Latest Fieldnotes

Not marked on OS sheet 35. Leave Virginia town on the R194, Ballyjamesduff road. The stone is in a field on the left, just as you leave town, on ground owned by Virginia Park Estate.
A little over a metre tall, conical and triangular, it’s a weighty, bulky stone.

Easy to find north-north-west of Mullagh, but not really worth visiting. Arch. Inventory of Co. Cavan says that it’s the possible remains of a dual court tomb. The south-west side of the tomb is all that’s left in situ, with many large boulders scattered about nearby.

I was very surprised at how big this stone actually is, its about 10ft tall but is very wide and is almost banana shaped. It curves in heavily towards the base so it looks like it would fall over only for the sheer weight.

Behind the stone, about 7m away, is a steep, sharp drop down to the riverbank. Below the site is a figure of eight shaped pond, O’Kelly has one marked on an aerial photo as a possible source of material for Newgrange itself but I thought it was much further west.

The stone itself is surrounded by fencing. No problem I thought, I already walked four fields and climed four gates. Zap! Bloody tripod went flying after getting an unexpected shock from the electric fence... None of the other fences were electrified but dont be fooled, this one seems to be permanently on. I’m sure the rabbit I startled on arrival had a great laugh! Ended up taking photos from outside the fencing.

At the end of the channel instead of crossing over to Eves Howe turned right and onto the beach. Owing to erosion there isn’t enough cliff outside the fields to walk on at all, the fences and their ‘standing stones’ ready to topple over. A slab fence with barbed wire goes down to the low tide mark and I managed to clamber over a gap and continue on to where the headland is sufficient to climb onto. The mound with its various peaks runs from the field boundary to the very point, completely covered in grass. So I don’t know whether the depressions at the seaward end are from excavation or robbing foundations. On the one hand at the cliiftop the smaller of the two looks more than 2m less, on the other I did see one white earth fast stone in the centre of the larger. I suppose whoever removed the structures could have dug unrecorded into archaeology below. And of course the Long Cairn on the Head of Work does have a later oval cairn inserted in one end which could parallel the sub-circular chamber excavated here. The two (post-mediaeval) boat nausts now look more alongside than into the mound.

In the nearer I could see the walls lining the long sides. The report describes it as walled on three sides with slabs along the bottom. It provided the only dating evidence for the mound, a single Grooved Ware sherd, and the excavator thought the noust built from mound material. Seems strange the sherd came too. So could the material be in situ, part or all of summat previously here? Certainly the fact that stones were found protruding about these two could relate to barrows being built over the sites of previous activity – pity Heritage Scotland hasn’t AFAIK communicated the results of this headland’s geophysics to RCAHMS, only that they exist.

The stone row is a few miles from the village of Leamlara. To get to leamlara from Cork follow the N25 east and turn off into Carrigtwohill. In Carrigtwohill take a tight left in the middle of the town and follow this road on to Leamlara.
The stone row is down the road from the standing stone. It is just inside the ditch across from a few out buildings (where you can park).
It is made up of three stones, two over 2.4m high and the middle one about 1m. They seemed to be aligned towards the west and I was lucky enough to see the sun set here as it began to rain.

The stone is a few miles from the village of Leamlara. To get to leamlara from Cork follow the N25 east and turn off into Carrigtwohill. In Carrigtwohill take a tight left in the middle of the town and follow this road on to Leamlara.
The stone is at the end of a lane, don’t drive down it as its condition gets worse and there is no place to turn.
The stone itself looks to be red sandstone which looks local to the area and is about 2.4m high.

Opposite the Deerness Stores a road goes down to Marwick Bay. On the left are the farm and buildings of Newark, but before you come to this there is a sign for the footpath to Aikerskaill. The grassy path is new since last I was here and is nicely level and broad. Fairly soon you reach two long concrete slabs, laid over the two drystane walls of a bridge through which the ‘drain’ that skirts the landward side of the broch field comes around and meets the shore. The nearer you come to the mound the bigger and blockier the ‘boulders’ about the path and along the field edge. Much then obviously material from the site rather than rounded beach stone.

Going by the record the mound should continue into the next field along, though all I see down the other side is a small pond with a very small cone of land sticking out the centre. In the SW corner the barbed wire fence is just moveable enough to climb carefully over, be sure not to leave the lines tangled.

