Latest Fieldnotes

park in the obvious carpark ,up the path to the cliff edge keeping the cliff to your right go up hill .looking across Cheshire towards Wales this superbly sited hillfort is right on the cliffedge (,ain’t no one coming in that way ).the entrance ,and ditch and banks are still well defined ,though not the biggest of hillforts i’ll be back again and again,but then the patron saint of travellers is called Christopher and the fort is on Bickerton hill ,this is definately my place.

to the north-west of maiden castle is mad alans hole ,a cave with 1st and 2nd floor though you must be fit to climb up from bottom floor ,a partially collapsed entrance stifles photography

I’ve passed this loads of times on the way to the Lizard without realising it was there!

Travel south on the A3083 toward the Lizard, and turn right at the Lizard Cyder Barn. There are only two houses in the road, before you come to the gate of the Predannack Airfield (part of RNAS Culdrose). The stone is on the left.

Very odd site! I wondered at first if I’d found the right place, as the barrow seems to have been built on/into...
Further research showed that there was a Royal Observer Corps monitoring post inserted into the barrow in 1959, which was de-commissioned in 1976.
(Many thanks to Chris Collyer for the info!).

There are two mounds here on the O.S. map.
Unfortunately both seem to be obliterated. The one east of the farm track is barely discernable; a very, very slight ‘hump’ in the field. The one to the west of the track appears to have had an underground reservoir complex built on it.

I parked mid-way down the long track that leads to the seashore and walked the rest of the way.

Three of the smaller remaining mounds are quite distinguishable but maybe not for too much longer. A remaining piece of the kerbing on the far south-east mound has been damaged by a harvesting machine.
The obvious main mound has a distinguishable passage aligned north-west. The mound immediately to the west of it has merged with it in the undergrowth.

I could see the Cooleys and the Mournes away to the north from here today. Beautiful. The shoreline is covered with the shells of many types of seafood and this abundance could have accounted for a large proportion of the food from any ancient inhabitants.

Asked permission to park in his driveway from the farmer in the house opposite this site. He had no problem.
A word of caution though – the speed limit on the road here is 100 KPH and the cars use every bit of it. Be extremely careful crossing both to, and especially from, the site.

On a rainy day I trudged across the field to this henge for a look. Rarely mentioned, at least in the books that I’ve read, I wasn’t expecting much. Don’t believe what you don’t read! This is well worth the effort.

I can’t begin to estimate the diameter or circumference, but can say with confidence that either of the Knowth or Newgrange mounds would fit inside it with plenty of room to spare. It’s huge! The banks of the henge rise to about 5 metres. There are 2 distinct openings, roughly to the south-west and north-east, but there may be more – there’s a lot of heavy growth at this time of the year. This henge is on private land so you may need to get permission.

I would have liked to stay here longer but the rain was rotten and I was dressed for summer. Definitely one that ought to be on your itinerary when you visit Brú na Boinne. I’ll certainly be back.

Just got back from a stroll up here again, and thought I’d add an additional Access note.

The approach from the north is much more straightforward. It’s just about possible to park near the entrance to Beersheba itself, then it’s just a case of hopping over 2 cornish stiles to the field containing the stone. Still not wheelchair accessible, but it’s a lot easier than trekking up that narrow path from Bowl Rock!

Remedial work at Madron is ‘well’ under way. The area around the baptistry has been relandscaped, and a gated wall has been built up. The stonework at the cloutie tree has been improved (though the well is some way off, this is where most people think the well is), and the path from the car park has been widened, cleared and laid, making the whole site wheelchair accessible at last (see photos).

The car park is still being relaid and landscaped, and work should be completed in a few weeks time.

It still rains every time I come here though, so some things don’t change!

Grubbing around today, I found a couple of stones in the surrounding hedge (see photos). The vicar arrived at the same time, but knew nothing about a possible circle. As a service was due to start, I didn’t get a chance to get a good look around the church itself, which apparently has some Green Man roof bosses.

Found a reference to this in Meyn Mamvro, so thought I’d check it out. It’s best to approach this from Engollan, as the road from the main coast road B3276 is gated.

