Latest Fieldnotes

As you drive up the road thats nearest to Dunbeacon stone circle, you see a brown information sign with ‘Standing Stones’ on it, pointing to this field. The driveway also has a ‘Parking’ sign there too! This is a nice pair of tall stones pointing (almost) at the stone circle on the hill opposite. They were felled but re-erected in the past so may not exactly align with their original axis. A large new house has been built just above them, perhaps this was the site of the church mentioned in TME? Access is very easy with a short walk up a driveway and then through a specially installed gate.

It’s HUGE!!!!

But.....is it a long barrow????? We had just spent the morning at an archaeology conference in Penrith and had been told in no uncertain terms that there aren’t any long barrows in Cumbria. As we had spotted this site on a previous outing last year (as we were on the road to Moor Divock from the Clifton stones) and had promised ourselves a return trip, we felt that today was the day. Could we prove the archaeo bod wrong?

As Dom quite rightly pointed out, its situation is perfect for a LB, on a slight rise and highly visible from all directions. But....if it really is a LB then it should be famous and have a visitor centre because it is absolutely massive!!

We went into the field alongside it and it must measure at least 100m. It ticks most of the boxes but it just seems impossible that such a huge structure could’ve gone un-noticed by so many folks for so long.

So, maybe that guy from Cumbria Archaeology unit was right and there aren’t any LBs in Cumbria afterall?

These feint enclosures and possible hut circles lay to the West of the road that runs alongside the B6255 between Ingleton and Chapel-le-Dale. The road follows the route of the River Doe. The fells to both the East and the West of the road are dotted with small enclosures and hut circles, and some well defined settlements on the Western flanks of Ingleborough.

These enclosures took a long time to find....there’s plenty of lime stone scatter, and the enclosures themselves are loose and weathered....but there none the less.

Yarlsber camp sits at the foot of Ingleborough, sandwiched between Easegill force and the B6480 to Clapham.

The site is thought to be an Iron Age defended enclosure. It covers about an acre and a half, and is surrounded by earthworks. At the lower end of the site, the earthworks are worn and low, whilst at the top, they are very well defined and up to a foot high. The defences at the top of the site are also double ditched with shallow ramparts…possibly with the remains of entrances.

The site has been excavated and investigated, but no signs of habitation were found within the earthworks.

It’s on private property and also off the footpath that runs parallel to it about a hundred yards away.

I was inspired to check this out by Martin’s posts, and visitied the carving on 14/01/07. A bit tricky to get to (in a gale), but once there I was rewarded with a seriously smooth little seat in the entrance to the little cave. It must have taken a lot of sitting to get it that smooth – this spot was once used a hell of a lot. The carving is pretty nifty, although I’d say I was more taken by the seat.

About two miles to the West of Kirkby Lonsdale, and about a quarter of a mile off the A65, lay the remains of a large Romano, British settlement. Easily accessible from the nearby road, the public footpath runs right alongside the remains, affording good views right around the earthworks that survive today.

As you approach the remains from the nearby road, the earthen bank that encircles the settlement can be clearly seen. It consists of a bank that runs nearly the full circumference of the settlement, that is, in some places, around a foot high. At one point, for about ten metres, the bank is topped with limestone boulders, possibly original. In the centre of the remains, more earthen banks can clearly be seen, possibly marking the remains of buildings and further enclosures.

The site is well protected. It sits at the highest point for a few miles around, with flat land to the South. To the East and North, the settlement is protected by natural limestone escarpments, and to the West, the land drops away. It’s easy to see why this spot must have been chosen as a place to settle.

All in all a great site to visit, and readily accessible from the nearby road.

Travelling West on the A590, and taking the turning to Levens onto the A6, will take you right past the intriguing earthworks at Levens Brow.

The remains of this site lay on the left hand side of the road, at the peak of a small hill now crowned with a single hawthorne tree.

There has been some confusion in the past as to whether or not the earthworks were of any archeological value, with some commentators saying that they were nothing more than the remains of recent gravel quarry. However, human remains have been found in the area, along with lithic scatter, the remains of worked flints for example, and it’s now thought likely that the site’s builders merely took advantage of a naturally occuring glacial deposit mound.

The site is a nicely formed scooped enclosure, comprising of an earthen bank which runs nearly the full circumference of the top of the mound and stands to a height of around a foot in places, and the remains of a possible ditch to the East of the earthworks. There’s no doubt that the site has been damaged by recent attention, specifically in its use as a deposit for household waste!

A nearby glacial morain was found to contain a human burial, and field walks done in nearby fields, turned up axe heads and other flint tools. It’s therefore quite likely that the whole area, extending right down the lands now occupied by Levens Hall, were active well before the medieval hall was built.

It is nearly impossible to gain access to this site, due to the lack of gates on the East side of the road, and the high hedges growing on high field banks. A little scrambling is therefore required to access this area.......but don’t get caught!

