Latest Fieldnotes

This standing stone Id definitely put in the unknown gems of Ireland. It is a huge stone way over 2.5m high and it must surely be the highest in these parts. It is waffer thin about 200mm.
It is kinda knife shaped with the handle dug into the ground.
To find it turn right just after Hospital (going towards limerick) and follow the road. It is in a field next to a sign for a vets practice.
The pics I have arent great but there is a big hill to the which it seems to addressing as they say to the top right of the first photo.
This would be roughly west from it.

This standing stone is in the vicinity of Lough Gur. Coming from Herbertstown take the next left and the follow the road. It is on the left-hand side and you shouldnt miss it. It is a little over a 1m tall.
It is in fact on unmarked standing stone which I confused previously with a marked stone farther up the road.

This cairn is in a nice spot on the top of Birch Tor , with stunning views all around. Although the cairn is not much to look at it is worth a visit for the views alone.
This is the cairn that R.H.Worth, in 1925, found some road workers taking stones away in a cart. There would have been even less of it left if it had not been for his intervention.

More than ample parking at the Country park which is more like a built up crossroads of footpaths,take any path they all go up.
The fortifications are on the east,and south mainly, at times nearly 5ft tall with a well defined entrance at the east .
The last time I came up here it was ultra clear and we could see all the way to The Isle of Man and across to the Wicklow mountains

We took to the sanctuary of the tiny Nine stones stone circle, sheltered beneath the branches of a spectacular mature beech tree, with massive fungus colonies sprouting from its roots. It’s a very sweet stone circle which was perhaps used by both local people and travellers using the trackway that is now the busy A35.

Some tosser or tossers has chosen to decorate the monument with flowers. One bunch, still wrapped in its sellophane, had been left at the base of the tree. Another bunch had been placed in a log vase in the centre of the circle, around which was arranged some twigs to form the arms of a reversed swastika. Perhaps the same tosser who did this scratched the graffiti at the Hellstone?

Two things: 1. How come the people who apparently have enough ‘respect’ to lay flowers as some kind of offering at an ancient monument, can’t be arsed to respect the 1. environment by taking their sellophane wrappings aways with them? and 2. the feelings of other visitors for who the swastika means nazism and is therefore deeply offensive? You can be sure that the swastika twigs did not stay very long! Moth unwrapped the flowers and took away the sellophane to dispose of correctly.

I do love a dolmen. The Hellstone is one I’d wanted to see for some time as in the photos I’d seem it looked so tortured and in a very unusual position. When I actually saw it yesterday it all made sense at last. On a field boundary, near a gate and a pond, this dolmen has been horribly mucked about with during an ill-considered restoration. Stones huddle together like fingers in a clenched fist supporting a single lumpy capstone. It’s all wrong! But it’s all right, too, because at least it’s up. It’s up and someone actually gives a toss. The monument still has power.

Like all ancient monuments with chambers I have to get inside. This one is tall enough for me to stand up in with loads of headroom. Some tosser had scrawled graffiti on one of the stones inside the chamber- a reversed swastika. A pox on them.

As Moth whizzed around taking photos, I made a very quick sketch before my hands got too cold to continue. The more I drew the more it reminded me a lot of Crucuno dolmen in Brittany.

Our first stop was The Grey Mare & Her Colts – the remains of a once-mighty Neolithic long barrow. Sheep were basking like lizards in the winter sun as we arrived. They hardly even budged as we climbed over the gate and over them to get into the field. The Grey Mare & Her Colts is a bit of a wreck but I have seen enough trashed burial chambers to be able to ‘read’ what is left of the stones. The swelling of the barrow is very pronounced and the portal stones are very large indeed. Up here the views stretch for miles and sounds of the countryside quietly seep into your soul...

Just two fields away from The Grey Mare lies Kingston Russell stone circle. The world’s leading authority on stone circles, Aubrey Burl, didn’t put this circle in his definitive field guide to British stone circles which has caused much puzzlement in the amateur antiquarian community over the years. I wanted to see the stones for myself, especially as Moth said he liked it so much.

