Latest Fieldnotes

Not much to see here and, judging from the amount of dead bracken around, there would be even less to see once it starts growing again a few weeks after my visit .

The low-lying stones of a S-facing chamber can be seen with, possibly, a stone to the W representing the end of the facade.

Access Just to add to the notes from Paulus, there is a stile on your left as you approach the ruined house which you should take and then continue in the direction of the house. When you are level with it, turn left and head for the clearing which has been left at the forestry edge – about 100m to the cairn.

Visited 10 May 2005

It always seems a bit odd to find a hillfort half-way up a hill. You’d think it would have been too easy for attackers to lob missiles down from above.

But, the inhabitants of Rothbury must have had their reasons I suppose. The fort is on a nicely situated plateau, and there are traces of hut circles. They went to a bit of effort to build the double ditch and rampart system, though in some places there’s just a single bank and ditch, as the natural slope is pretty steep.

There’s also a cairnfield with it’s own enclosure running up to the top of the hill, where the burial cairns and rock art can be found. EH say the cairns are clearance, but as they’ve not been excavated, and also as there are a number of confirmed burial cairns, I’d like to know how they could tell by just looking. Like those who build forts halfway up hills, I suppose EH must also have their reasons. As must the people who chose to pile field clearance cairns next to rock art, and then enclose the carin field.

You can still see the trenches here of the 1961 excavation of the forecourt area which produced a date of approx 2250 bce for the blocking and end of use of the tomb.

The three-compartment chamber is still open but rather overgrown. The main feature is the pair of portal stones – one 2.4m high.

Worth a visit.

Access In a forest walk near Lamlash and at the other end of the cycle path to Carn Ban.

Visited 9 May 2005

This “perfect four-poster” (Burl) sits by the side of a branch of the cycle track to Carn Ban. It is signposted.

Could never really get very excited about four-posters, personally. Too low and too few stones. This one is surrounded by trees and was in the shade so it didn’t really change my opinion.

Visited 9 May 2005

You need a bike or a long, long walk to get to this one. It’s around a 5 mile trip including the long walk in at the end.

I’m not sure it’s worth it. Carn Ban is probably more interesting for what it was than what it is now. It was excavated in the early 20C when the chamber was more or less intact but the excavation was filled in and there is little surface remains to be seen now.

Access The cycle route leaves the Arran circular road (A841) at NR970214. If you continue along it, you will also reach Monamore.

Visited 9 May 2005

Of all the chambered cairns in Arran (around 25), Historic Scotland have to pick this pathetic specimen as the example to display to the public.

OK, the views are great but there are much better sites than this to demonstrate the architecture and use of these monuments. Giant’s Graves, for example, could benefit from some on-site interpretation especially as that and Machrie Moor are the two sites most visited by the general tourist.

Visited 9 May 2005

This Clyde chambered cairn was not discovered until the mid-1970s so is not included in Henshall’s great corpus of Scottish chambered cairns.

It is in reasonable condition. The W lateral chamber still has a roofstone and there is a suggestion of a facade at the S end of the cairn.

Access Not easy to get to. It can be reached from Giant’s Graves by heading NE into the forest until you reach the hill of Torr An Loisgte. Contour round the hill towards the N. On a good day, you should be able to spot the clearing in which the cairn stands. A GPS helps!

Visited 9 May 2005

First site in a three-day trip to Arran and a return visit to the Giant’s Graves after 16 years. I’m sure the climb wasn’t so steep the last time!

Two Clyde chambered cairns. The worderfully megalithic N one being the better preserved with its facade and forecourt (facing N) still clear enough. The main chamber is a joy and there is also a ruined S chamber.

The second cairn faces W.

Visited 9 May 2005

The hill takes its name from the two large cairns that sit atop the summit. Both have been much altered by travellers seeking shelter over the years...and I for one was welcome of the little circular shelter on what was a sunny but cold day.

The views up here are superb, looking down to the Cornish coast (and home) to the south west whilst to the east the barrenness of Dartmoor is there for all to see.

