Latest Fieldnotes

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.

These fieldnotes relate to the barrows in the pictures numbered 1 to 5. They are situated between Came down golf course and Bincombe hill barrows. These are one large bowl barrow, the western bell barrow about 90 feet in diameter and 20 in height, the eastern about 60 by 15 feet.
The west barrow has distinct platform or berm about 10 feet wide around the base, a ditch about 2 feet deep surrounds the whole monument. It is rather unkempt and has some damage from rabbit holes, it has also been excavated at some stage.
The eastern barrow looks to be in better condition, however it has been ploughed in the past and has lost it’s outer ditch.
I have included these here as they don’t really make sense on their own, they seem to be part of a huge barrow cemetery which covers the hillside in this area, including both Came sets , Bincombe and West/East hills.

I’ve been to a lot of stone circles but this one is amongst my favourites, you can park quite near, the surrounding scenery is just beautiful, the stones seem to be picked for there ability to reach inside you and stick in your memory for ages, I really love this one. I’d drive all night just to see this one little four poster and it would be well worth it, I’ll be back again and again .

I was a little thrown by the stones being on a golf course, not being a player the only golf course I know is my local one which is considerably bigger than this one, but when I got there about tea-time no one was there at all but then it had been raining nonstop for two days.
We parked the car in the small street leading to the club and crunched along the path to the hut (which was shut) and there in the distance were the stones, looming large through the fine rain.
Boy are these stones big, you know they’re big but your’e never really prepared for stones of this size. After the wife and kids had gone back to the car a fox came along, the wind was the right way so he didn’t smell me, I crept slowly toward him until he saw me at about 30 metres, we looked at each other and then he was gone. I’d really like to come back one warm summer evening.

There are actually six barrows on this site. The two western most are large,one bell and one bowl type in good condition, the most easterly of the group is also in fairly good nick. The rest of the barrows are very knocked about, they look to have been very roughly excavated in the past.
They are in a row from west to east along the ridge of a hill overlooking the village of Chaldon Herring or East Chaldon. They are very prominent on the horizon from the valley to the south below. There are barrows all along the spine of this hill including the Lord’s barow to the west.

A pair of heathland barrows, one large, one much smaller. The big barrow has a large cleft in the top of it, obvious signs of excavation. Both are covered in ferns and gorse, but in good condition. Both these barrows have very well preserved and prominent banks and ditches. These are unusual locally as most barrows are on farmed land and have been ploughed.
The ditch around the big barrow is about two metres deep, I couldn’t see over the lip of the bank while standing in the bottom of the ditch.
Access to these mounds is very easy as they are on Tadnoll and Winfrith nature reserve.

The OS map was pretty vague about where exactly the walls are, firstly we took the middle path that goes high but under the bridge ...not that way ,next we went left and ended up at the rivers edge beautiful but...not that way,after an hour and half we took one last chance and wahay we found them . There are bigger and wider cliffs and walls but they chose these two little ones out of the way, very strange.
They do look very faded but still visible, we asked four people if they knew where the rock art was, but to no avail so god knows how brainless kids found them I don’t know what can be done to protect them but something should be done. There was no directions from the car park nor any mention of them at all ,Returning to the car I felt a bit of a plonker upon realising how close to the car they were. A wonder of prehistory hiding in the forest known only to a few . I liked it here a lot.

Hi. Sorry its taken so long to reply to this. I have been away for a while. I didn’t mean that Barbrook Moor was in any immediate danger, except for that of visitors stomping all over the sites.
I was just really shocked to see that this (and other) sites are not better cared for. Most people are unaware of them anyway I suppose or just don’t care. But I feel they are a valuable part of our heritage and so much can be learned about our ancestors from them. When I was on Barbrook Moor I felt that it more could be done to protect thes and other sites. I read so much about ancient sites that have been documented in the early 1900’s but have disappeared since then and I am just afraid that soon we will loose all of these sites.
Sorry if I caused any confusion or worry, it was just an observation.
Much love
Karris

A pair of large bowl barrows on the ridge of a low hill. These are quite overgrown with scrub, the western one is about twenty feet high and fifty feet in diameter, the eastern one about a third smaller.
Both these barrows were excavated by E.Cunnington in the late 19th century. He found a crouched burial the eastern barrow with a pot and 6 flint arrowheads, these are very fine barbed and tanged variety and are called “Conygar” type arrowheads. They appear to be too delicate for use and seem to have been made for burial. The western barrow contained an inhumation and several cremations.
The position of these two barrows seems to be quite important, their placement in the ancient landscape appears to be no accident. To the north east the Mount Pleasant henge is in plain view, also a now lost large henge on the site of the bypass around Dorchester, called Flagstones would have been directly north.
Maiden castle can be clearly seen to the west, Came woods and Came down barrows are visible to the south and south west. Now obscured by houses and other buildings, map elevations show that both Maumbury rings and Poundbury hillfort would also have been in plain sight from these two barrows.
This pair of barrows are very accessible, they are several hundred yards only from a large housing estate. A public footpath runs straight past them. Although a busy road is only about two hundred yards away noise is minimal and the views from this site are well worth seeing.

I’m embarrassed to say that I couldn’t find this one. I think I must have been on the wrong path. I hope so, I’d hate to think it’s gone.

I hope that if it has been moved, it’s somewhere safe.

A small group of round barrows below Flowers barrow hillfort. Also in this group are the adjacent Water barrows, which I will include here as well. These round barrows are on m.o.d. land used as tank gunnery ranges, which are usually only accessible at weekends, the roads are closed when firing is in progress. You can’t actually walk on this site, due to possible unexploded ordnance, but they are clearly visible from the roadside. It is possible to park in a nearby farm gate entrance.

Whereas the site has always been within a fenced area, overgrown and neglected and with a landowner who didn’t want people to enter the site I am happy to report that it is now a delight to visit.

The grass has been cut back, and the fences have been repositioned. There is now no fence between the site and the layby/parking place. If you want to visit the immediately adjacent chambered tomb, though, be prepared to climb a (nice, new, shiny) fence and risk the wrath of the land owner.

This is a massive and quite confusing site. The outer ramparts are three miles in length and enclose an area of 210 acres. The confusion is in large part to do with the amount of quarrying that is and has taken place on this site. What look like banks are spoil heaps, only once you get to the outer edge of the hilfort does it become more clear what is going on.
It commands a hilltop with 360 degree views of the surrounding country. The easiest part to walk around is the northern end, where there is a large war memorial. This is a mainly bivallate hillfort, with a third bank and ditch at some lower points in the perimeter.
Within the interior is a modern stone circle, which I have included to show the stone which is still being quarried from this site. Most of the surrounding villages are built of this redddish stone.

I decided to have a closer look at the first barrow in this group. It’s a very unusual example, possibly unique, as it is a large bell barrow with a very wide platform or berm, a deep ditch and a two foot high surrounding bank. This has much more in common with disc type barrows which more normally contain a small mound within the banks. L.V.Grinsell picks this barrow out as being particularly unusual in his book. I have seen this barrow mentioned in other books, such as Dorset’s Archaeology by Peter Stanier as a unique example of a bell/disc barrow.