Latest Fieldnotes

The barrow is in the grove at the centre of which stands Breamore Mizmaze. Follow the bridleway up past Breamore house, through the wood to an open section of down, the path leading into the grove to the Mizmaze is signposted. A few yards before you reach the fence surrounding the labyrinth, head about ten yards to the left into the wood and the remains of the barrow are visible.

This is a small Bronze Age round barrow which has been almost completely robbed out leaving just a horseshoe bank. Its location in a yew grove close to a turf labyrinth adds to its interest.

There are other barrows and the Giant’s Grave long barrow in the area, and indeed the hump at the centre of the Mizmaze is sometimes claimed to be the remains of a barrow.

The barrow is fenced off, supposedly to protect it from the feet of the few people a week who might seek it out, and at midsummer it was too heavily overgrown to get much feel for.

Climbed all the way to the top of Wideford Hill and followed a path down in the direction of the reservoir. Path became a narrow dried up burn then living burn criss-crossing ‘path’. Rather spongy, in places very springy. Then coming near the bright wall above Yairsay which is the east side of the sharp triangle of the field-top above the old tunship I spotted a likely looking cairn shape amidst the heather. A little further yomping showed it to be earth with a few middling stones showing. When I turned back the way I saw several more such mounds the other side of the burn/track and then took in a few more about me. Despite my previous misgivings this has to be the circle of cairns amongst whom Petrie dug, too much for a coincidence. Snapped two in one shot. Naturally the camera then gave up.

Despite being practically drystane the bright wall is surely fairly modern. Walking alongside it there are two ‘ruts’ in parallel, a path and a shallow burn. Then I noticed a broad deep trench the other side of me. I figured it for an exposed ‘drain’ to feed the reservoir. Next, though, on its far side there was a whole rue of large white stones as if something had been excavated there (I briefly thought of a ‘standing stone fence’, but way too many for that). In the bottom of the trench I then saw a few
prostrate ‘standing stones’ dull in colour. Is this more of Petrie’s doing, a linear spoil heap, or something arising from the construction of the reservoir – perhaps a little of both ? Man, nature, mix ? Approaching the water board’s boundary fence the trench cornered away. I did not follow it further – if it were heading for the reservoir it was going a funny way about it.

Siting the cairns here means they overlook settlement this way (Pickaquoy, Grainshore ?) in like manner to Quanterness and old man Wideford Hill, a lack that has been a puzzle before now.

The ‘trench’ at about HY423121 has now been filled in as a result of works outwith the reservoir fence. So, no images of the trench. On the other hand the operations rendered more obvious the grass-covered mound, some of whose stone blocks appear squared off. Taken by itself it might simply be a clearance cairn, perhaps in connection with the possible gairsty dyke, but there are further arrays of big stones ahead that appear only as scatter. The visible portion of this cairn measures 8.5m by 4.8m by 0.9m, with the long axis going uphill, in the direction of the Wideford Hill tomb over the other side of the hill.

The London Stone can be seen much better now from inside the building. The former bank is now a sports shop and you can go in and see the stone very well lit, but behind glass.

Easily accessible from the B884, just at the Uignish turn off. Easiest place to park is just down the turn off, then go through/over gate across B884. Excellent views across to Dunvegan. Not as well preserved as Dun Beag, but you can make out the double walls and what look like chambers within them.

Some indications of an enclosure behind the broch, but whether contemporary with it, I do not know.

Oliver’s Castle is truly fantastic. I’d go so far as to say it beats Adam’s Grave hands down* (so long as you don’t want a longbarrow)..

It need require no uphill walking, which will please some people. If driving here persevere and park at SU 004647 – the track is perfectly flat and navigable though you might initially feel you’re heading off into the back of beyond.

Stroll down the path to the end of the fort.. and you will be gobsmacked by the view. Surely you can see the whole world from up here? Well of course you can’t really, but it’s a manageable size universe, and I think that’s why it has such appeal. It looks like all the everything you could require. It might not be the grand vista from a more dramatic mountain, but it’s more fertile and comfy.

The barrows couldn’t be in a better spot, stuck out right at the end. But the manmade lumps and bumps are utterly overshadowed by their natural counterparts – to the north of the fort are the most amazing undulating intricately folded dry valleys. The light when I visited made them look even nicer. You want to roll down them or something.

