Latest Fieldnotes

This can be found near the village of Ballinacurra which is close to Midleton in Cork. Basically use the OS map to get close to it. I found it without a GPS using the clump of trees show near it on the map. It is behind a farm-house and access is reasonable. If anyone is about it is worth asking for permission.
The height of the tomb is approx 1m-1.5m high, length about 4m.
To the south is a possible barrow or maybe the remains of a ring-fort and there is also a standing stone to the south-west.
There is also a funny looking mound to the west of it, however that could be natural but looks slightly out of place to me in the locality.

Before work, I managed to sneak in a quick stroll up to the site this morning. The mist was burning off and no other soul was about so I had the place to myself (excluding a few ponies).

The site is classified as a hillfort (gentle-rise-fort doesn’t exist yet!) and was investigated as part of the hillforts of the ridgeway project in the late 1990’s.

At the start of the track leading up to the site is a large pile of field cleared sarsens and the track has the remains of a low sarsen wall running parallel to it. The views of Ashdown house are stunning.

The site itself still has lots of sarsens scattered about (remains of a wall no doubt) and you can still make out the ‘bump’ in the middle of the fort, where the Romano-British farmhouse once stood. Erosion protection is still in place on parts of the banks (much as the last time I visited a few years ago).

The view to the ridge opposite, shows three bumps of round barrows on the skyline. There is also a ploughed out barrow site on the other side of the woods. I spent a few minutes enjoying the silence and then plodded back to the car and unfortunately, back to work.

If ever you visit for the day, a tour of Ashdown house (stunning views from the top) plus visiting this site (and the sarsen field in front of Ashdown house) and maybe a picnic, would, in my humble view, be a nice day out. It’s close enough to Waylands and WHH aswell.

The cairn on Sheegouna is to the north-east of Slievenamon and at a height of about 550m meaning from Slievenamon you have to climb down to it.
Jim O’Connor in the link on the folklore calls it “The fairy-fort of the magic cow”. He also mentions that there was another cairn on Knockahunna to the north. There is no mention of a passage-grave but this cairn to me seemed to be the more likely of the two to have one.
To the south of the cairn is a rock shelter which may be a megalithic tomb, its not recorded, have a look at the pictures and let me know what you think.
The cairn is smaller than the cairn on Slievenamon so about 2m high by 20m diameter.

The cairn on top of Slievenamon or Mountain of the Woman is at a height of 721m. It is a good walk and there is a path all the way up to the cairn which makes access easy.
Coming from Dublin on the Cashel by-pass N8 take the sign for Fethard then the Kilsheelan road and follow the signs for Ballypatrick and Kilcash. There are signs for the walk in Kilcash.
It takes about an hour to climb up to it.
The cairn itself isnt as impressive as I hoped and the day I climbed it was pretty hazy so couldnt get an idea as to any significant features on the landscape around it. It is mentioned in the link I have that it is thought to be a passage grave, to me it didnt seem big enough but I would love to be proven wrong!. I would think it is approx 3-4m high by maybe a diameter of 20-25m.

This long barrow is adjacent to the LB7 bronze age group. The hill adjacent is called ‘Crog Hill’ (Meaning ‘hill of the dead’). What was once a mighty stone age tomb, is now no more than a bump in the ground.

I often come to this site, but this visit saddens me. It appears the local landowner has driven a fence right across the middle of it and removed the smaller sarsen stones from the site and piled them up. Two large pieces of sarsen still remain in situ (I guess they weren’t strong enough to move them too).

Isn’t this damaging a listed ancient monument site?

Angry of Wantage...

This whole hill is covered in barrows and holes in the ground. The barrows vary in size from tiny ( c.12 feet across) to the huge ( c.100 feet across). The biggest is a bell barrow with a robbed out middle, it appears to have been heightened by having the spoil from this hole piled upon the original mound. It has a ditch and bank surrounding most of it’s circumference, the only break is where the farm track cuts through it. Some of the holes directly mirror their adjacent barrows in size , some look like pond barrows. Many other barrows can be seen from this hill and there is a great sign which points you towards Hells bottom. The inland coast path on which it lays has plenty more barrows upon it. There is a curious shallow ditch and bank lined on one side with small upright slabs of Portland type stone, it could be a field division, but this looks unlikely due to its position.
The holes are solution holes, acid has eaten away the underlying chalk to form a depression. The ditch edged with stones is known to be an Anglo-Saxon boundary.

Adjacent to the road that passes close by and in a clump of beech trees, is a worn out barrow. A circular ditch can still be made out that surrounds the central (and much denuded) burial mound. I suspect that it is bronze age (its close to the lambourn seven barrows group and opposite a tumulus on the other side of the road).

