Latest Fieldnotes

Moth wrote: “I wonder if at some stage someone will add some notes about this circle and not mention rain?”

Well, when I visited in June 2005 it was glorious weather, no rain at all!

We arrived in Killin mid-afternoon having aborted our trip to Aberfoyle after one night, due to noisy barking dogs and weirdo B&B owner. As we hadn’t planned on being in Killin, we didn’t have our OS map of the area, so I had to phone a friend in Chorley (“Hi Dom”) who had visited earlier in the year, to get directions to the circle.

By the time we’d eaten and settled into our new B&B it was approaching dusk, so we set off to find it. The walk to the circle was lovely, a fox crossed our path as we spotted the stones in the field but as it was getting dark (and the midges were getting frisky) we decided to come back the next day to look a little closer.

Next morning was less sunny but still dry. Walked back up to the circle and just revelled in the site – no one else around, peaceful and set in the most lovely of spots. Vicky and I did our usual “what do you think....?” “is that a cup mark?“, “why here....?” bit and I took a 360 degree video of the site. I love the compact feel of this circle and pondered whether 9 Stones Close may have looked similar in its original state?

Nice write – up Mr Hamhead. The National Monument Register number for these bronze age cairns is SX 17 SE 15 see English Heritage Pastscape online. Of general interest in the area are finds of late stone and early bronze age tools in Dozemary Pool at SX 194 748 and a Roman tin bowl at SX191 712.

I think I must just be a rubbish navigator (see most of my other field notes!).

Mind you, when Mark drives at 40mph down windy little roads and I’m looking for tell tale signs of stones or trying to follow the (usually excellent) directions left on here by others, what do you expect?

To be fair, the weather was atrocious; when we left Kington it was OK but as we started driving up here, the mists descended and we could barely see 50 yeards ahead at most times. Our frustration was growing and then, out of the mists, emerged an elderly gent with a waterproof OS map – fab!

We got our barings and set off again and eventually came across this beauty. We didn’t get to appreciate the views across the valley but we did get to see the cap stone rising out of the mist as we approached. Awesome.

If you follow IronMan’s directions you should find it OK

(Find it hard to believe that any drug user would come all the way up here to shoot up and saw no evidence of nocturnal passions either!)

Brown Gelly is one of those hills you see from miles around...and notice that it has features on top. Right of access has always put me off climbing it, but now that it is open access I decided to take a stroll up onto the summit on a glorious May afternoon.
There are a couple of gateways along the Dozmary Pool-St Neot road that give access to the hillside and then another couple of gates give access into the summit field.
Please use them and don’t go scrambling over walls or fences.
The top of the hill is reasonably flat and featurless, several wet areas are best avoided and it is only the southern end that has rocky outcrops.
Along the ridge run five cairns, the size of which you only realise once you get up close.
At the northern end a large cairn has had its top compleatly taken away and the inside scooped out. Uninterupted views of Dozmary Pool and Brown Willy and Roughtor can be had from the cairn.
The second cairn I found the most interesting. I suppose it would be called a ring cairn..but on a giant scale. The outer bank is about 3 ft high with a depresson about 4 or 5 ft across inside of it before reaching the central mound. The central mound has been dug into deeply, and looked like it might be holding water...I didn’t investigate.
The central cairn is the largest and I would think about 15 ft high. It stands proud on the hill with steep sides and a good dome shape. Although there has been some excavation on the summit it is not too severe.
The fourth cairn is a mess. It has been dug into and pulled about and is just a low pile of stones. A Trig point stands beside it, built onto what looks like a base of stones taken from the cairn.
The last cairn at the southern end has again been dug into but not to the extent of cairn 1 or 4.

Sitting on the side of the hill that eventually becomes Brown Gelly, I can not find any info on this earthworks to date it. Marked on the OS map as a three sided square, the south east side was not visable but may be over the wall.
So, what is left?
Two low ridges with a shallow ditch on the outer side, all getting eroded by cattle. As can be seen in one of my photos there is some stonework remaining at the north east end.
Access is by a gate off the Dozmary Pool to St Neot road and is on open access land.