This is just one great area of rocks...at one time placed by man but now scattered at random. To my untrained eye there is very little that can be made out but i am sure the experts know every hut circle, burial cairn etc on this hillside. It is while walking uphill amongst the rocks that you first gain sight of the Drizzel Combe complex....i wonder if the two sites are connected?

At the top end of the settlement there is a rectanguler “table” of rocks a good 20 ft long and about 2 to 3 feet high. What it is I know not, but at least it is still there...

My first site on a walk that would take me to many other historic remains this sunny May day. The circle is small...and too perfect for my liking! Something in my head tells me that this originated as a simple cairn but when the restorers got here they decided to create a stone circle (or 4). I missed the stone row but as i was to see later that would tie in with the cairn thoughts.

It is a nice spot (although the aroma from the recently spread field nearby was a bit off putting) with Sheeps Tor towering over it from the west. To think I sat up there on countless occasions back in the late 80s and never even noticed this site....

This place lives up to the hype. Not a big panel, and a pretty cramped rock shelter, but such carvings! So well placed and superbly executed, a masterpiece of prehistory.

The motifs at Chatton are snazzy enough, but if you go to Chatton, make time for the ‘Neolithic Lino’ in the rockshelter. It’s right down at the bottom of the slope, so maybe nip down from the top, avoiding the outcrops, then walk along, especially if it’s wet, as the soil is v. loose and rather dodgy underfoot (besides, one should attempt to minimise erosion).

It’s a great place to see how carvings erode over the years, the motifs at the back are worndown where they’ve been exposed longer, whereas those at the front, which were turfed over until quite recently, still have their peckmarks plain to see.

My mind is not convinced by the alleged standing stone just up from the rockshelter. I think it’s equally likely it’s an erratic that’s simply fallen upright as it fell down the slope. There are many others which are at various angles.

Try though I did, I did not find this (again) today. Though the cairnfield is definitely there, and possibly enclosed, I was bamboozled by the crazy weathering on just about every damn stone, outcrop and boulder in this area. And the lovely lichen, some of which is in fruit, which was good to see.

Find that obscure rock art next time, maybe.

Mickleden Beck is a virtually intact prehistoric landscape. A walk along it from east to west is like wandering back through time. The lower end is still farmed today, and has field clearance still going on, within field boundaries unchanged in centuries. As you get a bit further along, past the curve, the remains of medieval settlement give way to BA field boundaries and cairns on either side of the beck.. Throughout the journey, the Neolithic looms omnipresent in the form of Pike O Stickle to your right.

This is such a gorgeously secluded place, the valley is 3-sided, with nice steep slopes on left and right, and when you get to the end, it just stops. Steep slope at the end too. The road to nowhere.It’s quiet too, the sound of the water babbling over the stones is lovely and soothing. Whilst you wander, you can engage in the obligatory game of spot the axe rough-out. We didn’t find owt particularly special, but there were a few bits of andesite that looked very much like the bits that flake off flint when it is knapped.

It’s worth keeping going to the end of the valley, as the sheepfold at the end is sufficiently peculiar to warrant a good pondering. It has two little rooms off to the side, like you’d see on the footprint of an excavated roundhouse. Combine this with a vague bank and ditch, it’s very tempting to think of it as being a re-used ancient dwelling. Maybe they used to polish axes here, you never know…

A good spot on top of the Pike would perhaps lend a view sufficient to show up all of the field boundaries/cairns and maybe help make sense of the confusing jumble of millennia still visible in this fantastic valley.

Oh, and the sheep are inexplicably fluffy. They try to look menacing, but they are just too fluffy to get away with it.

Just what the earthwork atop Wolstonbury Hill is remains a matter of intrigue.
Following some the links posted here will give further information on the various archaeological interpretations.
Since I moved to this area I have found the shape and presence of this hill more thought provoking than any of the other prominences on the South Downs.

What is up here for sure is a large oval earthwork covering some 2.2 hectares with an inner ditch. There is also a faint oval earthwork within the area of the main ‘rampart’, a 1994 survey revealed the presence of a third enclosure sandwiched between the two!

A cross ridge dyke and the remains of two round mounds lie just to the South East of the main enclosure.

The interior of the enclosure has been pock-marked by 18th – 19th century flint quarrying, with lots of pits evident. There is also a large quarry on the North East slope of the hill.