The fence that now runs down the side of the road was added a few years ago. The other clumps of beech trees that occur along the road may also be barrows, but it is difficult to be sure. This one has a definate circular ditch around it.

Marked on the OS map as a burial chamber, this ruined chambered cairn is 700 metres southwest of Tan-y-Muriau, and 1.5km south of Rhiw axe factory.

By ruined, I mean it is a pile of stones, with rows of holes visible on the capstone where someone has tried to split it.

Four Crosses is a portal dolmen, with three uprights supporting its capstone. It was restored by the landowner in the 1930s, who seems to have accidentally restored one of the uprights as the capstone.

Don’t try to find the footpath marked on the OS map, as it is no longer there (it’s now under a nursery). Instead, park in the layby opposite the nursery, and walk down to the farm turning (named Cromlech, handily). Down the lane, and turn right through the gate opposite the farm buildings.

One of only two standing stones on the north terraces above Loch Tay. Judging by the amount of rockart and quality soil the area must have been well populated from at least the Late Neolithic. The stone is aligned 30 degrees and would have pointed to the summer major lunar standstill on the slopes of East Mealour. There is a cup marked rock, due east in the same field.

Paul Ashbee has expressed doubts over the length of the monument as it stands – the kerbstones could have been pulled together to free up more field space to the West. With that in mind, I walked the field today, and must say the distribution of stone chips and flint is more pronounced in a line between the kerbstones outside the fence. Following suggestions and after studying plans of the site I was able to look more closely at the slighting caused by removal of the end of the chamber and the capstone[s], and to recreate the site as was in my mind. The chamber ends are uneven, which with square slabs, is an anomaly – they are over 6” out of line, suggesting there were more stones and a longer chamber. The stones are there, identifiable as squarish slabs, at the foot of the slope. [But as Mr Ashbee says, they could have been brought from elsewhere!]

This makes the chamber at least another 7’ long – evidenced by the amount of deposits found in the spoil on the eastern slope – and, with a facade [there were two standing stones on the lower ground level in the right alignment to complete the edging on the north east corner, one still stands, the other is beneath the hedge] and, therefore, two levels of building – the facade being at least 12’ lower than the side kerbs.

Extending the chamber creates its own problem. The chamber would still be considerably higher than the ground level, and wet chalk to climb up does not makes sense with a monument aligned ESE [ie, winter solstice sunrise]. Therefore, at some stage, there would need to be steps to get to the high chamber. Of course, the chamber itself could have been on two levels, the ‘front’ chamber stones being 15’ tall to match the height of the rear stones when planted and buried in the soil.

Unfortunately the whole monument has been attacked at least twice over the years, with religious fervour responsible in the 13th C, and the demand for chalk [of all things] making the eastern and northern banks into a small quarry 300 years later. This has led to stones being buried or removed [though not so many as elsewhere] and unearthed, to be arbitrarily placed along the kerb. Some of the kerbstones look like they could have been a capstone, dragged back across the chamber rather than risking injury by tipping it off the edge. Thankfully, its isolated position in the landscape and its inaccessibility due to it being surrounded by springs and therefore mud, has protected it from being noticed for many years. Once overthrown and overgrown, nobody would know what was there.

Made a spring attempt on this today, but the site is so seriously overgrown, and the flint/mortar walls are so spread, I doubt anyone could find a sarsen in there without professional help. The surrounding field is absolutely smothered with flint, as flinty a field as you’re ever linkely to find. The chapel itself is tiny, maybe 20’ x 15’, and a lot of the fallen wallstone is inside the building, though the siting of the whole thing is a little strange, on a  false level floor halfway up the southern incline of Knatts Valley [itself a strange place – fields and no hedgerows]. Not really dug into the hillside, rather a built level surface proud of the soil level. Found a beautiful piece of jet-black flint, most Kent flint being grey/blue in colour, so quite unusual.

Found the other end of the possible cist. The distance between the orthostats inner faces is 1.56m and they are offset, the south end of that at the right being in line with the centre of the left-hand one. Measurements are as follows :-

LH 0.56x0.08m, protruding 0.12m from the soil at either end and 0.27m in the middle. RH has disparate edges, the whole being 0.46x0.15m protruding 0.13m, the reduced face 0.33x0.05m showing 0.08m.

The latter, also has a stone lying down against it, only 0.6x0.26m compared to the other’s 1x max. 0.48m. But there is at least one other stone between the slabs so they would appear to date from a later period rather than being co-eval.

