Latest Fieldnotes

From the standing stone south of the B8085 I headed back, north, towards the church, crossed the road and walked past the hotel on the track heading towards the aptly named Turraman Loch. Long before the well named loch head west, following a fence, at Scalasaig Farm. A short walk of no more than 100m awaits.

Thanks to the gorse I spied the stone when I was directly below the site. (You can see the top of the stone from the B8085.) Luckily you can get to the stone via some clearings.

It is an impressive stone standing at 2m high and 2m wide. The smaller stone in the Canmore photos is still there.

Towering over me to the north west is Dun Eibhinn, a decent climb ahead.

Visited 11/08/2024.

Visited in November 2024, when access was quite easy becuase the crop (barley?) had been harvested. The stones seemed a bit sad and neglected, but as others have said, wow what a stunning location.

From the Dun at Scalasaig head back to ferry port then walk west following the B8086. Directly opposite the hotel there is a road to the church, follow this track south for about 500m then head west. I could only see one standing, another stone I spied was a boulder and another possible standing stone mentioned in Canmore was invisible.

The stone that remains is just over 1m tall and has great all round views despite being slightly hidden by the undulating land. Dun Eibhinn, dominates the skyline to the north and was to be my big target for the day. Before that, another standing stone.

Visited 11/08/2024.

It must’ve been around 2019 that I was here. As others have said, it’s an impressive site in terms of size and feeling in spite of a drab location.

I went here in late 2024 – it’s a cool site which was fairly easy to find using the OS map, although of course I ended up on the wrong side of the burn and had to scale the steepest edge. The problem is that so many of the trees have now fallen over that it’s impenetrable. I couldn’t even walk around the ditch completely. In a way that’s nature at work, in a way it’s a shame to see an ancient site becoming inaccessible. Of course on a longer time scale it doesn’t matter, the trees will prob all be gone in decades!

We probably shouldn’t publish this as this is one of our favourite sites to walk the dogs where we hardly see anyone...so if you make it up via TMA and see two loud Collies running around and barking, doff your metaphorical cap and keep your distance :)

Mynydd Castlebythe is a lonely, wild heathery hill just outside Puncheston. Posting here on account of the barrow cemetery at the summit (two round barrows and two ring barrows). The highest round barrow is topped by a trig point. The views are fantastic and stretch to Gower, the mountains of Mid Wales, and all the Pembrokeshire peaks including Carn Ingli and the Preselis.

To get there, look for the hamlet of Castlebythe on the map. It’s only essentially a few houses, a farm and a churchyard. At the crossroads, turn left and drive up onto the hillside along a minor road. You can park up on the left a few hundred yards after crossing the cattle grid. Walk straight up the steep hill path on the right. You will probably not see anyone, although if you are very unlucky the local fox hunting w**krs will be up there on their yearly blood fest.

Garn Turne has always felt to us like Pentre Ifan’s evil twin. There are a few similarities between the two sites – the multiphase construction that seemed to begin with a sacred stone dug out of a pit, the later addition of a forecourt, the evidence of burning in and around the capstone – but also some significant divergences that give Garn Turne a very different atmosphere.
Whereas Pentre Ifan seems light, airy, almost untethered, Garn Turne seems earthbound, dark and menacing. The sheer weight obviously present in the capstone and it’s accompanying megaliths is part of it. But there has always seemed to us a kind of haunting nastiness about it, as if the ghosts that linger there died in pain or unwillingly. Could be just us though...
Anyway, unlike Pentre Ifan which feels tidy and well on the beaten track, this site is rough and ready. It’s in a large scraggy field with blackthorny bits, some beautiful wind whipped old hawthorns and a gorsedd festooned with well, gorse. You may be unlucky and find cows in it or sometimes sheep.
The whole site is interesting, as it really seems that the natural features that were important to the monument builders are still intact. The aforementioned rock outcrop dominates the site and the immediate landscape around, and gives off a power all of it’s own. As mentioned by others (e.g. Children and Nash) there is a spring adjoining the outcrop and directly west uphill from the monument. The spring is surrounded by rocks that almost look placed there in a circular fashion. You can climb the outcrop quite easily and it’s a great spot to chill out in nice weather.
Tonight though, Garn Turne was it’s usual cold and doomy self in the mist, so we took a few pictures, had a dram and were off. Will return in the sun so tbc

I love going to ancient sites and experiencing what happens when I get there (if I get there). Sometimes as with Castle Rigg, I am left underwhelmed and thinking it probably wasn’t the right time to visit; on the flipside, my visit to Upper Lagmore came exactly at the right and put me in a good mood for 2025. Then there’s a place like Avebury that just gets better on every visit!

