Latest Fieldnotes

Visited late in the morning of the vernal equinox 06,do not under any circumstances park where i did ,well park wasn’t exactly what I did more exactly I got stuck in the mud and couldn’t extract it on my own,so I went to find the circle first then worry about the car.
Amongst a Conifer plantation the stone circle is next to a rough road where the trees have been cleared ,it would have been a good ring once the stones are quite large but all prostrate,from the circle I could see forestry workers across the shallow valley so I rode my bike a mile or two around the road and asked if they could pull my car out ,they elected the youngest member of their group to help me, I threw my bike in the back of his pick-up and retuned to the earth fast car he pulled me out then got stuck himself then I pulled him out and we said goodbye, Thank’s friend from Dumfries

Indeed it was really,really worth a look .loads of parking and a beautiful part of the Staffordshire moorlands.Surely it can’t be just good fortune that this massive stone rests on smaller stones it looks a bit like the Maen Cetti on Gower, I’m not convinced it’s entirely natural

Less than a mile north of Monreith. A small lane links the A747 with the B7085 and a smaller lane leads east to Blairbuy farm, the stones can be seen to the left, park at the side of the road if you can we didn’t ask permission to see the stones but were spotted by the farmer though he didn’t say owt so I presume it’s ok.
Cope describes it as a proto-neolithic temple,the nest is a natural tree covered level mound and the Egg is a big glacial eratic with two smallish stones 20-30yards to the west.It was late on the sum sol morn when we visited with big fluffy white clouds ,a wonderful place to sit and ponder the ancient world

Situated close to the road,at the junction of the B5035 and the small road heading north to Brassington.Overlooking Carsington water the stone is about 6ft high but without it’s bad lean would be considerably taller,the stone has a number of markings a small cross and a number of probably natural cupmarks.
A good stone with a good view to the west

Having fallen in love with Gop Hill and moved there with my young family, I have been trying my best to research the site and its caves.

Unfortunately Boyd Dawkins excavated a shaft from the top to ground level which may have made irreporable damage to any of its interior structures. If it is believed to be a cairn – should there not be an entrance on the south west of the hill? Most similar cairns in ireland, scotland and cumbria have. As there is zero budget for archaeology in Wales it seems that this hill will remain a mystery for years to come.

The surrounding area indeed has a dense concentration of barrows and tumili, i don’t know of any other few square miles in the country that has so many, it is a small piece of our country that we know little or nothing about despite continuous human habitation there since prehistory.

I believe that Boyd Dawkins did also investigate parts of the caves, which found human as well as wooly mammoth, wooly rhino, hyena bones. The caves really are an enigma as they seem to have small shafts running all over. More investigation is required to map the caves. I will make an attempt over the next year or so. It will take time – and my hope is that the caves may run under the cairn itself – and perhaps into it.

Arch. Inventory of Co. Wicklow has it that this is a possible passage tomb. Also says that a decorated stone now in the National Museum of Ireland is reputed to have come from here.

The mound itself is completely overgrown with gorse. There are a few outlying stones to the north of the site that may be part of the kerb. On the south side there is one large boulder that could be some possible kerbing too.

I clomped through the gorse to a clear area on top of the mound but there are no signs of any opening into the tomb here.

The views across to Keadeen and Lugnaquilla are amazing.

I searched high and low for the bullaun that’s marked on the OS map at S977949 but to no avail. I was about to give up when I noticed a beaten track leading from the forestry entrance where I had parked. I followed this and it led me out of the forestry and into the field where the bullaun is marked. Continuing along this I crossed the stream and BAM, Brittas 4 with its four single and one double bullaun was there in front of me. I can safely say that this came as a total shock and a surprise to me. Continuing further up the track about 10 metres further on is Brittas 3 with its four bullauns.
Both of these stones are earthfast. They sit there for all the world like magical vessels as the small brook bubbles nearby. Seems there’s a lot more to this place than what first meets the eye. According to the Arch. Inventory of Co. Wicklow there’s “a large, earthfast granite boulder with four basins…” which I take to be what I have called Brittas 3. With the two that Fourwinds has added, thats four bullauns with 50 metres of each other. Awesome!

In a garden just off the N81 at Ballintruer More is this charming stone. It’s well marked on the map and well looked after by the folks that own the house.

Easy enough to find with an OS map (Explorer 441). Respect the polite request of the estate and leave your car by the gate. Go through the double deer gate and follow the estate road till you reach a bridge over a burn. The broch is on your right down toward the loch side. There is quite a bit of standing masonry with plenty of broch type stuff to stick your nose into. Be warned bring plenty of DEET if you visit in the small bitey thing season.

We parked by the farmhouse and asked permission to see their stones. The red faced farmer’s wife said it was OK, so long as I locked the gate behind me. Upon reaching the gate I saw the reason. A Black Beauty of a horse that wasn’t going to leave me alone.

The three stones are all white quartz. Only the central stone is erect (but leaning), and the three of them are not in a straight line. Even allowing for the two fallen stones, ones lying where they fell, if re-erected they still would not be in a perfect line. Perhaps they’ve been moved? Who knows? Maybe they were once part of a circle, like Duloe in Cornwall.

About six feet tall and hiding in the undergrowth beside the lane, with a nice squarish profile. The stone is about 2 miles north of Carreg Cennen castle.

