Latest Fieldnotes

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.

Another unmarked Wicklow bullaun that shows up in the Arch. Inventory of Co. Wicklow, this is 100 metres south-east from Aghowle Lower church and is 4 basin stone. An earthfast boulder, the northernmost basin has eroded away at the edge of the stone and can no longer hold water. The easternmost basin is the largest of the 4.

What a wonderful monument! What superb scenery! Gortnavern is worth the trouble of tracking down, and there is some trouble.

The tomb itself has shifted in on itself but is really quite a fine example of the type, and the location couldn’t be better. IF the gorse was cut back a bit.

It’s not far at all from the village of Kerrykeel (called Carrowkeel on most maps) but the sign points in the wrong direction, this may have something to do with it being battered by shotgun pellets! After a while in the Irish countryside you learn to read the telltale signs that a sign has been turned the wrong direction and this one is of the more obvious type. I followed my GPS to the nearest road and this brought me to an accurate sign, I also spoke to the farmer on the lane and the little I could gather from his thickly accented directions was that you need boots. Well, bog standard now aren’t they? Well, yes, the signpost points you to a stream that was almost a foot deep after the recent rain.

Turning back onto the main road, I found the lane leading to the abandoned cottages. This way involves only some small streams, a number of tied gates, capsized trees blocking the lane, ankle deep mud, barbed wire and thick gorse bushes. Dont attempt this with kids or if your only popping in out of curiosity, only the most hardened stone seeker in the sturdiest of boots will happily take this trip. It is worth it.

Raedykes is a bit of a misnomer; Raedykes itself is a Roman camp on nearby Garrison Hill, while the ring cairns are actually on a different hill, Campstone Hill. There are four ring cairns, one obvious, one less obvious and two dubious. The most intact cairn, on the very top of the hill, features three large stones which Watt* suggests could be “the precursor of a great recumbent stone circle without a ring cairn”, the kind of circle most prevalent in this region.

The choice of location is obvious, commanding a great view across to more modern monuments in the form of the masts on Cairn-Mon-Earn and at Durris in one direction, and Stonehaven and the sea in the other. The nearby Hill of Cairneymore, as the name suggests, would have been a superb source of materials.

Getting there: Take the A597 out of Stonehaven for just over 3 miles; you’ll cross one bridge, the Findlayston Bridge, about half way there. Eventually you’ll come to a place where there’s a turn off the road to the right, up a small hill, with a post box in the wall on your left. Go up this hill and you’ll quickly come to a fork in the road.

If, as I did, you want to access the cairns via the Roman camp, carry on up the hill (right fork), and use a map to get across to Campstone Hill! This is an interesting way to go, as you’ll go through Cairneymore Hill – which is fairly obviously the source of all the stones in the cairns.

If you want to go straight to the cairns, take the left fork, and carry on until you’re looking down on a small cottage, called Union Cottage. There should be three green gates in a ‘T’ on your right; follow the middle of the ‘T’ up to the crest of the hill and you’re there. Either way, taking an OS Explorer map is a very good idea.

Video of the main ring cairn

*Archibald Watt, “Early Stonehaven Settlers”, Stonehaven Heritage Society 1994.

One of those places you felt like saying aloud “well at least someone cares that you’re here” when you stood aghast 4 or 5 years ago. But strangely, as reported, the locals must have decided to stop the flytipping [God knows how they get in there with the barriers all over the place] and protect it a bit more at last. A treasure in the midst has an effect, now as always.

Also overlooked, on the South-East corner of the churchyard wall adjoining the site, there are the remains of a Neolithic barrow-on-a-barrow , hardly more than a hump now but evidence that this immediate area [actually quite flat but horribly exposed to the East] may be a bit of an eyesore now, but was once considered more important.

In Dove Holes defence, the lanes surrounding the station contain beautiful tiny cottages, and if it wasn’t for the A6 ploughing through it, leaving traces of the quarried muck everywhere, it would be just another Peak village.

The wonderful sandstone trail starts near here and passes right by the hillfort but I bet not all who come by here know of it.
There is a car park on the edge of Frodsham but it’s a long walk to the hilltop , I parked on the B5393 and followed the footpath up the hill .I’m not sure there were any built defences on the western side I couldn’t find any and there are ten foot cliffs there anyway so the(so called) defences may have been semi-circular ,D shaped as it were ,like at Maiden castle further south.
The bank on the eastern side reaches about 6ft tall in places with an identifiable if vague entrance.
Looking westish one can see the hillfort on Helsby hill and to the north, well ,lets just say it would have looked better in prehistoric times,the sea once came a lot closer until the Manchester ship canal was built .Still, a good view

This bullaun is right beside a house. I met the farmer and he said the whole house is within an enclosure which I had spotted myself. It is a very deep bullaun and the farmer said he was happy to show it to anyone (although I think I was the first to look at it).

I visited the site on 22 December 2006. It may be quite difficult to find if driving on the busy A45 dual carriageway and the following may help. If coming from the Rugby direction take the second left after the Fosse Way roundabout near Stretton on Dunsmore – this is Freeboard Lane and you can park immediately on the right. Cross the cariageways and take the signed public footpath to the left of the houses opposite – the site is easily visible a few yards to the left. If you miss Freeboard lane there is a lay-by a few hundred yards down the road.

If coming from the Coventry direction I suggest locating the site as above and trying to park outsie the houses described, or else go to the Fosse Wat roundabout and come back towards Rugby.

In any event, a pleasant site and well screened from the main road.

This standing stone is close to the town of Eyrecourt. When you come into the town from Portuma turn left then left and then left again. The stone can be seen on a small hill. Its about 0.5m high.

The stone here is gone. There was noone around to ask what happened to it.

There is meant to be a standing stone here, however there is no sign of it at ground-level. What is here are the remains of a raised rath.

This wedge tomb isnt far from Portuma in Galway. It is situated on a small mound and is aligned west to east. It is approx 6-7m long. On the N65 from Portuma to Killamor take the first left and then left again. You pass a few farmhouses on the right and pull in at a gate just before the next farmhouse on the right.
Follow the track that is inside this gate and it takes you out into a field adjacent to the field with the tomb in it.
You should be able to see a new house in the distance, walk towards it and climb the stone wall and you should be able to see the tomb easily.
Although from the OS Map it looks like there may be some interaction with Church Hill you cant actually see it because of a ditch in the way.

These stones are down as a standing stone on the map. It is easy to find following a track along by the Clare river. It is in a pin for keeping bullocks. They all took a mad run at me, luckily they were well fenced in.
There are two stones here not one, I didnt get up close to really see the details of them. They must be about 0.75m.

This tomb is close to Murroe in Co. Limerick and to Glenstall Abbey. Follow the OS Map past about 2 houses on the left. The map shows a track into the woods. Best to follow this because one track where the break that looks the obvious way on OS map takes you alongside a house and they keep horses.
Follow the track to the end and then it naturally tails left following the tree-line (Not shown on the map). Head North west for about 300m and there is a gap on the right into a field. Once in the field you should be able to see the tomb to the north west in the corner of the field.
When i visited the tomb was water-logged. However it is in good condition, about 5m long and I think that all of the stones are there. To the North West is Sliabh Eibhlinne and the North is Sliabh Kimalta. However both are obscured by the trees.

This mound is not marked on the map and to me looks like it is forming an artifical horizon to the east of the tomb.
It must be approx 25m diameter and about a height of 2m.