Whilst poking around at Lagmore East, I spied Upper Lagmore up the hill and worked out a possible route. I ended up walking back past my car parked in the golf club / distillery car park, up a small track over the burn and then going down the minor road looking for a way over the barbed wire fence. I hopped it down at the field corner by the A road then zigzagged up the hill.

When I got to the site, I felt watched and was quite confused trying to work out what exactly I was looking at, thinking it must have been a place that had been used and re-used. Then the clouds cleared and wow! a rainbow came out. I wandered from stone to stone, appreciating its location in the landscape. The surrounding hills are beautiful and you can’t see the river but you know it’s near. Plus there’s a great view down to East Lagmore – I imagined (without evidence) that there was probably another stone circle somewhere previously, perhaps up the hill where now a derelict farmhouse stands, or perhaps past East Lagmore at the hunting lodge.

An amazing place!

Lovely hill, extremely windy when I went up in December. I ascended up a path from the quarry side and beside a gate saw a bunch of stones which seemed to me could well be a former stone circle, although I cannot find anything on the old maps to confirm that. The stones are piled up at 57.664767, -2.715907.

As an aside I was using peakfinder.com to identify the hills I could see, what a great tool!

A revisit tonight to this great stone with customary rubbish North Pembrokeshire weather.
The stone is a good size, standing 2.6 metres high and having an impressive bulk to it. Looking downhill towards the north, it could be said to resemble a broad shouldered hooded figure. Visiting is easy if you’re doing a pitstop, as there is a big pull in place on the road next to where the public footpath leaves the road.
(NB there is still some crappy rusting old fencing dug into the ground around it, and whilst not visually intrusive could be a hazard for dogs).
The stone is both aesthetically pleasing and nicely located. The views to the north are dominated by the ‘sleeping goddess’ sacred mountain of Carn Ingli and it’s Common, with the Gwaun Valley in between. Uphill to the south, although not visible, is Waun Mawn and a collection of standing stones and pairs in the basin to the north of Cerrig Lladron (the footpath heading south will get you there via a remote hill farm with some mad looking and barky Collies). The stone, or whatever it may have formed part of, could easily have been a marker or connection between two ritual centres. We, like everyone else, have never found anything that looks like the ruined cromlech that was supposedly spotted in 1914.
There is also apparently a possible Bronze Age cairn, the nicely named Carn Wrach (Cairn of the Witch) 460m to the southeast, but all that’s visible on the ground are lots of rocks which the farmer will no doubt start JCB’ing as he’s doing in the Tre-Fach stone field.

Every petrol station on Colonsay should have a dun, there is only one petrol station on the island. Parking is very easy, there is a car park at the post office and excellent shop. Simply walk across the road and jump into the ferns behind the pumps.

There are large rocks marking the dun’s edge to the south and east, not much stonework remains elsewhere. A gap in a ruined bit of wall is probably the entrance in the north east section.

Not that much to see, the covering ferns didn’t help but a good start to the looking around Scalasaig’s prehistoric monuments.

Visited 11/08/2024.

Went out tonight for a spot of nocturnal cairn bothering on Plumstone Mountain. Access is simple as there is a large car park. Popular site with dog walkers.

The rocky tor is really impressive despite being quite small in terms of ground area. It’s an outcrop of Ordovician rhyolite born in the belly of a volcano, with the same stuff outcropping also at nearby Treffgarne and Roch. There are great all round views to the Preselis and across to the Bristol Channel (will post more images on daytime visit).

The common is a 145 hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest, with a variety of heaths and marshes. Sadly the enormous starling roost that was a winter highlight has moved off a few years ago.

Antiquarian wise, there are four barrows in very reasonable repair. Cook, writing in 2006 in the journal of the Pembrokeshire Historical Society, says that ‘there are two pairs of barrows located 400m apart from each other on an east-west alignment’. However, tonight, we could only find one of the more westerly pair, which should have been located in a very recently ploughed field.

Four barrows remain intact. There is an eastern pair right next to the rock (called Plumstone Central 1 and 2 on Coflein). One of them is on common land and has been walked, cycled and ridden over so many times it’s all smoothed over. It’s pair is just over the barbed wire fence nearby and heathered over.

Head down away from the tor on the big track to the right hand side, and follow the fence round to the third barrow which has it’s own gated enclosure (Plumstone West on Coflein).