The fort is sprinkled with beech trees, with their obligatory bubbled carved writing on the trunks, but they masquerade as scots pines from afar, because they are so wind blown. It is very windy up here. The site is a nature reserve, and is full of lovely plants at the moment – beautiful pink sainfoin, thyme and greater knapweed, and many others. [A few weeks later and it was a botanist’s dream].

*Is this sheer exaggeration? You’ll have to visit and find out.

Situated to the left of the lane to a disappointingly nearby holiday cottage, just outside Cushendun, overlooking the bay. Two very hefty stones stand about 5m apart. The largest is almost 2m tall, and over 1m wide, the other around 1.5m tall, and 0.8m wide.

Rumoured to have been part of a three stone alignment in OS memoirs, but there appears to be no evidence of a third stone.

About 200m NE is the remains of Castle Carra, a tower house from the late 13th Century, which is built over a Mesolithic flint-working site. Also very nearby is the Standing Stone in the driveway of Cushendun caravan park, now the feature of an unfortunate rockery garden.

Head through the village of Cushendun, out along the seafront, and take the next right, signposted ‘Torr Head scenic route’. The stones are hard to miss, about 500m along this small road on the right.

A fairly scruffy cairn of about 10m in diameter, with some of its large kerbstones remaining, seemingly uncovered during turf cutting, like most of the many sites in this townland.

An easy to find site, right on the shore of Loughareema, ‘The Vanishing Lake’ – so called because it only fills up after periods of heavy rainfall, on the A2 Cushendall Road, just before Ballypatrick forest. Just after the stone ‘bridge’ across the lough, the road bends sharply left. Just before this bend there’s a lane to the right. You’ll see the cairn from here, it’s just 50 metres away.

From the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Record;

The remains of this round cairn stand in a cut away bog, cut 2m outside the edges of the cairn. The cairn has a domed profile measuring 10m NW/SE x 9.8m NE/SW.It is composed of many stones of varying sizes, and has a max height of 1.7m. The kerb is visible in an arc from N-E-S. The site was excavated by Proudfoot (unpublished).

Works Cairn, Bryher, Isles Of Scilly (SV878142)

This is a stunning location. It commands a broad panorama with middle distance view of the surrounding islands. I got a superb view of Samson Island in the near distance projecting her earthly twin peaks. This is a very prominent location that is not easy to access. I approached from the summit of Samson Hill and had to watch my footing as the ferns and bracken obscured good footholds in June. The late evening sunlight enveloped the whole area and made me feel like whoever was buried here was still watching, silently, strongly.

Outdoorminer – June 2006

I was taken to this site by the wonderful Margaret Curtis following a visit to the nearby Bernera Bridge stones.
We got to the site by using the gate which is just a little way along from the lay-by and then walked down to the small river. There is an ancient and very dodgy weed-covered stone-causeway running across this river. Despite wearing two left wellingtons, Margaret bounded across it without a care. I, in my walking boots, gingerly picked my way across it to the other side whilst all the time telling Margaret that she was barking mad.
The rock art panels are on the shore of the small inlet, just past a fence that extends to the shore. They are covered in seaweed and may take a little finding. There is a ruined broch Dun Barraglom on the small promontary and a couple of ruined buildings.
As well as the cups there is a shallow carving that resembles a Pictish mirror carving’ or a ‘Proto-Pictish carving’ as Margaret calls it.
If you are visiting the Bernera Stones I would suggest that you also have a look at this site. If you are not willing to brave the causeway then you could walk around by the road and cross through the nearby fields (with permission of course).
If possible I would strongly recommend that you take Margaret Curtis with you.

I came across this site in the book ”Lewis and Harris – History and Pre-History” by Francis Thompson.

Mrs Goffik and I followed the all-too-vague directions down to the coastline, along a narrow track from the A859, towards Glen Kyles and Rubha Charnain (which isn’t signposted, if I remember rightly).

After investigating just about every rock along the small headland, we turned our focus beyond the house at the end of the small road. Navigating along the water’s edge, we hopped up onto the grass beyond the fence surrounding the house, and continued straight on (I presume the unfenced area isn’t private, anyway!). There is what appears to be an old wall pointing out toward the sea, and just to the left of that is a slope down to the black rocks. The unmistakeable cup-marks are pretty much all around you as you head to the farthest point!