This site is allegedly a Neolithic Long cairn or Barrow. It is easily accessable just off the A6 about two miles South of Clifton. The site is around a 100 metres long and ranges from around 12 to 25 metres wide. At its highest point, I would say it is nearly 4 metres high at its highest point. The barrow runs parallel with the road to Newtown on a West East axis.

Documentation on the net states that it was first ‘noticed’ in around 1933, and investigated in 1938, when it was identified as a burial cairn. There seems to be some argument that this is little more than a spoil heap, perhaps from the building of the A6 or the M6.

It’s strange to note that a map of 1863 makes no mention of the barrow.

It’s quite an impressive site, easily visible in the surrounding landscape....and certainly not alone....there are numerous other sites within easy reach.

Driving North out of Carmarthen on the A485,upon reaching Peniel take your first left turn even though it seems to enter a housing estate ,but keep going and you’ll come out t’other end, park in one of two passing places (you’ll be ok for 5minutes).Where there’s no wall or fence enter the trees and go through to the field ,head downhill to the small wood and whilst wading through a small stream(only inches deep) bend low under wire fence over the gate 20yds away and there’s the stone.
Triangular in shape ,about five to six feet tall and close to a small river(Nant Felys) nice place .
If the directions seem a bit like tresspassing it’s because we are, they are easier to follow than they seem.

My daughter and I visited this stone for no other reason than no-one else had ,luckily for us it was a tall and impressive menhir with a good view to the West.
Just south of the hamlet of Cloigyn is a small layby park here and 150yds back up the road is a gate, jump over and go uphill, head for a weirdly shaped tree stump and in the next field is this 12ft standing stone ,it’s always a pleasure to find such a good one when you don’t know what to expect.

I’ve been debating with myself for a long time about whether or not to include this site. These aren’t even really field notes, since they’re being written in my living-room, months after my last visit there. If an Englishman’s home is his castle, does that make an Irishman’s sitting-room his field?

Burl, sounding almost bitter in his guide entry, gives it a special category, namely ‘unseeable’, and discourages any visit not involved with official clearance. Ruggles in his orientation tables at the rear of ‘Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland’ (1999; 217), mentions the immovable vegetation that made accurate survey impossible. The monument is almost drowned in a wash of turbulent growth. Yet it has not always been this way.

I have posted Somerville’s plan from the beginning of the 20th century. A print of Webster’s sketch of 1930 hangs on my wall, the circle open and clear. As long as I have been interested in the past, this site has fascinated, or rather, obsessed me.

It sits on a slight rise at the north side of a tidy little field. Carrigfadda looms to the west. The ground is open to the south and on a sunny day you can almost feed on the glow and brightness in the air. Rabbits make surprised darts across in front of you and the only sounds are earfuls and earfuls of natural life.

A quick glance at O’Nuallain’s 1984 plan will give you an idea of the shape of the monument: partially used as a fence on the western side, it is 8.5 metres in diameter, reckoned to have contained 19 stones up to 1.1 metres high, with a 70cm high and 1.4 metre wide axial stone.

The plans diverge over two facts. O’Nuallain shows the detached radial portals, strangely missed by Somerville. On the other hand the one foot high centre stone shown and described by Somerville and Webster was either missing or concealed when O’Nuallain’s survey took place.

I have poked through here myself at winter time when things die back a bit and experienced a kind of euphoria as portals and circle stones are revealed. It must be tied with its being hidden, yet being there, its sparkling location, the character and perfect size of its pillars, my immersion in its history and forbidden reputation and perhaps a multitude of other things. It’s difficult to exactly put a finger on why it should but I know that this place affects me more than any other.

Access is over a gate with some dire warnings about unauthorised entry, but the farm is just down the road to the south if you want to give it a go and ask.

I’ve wanted to visit this row since I saw RedBrickDream’s photos here a year ago or more. The setting and the arrangement is just superlative, hats off to whoever chose this spot and picked the stones, they really had a very good eye.

The row is peculiar, in a funny kind of way it reminds me of those cartoons you see of the mother duck leading the ugly ducklings across the road. Its a little overgrown now since the older photos, whatever lived in this field must have ate that typical rush-like grass. The sheep that live here now sure dont. Someone also left one of those horrible large black plastic sheets that they cover bales with, lumped between the last, smallest stone and the second last. I tried removing it but that, and the massive digger a hundred yards away took away a little of the magic of the visit, just a little bit.

As in the other fieldnotes, this is a bugger to get to, the driveway past the old farmhouse is now a swimming pool and all the fields are serioulsy boggy. Bring wellies when you come, but do come.

Croglam Castle is one of those strange sites....everyone tells you how great it is, how well defined it is....but when you get there, you can’t help feel a little disappointed. Whilst the walk to the summit is great, the fort itself hasn’t stood the test of time very well, and any earthworks are well worn and built on. Worth a visit if not just for the views.

