Latest Fieldnotes

This is an absolute cracker! It is HUGE and you can see it as you drive along the moor from Bentham.

Some more enterprising folk have obviously brought modern power tools out here to “carve” their names in to the rock but as the surface of this stone appears to have been defaced over thousands of years, I guess we should applaud their ingenuity!

Fantastic views over to Ingleborough; climb up the carved steps and sit a-top this huge piece of stone and just gaze upon the view. It must’ve been amazing with the other 3 stones in situ. Lovely.

Bredon Hill ... what a strange and magical place.

For a year in 1988/89 I lived in a farm cottage on its lower slopes, right underneath Kemerton Camp. I remember lying in bed at night listening to a strange unidentified hooting creature flying very slowly over the roof. Freaked the living daylights out of me. But it was a wonderful place to live. Great place for sun worship.

The hill is covered with relics of ancient activity, including two separate forts. Kemerton Camp is the largest, occupying the highest point of the hill on the north side, and making the most of a steep natural escarpment. The short stone tower on the top, known as Parsons Folly, dates from the late 18th century and was allegedly built to bring the height of the hill up to a round 1000ft, its natural height being 960ft. The slopes below the escarpment are covered in lumps and bumps, some of which are the foundations of an ancient village and some the remains of quarrying, and it’s hard to tell them apart. According to my former next-door neighbour, a local farm worker, the village of Nafford was originally located up here but was abandoned and later rebuilt further down the valley next to the River Avon. Among the bumps is the outline of a small rectangular building ... a medieval pilgrim’s chapel very close to the unassuming but still rather special St Catherine’s Well.

Conderton Camp, on the SE side of the hill, is much smaller and quite secluded ... possibly a peace-time settlement because it’s less obviously defended and has a very different feel to the larger fort.

There’s also an earthwork on the lower NE slopes of the hill just outside the village of Elmley Castle.

Slightly less ancient, but really well worth a visit, are some of the 11th and 12th century carvings in the village churches around the hill. Most spectacular is Beckford parish church, which has carvings on its chancel arch of a creature with antennae that looks like an alien. In a more mundane style the porch at Elmley Castle has a really groovy rabbit.

I went to check on a find from last year that may have been in danger from tree felling operations . It was fine but close by was this beauty , looks like a possible cist cover . The new stone may have been inverted during tree planting .

A little off the beaten track and much less visited than its neighbour Cleeve Hill, Nottingham Hill is a spur off the main Cotswold ridge a few miles outside Cheltenham.

The whole of the top of the hill is fortified, but the shape of the hill along with various field boundaries make it impossible to see the enclosure in its entirety. But there are some double banks and ditches, and no shortage of interesting things to look at. The slopes are covered with lumps and bumps from stone quarrying ... some of which are ancient and colonised by some strange and wonderful trees.

The highest point of the hill is an open field with a cairn at the top (not of any great age, but nice) and a fantastic 360° panoramic view covering the Malvern ridge, Bredon Hill, Cleeve Hill, the Cotswold ridge, various other local hills and distant Welsh mountains. Our ancestors certainly knew a good fort site when they saw one.

Nottingham Hill seems to have escaped attention in guide books and is one of Gloucestershire’s better kept secrets. I’d venture to suggest there’s a bit of a goddessy thing going on there. The earth is full of holes, dips and openings. The lower slopes (particularly on the N and E sides) are liberally dotted with springs, some of which are the sources of local brooks and streams. Most of the trees around the fort are elder, hazel or thorn. There’s also a very strange grove of trees on the southern edge just below the fort, where almost all the trees are hollow or have holes in them, growing in the dips and hummocks left by quarrying. Some are small finger-sized holes, some cup-shaped holes with grass and violets growing in them, some large oval holes right through the tree. With gorgeous views over the Severn Valley to go with it, it’s an incredibly evocative place.

I feel very sorry for the Tibblestone. The petrol station was built in the late 1980s, and is not the most sensitive bit of planning. The stone is small and unassuming, so it’s been dwarfed into insignificance by its brash neighbour. It’s difficult to feel much of an atmosphere here now, especially if you’re being stared at by people refuelling their cars. The busy A435 doesn’t help.