Sadly not one of the stones stand any more, but there are lots of stones to see, perhaps 18 of them, some really quite big lying on the ground next to the place where they once stood. The circle’s diameter is about 15ms (I’m quite bad at guessing these things). This would have been a real beauty. And actually, it still is. The internal space is still clearly marked out and although the drama and life was destroyed by whoever pulled the stones down, the circle is not yet dead. I liked it a lot. The farmer had just been and mowed carefully round the circle and the place smelled fabulous.

Re-erect them stones!

Got a chance to search out another of the standing stones on the western slopes of Knocklayd mountain. A lump of basalt this time, almost 2m tall, and 1m thick, with a graceful angled cut towards the top. It stands about 1km north of the stone at Tober-bile.

According to the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record;

The current owner stated that no finds had been made when ploughing close to the stone& that his father had found a similar stone many years ago buried in the adjoining field to NE. The upper shape of this stone suggest that it could be a remnant of a megalithic tomb, possibly a portal stone, but the owner had never heard of any other stones at this location.

Another easy one to access, just 200m or so from a farm lane, with great views all around.

One of the many standing stones encircling Knocklayd mountain, with the possible passage tomb ‘carn an truagh’ (cairn of woe) on its summit. This cairn marks the intersection of the ten townlands surrounding Knocklayd.

The stone is quite easy to find, on a small B road which branches off the main A44 from Armoy to Ballycastle. Just beyond the little crossroads at the hamlet of Cape Castle, the stone can be seen on the slope of a field about 300m to the east of this road, behind a derelict house.

Impressively situated, and leaning slightly to the south, the stone, like many in the area is of schist/quartzite, and the top half is encrusted with lichen. It stands around 2.25m tall, just over 1m thick at the base, tapering to about 0.3m at the top. From the side it is around 0.4m thick, giving the stone a slightly slab-like apperarance from the WSW. In fact the stone seems to be aligned from WSW-ESE, in line with the cairn on the summit of Knocklayd, which looms over the site.

I visited the site on November 2nd, and was treated to a moonrise over the summit of Knocklayd, whilst the sun set opposite. Moments like these make all the trudging about worthwhile.

Headed out to visit Wateresk portal tomb on a crisp October morning, but due to heavy ploughing activity going on in the surrounding field, I decided to pay this stone a visit instead. I’m glad that I did. Quite close to a couple of modern bungalows, just west of Slidderyford bridge on a slight bend in the lane, and incorporated into a scruffy hedge. There is another, fallen stone of megalithic proportions hidden from view amongst the undergrowth. According to the DoENI Environment and Heritage Service website, this could be the remains of a tomb.

Well I was always intigued by the name Carney and it obviously comes from the word cairn so I was wondering what great cairn did the area take its name from.
Well the cairn that is marked on the map is in very poor condition. It may be that it has been used for building etc. It is on flat ground in fairly poor soil. It is made up of loose stones. However close by in the adjacent fields there is a lot of the same stone strewn around.

Four “new ” panels found today , more incisions on one too .

After years of waiting a storm has finally brought down from the cliif edge on the opposite side of the burn to the broch village a few sods containing the midden-y material. Definitely not pot of any kind. The coloured rock appears to be the same kind of burnt stone as I saw last week at the Loch of Tankerness. No doubt the next high enough tide will remove the material from the bottom of the cliff.

Things seem to be different at the moment for Kenmare stone circle, maybe its just the off-season for tourists but the space allotted for the circle seems delightfully neglected compared to the manicured grass in the pics posted previously. The grass is uncut and untidy, in its partly secluded enclosure on a cold, gloomy and wet bank holiday morning you could just about imagine you were not really a stones throw from the town centre. From a certain angle you could stand with your back to the shrubs and things seemed almost wild.

