Latest Fieldnotes

A genuine, bone-fide four poster! To get here you have to go up someones driveway and park at their house, so no matter what your view on one legged people is, if you want to see the four stones you’ve no choice but to knock on the door.

So, knock I did and explained to aforementioned monopodic man that I was looking for the stones, ‘hang on an I’ll switch off the telly’ was the response. I was prepared for a long, convoluted set of instructions. I wasn’t at all prepared for a one legged man to come tearing out from the side of the house on a quad bike.

I gathered I was to follow him in my car, follow I did despite much protest, straight into one field and right up to the gate of the next. Once inside the second field he brought me over to a spot about 60 paces to the north west where he says he discovered a large amount of burnt black soil when ploughing the field some years back. The site itself has not been excavated but he told me of a megalithic kist found nearby in the village which contained a burnt skeleton and some pottery.

Aubrey Burl says in his guidebook that a ‘playing card’ outlier sits 14m or so from the main site with a quartz block beside it but there was no trace of either. Then again Burl thought this site was in Waterford. There are a few large protruding stones quite close and a small square stone less than a foot high which looks for all intents and purposes like a miniature axial stone on the ‘west’ side.

I was very impressd with the site, the view and the intriguing confusion about the place. The farmer is one of the nicest I’ve met, up there with the farmers at Reanascreena and Carrigagulla so don’t hesitate to call in for a look if your anywhere nearby.

The access to this site has been much improved, especially for those with limited mobility. It does not seem to have taken any of the wonderful energy away from the area, and has improved the ‘vibe’ at the car park, which was dreadful – even those who didn’t know the car park’s reputation for vandalism felt awful leaving their cars and it was making visiting more difficult. Nice one!

This tomb is outside Midleton near a hamlet called Saleen. Looking at the map it seems to be on land that is tidal. You can see it reasonably ok from the road side of the river. I made an attempt to use the track on the other side and walk along the shale on the otherside. However the tide seemed to be coming in so I bet a swift retreat. I was looking at the tomb about a half hour earlier than when I took the picture and far more of it was above water so possibly an early morning stop here would allow you to access it easier or worse case with a good zoom to get a good picture of it.

I’m not sure if it is a Portal Tomb but from about 120m away thats what it looked like to me.

Update:
Well I made it over to it yesterday at about 3pm (4th April) and the tide was well out. Im from the midlands so don’t know much about tides you will have to check them yourself.
Its a great looking portal tomb, about 1.75-2m high and to me looks in great condition considering this gets covered in water everyday day of the year. It is actually facing east with, a large stone lieing flat covered in sea-weed that may be the missing stone.
The top of the cap seems to be white and I dont know whether this is the colour of the stone or some kind of paint on it.
To get there follow the path shown on the OS map, you pass some council houses one has a caravan parked outside, until you come to a fallen tree on the path. After this turn right and you come out of the woods into the beginning of the estaury/ wetland. Then just follow the edge of the water, I would advise bringing wellies and a good stick to check the mud that you are walking on.

Oh-dear oh-dear oh-dear... Almost complete ruin isn’t the last indignity for this tomb, just to add a pinch of insult it now has a tree growing out of its rear end and a thick growth of brambles and nettles on its, cough, ‘good side’. It was almost as if it knew I was only here to avoid the traffic through New Ross. A dirty pox on that nuisance of a town! Its so bad even the main road out of the town brings you back into the town at the other end, gah!! Anyway, this snivelling wreck of a monument is probably only worth visiting if you are dropped into the field after an alien abduction. I’m sure it was quite nice in a former life but alas, no more.

Spectacular but got more of a feeling that this is the foundations of a building (roundhouse) than a ceremonial circle, especially with the remnants of other smaller round buildings very nearby. The whole site seems to be part of a settlement – why isn’t this documented???

Visited this one on 28th August 2006. Its quite easy to find and very beautiful.

This whole area is one big settlement. As I wandered around looking for Barbrook 2 I felt really sad that this site will perish soon. This would be a valuable heritage site, and should be maintained.

I feel a strongly worded letter to the Peak Distric Council comming on!

We visitied this stone circle on 28th August 2006. Its just off the sandy path and there were lots of people around. We stayed for nearly an hour and not one other person seemed remotely interested in this important part of our heritage.

Also, it was severely overgrown. It was actually difficult to see the circle and it was only because we had researched it that we found it.

More positive it is really beautiful, and I got very positive vibes from the whole of this unique area.

I will definately go back to this one.

Thanks to everyone who gave directions.

You will have to leave the car behind. Combine with a trip to Carneddau Hengwm from where it looks like a big henge type monument with big banks and ditches and a well defined entrance. Tremendous views for miles along the coast. Like my new mate said of somewhere else, “do your self a favour and get your arse up here”.

For notes on how to get here follow diections for Hengwm Ring Cairn.

Two long-cairns, aligned east-west, fifty yards north and south of each other. The northern one is smaller and less complete. It’s massive capstone lies just proud of the cairn (no entry possible). To it’s rear(?) one can make out the outline of ruined chambers .

