely sunny morning so once I’d packed the kids off to school I pulled out the maps and turned my mind to the moors.
As I was pulling my boots on the terrier was sitting expectantly by the front door staring at his lead. Sadly I had to leave him behind. I was heading to Battersby Moor, the moor is open access land but dogs are not allowed.
I parked up at Ingleby Greenhow next to the lovely church and headed out across the fields to Bank Foot Farm. There is a hint of the imminent arrival of spring in the fields. The hedgerows are begining to bud and you can spot the lovely yellow flowers of lesser celandine and the occasional daffodil poking through the grassy banks.
Battersby Moor is situated on the northern edge of the North York Moors escarpment. There are easier ways to access it than walking from Ingleby but the only way you can really experience how the crags dominate the fertile farm land below is to walk up from the base.
Once at Bank Foot you have two choices. You can turn right and walk up to the moors along the Ingleby incline, an old railway incline which was used to send tubs of ironstone down from the moors. The tubs were then tipped into wagons and the stone was sent to blast furnaces of Middlesbrough.
Alternatively you can walk through the farm and follow the old track that runs up the side of Ingleby Bank. The track is steep but gets you there in half the time. There is a public footpath that runs up the bank through the conifer plantation, this is the shortest route but is currently closed due to forestry operations.
Once on the moor you should take the left hand path walking past a pair of posts with a chain slung across them. Before you strike out across the moor you should walk to the edge of the crags and drink in the view. The whole northern edge of the North York Moors Escarpment in laid out before you along with the beautiful fertile Vale of Cleveland.
The walk to the Cross Ridge Dyke is fairly easy going, the paths are well made keepers tracks and eventually join the long distance path of the Cleveland Way. There are lots of stone outcrops on the surrounding moor giving plenty of opportunities for cup mark hunting. I found a few very weathered cup marks on these stones but cannot really say whether they are natural erosion features or genuine cup marks. In The North York Moors, An Introduction, Stanhope White described a rock cut basin at NZ6100069, I was unable to find this stone.
The Cross Ridge Dyke is not a huge feature, if your visiting the area the thing to look out for is the standing stone on the crest of the dyke. The dyke itself runs SE-NW for approximately 200m. It runs from a marshy area in the south east, across the ridge and the modern path and then heads down the bank where it is lost in a jumble of modern ditches. The bank itself is composed of earth and stones with a ditch on the southern side. There are a couple of large stones on top of the bank which may indicate that this dyke was once lined with stones in a similar manner to the Bridestones at Commondale themodernantiquarian.com/site/5506. Blaise Vyner has this to say about the monument
“The area defined may lie to the north, where a damaged barrow lies some 300m distant; there are no other monuments in the vicinity. This earthwork is not typical of the group, since, although it runs across a well-defined ridge, no trace of a second earthwork is seen and it is not clear what area may originally have been marked off. It may be the rising ground to the north, beyond the visible burial mound, was thought a sufficient boundary.”
The brides of place: cross-ridge boundaries reviewed.
Moorland Monuments. CBA Research Report 101 1995.

The dyke is well worth a visit, the site affords some lovely views across the Vale of Cleveland, the northern moorland escarpment and Basedale. The moor is essentially a heather moor but there are also marshy areas, sphagnum bogs and mixed woodlands on the flanks. Apart from the initial climb the walking is along level paths and you will be accompanied by the calls of the grouse and the shrill cries of golden plovers and snipe.
If you are looking for a lazy way to access the moor you can drive up on the Kildale to Basedale road which will take you to within a couple of hundred meters to this monument.

These first two photographs were taken in 2004. The first is looking NE, the second shows the view looking SSW. On several visits to the stone I have searched for outliers and found none. My conclusions are that they either never existed or were removed at sometime in the distant past (Canmore shows photographs from early 1900s....again, no outliers visible). Packing stones are to be seen around the base of the stone and a comparison with these earlier photographs from the early 1900s shows there to have been some erosion of the ground surface around the stone.
The stone itself is heavily laden with lichen on its SW face; the NE face has a marked ridge running the length of the stone. The vertical edges have noticeable notches in them.
The stone is set in a saddle between two hills with a good open aspect to the S and SSW (possibly good for lunar observations hereabouts). There are possible signs of this stone having been a part of a ritual landscape since other possible standing stones/marked stones may be found with thorough searching on the approach to Luath’s Stone from the SW.

I paced the outer bank at approx 300 metres in circumference, The diameter at 100 metres. The inner mound is approximately 100 metres circumference and 30 metres diameter. The bank in places is about 5 feet high where it is protected by the gorse.

It’s worth getting an OS map for this area of the Welsh country side, I did because it was part of my research for my archaeology course. It is worth owning one because there are other significant contemporary monuments in the area such as Meini Gwyr and Gors Fawr stone circles a mile or two away with other standing stones, stone cirlces, 6 ring barrows and 11 barrows aswell as Iron age features scattered in this area of the country side. Many features are scattered close to the main road from Crymmych heading south.