The nearest notable stone to this NGR that I’m aware of is Clach Eanruig at NN 1043 5866, which is not a standing stone itself.

There are no standing stones in Glencoe, according to the NMRS. It’s a cool, and slightly suspicious, looking stone, but I strongly suspect it’s otherwise unremarkable.

Very nice walk Forestry Commission walk, accessed by talking the Drumsmittal turning off the A9 (just north of Kessock bridge) or from the picnic area on the southbound carriageway.

One of the four hillforts with direct line of sight to Craig Phadraig hillfort, above Inverness. Heavy tree coverage means that only Knockfarrel to the west is easily visible.

There are extensive remains of the walls of the south west side of this vitrified fort, of which I’ve posted photographs.

The superb views in all directions that you might expect from this site are rendered almost totally nonexistant by dense forestry.

Hendraburnick ‘quoit’.

Now here is something to think about! The Cornwall and Scilly Historic Environment Record show the OS grid reference as SX13210 88190. So that’s one problem out of the way. The ‘quoit’ is in the Civil District of North Cornwall DC and the Ecclesiastical parish of Davidstow. It is listed as being either a
Prehistoric LONG BARROW or Post-Medieval SPOIL HEAP. Further, the records state ‘Dewey suggested that a large slab, surrounded by a bank and internal ditch, were the remains of a cromlech or long barrow 60ft by 30ft (b1). However, this identification is doubted by Grinsell and Daniel, who consider it more likely to be a natural feature (b2,b3). The OS surveyors agree with this view, considering the cromlech to be a natural outcrop and the faint traces of a ditch the remains of a  track (h2). “Dewey’s views and plan seem exaggerated and inaccurate” (h2). However, Dewey’s claim also rests upon the fact that the capstone of the ‘cromlech’ is of a non-local rock. This should be checked before entirely dismissing the feature as natural. The mound was visible on air photos and was interpreted as a spoil heap by the NMP’.
Finds – None.
Site History
1 1911 FV DEWEY
2 1976 FV OS
Bibliography
1 1911 DEWEY, H
UNKNOWN TITLE
VOL 18, 362-364 JRIC
2 1953 GRINSELL, LV
THE ANCIENT BURIAL-MOUNDS OF ENGLAND 124
3 1950 DANIEL, GE THE PREHISTORIC CHAMBER TOMBS OF ENGLAND AND WALES 241
Photograph
1 0000 RAF 106G,UK,1498,4164-5
SMR No 7 OS No 27 Project ID Category Created 01/01/1997
Surve Morp Updated 26/04/2006

So! What do you lot reckon, after all these chaps are supposed to know?

On a blustery but sunny day I travelled to visit High Rocks for the first time. I had know about the place since going to see British Sea Power there last year, but had never seen it up close nor in daylight.

As we approached the site I was struck by the size of the rocks, just sitting there majestically on the top of the hill, seemingly out of place with the surrounding environs.

After paying to enter ( I like to be honest about these things, and did get to see the groom from the wedding party in top hat and platform boots! ) the girlfriend and I entered through the rusty gates, then spent the next hour exploring this peaceful place.

The giant rocks cast a magical spell over this part of kent, with the potential for massive enjoyment for the smaller members of the HH crowd! there are caves and crevises, trees and plants, rope swings, climbable rocks and mostly, the peace and tranquility of an english countryside that is fast disappearing.

Truly, this place is special, and I will be visiting again, next time with the kids

The hillfort is situated on a spur and faces west overlooking the Bristol plain, focussing on the gap between two hills on which a clear day the welsh coast can be seen. Said to be one of the possible sites of the Battle of Deorham AD577, where three British kings were defeated and Cirencester, Bath and Gloucester were lost to the West Saxons. More factual, is that Hinton, like Old Sodbury fort and Horton Camp all lie near to the A46 road. Solsbury Hill also guards the pass which runs through the valley overlooking the A46.