On the southern side is a line of stones that looks like a wall course. But the left half of this looks to be made out of boulders rather than slabs, though I only took a close look at the right as this is a more obvious line of walling and so may have been misled by loose material. Actually I had the feeling I was looking at the remains of structures of two different periods because of the disparate nature of stones over the mound, and most of the Broch Age material had been removed at some stage. Up on the eastern end earth and stones lie exposed and apparently eroding downhill, a few white boulders on the surface (from the broch?) but mostly dark fragments. In one area here I could make out through the grass bits and bobs of three or more courses of walling. These courses as I saw them were only a scant few inches high. Though I read this as an incurving wall, maybe of the inside of the broch or internal furniture, it could have been a stabilised collapsing wall now incorporated within the mound apart fom this outer face.

Quoyburing is, or was, pronounced Quoyburrian (similar name construction to Quoyburray near Round Howe, although the latter is no longer regarded as a broch).

Yesterday whilst visiting the Loanhead of Daviot and New Craig RSC ‘s I noticed an outcrop about half way between the sites . I was surprised to discover about 40 plus cups with rings ,unfortunately the bullocks in the field became a wee bit too up close and personal one in particular seemed determined to avenge his Hispanic cousins so I retreated . Luckily I was able to return in the early with chum Stan and we managed to get some water on the markings and a good ten minutes gawping before the thunder of Aberdeen Angus hooves sent us to the fence . This is easily the biggest outcrop and largest number of cups in Aberdeenshire , a county that doesn’t have much rock art at all but the amazing thing is that countless numbers of archaeos must have walked between the two sites , a kilometre , and just failed to the notice the markings

Close to Pike Stones and the Jepsons Gate Cairn, evidence of Mesolithic lithic scatter and occupation were discovered by excavation in the 1990’s. The report can be found in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 62/1996.

Parked at H958081 and crossed the road, over the unpainted farm gate and headed south. This is a large field and you need to head along its western edge. Careful of some extremely frisky bullocks! When you reach the south-western corner of the field, cross into the next field over to your west. You should see the outcrop from here.
There’s more than one panel that has markings here. The most impressive one has at least 20 elongated cup-marks, some being 3 centimetres deep. The Arch. inventory of Co. Louth mentions at least 10 cup and ring devices. No ring devices were visible the day we were there, but there was a lot of growth on the rocks.
There is the remains of a possible wedge tomb close by, though it’s very hard to say due to modern disturbance.

A real bu***r to find! Sits in the valley between Louden and Roughtor, just a low assortment of rocks orientated north south. I would not have found it with out a line drawing of what to look for..and then I was not too sure at first.
30 m long by 12m wide at the north end this cairn was not discovered until 1976 and only recognised as a long cairn in 1984.

This is a nice tomb and very easy to find. It is only about 1 km from Kilcommon and just just off the road at the back of a farm. The tomb is massive about 10m by 4m. The stone at the west end of the tomb is massive, the whole 4m. The tomb is aligned east-west with the biggest stone at its western end.
The mahurslieve rises up in the distance, however it is to the north and the tomb doesnt align with it. If you put a few planks over the top of the tomb you would have a very comfy little place to hang out, Its that big! No sign of a kerb on it or anything, it seems very rectangular.

Don’t go looking on Louden Hill for this circle..it’s to the south of it. The circle lies on a plateau just to the south of the track to Fernacre Fm from Middlemoor Cross. Visiting in August most of the stones are well obscured by the grass..although there are very few to be seen anyway. To be honest it is not worth making the trip just to see this circle...good job Fernacre is just up the track and Stannon just over the hill..oh and Roughtor and Brown Willy looking down on you from above...and all the stuff to hunt for on Loudon Hill..and just the thrill of being out on Bodmin Moor.
What more could you want?

This is a real beauty of a standing stone. It is about two metres high and at its base is probably a second standing stone that has fallen or is knocked.
To get there shouldnt be too bad, I walked cross country from baurnodreemy just to get a feel for the land around the MahurSlieve. I found two possible monuments on my walk so it was worth it. However by car there is a road on the left coming from Rearcross, it passes a few houses so it might be best to ask for permission. Follow this road as it starts to turn to the right and just after the pine plantation stops u can look over the ditch and see the stone in the distance. You can jump over the fence here and follow the bit of forestry clearance along side the fence. Its easier that tracking across the uneven ground which would say it could be dangerous in wet weather.

There was a fine temperature inversion in Strathtummel and at 300m the views were just the tops of the bigger Perthshire hills . Not a lot of rock art in the area but I had expectations and found a couple of “new ” rocks 5m apart on the 375 contour , not the highest in the UK but close. The first had nine cups and the adjacent outcrop had over fifty , nine with rings . By the time that outcrop had been cleared so had the mist . Interestingly the biggest hill in the area , Schiehallion , would not have been in view when the engraver did their work , but if they stood up , there it was .