And there’s dozens of them! Ranging from coin-sized all the way up to dinner-plate-sized!

Apparently the larger ones may be more modern, although how this is known, I have no idea. They were used by fishermen for holding bait within living memory, but as far as I’m aware, it’s nigh on impossible to date rock art... So maybe they were created thousands of years ago and used for that purpose because they were convenient!

The views are spectacular, across the Sound of Harris to the rocky islands of Saghaigh Mor and Saghaigh Beag with Easaigh beyond... Watching the Calmac Ferry come in from Berneray to Leverburgh...

Rock art is apparently very rare in the Outer Hebrides, which makes this place all the more unusual and worth the visit.

Access: Head North on the A859 from Leverburgh, and just after the village, turn left onto a single-track road. The road meanders gently past a couple of houses until a tight(ish) bend (you can probably park here quite safely – we did!) by a small, pebbly beach. The road continues past the bend and terminates at a private house. Follow the coastline to beyond the house and walk along the grass until you reach the slope down to the rocks. Head toward the farthest point and you will see cup-marks all around you!

Just when you think you know of all the sites in West Penwith you find Ocifant has posted some info on one you are not familiar with..so you have to have a look.
A couple of weeks ago at the Dry Tree Menhir on the Lizard I was having a discussion about the biggest menhir in Cornwall. I was adamant that nothing compared with Dry Tree.....then I find this beauty!
OK, so she is not so broad, but height wise she must come pretty close. Positioned on the brow of a hill with far reaching views eastward into Cornwall and over St Ives bay at one time this must have been a wild windswept place. Now the stock fencing and nearby development take away some of the feeling for the place but standing to the north of the stone looking back towards Trencrom Hill you can just about imagine the Bronze Age landscape.
As with Ocifants instructions, park by the big bowl and take the footpath up past the cottages. It starts off as a nice Cornish lane and then as you pass the last cottage turns into a narrow path before entering the field. Stone is over to right, can’t see any reason for not being able to walk to it.

Mr H

This stone is near completely swamped with ivy, and now resembles a tree / bush as of June 2006. Missed it on the first pass yesterday, and wondered how I could miss this huge stone, having been a few times before... then I remembered. (Add 4 years of Ivy growth onto Stubob’s picture!)

If you are visiting here during Summer 2006, beware of the bull! I was here yesterday; as I began to exit the field, a group of cows began running at me. Standing my ground and shrieking at the cows stopped them (as usual)... however up lumbered a well hung bull with horns, glistening nose, ring through it, snorting and grunting; by the time I reached the kissing gate, the cows, with bull at front completely obstructed the entrance. Beware!

Hmmm... – been a while since I came to this page, but it looks like CP is still rather neglected by megalithic enthusiasts. I guess one thing I forgot to mention 3 years ago last time I posted here (OK, I’m to blame, too, but I’m doing a whole website on the place, so can hardly be accused of neglect!) is that one of the upshots of my incumbency at CP in late 2003 was that I rediscovered the “lost” capstone of Cist B. However, although my re-find was authenticated by none other than Gordon Barclay, good ol’ Historic Scotland still haven’t flagged it up for visitors, so now totally fed up with that situation, I’m flagging it up here myself for any TMA readers thinking of visiting.

If you go inside the modern concrete flying-saucer that represents Cairn 2, you’ll only see one of the two Bronze Age cists reconstructed there – the one Piggott called Cist A. The smaller Cist B was slightly to the east of Cist A (and square in shape). But why didn’t the Ministry of Works reconstruct Cist B in the ‘50s? Many theories have been put forward, not least the erroneous auld saw currently being re-peddled by one of the 2003 Broxburn Library exhibition-boards currently being recycled in the visitor’s centre: ie. the idea that Piggott’s team somehow broke the Cist B capstone during excavation, and it was presumably subsequently secreted away under some conspiratorial carpet or something. This is complete tosh, of course – Piggott was far from incompetent!

The truth is that the Cist B capstone is now to be found dumped on the western side of the cairn area, curiously lined-into the kerb of Cairn 3. Stand to the west, and find the big, flat, square sandstone block that actually looks very obviously nothing like a kerbstone – in the kerb. That’s the Cist B capstone, and it’s been sitting there for 50 years and until I took a fag-break one afternoon in 2003, everyone had been walking past it – including the professionals...