Take the A961 for the South Isles, past the Hunclett side road, until the sign for Toab when you take B road. If you know where to look the mound is visible on the horizon even before the junction is reached, and indeed is visible over a large portion of Holm (except, oddly enough, for a short stretch of the B road coming up to the farmtrack junction). Where the road starts downhill the 1:25,000 has a MS symbol on the right and the Hall of Gorn is the unnamed group of buildings before that on the crest of the hill.

The most direct route to the knowe is the field boundary along its RH side. Once past the last building the mound is a little to one side and forward of the walled field containing the Gorm mound with its much reduced siblings.

The outline – a curved shield with a broad low ombos almost like a platform – appears to be shared by the main Gorn mound, though it may only be apparent in some directions. Apart from the large chunks of bare soil mentioned in the record the composition looks broadly similar in being mostly turf-covered with earthfast boulders at various places in no obvious pattern. “Earth and stone” conjures up an image of the two intermixed, the stones small, but what you see revealed is earth with scattered middling stones. Seeing some loose stone and none too thick slabs you naturally expect to gauge the depth of those protruding from the mound or through the turf by a slight pull, but when I tried this several of these, even the boulders, didn’t budge at all. Is these being earthfast evidence for structures additional to the abstracted cist within (or having been there once leastways?).

Laughton’s Knowe is only the second visit I have made to a site apparently named after someone modern (the other being the Howe Harper cairn, unless perhaps from Harproo ‘heap by the stream’). However I find nothing Laughton referred to. So with the Hall of Gorn nearby and Skaill closer yet, I would tentatively suggest the site was originally called a law-thing rather than a personal name.

Take the A961 for the South Isles past the Hunclett side road until the sign for Toab when you take B road. Where the road starts downhill the 1:25,000 has a MS symbol on the right and the Hall of Gorn is the unnamed group of buildings before that on the crest of the hill. The most direct route is the field boundary along its RH side. Though you can choose to clamber over the gate to the field you cannot with the field above the last building as the lower bars are only footholds from the outside.

The mound, with what is left of its reduced siblings, is in this walled field. It seems to me that the main mound is little dissimilar to Laughton’s Knowe in the open field, having a similar outline – a curved shield with a broad low ombos almost like a platform – though less well defined (it may only be apparent in some directions). There is now no sign of blackened earth, so apart from there being bigger chunks of bare soil on Laughton’s Knowe the composition looks broadly similar in being mostly turf-covered with earthfast boulders at various places in no obvious pattern. As with the knowe you naturally expect to gauge the depth of stones protruding through the turf by a slight pull, but when I tried this several of these, even the boulders, didn’t budge at all. Is these being earthfast evidence for structures within (or having been there once leastways).

Coming across this stone was a very pleasant surprise particularly for it’s size, it’s huge, around 8 feet tall and 5 feet at it’s widest. The packing stones can be seen, with one boulder and several smaller stones visible. It’s also easy to get to, just park alongside the gate to the field and it’s right there in front of you.

After a trip to the Stockie Muir chambered cairn (themodernantiquarian.com/site/5183) I promised myself I would return to seek out its nearest neighbour which lies across the other side of a Forest. It may as well have been on the Moon because getting to it was extremely difficult and a real test of will. First off the farmer has locked the gates along the road so that it is no longer possible to drive along the road for most of the way. The road itself was in fairly good condition and was an easy walk but its a fair treck to get to the forest where the cairn lies. We walked for at least an hour and a half. For those of you who live in nearby Glasgow this walk is an experience in itself as this large tract of land has nothing on it. Nothing for miles around except the most amazing panoramic view of the Kilpatrick Hills, The Campsie Fells, Loch Lomond and over to the NW the cobbler and Arrocher. Once you enter the forest be careful not to walk too far. The ride to your right that takes you out onto the moor has an observation platform halfway down. No other break in the forest has this so if you spot it, this is the one. Once you get to the forest edge look up to your left diagonally and you should be able to spot a heather covered long outcrop. This is the cairn. Prepare yourself for another 20min slog across boggy moorland to get to it. Once I arrived I was struck by how big this cairn is. I mean its massive. Its at least 8 times the length of the Stockie Muir cairn (mentioned above). Standing on its top its hard to get a sense of what this place was like when it was inhabited. Take a wander down to the edge of the forest that runs alongside the cairn and whisper your name. It will come back in a very distinct echo as there is a large cliff and waterfall hidden by the forest which forms a natural amphitheatre. If the forest wasn’t there I bet this would be a very distinctive spot indeed. As it is this is one for the completists.