The fourth barrow, a rocky one, is technically on Dudwell Mountain not Plumstone, and although topped with the trig point on the maps is trickier to access as it’s all covered in gorse and heather. We didn’t get there tonight so will update after returning. Interestingly, Coflein says ‘early reports speak of a “demolished cromlech” with a 2’ by 5’ chamber, however no identifiable remains of this were noted in 1966‘

To get a birds eye view of Dun Meadhonach I decided to climb to the top of Beinn Na Caorach. It’s a worthwhile thing to do as the views are magnificent, you also look straight down (or north) to the dun plus the nearby Limpet Stones.

The summit of Caorach can be seen from the Limpets, a reasonably steep climb going up various wee valleys. Colonsay’s dry spell meant that underfoot conditions were good so it was a pleasant summer’s stroll up and then down to the dun.

As can be seen from the birds eye photo the dun is nearly oval shaped being 21m long by 13m wide. Walls still survive, best kept on the west. Some courses of stonework can still be seen. A gap on the north east would, to me, indicate an entrance but at this point the walls are badly ruined.

A great site and an opportunity to spy some other sites from high vantage point.

Visited 11/08/2024.

Visited 14.12.24

Auchmantle Fell (The Wee Cairn) is located c. 2 miles WSW of New Luce in Dumfries and Galloway. The cairn is delineated as a sub circular grassy area surrounded by moor grass. The centre of the low mound is dotted with moor grass. The cairn is c. 60 feet in diameter and 1 foot high. There are no visible stone on the surface. The cairn has two prominent features: There is an earth bank on the NW arc up to 2 feet high and an exposed grassy cist in the centre, measuring c. 3 feet by 2 feet in area and c. 9 inches deep. Further information is available on Canmore ID 61692.

Auchmantle Fell (The Muckle Cairn) is c. 135 yards N of Auchmantle Fell (The Wee Cairn), a prominent modern cairn on the horizon.

Visited 14.12.24

Auchmantle Fell (The Muckle Cairn) is situated c. 2 miles WSW of New Luce in Dumfries and Galloway. All that remains is a low grassy round platform with a modern cairn constructed in the centre. The platform measures c. 15 feet in diameter by 1 foot high. The modern cairn measures c 4 feet high. There are traces of a small stone enclosure in the E quadrant. Details of Auchmantle Fell (The Muckle Cairn) are available in Canmore ID 61691.

The Scots word Muckle means “big”, differentiating the cairn from Auchmantle Fell (The Wee Cairn) which lies in boggy moorland c. 135 yards S (c. 190°) of The Muckle Cairn.

Visited 26.12.24

I returned to Claughreid Stone Circle around 15 years after my first visit. I was able to locate all 10 stones on 04.04.10. On return, it seemed to me that the stone circle was hidden in rough moor grass. I was able to locate 7 outer stones at varying heights: N Stone (356°), NE Stone (37°), E Stone (82°), ESE Stone (112°), SSE Stone (153°), SW Stone (225°) and WNW Stone (300°). I stood on a stone at 180° and exposed the surface of a S Stone. I looked for a stone on the W Arc at 270° but was unable to find any.

Claughreid Stone Circle is in danger of sinking into the moor leaving only the larger stones exposed.

My route to Claughreid Stone Circle was via a track through Claughreid Farm avoiding a trudge through boggy moorland: Turn off the A75 for Cairn Holy at NX 5164 5305. Follow the sign for Cairn Holy for c. 100 yards then bear right onto an unsigned single track road. Stay on this winding lane for c. 0.4 miles to reach an unsigned track on the left at NX 5207 5313. Follow this dead-end track for a mile to reach a small car park at the end: the track becomes increasingly rough and dirty closer to the end.

The walking route to Claughreid Stone Circle starts at the end of the public road from Barholm Farm to Claughreid Farm. Park up and walk along the track to Claughreid Farm. Head W through Claughreid Farm then head downhill. Cross over a ford then follow the track through a dry stane dyke. Continue NW for c. 300 yards to go through a gate in the dry stane dyke. Head NNE from the gateway on vague tracks for c. 100 yards to reach Claughreid Stone Circle, partially obscured in moorland. My walking route along this track can be viewed on Claughreid Stone Circle.

There is a possible cairn on the summit of Auchensoul Hill, c. 0.75 miles WNW of Barr, a small village in South Ayrshire. The grassy mound on the summit of Auchensoul Hill is surmounted by an OS Trig Point. Canmore ID 62635 proposes that the mound may be the remains of a prehistoric cairn, The round cairn measures c. 15 feet in diameter by 1 foot high. There are several embedded stones on the N and W arcs which may be kerb stones. There is also an obvious medium-sized stone located c. 30 feet SE of the cairn.