It seems curious to me that this mound is in such an odd-shaped ‘field’, even more so as this is only half of larger section of similarly strange shaped ‘field’. Though the eastern half appears fairly level, but I do wonder if it too once produced archaeological finds, as in Orkney farmers often keep odd pieces of land out of cultivation because at some time in the (often forgotten) past there was a reason for so doing – only occasionally do we find what site was at these places.

Almost totally obscured by the heather, this is a stumpy little stone but definitely a standing stone, and seemingly prehistoric. It has packing stones and is heavily grooved on top, it’s also next to what look very much like disturbed cairns. Is about 120cm tall, rectangular in section, no apparent cupmarks. Similar to (and actually larger than, believe it or not) other small stones of Northumberland, such as that at Rothbury. They used to call them ‘Stob Stones’ in these parts, a stob being the stump of a tree.

This might be a new discovery, I’m not sure. Possibly it’s the one mentioned by Beckensall in prehistoric Northumberland, though I think it’s further south. His description would seem to fit better with this one photographed by Rockandy. Alternatively, this could be the stone mentioned on the Keys to the Past website but if so, their grid ref is waaaaay out, over a kilometre in fact. I Find it a bit baffling that their grid ref was originally only 4 digits, as it’s placed right on NU160110, down in the Titlington Burn. The OS do report a couple of stones in the area, but don’t give then the gravitas of the antiquity script. I’ve not seen either, so wouldn’t want to comment.

Should anyone want to give it the once-over, Garmin E-trex said: NU 12357 17161 (82m altitude, 4m accuracy)

There’s also a weird stone with cortical texture nearby, reminiscent of the one at Cuthbert’s Cave

Hunterheugh 2 is one of the finest panels of rock art in Northumberland. The motifs aren’t anything special, but the way in which you can see the effects of weathering are superb. I can’t think of many other places, with the possible exception of the frieze at Buttony where a single motif has been partially covered so that the viewer can see quite clearly what effects the years have on these kind of carvngs.

With Hunterheugh 2, the largest motif is almost completely worn away at the top, but fresh as the day it was pecked at the bottom. It relly improves appreciation of the other simple carvings in the area, as they have mostly been weathered to virtually nothing, but panel 2 shows what all the others must have looked like when they were fresh. For this reason, it is imperative that the turf must always be replaced to protect the fresh carvings.

Panel 3 on the other hand, is barely discernable. It’s only a couple of metres away from panel 2, but presumably has always been exposed to the elements. It’s so worn away, you would be forgiven for walking right past it without noticing a thing.

No much to see here, overgrown with tall heather, very disturbed, but definitely cairns. There’s a little rectangle carved into a stone on the north side of the northern cairn. Looks like it was made with metal tools, no idea how old. Possibly some kind of boundary marker thing.
Supposedly there’s a cist in one of them. I couldn’t find it amongst the rubble and heather. Couldn’t make out any kerbs either, but they’re so overgrown with heather, there may be kerbstones hidden.
There may be marked stones in there somewhere, maybe even marked bedrock, similar to those found beneath the excavated cairn at Hunterheugh 1 further up the crags.

“I received an invitation from Mr Fowle [the landowner] to be present at the investigation and was there during the progress of the work. Upon removing the earth we found that there were three large stones and one smaller stone, all of them of irregular shape, of the same formation and appearance as the monument close by called Kit’s Coty.

That on the N side 7’6” x 4’9” x 1’2”
That on the S side 7’0” x 5’9” x 2’3”
That on the W side 3’0” x 4’0” x 1’6”
Small stone 3’0” x 2’0” x 1’0” [this having been placed to prevent the N stone from falling against the S stone, the whole structure had been depressed towards the south].

The stones were removed and next day workmen continued to dig beneath to ascertain if anything had been deposited, and at about 4 feet below the monument, they discovered a flat stone 4’ long, 3’ broad, upon which several human bones were found lying E-W, but they were thrown out carelessly by the workmen, and noone being on the spot to take notes, particulars could not be ascertained. Some of the bones were collected and shown to Mr Charles of Maidstone [see below], who gave a description of them. With the bones were found a fragment of an unglazed urn.”

C.T. Smythe, MS Collections, folio 30; Nat. Mon. Record.

“From the state of the teeth we may conclude they belonged to persons of, or past, middle age...two bodies must have been buried in the tomb as among the fragments of bones collected there were two right-sides of the under-jaws and ulna ...

About 4’ below the surface of the N stone was a flat stone...on which lay the skull of a mole, the rest of the bones lay in a direct line with the E end.”

Dr Thomas Charles, 1822.