I revisited this Barrow after a period of two years. It is looking a lot better. The field is now grassed so no more ploughing damage. There is a new metal field gate with easy opening and a grassy space by the road to park.

As well as the rock art on the hill, Ros Castle (as the name suggests) also is the site of a prehistoric fort. The hillfort earthworks are difficult to discern, not helped by being sliced in two by a boundary wall, with a lot of heather on each side. The road runs quite close, and whilst there are a couple of steep patches, it’s probably worth a detour this way for anyone heading from the Cheviots to the A1. The ground underfoot is loose sandy soil with rocky protuberances, not suitable for wheeled contrivances, and looks like it would need extra care in the wet.

The view is excellent, with the most of Bewick Moor stretching to the south, I think it’s just possible to make out Old Bewick Hillfort. The vista is edged on the south east by Hepburn crags, with it’s cupmarked cairns, cists, and a small hillfort. To the east, the coast is easily visible, and Bamburgh castle stands out like a sore thumb. To my minor chagrin, the long cairn at Ox eye isn’t visible, though it may well have been if the trees weren’t there. To the north, the lost carvings of Amerside Law also hide behind conifererous screening, with the Lammermuirs clearly visible on the horizon, I’d think it would be possible to see as far as Edin’s Hall broch. To the west is the Cheviot Massif, an omnipresent silhouette, best viewed from the smaller hills to the east, such as Ros Castle.

Just to the east of the huge Boconnoc estate in east Cornwall sit a group of 6 or so barrows. They may be linked to the Taphouse barrows on the other side of the estate, the two groups between them certainly form a impressive collection of large barrows.
The Buckabarrows stretch out along the eastern boundry road of the estate. The four photgraphed here are joined on the OS map by two others, one deep in the woods at SX166607, which I never got to and one supposed to be in a field at SX174611, which I failed to spot.
Bucka or Bucca is a Cornish word for ghost but i have not come across any tales about these barrows being haunted....barrowwrights in Cornwall! ......there’s a thing!

I have been intrigued by the Giants Hedge for many years...Living in Looe at it’s supposed eastern end I could never understand why it was called giant..it is just like any other hedge...more like a bank as it runs through Kilminorth Woods beside the West Looe river.
It is only when you see it towards its western end at Lerryn that you realise it is no ordinary field boundary.
But when does it date from?...the general consensus is that it is post Roman...so it really should not be on here, but...
There are several Iron Age and older settlements inside the hedge (between it and the sea), but then again there are a good dozen or so barrows just to the north of it....but none as grand inside.
Walking along the top of a short section of it this morning i noticed how good the view was across the Cornish countryside. It does in many places run along the side of a steep escarpment..and if topped off with a wooden fence would have been quite impenetrable.
Whatever it’s history, I’m sure no giants were involved in its building.......just some very hard working Cornishmen of old.

...and I would love to know where the bit is that’s 8 yards across !

A word of warning – try to make sure you don’t visit this site on the same day as the Red Arrows are in town!

A beautiful summers day, I thought I’d pop over the River Lune and check this out at last, only to find the whole of the hill swamped with families who had come to the highest point to get an amazing view of the Red Arrows flying over Morecambe Bay; it was HEAVING with people (even busier than Castlerigg usually is!)

My other visists have been in the evening, when it is a little quieter but I like the fact that locals use this place for gatherings, picnics and ocassionally camping.

It really does have the most amazing views.

Interestingly, the modern day crematorium is within spitting distance....

I visited this stone on the 25/04/2006 and noticed that the house and the land on which the stone stands are up for sale. Lets hope the new owners are as understanding as the previous ones.

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.