One can only assume that when the MoW were doing the Disnae-Land reconstruction in the 50s, they did so without consultation of either Piggott or his plans. Look at his PSAS paper – there’s no stone marked where this one is.

The pressing question now is – will Historic Scotland return it to its proper place inside the Cairn 2 flying saucer? So far, my nudges have come to naught, despite the weathering the stone is very clearly suffering in the open (unlike most stones onsite, this one’s not igneous, but soft-ish local sandstone – just compare the photos from Piggott’s original 1950 paper to its current condition) – “cost issues” is the best HS excuse I’ve heard so far (CP is a loss-making “property”, most years) then “engineering issues” is clearly an excuse, but *institutional apathy* is more like it, I reckon. OK, if they ever bother to read this, I’ll never work there again, obviously, but the fate of the Cist B capstone is more important than whether or not I ever get another part-time, slightly-above Minimal Wage job at Cairnpapple with these guys…

However, now you know where the second primary Bronze Age burial remnant is, and you know how to find it. Enjoy, and imagine it in back its rightful place, not far from Cist A inside Cairn 2. Maybe even say a prayer (faith not specified) for the poor guy who it used to belong to, before the MoW neglected to put it back where Piggott found it... :-)

This is across the road from the grange lios and is really very unusual.
As I tried to explain there is a stone row that points north – north west. Then about 5 stones form half a D from this row to the east.
One of the stones is red and possibly made from Barite (I have to check). Another of the stones is a long and low one that is also unusual looking.
To the south of the row there are about three larger stones heaped. Again id be interested what the official view on this is.
I was talking to the farmer that owns the land Tim on a previous visit and he told me about how a healer woman had been at the stones one evening. He said that there had been a big full moon on the night and the woman went over to this row. When she came back she asked him did he have any injuries, seemingly he had a bad back and she cured it by placing her hands on it.
However the moon thing really got me thinking, especially after coming back from Callinish that possibly this row could be aligned to a lunar rising.

Climbing knockfennel is a great way to get a feel for knockadoon and the whole lough gur/ grange lios complex.
You can make out the far bank where the main stone circle is but it is obscured by the trees. The cairn on top is unusual it has a depression in the middle of it a bit like the top of a volcano.

This is on the private part of Knockadoon and they keep bulls on the island so be very very careful. Follow the path from the gate along by the water and you should be able to spot this pretty quickly.
It is known in folklore as the old hags chair. Ill update the folklore later.

In folklore this cave was the entrance to Tir Na Og. I know that every time I head to Lough Gur I feel like ive been there hours but when I look at my watch im only there for like an hour.
This cave can be found by following the path past Bolin island to the gate the separates Knockadoon which is on private property. Just before the gate on the left you can spot a few paths follow them up and you should be able to find it. Careful though the stones are very slippy.

This is a tricky one to find and not a lot to look at when u get there. I would recommend a gps to find it. In the village of Holycross coming from limerick turn right and follow this road until u come to a track shown on the OS map. Follow this track and then thru the farm-yard and towards the hill in front of you. You should pass a ring-fort and keep carrying on in that direction. The tomb itself seems to be on a little rise that doesnt look natural. I think it is on a north-south axis. To be honest there is so much brush and vegetation that is was difficult to make out but it does seem to be made of two rows of adjacent stones and at the northern end there is a bit of a cap stone. All in its maybe 4m long. If anyone has that megalithic tomb inventory of Tipp, Limerick and Kerry maybe they could look it up and see what it says.

I remember driving by this years ago and couldnt find a place to stop. This time I just parked outside a house that is in front of the house. Just jump the fence beside this house and in around the back to the left. U will see one of the stones in this field and then the rest are in the field next to it.
The stones that are there are massive like most of the stone circles in the area. They are lined up in a semi-circle with most of the other side missing except two in the opposite field. They are very close together and I would think that they have possibly been moved like this. They are very overggrown with nettles this time of year and I think a visit in winter with less vegetation was be a good idea. As I said if you use the two stones in the other field as markers this stone circle could have been between 15-20m radius which is very big but its hard to know whether they are in the original position.

The Druid’s Stone, Magheraboy, Ballintoy, County Antrim.