Also known as the Warren Farm Chamber, this Medway Megalith was discovered in 1822 and excavated by Thomas Charles and Clement Taylor Smythe, having been unearthed only 6” down during ploughing. Laying east-west across the foot of a gentle downhill slope, and being smaller in stature than the other surviving monuments in the area, it was probably more easily destroyed, washed out and lost. The chamber alone is now visible as a circular chalkmark on aerial photographs in the centre of the field, 200m north-west of the White Horse Stone. It is on a level contour with Kit’s Coty, 1/4 mile to the west.

Three upright sarsens in an H formation were uncovered, plus another as a spacer with [very unusually] a fifth stone used as a paved floor, with skeletal remains on top, which ‘crumbled to dust’ as the workmen dug them out. Some small skull fragments and vertebrae were saved. Other sarsens were unearthed more recently in the same field, buried in pits, and were left in situ but it is not confirmed if they were connected to the monument.

This would likely have been the smallest of all the surrounding monuments height-wise, at around 5’ inside the [surviving] chamber, but nowadays there’s nothing to see.

As far as access, there is none, other than the view from the Pilgrim’s Way at the foot of Warren Farm Road, or from the White Horse Stone. Bordered by the Channel Tunnel and A249 to the west, it is not the most pleasant place to spend any time with little ambience, though the nature reserve and woodland on the spur to the east are a nice retreat.

Notes originally posted in 2004, then reposted after site was taken from TMA by he who did originally post it’s presence, then edited after a 3rd revisit on Nov 02 2007, this time with a bunch of veteran D&NRAPers. What a faff.

Despite what I’ve written below, closer inspection showed that this does look like outcrop.

There are also signs of quarrying, though by whom, who knows. it may have even been those pesky romans, who went around snaffling other people’s sandstone for their gaudy Mithraic temples etc.

Irregardless of who did the quarrying, it is interesting to wonder why they stopped before they’d broken up the whole bit of outcrop.

Imagination, given a bit of free-rein, suggests that this may have been because the ‘significant’ nature of the cupmarks was recognised, as is seen on many other marked outcrops in the county.

or, it may have been a deliberate act of desecration, with the remaining few cups being left as a reminder of what had been done. In which case, perhaps the original outcrop was much larger, maybe with more, wonderfully complex motifs (as opposed to a handful of fairly ropey cups...).

This speculation in turn leads to the idea that it may have been a case of prehistoric reverence, that a part of the marked stone was taken to serve as part of one of the many cairns in the area, or maybe even one of the cists, as is also seen with marked rocks elsewhere in Northumberland.

But, when it comes down to it, it’s more than likely that the stone was quarried to provide material for the nearby limekilns. Why did the quarrying stop before the whole stone was removed? Well, if I were some 18th/19thC dude repairing what was possibly an old roman limekiln, I’d only quarry as much as I needed, no more. What’s the point of going through the effort of breaking and transporting stones you don’t need?

Possibly the same cup-marked stone originally added to the county SMR by a keen cup-spotter, but then largely overlooked (like most of the prehistoric remains close to Hadrian’s Wall), this erratic boulder is fairly conspicuous, it’s the only one in the enclosed field, more or less in the middle of what is marked on the OS map as ‘Davy’s Lee’. I’m not sure if it’s the thing recorded on the Beckensall Archive, as that had a grid ref which placed it in a nearby stream, and was listed as being on outcrop. There’s no outcrop in the stream and there’s more than the 6 cups related on both the Archive and on the Northumberland county SMR, so ambiguity prevails.

It has natural grooves, which seem to have deermined the placement of the cups to some degree, as they are in groups, each group in an a part of the surface defined by the grooves.

The enclosed field in which the stone sits is interesting in it’s own right, as the boundary is a low earthen bank, containing what looks like cord rig. The banks are more pronounced at the NW corner, where a ditch is also in evidence, possibly part of a settlement?

Like most of the pre-roman remains in the vicinity, I’d argue this stone may have some connection with the stupendous stone at Queen’s crags.

Access:
Ask permission at the gatehouse, or at Sewingshields Farm. Rough, boggy terrain unsuitable for wheelchairs.

I parked right at the end of the road next to the reservoir just a hundred metres from Froggymead (grr)and got out my trusty bike,unfortunatly I’m a bit older and a bit heavier since I last came here and the trek up the track through the forest was just crap.
I passed Fernworthy(aawh)and kept going, passed one crosstrack and turned left at the next crossing this track takes you to the forest edge from here follow the wall till you can see the circles.