It’s a nice circle, its a pity the views are blocked in every direction but in its slightly overgrown state it was a pleasant surprise, I wasn’t expecting too much. I thought the shrubs were the low, flowery kind in neat arrangements, the taller tree like evergreens are the biggest annoyance at the site apart from the many crisp packets and coke bottles under the boulder burial.

Small stone by Arran standards, which just adds to the incongruity of its location, on neatly manicured grass at the edge of a small car park. I’d not read the RCAHMS stuff below when I visited, but even without that, the idea that this may be the sole survivor of a cairn seemed plausible, there are a few in the immediate vicinity. There’s bog all else to suggest it on the ground though, I guess the road and carpark have eradicated anything above ground. I can’t recall any linear ridgey feature such as is mentioned below.

The other points of note are the views of the strange little island of Pladda, just offshore, and the lurking cone of Ailsa Craig on the horizon.

RCAHMS says:

The ONB (1864) gives an alternative name of “Tumulus” for this feature, the surveyor’s comments being “I have no authority for this object beyond its general appearance to warrant it being called a tumulus. There is a large standing stone, 3ft 7 ins x 3ft 6 ins x 6 ins (Balfour 1910) on the N side of it, with a smaller stone adjoining (not noticed by Balfour) The whole object is higher than the adjacent ground although partly levelled for the road.” The words “giving the appearance of the remains of a stone circle” have been added by the examiner. Balfour adds “a stone circle, known to have existed here at one time, was removed when making the road”.

A standing stone situated in a level grassy area and located approximately 30.0m from the edge of the coastal cliff. It is a plain weathered stone 1.1m high, 0.9m broad and 0.2m thick. A small (0.3m high) scarp runs southwestwards from the stone for 9.0m; it is not clear if this is artificial or merely an undulation in the ground. There is no surface evidence of either a cairn, a stone circle or the second “smaller” stone.

Park at or near the aptly named Rock farm,follow the path east up between the cliff’s.Upon reaching level ground look for the fence off to the right follow it to the south and you’ll come to the big barrow with great views and the rocking stone, of course I didn’t know it would rock till I stood on it, boy was that wierd.(from here you can see Castle Dinas Bran)
Follow the fence back north for the standing stone and cairn,after reading Treaclechops field notes I doubt she actually got the right stone this one is about 5ft tall stuck in a fence right next to a big cairn,although there are smaller stones at it’s foot but these probably came from an old field boundary as they follow the line of the fence.
A good stone in a fantastic place, go now

These two pics are of the same stretch of rock and show what a difference appropriate lighting and a drop of water can make .

Clachnaben (or Clach-na-ben) is a near 600m hill south of Banchory, topped with a massive granite plug. Visible from miles around, it has given rise to the rhyming couplet “Clachnaben and Bennachie, Are twa landmarks frae the sea” and the similarities to Bennachie are obvious.

Accessed from a small car-park on the B974 a good, but sometimes steep track will take you to the summit. Passing through pine forest, across moorland, around a small wood and finally up to the summit, you get most of natural Scotland in a 4 mile return walk. The tor dominates the skyline, and changes at each angle of the approach. Once there, an easy scramble to the top gives massive views 360 degrees around – Bennachie & Lochnagar can be seen, and if the view is clear, you can see the North Sea, and down to the firth of Tay.

Whilst not famous for it, I’m sure a ‘face’ can be made out on the southern side of the Tor-see my photos. From the comments of other people up there, I’m not the only one to see it.

There are 2 possible routes to the cairns on Patrickstown Hill. You could climb Carnbane East and head across from there; or you could do what I did and park at N604783 on the east side of the hill and follow the faint track that starts behind the gate opposite the parking spot.

This track leads around in an arc on the south side of the hill. It starts to dip a bit but then rises once more on the south-west side, terminating in the small meadow that holds the three X cairns.