The main thing that struck me about this place was how different all the stones are. Red ones, smooth ones, grey ones, crinkly ones, quartzy ones, allsorts. A couple of them looked to have possible cups, but on closer inspection, these proved to be totally natural.

Halfway up a hill seems an odd spot for such a thing, but there must have been a reason, makes it easier to get to for one thing. If you’re passing from Machrie to head to Ardrossan or Brodick (or vice versa), it’s worth stopping and making the short hop up from the road.

Visited July 2006

I was slightly disappointed with my experience of this stone, though that was largely due to the poor light in which I saw it. It was more or less mid-day, with bright summer sunlight. This made the motifs (mostly cups, but with a couple of rings) difficult to see. They are quite worn, they do have quite a covering of lichen, so it was difficult to reconcile it with the diagram in Stan Beckinsall’s book.

On the plus side, the stone is easy to find, being just to the left of the forestry track. In a better light, it should be easier to see the arkings. Given that the views are to the east, morning would probably be the best time. Evening would probably not be a good time, as immediately to the west, there is naught but hillside, so the stone would be in shadow.

(A word of warning, the whopping great trucks come belting down that track at some speed, as they aren’t expecting to see anyone. The stone is on a bend, so don’t be tempted to leave anything hanging about on the track, lest it get flattened)

At last, at last!

Embarrassingly, this was my 4th attempt to find this circle and I set out today in the knowledge that this time I absolutley KNEW where it was. In the past I have parked at Bent Lane but today I continued past for another 1/2 mile or so up the hill until I came to the next public footpath on the left and parked here.

The footpath is really very stoney and uneven so not suitable for those with mobility problems, or pushchairs. When I hit the 5th field boundary, I stood on the gate and spotted the circle; it is tiny so quite easy to miss. Then I spotted the bull....bugger!

There was no way I was going home without getting closer than this, so I hopped over the drystone wall into the adjacent field and walked down the very steep and uneven hill until I was level with the circle. I then had to contend with some of the most belligerent sheep I have come across but finally made it to the circle, keeping my eye on the top end of the field where the bull was residing. It was then I remembered I was wearing a cerise pink top and started wondering whether bulls react to pink in the same way they react to red!

What a beauty! Similar in size to the 9 Ladies on Stanton Moor but with the added bonus of the most spectacular views over the Lune Valley and sitting on it’s own tiny platform, this is just the most perfect of circles. I wish I could’ve stayed longer but I didn’t want to push my luck with the livestock and so took a few pix and a video then headed back up the VERY STEEP hill. Knackering but worth it!

Go looking for a barrow and find some rock-art! This earthfast stone with at least 5 cup marks and some modern, sub-christian markings, sits right beside the western barrow on Mullaghash Hill. It’s not recorded in the Arch. Inventory of Co. Louth but the christian markings say that it has been known for quite some time.

If you park at T206618 and follow the winding track up, after 10 minutes of a brisk walk and at roughly south-east on the hill, in amongst the trees on the right is this ‘cairn’. There are some quite large boulders forming a type of kerb. One of these has some sort of marking on the flat side, though I suspect that this is modern. The ‘mound’ of rocks is wedge shaped and looks to have an entrance on the east side. It’s aligned on an east-west axis and my hunch is that this is a possible wedge tomb.

Rimmed platform cairn with central mound. And these can have one or more kerbs, perhaps explaining the reported stones conspicuous by their present absence.

The best way to get to Reanascreena is to follow Cian’s directions below, but when you get to the gate the farm on your right is the owner of the long field that Harv describes below, be polite and ask, I found them to be very helpful. Access is very easy, just a long walk and a duck under a few electric fences, There are bulls in the fields to the right of the long field, but really there is no need to approach from the east.

Parked at T206618 and followed the path to the top. The cairn would once have been massive, roughly 20 metres diameter. It’s hard to make out as it has been largely destroyed and mother nature is re-claiming what’s hers. Also, the hill is quite popular with revellers as it’s only 253 metres to the summit and Courtown and Ballymoney holiday sites are close by. The views up and down the coast are really special.

I went looking for the ogham stone down the road from here but got distracted by this beauty. It’s on the crest of a small hillock to the right of the entrance of Castletimon House and is about 1.7 metres tall and quite phallic.

This is indeed a wild place, i visited here on this years summer solstice having camped the night before in gale force winds.
I got into open country and once again it lashed it down constantly the rain stung my skin in those winds. My car was a good mile away so i sheltered under the doublers for an hour what a fantatsic place i must come back here in better weather.