I wandered across three fields to find this stone only to find it hiding in the hedge. Well, I say hiding, but it was easy to see once you knew where to look. One farm lane, one field and one footpath seperate it from Llanfyrnach stone B. This stone stands maybe 10ft tall and is a good looking stone with a nice view.
Coflein says it’s the survivor of a stone pair

With Llanfyrnach stones A and B this stone forms a close trio. Parking is dodgy on the small dead end lane, but there is an overgrown footpath running parallel to the stone’s field. From the lane the stone can be seen, but from that distance the stone’s size is unapparent. It’s nearly 8ft tall, 3ft wide and about 1ft thick. Its longer axis is north to south.

Something slightly strange happened to me here, my batteries were running very low so I took them out and put new ones in. I took a picture and turned to go 30 metres on and I turned to take a zoom pic and lo and behold the battery door was open and empty. We spent a good half hour searching the small area we’de just covered but to no avail, they were gone, troublesome pixies no doubt. Damn ‘em.
Coflein says this stone also was one of a pair

Mellor Hilltop is a complex multi-period site approximately six miles south east of the centre of Stockport centred around National Grid Reference SJ 9818 8890. Usually designated as an Iron Age Hill Settlement dated to the around 500 to 1000 BC. The site continued to be occupied through the Romano-British period into Norman times. Excavations have also revealed flints from as far back as Mesolithic times, indicating the use of the site may go back 10,000 years.

Only discovered about ten years ago, crop marks noticed during the drought year of 1995 revealed under the soil, the presence of the deep rock-cut defensive ditch of a Hill Fort. Excavations have taken place annually by the Archaeology Dept. of Manchester University. Some interesting finds have been made including a Bronze Age flint dagger and Iron Age pottery. The core of the site is in a private garden and is not open to the public. However there is year round access to one small section of the excavated ditch. From the footpaths in the area and you can get a good feel of the sense of place and there is a magnificent view from the Churchyard. There is an open day every September for details see the link to the Mellor Archaeological Trust.

Poor poor stones. Had I not found them they doubtlessly would have been lost forever. I know, not really, but that’s the way they looked. Uncared for to say the least.

Found (?) behind houses on the east side of the B4310 north of the river Towyl Afon Tywi. Two stones about 2ft apart , the eastern stone is about 4ft tall and the western stone about 7ft tall I think (hard to tell under all that nettles and brambles). Nice if someone knew how to use shears or even wanted to. There’s not a standing stone within 20 miles of my house, if only...

Another beautifully located single stone on the highest point of this extraordinary finger of land between two deep gorges. Like it’s cousins Maen Bach and Maen Hir it stands marking an ancient trackway and point to the valleys below and beyond

The two cairns are next to the stone and nearby is what looks suspicously like a complex of round barrrow needing further investigation

DIMENSIONS:
1.6(h), 0.8m(w), 0.6m(d)

There is a large menhir at Berrisbrook farm in a field boundary. There is another which has been has less convincingly been described as its pair which is now used as a gatepost in te adjacent road

DIMENSIONS:
1.8m(h),1.2m(w), 0.7m(d) the isolatesd stone
1.8m(h),0.7m(w), 0.7m(d) the gatepost

The stones lie on a line tangential to the ring cairn and are roughly aligned in the directions of the midwinter setting or midsummer rising sun

DIMENSIONS:
3 stones av. 0.5m(h), 0.4m(w), 0.4m(d). 2.0m and 0.4m apart

This little barrow competes the complex of circle, ring and alignment. It has a small depression in the top which may be a sign of previous excavation

DIMENSIONS:
11m(diameter), 1.5m(h)

The cairn is buried and mainly hidden under the long grass and almost impossible to photograph although you can feel it under foot. Two crescent of stones remain. On one lies the quartz boulder thought to have possibly been a standing menhir

This is another unrecognised site requiring confirmation. Set high on the hillside and orientated approximatley south west – north east, it marks the route to the Cefn Gwwynerd complex

DIMENSIONS:
0.8m(h),0.4m(w), 0.6m(d)

There is also a possible fallen and half buried alignment adjacent – again to be confirmed

The site is hidden deep within a plantation on a ridge on what would have been open moorland. The stones are half buried. One was probably much higher but is shattered by frost. There is additional stone set within the circle.

How did something so delicate survive so long? It is almost impossible to photograph the small stones in the long grass. Some are so loose you could pluck them like teeth with one hand. Morgan and Ruggles examined this whole complex for astronomical significance in the seventies and Burl briefly became very excited about it but really, you would have to be a gnome to be able to use these stones for astronomical observation (I’m not discounting that possibility by the way – there are so many fly agarics around here and it feels so strange that this truly must be a fairy circle) – what could you do here but meet and dance?

DIMENSIONS:
20 stones of average height 0.4m in a diameter of 24.5m

Another large forgotten lonely slate flat slab on the upland plateau said to be an ancient boundary mark. Orientated approx. east-west and flanked by fence posts

DIMENSIONS:
2.0m(h),1.3m(w), 0.3m(d)

Set adjacent to the present track and within the precinct of the nearby Ty Newyyd stone

DIMENSIONS:
approx 40m long with approx 20 stones up to a height of 0.8m

We discovered this recently and it needs to be confirmed by others with more expertise. If it is a stone row it is extraordinary – a Dartmoor sized hidden secret

Set within small cairn (3m in diameter and 0.3m high) this beautiful massive stone stands quietly under trees keeping itself (and its secrets) to its self. It is marked on no maps

DIMENSIONS:
2.6m(h),3.2m(w), 0.7m(d)