Not readily identifiable as a hill fort, although it’s clearly marked as such on many maps. The summit of the fort is slightly scooped and there’s a trig point situated up there. Apparently there are small holes in the lime stone at the foot of the earthworks each side of the summit, allegedly to collect rainwater, although these weren’t visible at my last visit. It’s clear to see why this would have been chosen as the site for a fort. You get good clear views in all directions, with a good water supply about four hundred yards down in the valley.

The ‘graveyard’ can be seen from the coast path as you walk west towards Cataclews Point. It is little more than a bumpy field and I didn’t even bother to take a photo.

We turned off the B4306 and found a dodgy place to park (there’s no where good) a short walk up the lane and then turn right and past a house to the footpath,I use the term footpath very loosely as it was so muddy I carried my 7 yr old daughter on my shoulders, which probably made me sink further in the mud.
Not much further and the path(hah)opens into a field and there’s the stone ,just over 6ft tall and standing proud in the middle of it’s field ,but where was its partner ?there should have been two we skirted the field looking in the next fields but to no avail ,we were so crapped up we didn’t linger long and squelshed back to the car.

I went on a mission to find this in September 2005. Very close to the village of Bolsterstone, Walder’s Low can easily be accessed by walking across a couple of fields. The stones on top of the earth mound look as if they we were only placed there relatively recently.

I searched for this one-time ‘vast carnedde’ for about half an hour a few days before Christmas 2006. Even though heather had been burnt, I didn’t find anything conclusive. A few small stones and some lumpy turf which looked to be covering a few clumped stones.

A new marked rock found today .

I’ll agree with Iron Man in that this cairn, despite the state it’s in (or probably because of it) has a more satisfying feel than the reconstructed ones near it. The thickness of the grass and the way the stones peek through imparts the sense that this monument is a survivor. I don’t know how true that really is,as it’s quite wrecked, and is probably the one most people would miss out as it looks less impressive from a distance, but it feels like it has endured.

In the dark, it was the only one in the Glen that seemed to me to possess a ‘sense of presence’. Ri Cruin and Dunchraigaig are just a bit dank at night whilst I found Largie South and North are somewhat soulless, even at the witching hour, but Central Largie felt almost like a living thing. Nice.

A couple of standing stones 500 metres to the north of the stone circle , there is another at Tops Demesne a wee bit further north west .

This tomb is quite cute, its just sat there like an old farmer leaning against the wall watching the world and their cattle go by.

The capstone is very odd, as pointed out by Fourwinds a gleaming white ‘eye’ oggles you as you approach, you do indeed feel watched. It is very easily spotted from the road but the local roads are maze-like, if you’ve got a good map or a gps this is an easy, pleasant site to visit. Shame I got thoroughly rained on before I got my fill of photos.

Beltany after-noon 06/01/07

I remembered from last visit that you only need follow the signs from Raphoe to get here quickly and easily. Well, yet again another Donegal signpost has been molested. As you leave Raphoe, the brown sign on the grassy knoll should point to the right hand road from the fork, not straight on.

After asking a very enthusiastic walker I found my way back and parked up at the bottom of the lane, slipping into something more uncomfortable as I got out of the car. My walking boots and waterproofs. Walking up the lane I realised you can see the circle as you approach, this didn’t hit me last time because it was pitch black. Anyway, its a nice way to view the circle as a whole so check it out if your passing.

Arriving in the gate the light was absoltely perfect, strong low sun to the south and dark menacing clouds to the northwest. Fantastic! Arriving back at Beltany circle was exhilerating, I left in gloom the last time so didn’t really get a good view of its magnificence in good light. This is one site with serious vibes. As the clouds came and passed the shadows and shapes cast by the light were almost surreal, I felt like running and shouting and perhaps I did, there wasn’t another sinner for miles! This is what its all about.

I spent some time exploring what remains inside and I became more and more convinced that this was not just a simple pile of stones and earth inside, with the light raking over the protruding stones broken shapes and patterns appeared and dissapeared in the ruins. Whatever was once here truly must have been magnificent, why waste all those beautiful views?

05/01/07.

The bracken has died back once more or has been cleared, either way this was the best view of the site as I had ever seen. Not ‘mown’ or overgrown, just natural. I arrived well after dark and by the ample light of the near-full moon took around ten long exposures of the larger tomb before getting creeped out by the noises emanating from the barn behind and animals crawling though the undergrowth. This is a really great site.

Possibly the most impressive site in all of Wicklow, IMO. Should you venture this way I urge you to give yourself plenty of time. There’s so much to see that the measly 20 minutes I allowed myself was not nearly enough. I barely scratched the surface, so to speak.
It’s signposted from the Shillelagh to Tullow road and you need to take the 1st left turn after you turn from this road. Another sign, in dreadful condition, points you into the field about 300 metres along here.
The field is used as cattle pasture, including the space between the inner and outer enclosures, and was very muddy in early January, so come prepared.