It did have plenty of atmosphere when I visited it in 1988, before the petrol station. It was much more integrated with the surrounding landscape, standing very close to a five-way road junction known as Teddington Hands (which lends its name to the nearby pub).

It’s a quirky little stone though, and deserves a visit from any sympathetic person who’s passing.

This site stretchs back to the late Bronze Age and it is thought to have been of ceremonial as well as defensive use. It has had many periods of occupation. The attached link has a lovely 3D representation of the site and some aerial photographs and like most hillforts this is the best way to view it.
This hillfort would be good for a picnic/ walk (Unfortunately because of this there is a lot of litter). It is sign-posted from the main Newmarket on Fergus to Ennis Road and has a car-park. It also has 10 information boards and at the summit there is a viewing platform from which the surrounding area can be viewed. There are a lot of decidious tress around so to get the best view of the area best to go in winter.

The photographs don’t do this justice – it’s one of the best preserved hut circles I’ve ever seen. It even still contains traces of an internal dividing wall.

It’s an off-path walk across heather and boggy ground.

One of the many cairns in this part of Caithness. An off-path walk, through heather and boggy ground.

One of the many chambered cairns in this part of Caithness. This one is visible from the road. Visited at the end of our circuit of the many sites around Ben Dorrery and Beinn Freiceadain.

One of the many chambered cairns in this part of Caithness. An off-path walk, through heather and boggy ground.

A short, but steep and off-path, walk down to the west of the mast that sits atop Ben Dorrery.

Round cairn, with a cist on the top.

Solitary standing stone, approximately 5ft in height. It is in wet, boggy ground and there are no paths to it.

This chambered cairn, which has a modern cairn on top of it, sits just within the northern part of Bualie Oscar hillfort.

A short walk from the mast atop Ben Dorrery, although it’s across heather – so avoid during tic season. This fort, also known as Buaile Oscar, covers a fairly large area and makes good use of natural rock defenses.

English Heritage along with the Dartmoor Preservation Association and a few volunteers have undertaken the project of surveying and restoring many of the cairns on Dartmoor. Over many days last year the cairns on Western Beacon and Wetherdon Hill were done.
This years project started on 21st April 2006 with five of the cairns on Butterdon Hill. The largest were chosen as they were in the worst state of repair, having had their shape altered by the public making shelters with the stones. This was mostly done by digging pits into the cairns and building walls with the stones taken out.
On 21st and 22nd of April 2006 eight volunteers set about surveying , recording and reconstructing these five cairns. The larger of the cairns were surveyed using a plain table and the smaller done using the offset method. When this was finished the walls were taken down and the stones replaced into the holes and any of the tumbled stones were replaced into hollows around the edges in order to get the cairn back into the domed shape they would have had when first built.
You will see from the photographs ,especially the cairn at SX654585, what was achieved.

This is the remains of a small settlement situated on the north and south sides the slope of the Butter Brook.This is a very pleasant spot ideal for a picnic on a warm afternoon or evening. There are the remains of 10 dwellings left, 9 on the north and one on the south. There could have been more houses here but they have now been demolished by the building of a small reservoir, and a pine plantation that cover part of the area.
The area is easy to find and get to being only around 500 metres from the Harford Moor Gate entrance to the moor.
The Gate is at SX644595.

I do not think that “the murder stone” is the correct name for this standing stone. The murder stone is a relatively modern, inscribed stone plaque on a road about 3 miles from this site, joining Disley to Whaley Bridge. I suspect that this misnomer began on another web site and has now been propagated here.

Sadly, though I have visited this stone, I do not know its proper name or purpose. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who does.