Access to the stone is straightforward: park by the farmhouse, cross the road and walk along the footpath to within 50 yards of the stone. I had to duck under an electrified fence, and the field had plenty of evidence of ruminant activity.

The stone, which stands around 5 feet, looks a bit precarious, as the packing stones are exposed and there is an evident lean, but the stone itself has a wonderful shape and colouring.

There is a nice view of the Atlantic along the valley to the nearby coast, but otherwise, not much in the way of obvious sight alignments.

I was up here today, having a poke around. As can be seen from the photo, the stone is now almost invisible in the undergrowth. I’d like to have seen the stone properly, it looks a monster.

Parking is easy, as there’s a pull-in right next to the junction.

The roads are confusing but follow the os map and youll be OK ,park by the phonebox and on the other side of the road is a footpath proceed and turnleft off the path uphill, go past ironmans stone and into the trees the chamber is well hidden ,but the capstone is huge and obvious propped up on one orthostat.no view is possible because of dense vegatation,flippin CADW just dont seem to care sometimes

i stumbled upon this cave whilst hunting for dowel cave ,the small gate came off in my hands ... (honestly!)so i risked a little visit despite warnings on the gate ,inside was a sign pointing on into the cave towards staffordshire moorlands ,perhaps it links up with Dowel cave and a massive underworld as both seem to go on for ever .by the time i got home i had forgotten its name and the nearest i could remember was eskin cave but now i can see it was etches cave (close but no cigar)SORRY

On the long drive down ,i laughed as pink floyd sang “mile after mile ,stone after stone ,you turn to speak but your alone"and indeed i was .started of at Maen Cetti with wind and rain ,but it had died down by the time i got here .park by the house on the corner and follow footpath through trees and uphill,in top right corner of field go through right hand gate and this pair of stones are at the top of the hill.The larger stone is prostrate but about 150 paces across the field is the stander

Just returned from a weekend on the West Cumbrian coast, where my main aims were to get to Grey Croft and Blakeley Raise. Mid summer, the weekend following the hottest week of the year so far and what happens? RAIN AND WIND...and lots of it. Grey Croft was a no-no as the wind and rain were just too much (we had packed expecting light showers with mainly sunny intervals, as the BBC had promised us!)

However, we did get to Blakeley Raise, following the road over the moors from Calder Bridge to Ennerdale. We nearly missed the site though, as the mist was so thick and low, we could barely see 10 ft in front of us. Mark wouldn’t even get out of the van, it was torrential rain but I risked it and I’m glad I did, such a beautiful site.

I’ll post the pix I managed to take, not because they are exceptional, but to show all you lucky blighters who seem to have been there in the sun, what the stones look like shrouded in mist and rain – very atmospheric!

Local rumour has it that after 7 years of slumber the Middle Peak Quarry is about to be reworked and even better..... extended. Unfortuantely the stone and, to a much lesser extent, the narrow road that passes it by are likely to be amongst the casualities. An alternative road/route already exists and well the stone.....is just a stone to a lot of folk living in Wirksworth, that is if they know it’s there at all.

So along with the extensions to the quarries around Stanton and the recently approved plans to rework and extend the rakes on Longstone Edge it would appear that the Peak is all out to invert itself....

I walked here along the Cotswold Way from the Bevil Grenville monument: it’s a very pleasant walk, though it was extremely hot at the time. You do feel as though you are treading in the footsteps of people of long ago, as you walk along a secluded sunken green lane with water trickling down it. To add to Moss’s nature notes, in the summer sunshine the route was full of fluttering butterflies of many different species.

The mounds were overgrown with nettles. It felt like a very domestic or specifically personal spot – the views are quite enclosed and limited really, and you could imagine that the people in the barrows were definitely the farmers of the valley below. The windows of the buildings down there stared up at me and I felt I was intruding. I followed a little path in the grass in an effort to find St. E..’s holy well*. I found a circular concrete capped well and assumed that was it (it was nice to think the water was still being used, even if it didn’t look as romantic as I’d hoped). In retrospect I may have been looking in the wrong place – there are a lot of springs round here.