This pretty little passage grave sits in a hollow on top of a small hill with spectacular views over WhitePark Bay and Benbane Head.
The tomb sits in what appears to have been a circular cairn of approx 10m diameter. I counted at least six remaining kerbstones, but it is difficult to be certain, due to a modern drystone wall which cuts through the cairn from NW-SE. I couldnt see any further stones beyong this wall.

The chamber (1.1x1.2m) is orientated NW-SE, with three large stones supporting a chunky capstone, about 2m square. The upright at the SW fits into a groove in the underside of the capstone.

The site is a little tricky to find, and is not visible from the road. I approached from the Ballycastle (Eastern) side of Ballintoy, on the B15. After passing through Ballintoy village, in about 1/2 a mile you will spot an unusually large white house to your left, set back off the road (Mount Druid Rectory). take a left up the concrete lane (also signposted for a guesthouse). As you drive up the lane, the wall of the rectory is on the right, continue up the rocky doubletrack lane for a few hundred metres until you come to a small holiday cottage on the left. (the first house you will see) If you are driving, its probably best to park up before this, the lane is pretty narrow and rough. Just after the cottage there is a field gate on the left. The tomb is about 150m up on the gorse covered knoll behind the cottage, although you won’t see it until you’re nearly on top of it.

Most should be able to access the site easily with a decent pair of boots. Its well worth a visit, on its secluded hill away from the main tourist trails. I’ll be making a date to return in spring when the gorse is in flower.

Although some references say that this site is hard to find/access, we had no problems. It is easily reachable from the parking place for the ‘coral beaches’. Most visitors to Skye will go to these, and the site is worth the 1 mile or so detour.

The entrance is a bit intimidating, but once through, the tunnel opens out, and is crouching height (I’m 6’ tall). Lined with stones, and extending some 10m, narrowing to the end, the structure is an engineering achievement.

This is the first souterrain I’ve visited, and I felt that the explanation of them as refuges from raiders seemed unliklely. You couldn’t have a group of people sheltering here for more than an hour or two before it became uncomfortable to say the least.

In ‘Places Of Power’ Paul Devereux suggests that the Cornish Fogous may have had ritual functions, and one could certainly imagine, as one exits this site through the constricted opening, that it was used for ritual involving a second birth from the earth. More prosaically, having visited on a scorching June day, I wondered whether it was in fact some sort of early icehouse.

15/6/06

This was my third visit to Seefin Hill in as many months and was quite an eye-opener. Should you happen this way, I would urge you to allow yourself at least half a day here. There is much to see on Seefin, and not just the main tomb, though your time would not be wasted if you devoted all of it to this relatively well-preserved monument.

On this day I gave myself more time than usual to explore some of the curious sites on the western ascent. There are many and various rock outcrops here. Sorting through them, cataloging them and understanding them would take more time and more expertise than I have. However, I am convinced that there are many traces of human activity here, whether they be neolithic, bronze age or more modern. It’s actually quite a diverting way to pass what can be a sometimes strenuous climb.

Arriving at the tomb itself is always a relief. That such an example of this type of grave is perched here, high up and far from the madding crowd, brings a joy and peace to the spirit. I’ve met people the three times I’ve been up here but none of them were very interested in the significance of the site. This time, however, I came across some activity that left me more than a bit perturbed. Someone had taken the trouble to bring a ready-made fire pack up with them and had used the sill stone as their fire base. Desecration may be too heavy a word, but that they didn’t bother to clean up after them was annoying.

This got me to thinking about preservation and conservation of the tomb. The access through the portal stones is quite difficult. I’m not of that heavy a build, but I still need to almost lie down and wriggle head first through the wider gap at the ground level. It seems that most if not all prefer to enter through the collapsed roof of the chamber. This is further degrading the perilous condition of this area and it seems that as time goes by more and more of the upper cairn material is falling in here. (I’m always aware when talking about this that I would hate to see some sort of regimen put in place that limits access to this site. The balance between conservation and access is a frustrating one to achieve. Besides, part of the beauty of this site is the free and easy access and the possibility of having a passage tomb in relatively good condition all to yourself.)