[This stone is listed as a Grade II scheduled monument in Cheshire, with the name ‘The Murder Stone’. It is said to date from the Early Bronze Age. See Baza’s links below. TMA Ed. ]

In a effort to stay fit, ive decided to try and climb up to some of the more challenging sites to get to. This isnt too bad to get to and thankfully the weather was ok because Id say this could be a very bleak place on a bad day.
What I did was park at the church/graveyard and then walk up a pretty step part of the hill to the cross. Once over the lip you can see the hillfort that the passages are in. It is beside the OS height marker.
Im sure the wall around it was possibly built from the cairn material which is a real pity. It also blocks the views from the passages. I think I remember in Martin Brennans book that Chamber 1 is meant to be aligned to the north for the pole star/ moon?
However looking thru the passage you would imagine it looks out pretty low on the horizon, hard to tell really.
The basin is great but i couldnt make out any of the rock-art that is meant to be on it.
As an aside i found someones mobile phone, its a big hill so to come upon it is some luck. Handed it back anyway, never can get enough good karma!
The views up here are amazing but its also unusual how the hills to the north where chamber 1 is meant to be aligned to are quite low. Hard to pick out anything really that could be used as a marker.
The whole hill seems to be full of stone, strewn about the place, a lot of field walls made from good stone. I wonder is there any record of any destroyed monuments up here.

This is a massive hill-fort, im not sure of the size on top but its huge. The top of the hill has 3 stones lying around, one of them seems to have 3 cupmarks. The bank and ditch itself is massive and covered with scrub and so it is hard to get a good look at it. I know they say that this is a henge like construction and not used for defense but this bank would still be useful for defending id say. This site seemingly has been reused a number of times and evidence of timber structures were found on it. They were probably used for ritual use and seemingly a lot of animal bones were found on the hill which suggests feasting.
The views from it are magnificant, into wicklow, carlow, kildare and probably laois and offaly.
I came from Old Kilcullen and turned right out onto the main road N78 going back towards Dublin, where the road widens there is a spot to safely pull in about 100 yards after from the last house on left. There is a bit of a gate to hope with a sign saying that “this is a farm etc no liability”. Then just walled up the hill. Lot of sheep in the fields at the moment so its safe enough. There were a few cows within the bank could be a bit unpredictable this time of year.

The mound looks impressive from the Rugby Rd approach and can be easily seen upon a short walk up by the connecting Brinklow Rd.
The best way to get onto the mound by foot i later discovered was to use the Ell Lane path just off Broad Street.I should have read fwump bungles advice below,Doh!
Still the mound was great in Warwickshires bare flat lands and a lot higher and steeper than i thought originally and provided possibly the best view over the county in all the area.
There seemed to have been some Easter Egg rolling going on down the face also which was an encouraging Pagan throwback.
Much recommended...feel the force!

The A45 is truly too noisy to comfortably stay for very long and the path leading up to the monument really only accomodates single file walking and I found that the A45 drivers travel way to fast past the 40mph limit here so beware,lest you be sucked into the road!
It is a nice little monument though and stirs that sense of awe when first spotted from afar.
It is on private sheeping land but only a little way of the track and the sheep were friendly!
Recommended as a good stop before heading over to the likes of Brinklow Hill.

This is a huge Hillfort, but the actual fort is in very bad condition with rocks strewn all over in no apparent pattern except a rough pink stone ring. Stone has fallen down the hill in parts.
There are two ways of getting up the hill, the steep path, which the guide leaflet recommends as a descent, and a longer route with much less gradient. I recommend the longer route for both ascent and descent, as there is erosion of the hill on the steep route due to a lot of people walking up the steep slope. There are better views on the longer route. It is a fairly good path but a moderate level of fitness is needed as it is uneven in parts and steeper near the summit. It would be unsuitable for anyone with severe mobility impairments. The waymarkers are well positioned and visible to mark the path. A map and guide is available in the Tourist Information Centre at Wooler at which there is an excellent free car park. It is about 4 miles there and back from the car park beside the Tourist Information Centre.
No toilets at this car park but there are some in the ‘lower” car park by the Bus Station which is a short walk from the Tourist Information Centre. Ladies note 20 pence may be required to use the toilet. Blokes pee free.
Parking is very limited nearer the hillfort and likely to annoy the locals so please use the car park at the Tourist Information Centre if driving.

Very little survives of this mound but worth a look if your in the area.

There are known to be three tumuli in the immedate area this one could make it 4 its definately an artificial mound and has now been christianised by placing a cross on top of it.