As I made back for the car I realised I could see Morgan’s Hill from the top of Lansdown – practically Avebury and a long way away.

*finally found the name – St Eanswyth. Phil Quinn’s book on the ‘holy wells of Bath and Bristol region’ mentions it being at ST734705. It’s on the parish boundary and is on the Anglo Saxon estate charter of 931 as Eanswythe Wyllas (St Eanswyth’s Well).

This area lies between Thrunton Wood and the main A697 roads which bounds it on the E side. Its location is north west of the Millstone Burn rock art site and west of Corby Crags and Caller Crags which are hidden by intervening high ground. It is effectively a poorly drained large sheep field with a few marshy streams feeding north into the Coe Burn which, further north joins the River Aln. Two Iron Age Enclosures are known on the ridge of Rimside Moor just west of the minor road, and adjacent to the main road, just north of the rock art, are another Enclosure and Settlement of undetermined age. There is no outcropping bed-rock but a large number of sandstone boulders of all sizes, several showing signs of quarrying.
The Beckensall Archive shows 5 marked boulders in this area, although even rock art enthusiasts would only get excited by two of them, Rough Castles 1 and 4. The former must have been a much larger boulder which has been cut by quarrying on two sides. The south side slice appeared to have broken when extracted and the central part removed. A series of wedge cuts have also been made from the top through the westerly face and carve straight through the main cup and ring motif. It is possible that a second ring is also present, although highly eroded. Clearly a large amount of carving has been lost both from this rock and possibly from others in the vicinity.

The office of public works attend this site during the summer months. There were 2 guides there the day we visited, 6/7/06. People were arriving intermittently but we had Cairn T to ourselves for about 15 minutes. The guide told us that a busload of tourists had been there the day before, so you may have to share if you arrive in the summer.

The satellite tombs have a lot to offer. Most of the tourists are here for Cairn T. Cairns S and U are quite well preserved for open tombs. This hilltop is incredibly beautiful and a wander around is a must. I could stay here all day getting the feel of the place, but most people aren’t that patient. The completely wrecked Cairn W on the eastern downslope is the furthest away from the main cairn and is a haven of tranquility.

This is well worth checking out. Don’t attempt to drive up the track marked on OS sheet 42 – park on the road at the bottom and walk the 200 metres up to the stone. The field had just been harvested the day we were there, 6/7/06.

Easy to see in a field on the right-hand side of the road halfway between Kells and Loughcrew. Like most of the standing stones I’ve seen in the vicinity, they are used as cattle scratching posts, which may account for the leaning condition of the western one. This is a thin slab-like stone, rather like an orthostat, of about 1.4 metres tall (were it upright). It doesn’t seem like it will collapse anytime soon, but then again I’m only 13 stone and don’t have 2/4 stomachs. ;-)
The eastern stone is about the same height, wedge shaped and seems to have had a prominent point at the top that was broken off sometime in the not too distant past.
A mildly diverting stop-off on the way to Loughcrew if you have 10 minutes.

I was in the area recently and discovered that the original dyked road (incidentally recorded by Dion Fortune in Sea Priestess) from Brean Down alongside and across the River Axe is – quite astonishingly – still in situ. Walking past the entrance to the military road towards Brean Down Farm, one comes to an earth bank at the farm entrance. From the top of the bank, one can see across the Axe, the mudflats and the saltings to the village of Uphill. To the right is the embankment that the road was carried on – the road is still plainly visible, grass grown as Fortune records, and as it must have been since its construction. One can walk along the road round a big loop of the Axe, all the way to Brean Cross Sluice, which I believe was once the site of a bridge. At high tide the mudflats are submerged and the saltings are awash – it would only require a mist to hide the holiday accommodation at Uphill to begin to visualise what the area must have been like in the past.

In the churchyard at Llangernyw is Wales oldest tree, a magnificent Yew about 4-5000 yrs old. A certificate signed by David Bellamy is in the chuches porch. Under the tree was a notice informing us of two standing stones possibly early Saxon on the other side of the church but not far round the corner are two more very different stones, big unworked and most perplexing. Does anyone know more about them? I for one would like to know more.