The southern long-cairn is the real star here, nearly twice as long as its partner. A wall cuts off its head leaving three standing stones (all over six feet tall) and a big capstone. In the middle of the monument is the intact chamber. One large capstone covers all. The cairn itself is still eight feet tall. A real gem! I feel privileged to be the one to post pic’s and notes.

Park on the A496 between two caravan parks either next to the footpath, or in a layby a few hundred yards north or even ask at Egryn Farm.

Walk east uphill past the farm and straight on at the crossing paths, through a couple of gates over a couple of styles up a steeper hill and then it gets easy, the path is easy just follow the yellow arrows, a wall on your left hides Carneddau Hengwm long cairnsfollow the wall, path leads uphill again and there it is.

A pretty little ring with more than a passing resemblance to Bryn Cader Faner, outward leaning curb stones no cairn stones though. Lovely views down to the sea. Situated next to destroyed homesteads. I don’t see why there’re no pics posted already (probably the long walk).

I went up here not knowing why I wanted to go to fourknocks. As luck would have it the Skerries Historical society had a woman doing a talk on the Landscape of the FourKnocks Valley. She had done her dissertation on Fourknocks so it was great interest I followed their tour. She (Brid) talked about fourknocks one and the barrow cemetery and their relationship with the three henges in the area. She took us to see two of them.
I also got to see the amazing art inside fourknocks and she also reckons that fourknocks is aligned to the sunrise on the 21st Dec but all it does is light up the chamber. There were about 20 people in the chamber so it was difficult to get photos but Ill definitely head back for another look and get the key myself.
Also she noted that you should never put chalk on stone carvings that it corodes them. Dont know how true this is but its something to note for photographers.

She even had a hand-out and it has a great quote about its discovery.
“And it all started whe a lady visitor to Newgrange remarked – ‘But there are mounds like this on my uncle’s farm near The Naul’” (Excerpt from the National Muesum top files on Fourknocks)

This seemingly has been identified as being potentially a passage grave. However no excavations have been carried out on it. However its close proximity to the henge would suggest that it was of importance. Carrying on from Michanstown keep in the same direction until you come to a crossroads, head right here and about 200m down this road there is gate on the right hand side. You can see the tomb from here.

This is right beside the road, from Fourknocks head down to the t junction and turn right (in the direction you get the key), follow this road down until you come to a hard left (after “the halls”) and there is a little bit of grass here that you can stand on to view it.
It isnt that high but this may be due to farm-works. Diameter approx 30-50m?

Fourknocks II
This mound was excavated and they found a number of cremations and a central passage but no chamber. One of the stones in it was meant to have been decorated. I think again with chevrons but im not 100%. Beside the mound there is another National Monuments sign and this is actually the spoil heap from the excavations of Fourknocks I and II.

There’s now (August 2006) a marked track leading to the circle from the gate into the field, near the 2M milestone SW of New Luce, so it’s much easier to find first time – no need for GPS! A sign at the gate reads: standing stones 500m. The first marker post is visible from the gate, right in front of you, at about 80m. Cross the burn and carry on following the same contour (north) to a second post about 100m further on. A third post should then be visible about 100m up the hill (west) and the ring is about 200m+ further on. At present, the circle is about 1 metre or so north of the track (on your right). If you reach the fence / gate then you’ve overshot by about 70m.

Just another Ridgeway hillfort, (though better if you don’t get out a lot like me.)

Worth a visit though, if only to be reminded of the sheer effort involved (this is a pretty big one). Needs some imagination to get the full impact though – deeper, steeper ditches, higher ramparts and timber stockade on top – not at all pretty or softened like now but a place of power and warning, something to force you to feel huge respect even if you viewed it from ten miles away. People not to be messed with lightly.

It’s not as it was though, Fresh badger diggings adding to the erosion, just like they’ve been doing constantly since their Nth grandparents were doing it. But there’s a long way to go. It’ll still be impressive in a thousand years.

Hardly a speck of it is quite how it was, its a different place. Even the amazing view to the North. So its best to keep the imagination in gear. Just one thing’s the same maybe. The loud plaintiff hiss of the wind in the stunted hawthorns, at precisely the same pitch as they heard. So if you close your eyes you’re back in the authentic Iron Age.

Open them again though, this isn’t the place to spend the night with a broken leg.

I live close by so i thought i might take a walk and have a look.The easiest an safest way to get here without running foul of the landowner is to walk down to the lakes off southwell road and take the footpath from the lakes to the A617.The path runs parallel to where you want to be..it means a quick dash from the path across the field to the site...if its been raining the clay soil will devour you!!..
The site is really overgrown and is a struggle to walk through..Wear boots!.
Couldnt really make out anything nor spot any visual evidence of a settlement.(Evidence of gamekeeping in the past is littered about, old cages, traps and LOTS of used cartridges!!).

The undergrowth hides the ground heavily though...

This really is a beauty, it’s also an absolute bugger to get to. It sits two or three fields from the road depending on which way you come. This field is massive and yet seems to have no access gates anywhere! They must airlift the cows in. I ended up scrambling over the unusually high and broad field wall much further down the valley and walking back up. On the way back the bullocks had moved fields and cut off my escape route, had to climb a few more hedges to get back to the car.