Having seen the drawing posted here my expectations were high. What a pity then to find the stone almost completely eroded, with only very faint markings and a jumble of various lichen further obscuring the matter. Cairn X1 may have been glorious once upon a time, but those days are long gone. Of the three here it still has quite a bit of kerbing left and is structurally the most cairn-like.

I could only find 4 stones of Cairn X2 and there is no visible mound to suggest a cairn. One of the stones in the centre of the putative cairn has a bullaun but this looks to be of a more recent vintage.

Cairn X3, of which it is said that two stones remain, has only one visible, and not much else to write home about.

You may wish to head up to the summit to search out Cairn Y. Make sure you have good footwear and a ton of patience: the heather and brambles are waist high and the ground, in late October, was extremely boggy. I did a cursory search and found bupkis.

The one happy thing to report from this site are that the views across to Carnbane east, with Cairn T as dominant as ever, are magnificent.

I visited the circle on Sunday 29th October 2006, a lovely warm sunny day, to have a look at the extra stone that had been added. As Mr Hamhead said in his news item it has only been placed in the circle not set into the ground. It is in a position where another stone could possibly have been. I could see no reference to why the stone had been placed, this had either been removed or blown away in the gales we have had down here. There was however a small plastic bag containing a triangular stone, of some sort maybe a crystal,and a completely incomprehensible note placed in the centre of the circle. Also a feather had been stuck into the ground beside it.

IronMan is correct in stating that this is off the beaten track; Anglezarke Moor is open access land and there are no continuous footpaths. It can be heavy going on the way here.

In answer to Stroller’s query, and further to Charles’s reply, there’s been no known excavation of Round Loaf. Some flints have been found on the surface over the years. There’s no point in visiting Bolton (or Manchester) museum as they have nothing from local, human prehistory on display whatsoever.

In the village of Bweeng (on the road between Donoghmore and Mallow) there is a large tourist information board stuck to a wall that you will miss coming from the south but is quite obvious on the way through the village from the north. Quite a number of the large amount of ancient sites in the area are described, this stone row was one of two ‘fine examples’ of the type, the other being An Seisear (or Beenalacht on the sign). ‘Well’ I thought, ‘if its anything like An Seisear it needs a look!’.

Its not easy to find, you have to approach the OS co-ords from the south, through a farm house with two very large and very noisy Great Danes (no sneaking past this farm!) so do ask for ‘the three stones’ at the house (w465926). I was brought down through three fields by the 10 year old son who played ‘catch’ with a stone while I frantically took pics before the sun slid behind Bweengduff mountain. He also showed me a disused lime kiln, a very odd structure indeed.

The three stones are wildly mis-matched, the larger is over 10ft and the other two are pretty similar at around 5ft. The larger stone is set perpendicular in section to the two other stones in the line. I couldn’t see the horizon too good in either direction to evaluate what they might mark. The ground here has been heavily eroded so it looks like there’s about a foot of old ground level clinging to the base of the stones, packing stones are clearly visible and all the stones lean this way and that.

The farmer was very interested in the stones and even gave me directions to visit the Nursetown Beg Stones nearby which I had not heard of before.

They may be dark & a little smoky (tho not as bad as the blackhouses!) but they give a real impression of snugness & warmth. The lady from Historic Scotland was quite pleased to see us, we were the only people to visit all day – and this was July!

Visited 2001

Went for pics of the Gothic boathouse and decided to approach from the far side of the low ‘cliff’. With no expectations I was delighted to find very definite burnt mound material, ye olde black earth, in several areas four and more feet across exposed by livestock and rabbits on the topside. Most definitely it extends far beyond the obvious mound. This material occupies half to, say, two-thirds the field length. Past the actual mound along the cliff’s vertical section the burnt stones become the greater visible content, overlain by large irregular slabs as you near the boathouse end, where the ‘cliff’ peters out. Taking into account the various erect stones protruding along the shore we must surely be dealing with a series of burnt mounds and/or houses. Taking into account that the Bronze Age houses are at water level and below I would suggest that they preceded the burnt mounds.