The stone is near the road, just outside the city of Alessandria. During the XX century the menhir has been partially covered during the construction of the new road and now only the top can be seen.

This has to be one of the easiest fieldnotes to write. From the house in Kilchattan walk 200m south, crossing the B8086, there is a gate leading into the field.

A great way to start every morning with Dun Meadhonach, slightly to the south west.

They say there was a stone circle here at one point, maybe yes or maybe no, one thing definite is that the two stones are in clear view Loch Fada, to the east, and the stony beach at Port Mor to the west.

Slightly to the west there appears to be remnants of a cairn, there is no kerb, however there is one large stone that might or might not have stood. Almost feels like Cultoon Stone Circle in Islay and its nearby site.

Time to head south west.

Visited 11/08/2024.

Cretshengan is a beautifully situated coastal standing stone. Achahoish is also in a fantastic location, next to the River Allt Cinn-locha, at certain angles it looks well camouflaged as a small tree covered in moss, sits amongst old looking trees and stands near a small graveyard. All these things give a sense of age.

From Cretshengan follow the B8024 as it heads north east, the spectacular views continue along the coastal road. Keep going until the first minor road heading north west. I parked at Lochead Farm, crossed the road and asked permission to visit the stone from the owner at Ceannloch House.

A track heading south leads almost to the stone, when a hut is reached head west past the small graveyard.

The moss and lichen covered stone stands at over 2m tall.

Despite injuries, a great day and great sites.

Visited 09/08/2024

The farm at Cretshengan proved an easy place to find, even better I was given permission to park. From there walk back to road and head south for a few metres. Through the gate and head west, gentle slopes and short grass made the walk, thankfully, easy.

This is a stunning place place with stunning views over to the island of Jura and north towards Kilberry.

The stone stands at 1.6m tall and probably was used by the ancient peoples to mark a safe place to land. Below on the beach, windsurfers were having a great time so perhaps the old stone is still doing its job.

After standing for quite a while to savour the view, also to rest the increasingly sore leg, I made my way back to car and decided that one more stop would be enough. Nearby sites can also wait until 2025.

Visited 09/08/2024.

Visited by accident 17 October 2023, after leaving Park Neuk stone circle and heading west along the road towards Heatheryhaugh and Burnside of Drimmie.

In an open area north of the road close to where the OS map shows some hut circles, which we didn’t find, stands a stone, which we did find.

The road slopes down to a little burn, the watercourse hidden by reedy grasses and the area a little boggy underfoot. The stone is irregularly shaped, but smoothed like the stones in the wood south of Park Neuk. It appears to have been stood here by humans rather than being a natural erratic. There are no other obvious stones in the vicinity. From here, the stones of Park Neuk circle can just be seen on the brow of the hill.

No idea whether it’s ancient, Canmore is silent about its existence so it may be a modern addition. However, it serves no obvious purpose, as there are neither dykes nor gateways anywhere near that might need a stone to be stuck in them.

Onwards to Hill of Drimmie.

Leaving the standing stones Carse I followed the B8024 as it headed north. I asked permission to park at Keppoch farmhouse which was kindly given. Also kindly given were some painkillers as by this time I was starting to limp noticeably.

Fortunately, the route to the site was easy – 300m, gates and short grass. The cairn itself is a grass covered mound standing at over 17m wide and is 1m tall. Canmore says that cists are all removed, one stone remains visible that looks like it might have been part of a cist.

After a short look around I headed back to the car, thought about heading back to Tarbert, thought again and continued on. Nearby sites can wait until 2025, I was going to press on to an impressive coastal standing stone.

Visited 09/08/2024.

From Achadh-Chaorann I headed back to the B8024 and headed west to park near the entrance to the old church at Carse.

A pair of stones and a single stone, about 110 metres to the west, contribute to this site. They are easily found and gates provide easy access.

The 2 eastern stones are both almost 2.5m high, the furthest west stone is slightly smaller being 2.3m tall. Some choke stones can be seen at the west stone, fortunately field clearence mentioned in Canmore has been removed.

Superb site.

Visited 09/08/2024.

My next stop exploring the south side of the B8024 would be to follow the first minor road heading south. As soon as a clearing in the trees is reached look south east, Achadh-Chaorann Standing Stone should be easily spotted.

The well shaped slab stands at 2.1m high in a field which has been well maintained by the local greenkeepers. Cup marks are still there but barely visible almost weathered to invisibility. Plenty room to park at the first corner south of the site.

Nearby Ardpatrick, a hillfort, can wait until 2025, the legs weren’t feeling very happy.

Visited 09/08/2024.