The circle itself is wonderful, the stones have a heavily rubbed smooth surface and most are shot with quite a lot of quartz. The recumbent is very altar-like as Fourwinds has said and all the stones have a very heavy ‘presence’. Its a real pity the ground around them is so badly trampled by itchy cows. The view is surprisingly good and walking further down the hill allows a view of the stones against the skyline.

This looks like, a very nice but incomplete circle. I couldn’t get closer than the gate unfortunately because of a swarm of bullocks. I had ‘not great’ written on my map beside this one so was not intending on going to see until I spotted it through the field gate. Curse those bullocks! It does look pretty good from the gate even though the trees in FW’s pictures seem much closer in real life.

We were taken to Knowth first as part of our “Newgrange Experience” and although the site was amazing, the whole tour side of it was slightly disappointing. Our guide just seemed really, really bored, which I can appreciate when you have to give the same talk 6 times a day to groups of barely interested tourists.... Our group consisted of a large number of people who didn’t really speak English, so the whole thing was just odd. However, I would’ve thought that having 2 excited, squealing women, who were obviously REALLY INTERESTED may have offered a bit of a challenge to him, but it wasn’t to be.

I loved the whole layout of Knowth with the excavated satellite tombs exposed so we could have a good old nosey at them. I also liked the fact that they had made an effort with re-erecting the timber circle but I was more than a little hacked off at the extent of what we got to see inside the tomb.

I did like the exposed wall, showing the depth of the tomb and the layers of construction (I think I am turning into a bloke, I am becoming more fascinated by engineering and construction!!)

I tried to engage the guide in some conversation, hoping he would suddenly become animated and tell us lots of amazing things, but he didn’t. Oh well, you can but try.

The carved kerb stones really were amazing to behold though.

We were luckier at Newgrange with our guide than we had been at Knowth. He was far more interested and interesting, even though he had such a short amount of time to “talk the talk”.

I had been so thoroughly warned about the commercialism of this site that I turned up expecting to be disappointed; a great idea, as it turns out, because it was actually less Disneyfied than I had imagined and I had a great time!

We really didn’t have enough time to walk around the outside of the site though and our photos felt rushed rather than thought out – I think we just pointed and clicked, hoping we could get it all in! That evening, when I read about the site I realised that we had missed loads of interesting stuff. Ah well, good excuse for a return visit.

At Loughcrew I felt quite emotional, seeing inside the passage and into the chamber. A similar thing happened here but it was the roof which took my breath away. I just kept staring up at it, unable to comprehend the incredible feat of engineering I was witnessing. I’m not sure about the facade of the tomb, whether the quartz was indeed used as a covering, although it seems as plausible as using gypsum to cover sites. I liked the idea of it being used as a ceremonial walkway though.

All in all, I was mightily impressed with Newgrange and I have to say that, if you have to have a visitor centre, then have one like this! It was very sympathetically designed and the interpretative centre was pretty good.

Just to echo others here; as we were leaving around 2pm, they were turning people away as all of the tours were fully booked. I would recommend you get there by lunchtime at the latest (oh and the food was great too....I now have a bottle of Bru Na Boinne springwater on my shelf with Newgrange on the label; great souvenir!!)

This ruined stone row lies just to the south of the forest track towards Carrigagulla NE stone circle and is just barely visible among the trees as you pass about 100 yards from the main road. The tallest stone would probably have stood between 10 and 12 feet high but its hard to tell as the forest floor is covered in a deep layer of moss, roots and leaves. This stone must have fallen quite recently as it now rests on the stump of a cut down tree. There is at least one stone broken, its small, thin stump stands very near to the remaining standing stone which is wearing a wonderful jacket of thick moss. A medium sized slab about 4-5ft (visible) in length lies beside the large fallen stone, it is almost free of moss but you can’t help wondering what this row (or whatever it was) may have looked originally. Probably quite impressive I’d say.

It’s likely the very closely planted trees root systems caused the tallest stone to fall.

Sits about 20 yards from the track and is very easy to get to.

Single standing stone on the lower slopes of Beinn Ghobhlach (The Horned/Forked Hill). An indistinct track leads from a wooden gate to the stone, which is only just visible from the single track road from Dundonnel to Badrallach. The stone seems to be set in a raised mound. The drive here is excellent with amazing views, steep rocky hillsides and every chance of seeing Buzzards at close quarters.

A vitrified fort originating from the Iron Age, An Dun was probably re-modeled during the early centuries AD by the Vikings and later became the seat of local Mackenzie and Macleod chiefs. Little can now be seen above ground, but excavation has found sections of fire-fused stone walling.

Located at the back of the ruined church, just a few paces away from the Pictish carving, is a small stone in which is a basin. Local legend says that the basin never dries of water and can cure warts and ailments. The churchyard itself is interesting, with a circular boundary and a number of small standing and recumbent stones used as gravemarkers, as was the custom before inscribed gravestones.