The site lies either side of the road going down to Mine Howe. Part of it lies by the plantation and looks fairly intact, but as everything is hidden under huge grass tussocks it is unrevealing, and only one trench was placed here. Might have done better to strip just the turf back over the whole area this side of the road.

There is a long straight looking bank maybe a metre high, roughly parallel to the road, and then a further bank or banks behind this ‘pushing’ the plantation back in a curve. If this is the ‘embankment’ then the gap between the end of the arms should be towards the far end of what you see. In the plantation behind is a remaining section of natural burn. Before you reach the main body of the site a wide water channel goes under the road.

On the Langskaill side the far bank the part by the road incorporating larger stones seems to have excessive height for the present usage, and might have been associated with Round Howe or be re-used stones from it. This RH side of the road is where the owners dug in 1946. Over the mid-19th century drystane wall from the roadside the workers left a cut alongside the wall. Perhaps one could still find part of the entrance to the broch (or that in the mound) close by this cut. Climbed a fieldgate onto the site. The start of the ‘arms’ should be about the lower right region as you look at it – on my last visit the land between here and the channel was water-logged. Trench remains complicate the viewing and the “Mine Howe location map” shows earthworks over an 150m wide area (unfortunately the geophysics has no scale in the Mine Howe publication).

Away from the mound what looks like an inner bank is re-deposited material and the rise to the north is natural. You can still see the level area between mound and enclosure easily. There are several stumpy earthwork sections at the Round Howe end of Lang Howe which may properly belong to this site.

A beautiful sunny afternoon in winter (12/03/2007).This high Dorset hillfort is populated by myself , one other person and about thirty sheep.This is about the tenth time I have visited this remote hillfort , I am always amazed at the views , about thirty miles north,west and south. It’s strategic position in the landscape is as obvious now as it must have been in the iron age.It’s a medium sized (in Dorset terms) mutivallate typical Durotrigian fort roughly triangular in shape.It is split into two halves by a fence, the southern half looks like it may have been ploughed at some stage.

I visited this site on 10th March 2007, on a morning when the wind was blasting rain out of the west, and the clouds down on the top, depriving me of the wonderful view.
The Bronze Age cairn has been messed with, and the rocks have been scattered a bit. It must have been a substantial cairn in its original form. Two low-walled shelters have been constructed from the hoary old stones, providing shelter for the intrepid traveller, who can huddle from the wind. It’s an exposed place, at just short of 1,500 feet above sea level.
This cairn will appeal to the lover of the more obscure evidence of prehistory.

This barrow sits on the south side of Hagbourne Hill, sort of on its own crest. It has been planted with some trees and seems to have avoided the plough. It is very ‘flattened’ now. From the Ridgeway (at bury down car park near West Ilsley) if you know where to look (or have a good pair of binoculars) it can be seen.

Despite warnings of lack of parking I found enough space at the side of the road on the grass verge . After jumping the low wall it was just 60 yds to the stones, of the three burial chambers i went to today these were the easiest to get to but the saddest to behold, nobody likes piles but these were rediculous .
The two chambers are about 8m apart ,and when still standing may have resembled Dyffryn Ardudwy, they have a good veiw of Snowdonia on a nice day.

This was also my second attempt to find this one, but with the help of moths picture with the path in the trees beyond I went straight to it.
When I got there I thought the god of stone finding was smiling down upon me, I was expecting it to be overgrown but someone with a chainsaw had been here and Pant-y-Saer, the whole chamber was free of trees and undergrowth, very very pleasant surprise,not even barking dogs away to the south could curb my enthusiasm.
The chamber is very low, not much room in there, only Eric could get in comfortably ,the capstone was a big one but is broken at one end, or maybe both.
Liked this place a lot.

Approach from the north down a little footpath squeezed between two houses,up some rough steps over a stile cross a small field and over another stile, turn right, cross another small field and over yet another stile then follow the path and the burial chamber is smack infront of us.
Sounds a bit long but it’s only ten minutes from the car, and it looks like someone with a chainsaw has been round here and Glyn because the paths were clear and well defined.
The chamber is a good one with a heavy looking capstone tilted somewhat jauntily(kind of reminded me of a cowboy), half a dozen live people could squeeze inside if they wished

This is signposted off the trail as a ‘Boulder Burial Chamber’. I’m a little dubious about that classification. There are many large sandstone erratics in Burren (some of them signposted as well), some having landed on pavement similar to the stones propping this monster up. A little research is needed to see if a burial was actually found at this site.
The stone itself must be at least 50 tons. It’s so heavy that the corner stone holding it in place is not just fracturing so much as shattering slowly. There are more stones at the back of the ‘burial’ that seem to form a sort of cist. Hmmmmm...

Yes, from the photographs this looks very much like the ‘circle’ I described back in 2002 posting on the Pikestones page: themodernantiquarian.com/post/5926 The alignment with Smithills Moor (Winter Hill) and the plantation treeline in the near distance appear to agree with my observations. No GPS in those days!