Apparently reconstructed at the behest of King George V, nice one matey. From the circles Sittaford tor is not visible so I’m inclined to presume the eastern horizon was the focus ,The equinox sun rises directly between the two rings though this might be because the circles are north-south aligned, i’m no expert but two circles and two imaginary lines projected from them to the rising sun may be some kind of phalic representation, just a thought .
Every one into stone circles should come here atleast once, the bike ride back to the car was a real thrill and took just 3 mins.

The Tinlee Stone
OS Grid NT 483 038
Visited in 1995. It’s situated in a firebreak within a forestry plantation, and as far as I’m aware the stone has never been catalogued on the internet. It stands at roughly hip height and access is via a forestry plantation ride (no vehicular access to the public and there’s no footpath or track leading to the stone). Possibly worth a visit for the more adventurous amongst you after visiting the easily accessible Ninestane Rig stone circle (OS Grid NY 517 972) where a car park is situated at the nearby Hermitage Castle. The Tinlee Stone is well off the beaten track therefore good map reading and compass skills are essential.

Next to Fingals bridge is a pub called the Anglers rest, this is where I made my way up, jump a small river and scramble up the steep slope.
But this was the hard way (anonymous though) the easier way would be to park in the small village of Preston ask permission and take an easy stroll up the easy way.
Fantastic views all around.
Three ramparts with three slightly staggered entrances and an out of place looking big stone in the ditch near the top, quite well preserved banks and ditches, and amazing views ,especially down to the river Teign and Fingals bridge

Just visited yesterday. It is located at the extreme north end of the village (opposite the modern cemetary), in a break of trees, marked on the Explorer 170 map as ‘TUMULUS’ (in capitals – which Rhiannon advises me – means it’s Roman)

... and it’s in someones back garden with an unfriendly dog.

This pair of barrows are just south of the trackway that runs across the moor linking the Lockwood to Castleton road with the Danby road. Locally the track is known as the old tank road. The trackway is a public right of way with vehicular rights. I wouldn’t recommend driving along the track, about half way along the road sinks into a bog.
Probably the best way to access the barrows is to park on the Castleton road and walk east for a quarter mile or so to the barrows. This pair of barrows are pretty unremarkable but a walk to them is worthwhile if only to illustrate the intervisibility of many of the moorland barrow groups. If you look west you can see the Black Howes on High Moor, the Three Howes on Three Howes Rigg, look east and the Siss Cross and Robin Hoods Butts barrows are prominent horizon markers.
Another thing to notice is, as you walk along the path you can see the summit of Freebrough Hill poking up over Moorsholm Rigg. When you reach the barrows Freebrough is in full view. However these barrows are not aligned on Freebrough. Looking north across the barrows the alignment runs past Freebrough and points to the coastal barrow cemetery of Warsett Hill.
I not convinced that this alignment was in the mind of the mound builders. I think that this pair of barrows should be seen as part of the wider chain of barrows that occupy the prominent ridges of the moors. A chain of burial monuments that in many cases still define parish and political boundaries and fringe the major ancient trackways across the moors, possibly defining the boundaries of Bronze Age estates.

Friday proved to be a windy day up at Hunterheugh and the rock art team decided to try a bit of exploration. My main motivation for visiting this site above Titlington Mount farm was to compare the millstone extraction that we had been previously told about here with the two large carved rocks in the Hunterheugh settlement area. The locals refered to these as millstones too and that had never seemed particularly satisfactory.

Luckily, Dave T didn’t let me dismiss the cup marks on the E side of the same outcrop as natural erosion and showed that at least two of them have eroded rings. The simple nature of these motifs and the pattern of erosion makes them similar to those of Hunterheugh 4, nearly 2 km to the east. As well as the two cup and rings on the N side, there are other cups (which may be natural features) along a narrow area of rock bordered by raised veins, on the S side of the veins, and on the SE edge adjacent to thin turf cover. It is quite possible that some of these had also sported rings removed by erosion and now obscured by the lichen cover.

This find extends the rock art found in the Hunterheugh area west along the ridge which culminates at Titlington Pike (above Glanton) which sports two large overgrown Bronze Age cairns and provides fine views of the Cheviot Hills. The remains of a circular Iron Age fort is also present on the spur ridge just west of the farm.

Four ‘burnt mounds’, now covered by vegetation, lie on the banks of a small stream just below the cup-marked outcrop. Two of the mounds were excavated by Peter Topping in 1992-93. (Northern Archaeol, 15-16, 1998, 3–25). Both mounds contained hearths, troughs and other stone-built fixtures. Radiocarbon dating demonstrated that the sites had been in use in the Bronze Age over 3000 years ago. Pollen and other biological evidence showed a landscape changing from scrub woodland to moorland at this time along with some evidence of possible local cereal cultivation during the earlier phases of the mounds.