On entering through the portal stones you may experience a slight claustrophobia. The passage is quite narrow with some of the orthostats tilting inwards. Check out the base of the third one on your right for the faint diamond/lozenge carving. I’ve never brought a torch, relying on the camera flash to reveal glimpses of the structure of the passage (this adds to the slow revelation of the tomb to me. You may prefer the torch method. I live just a ten minute drive from the base of the mountain.) Limited to my method of survey I’ve not had much joy in studying the roof of the passage, but camera shots have revealed an intricate series of stones. I read somewhere recently that there is a christian cross carved on one of the roofstones but haven’t felt the need to look for it.

My favourite part of the tomb is on the left of the entrance to the chamber. The colours of the corballed stones here, revealed by the camera flash, are beautiful. It’s quite difficult to manouevere here as this is where the roof rubble begins. I’ve lain down on my back and wriggled around on my front in a bid to get better shots here. The pile of rubble gets steeper as you make your way into the centre of the chamber. Two of the recesses are visible but contain quite a bit of rubble. Moss covers a lot of the walls in both. You could, were you agile enough, sidle your way down into the recesses. The worn beauty of the roof stones here is similar to that of the chamber entrance. I’ve thought that I’d love to see this cleared out to check for carvings.

Surveying the lips of the roof hole it’s easy to see the continuing degradation of the tomb. At times the whole structure seems on the verge of collapse. I’ve tried to not use this as an entrance or exit but it’s too tempting. Around the south-eastern edge of the tomb you can see the original kerbstones, about 2 metres away from the cairn pile. These curve back into the cairn itself on the south side. From over the hole in the roof, aligning yourself with the passage by sighting on the entrance, the views across to Seahan are great. From this position, sister Seefingan is away to your right.

Seefin is my favourite place bar none on my new megalithic odyssey. However, from my last experiences here I would be quite a bit worried about the integrity of the site. I wonder when the last time an officer from the Office of Public Works was up here.

A very easy to find tomb, signposted from both ends of Presbetery Lane, just off the B16, about 3/4 of a mile SE of the village of Dunloy, in the townland of Ballymacaldrack. Known locally as ‘Dooey’s Cairn’.
The tomb is in State Care, and as such is pretty tightly fenced in, however this does little to detract from the stones remaining.

An impressive court tomb, with an amazing u-shaped forecourt at the SW end, comprising 11 massive, well shaped stones.

The following text is taken from the information board at the forecourt end of the tomb...

Dooey’s Cairn is on the east side of Long Mountain, a prominent north-south ridge, rich in prehistoric remains. The cairn, in the Ballymacaldrack townland, is a court grave. It was excavated in 1935 and 1975. A flat-topped cairn of stones with traces of a retaining kerb on the long sides has at its south-west end a U-shaped forecourt of 11 uprights. Broken fragments of plain and decorated round-bottomed pottery bowls were found in the forecourt, suggesting that some ritual may have taken place there.

Two portal stones mark the entrance from the forecourt into a small chamber, with a roughly cobbled floor. A polished stone axe found between the portals during excavation has been called the ‘magic guardian’ of the grave. On the floor of the chamber were found fragments of pottery, flint arrowheads and a stone bead. Beyond the chamber, through another pair of stones, was a cremation passage with boulder walls and a flagged floor, interrupted by three pits. The first pit held a wooden post, and pit 3 at the end of the passage was full of cremated human bones, the remains of 5 or 6 adults, both male and female. Radiocarbon has dated the cremated remains to around 3,000 BC and the blocking of the forecourt to about 500 years later. The cremation passage is the only one known so far in Ireland, but similar features are found in Scotland and north-east England.

Court graves were built as communal burial monuments by early farming communities of the Neolithic period (4 to 5,000 years ago). In Ireland they are mainly confined to the northern third of the country. There are at least 18 court graves in County Antrim, two of which, THE BROAD STONE at Craigs on the west side of Long Mountain and OSSIAN’S GRAVE near Cushendall, are in State Care.

Dooey’s Cairn is named after the family who generously placed the monument in State Care in 1976.

Further Reading: A E P Collins, ‘Dooey’s Cairn, Ballymacaldrick, Co. Antrim’ Ulster Journal of Archaeology 39 (1976), 1-7; E E Evans, ‘Doey’s Cairn, Dunloy, Co. Antrim, Ulster Journal of Archaeology 1 (1938), 59-68.