I would advise that you visit in winter so that you get a better idea of what a huge site this is. Even without the leaves and foilage, it is a hard site to decipher when you first enter but after we had walked the entire circumferance of this mighty henge, we had a better idea of what we were looking at!

It really is rather huge and impressive.

Here’s an aerial view, sacle 1:10 000 from the Multimap site. I’ve not published the image here due to copyright, so follow the link below:

Aerial View

What are the broad tracks? Peat extraction perhaps? When you’re on the ground the difference in levels is small, in the order of three to six inches or so.

A truly impressive bullaun stone, nestled in against a field boundary and a stone’s throw away from the shore of Lough Macnean Upper. Park at the modern graveyard 100 metres east from the signpost to Killinagh church and walk back. The stone is past the church and old graveyard down near the shoreline.
There were some ‘offerings’ placed under the turnstones in the bullauns. We cleaned some of the detritus that is moulding away on and around the stone, but brambles have taken hold in the space between the upper surface and the lower.

Through swallow holes on Cuilcagh (Binn Chuilceagh), water drains down off the mountain and rises here at the Shannon Pot. It’s quite an eerie place to pass some time, watching the water swirling up from underground and then rushing out of the pot and heading south to eventually empty into the Atlantic at Limerick. Well signposted on the Blacklion to Glangevlin road, there are car-parking facilities and a new pathway that allow anyone to have access to this quite magical spot.

Of the three that there were said to be, one we know. one has been destroyed by the building of the gatehouse, where is the second one? under the road?
Are there any remains of the other two left?
The fields either side?

I’m not so sure about the authenticity of this cairn there are three similliar mounds on the waterfalls walk at Anglezarke marked clearly as bellpits but theyre dug a little bit deeper and bigger than this one.

I’ve dropped one of my remaining three bollocks....and so in all probability this stone should maybe removed from the website...As it is more than likely a rubbing post.
The Dodds, A.E & E.M, even mention it as such in their book “Peakland Roads and Tracks”.

So even though the entry for the larger Bradstone on Pastscape.org did mention two stones (one smaller than the other) at roughly this location, it would seem they referred instead to the, ‘known missing’, standing stone further to the east.

Sorry.

We left it a bit late to look for this stone and it was dusk as we hit the the gardens. After looking at a couple of big stones by bins (“surely they wouldn’t put it be a bin?” we hoped) we spotted it in a line of stones along the path on the right hand side as you approach the museum.

It is strange in that there is NOTHING to alert you to its presence or where it is from (this is a museum garden, after all) – it is as if they don’t even realise it is there. It seems just stuck in with a load of other path-lining rocks. Strange.

The light wasn’t good enough to get any decent shots but it was lovely to see, after being fed a diet of Romans and Vikings all day!

Rosegreen seems to be a pretty modern invention. An older version of the name is Roesgreen. When considered in the light of other local placenames like Lowesgreen, Price’s Lot and Waller’s Lot it would seem that Roe was the beneficiary of a Cromwellian land settlement. I think Bawn79’s first instinct was correct and the site was used for sun worship. Interesting that the graveyard which is still in use occupies the site still and that an old church was built on it.

freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~irish/Tipperary/places/rplaces.htm

ROESGREEN or LOWESGREEN
1837
a hamlet, in the parish of St. Patrick’s Rock, barony of Middlethird, county of Tipperary, and province of Munster, 3 miles S. from Cashel, on the road to Clonmel; containing 62 inhabitants. Fairs are held on Aug 2nd, and Oct. 23rd; and one of the R.C. chapels of the union or district of Cashel is situated here.

If you want a nice cliff walk with plenty of changing scenery then the one out to The Rumps is worth choosing. From Wadebridge follow signs to Polzeath..then New Polzeath. Turn off right before you reach the village and take narrow lane out to a NT carpark at the old lead mines...(don’t go on any further, it’s not worth it, theres only space for a couple of cars and they charge you!). From the lead mines take the path going east towards the cliffs. here join the SWCP and turn left heading out towards the Rumps. On a clear day you will get good views towards Tintagel and beyond...you might even be able to see Lundy (not sure about this). Follow the path as it skirts above the cliffs until you reach the headland. Branch off here and walk out passing through the huge ramparts as you go. I chose the left ‘Rump’ to explore but I am sure the other one is just as interesting. Can’t say I spotted any hut circles.
On leaving the Rumps turn right on the SWCP and continue on around the headland as it climbs amongst rocky outcrops. After a while you will pass a footpath leading off on the left to the farm, ignore this and carry on around eventually gaining a view right up the Camel estuary.
Follow the path until you nearly reach Polzeath where you will find a narrow valley causes you to turn inland. Follow the path up the valley to the farm, here turn right and follow the track back to the car park. Walk should take about 2 to 3 hours.

To clarify the issue of access to the site, the old lane marked on OS maps as ‘Coldrum Lane’ was, and still is, a private unmade road, which had got to such a sorry rutted state the residents along the lane decided to gate it off. It was never intended as access to the monument, but was the old entrance to Coldrum Lodge, long destroyed.