Views across the Weald to the North are panoramic, to the East are the Clayton Windmills and Ditchling Beacon beyond. Hollingbury is prominent to the South East.
Look West and you see Newtimber Hill, West Hill with Devils Dyke just beyond. Beyond that, Chanctonbury Ring is sticking it’s tree lined head up.
The National Trust currently grazes a herd of some ancient breed of cow on the hill. Long spiky horns, but they are friendly and look more fitting than a bunch of modern aggro dairy cows!

This is surely one of the South Downs most enigmatic monuments and its remoteness means that solitude is easier to come by than at places like Devils Dyke and Ditchling Beacon. A splendid place for sunset contemplation.

Access: It is a good half hours walk from your car to the top of the hill.
Easiest approach is to park at The Plough pub in Pyecombe and approach from the South. This will take you past the two barrows and cross ridge dyke.
If approaching from the North you can park in the lanes at the foot of the hill (turning at Jack and Jill pub on A273) and there are several paths up. If you are feeling energetic, take what I call the ‘pilgrims’ steps up the North face. Steps have been cut into this path at some point, but it is still quite steep. Guaranteed to invoke an ‘altered state of consciousness’ by the time you reach the summit!! (ie: knackered!)

The only visible remains of this supposed Iron Age univallate hillfort are the low bank and part of a shallow ditch. What a spectacular site for a hillfort. I doubt anywhere compares to this. To the S a 19th Century quarry bites into the site.

The summit area is small, and the population must have numbered few.

“Earthwork remains of a slight Iron Age? univallate hillfort; antiquarian work recovered Roman pottery and evidence for iron working on the site.” (Quote from PastScape).

I’ve visited this site many times and in many different weathers. It’s a windswept site, with mountains rising all around, but it commands views down to all points of the compass.

The old track through the valley and over Sty Head Pass to the S, finally to the sea, passes below.

It is an impregnable place, the ground falling away precipitously to the N, E and W. To the S there is access, though very steep, making the hillfort well defended. The bank and ditch are unnecessary to the N, E and W. Here there are vertical drops.

A modern aspect is the war memorial, on the summit, a slate slab inscribed to the the men of Borrowdale who gave the ultimate sacrifice during the Second World War, mounted on the crowning rock. What finer memorial could they have?

There are meant to be two barrows here but only one was cleary visible and this was an obviously robbed out example. However, prior to robbing this mound was once a sublimely shaped but small round barrow situated on the crest of the hill with incredible views along the Downs to Chanctonbury, over the Weald to Blackdown and Leith Hill and south east to Hollingbury, Whitehawk and the sea. Beautiful spot, surrounded by remnant downland heath and gorse. To the north there is a raised and disturbed area covered by gorse and two blackthorn tress, is this the other barrow recorded on the hill? I wasn’t convinced.

But why arent these barrows sited on the nearby, higher ridge of Newtimber?, will have to research further but couldnt see a barrow group up there despite the better vantage point. The crest of that hill had no appreciable field monuments except a possible crossdyke/field lynchett and a small dell hole.

A bird of prey I’d never seen before flew over while I sat and wrote notes. may have been a young Red Kite.

I cannot find any record of this stone. The stone is situated on the NNW edge of the ridge just west of the stone circle.

I only read about this site a month or two ago and decided to wait until spring had sprung before visiting, the high northern Pennines can be a bit dodgy in wintertime.
This monuments was on the top of my ‘to see’ list as it fulfills most of the criteria that I am currently interested in. A stone circle with a cup mark in a remote locations with views over to Cumbria and Yorkshire. It is situated a couple of miles from the Stainmore Pass, the route from Cumbria to Yorkshire and possibly a prehistoric route that was utilised by the stone axe and flint trade.
I drove up to Mudbeck via Reeth, stopping off at the lovely Silver Street bakery for a Swaledale cheese sarnie and one of their lovely curd cakes for later. Fortified with grub I took the long climbing road along Arkengarthdale.
There is a footpath marked on the 1:25000 map, forget it, there is no path. My tip for finding this site is, from the road, find the sheepfold with the tin hut beside it at NY959074 and use that as your guide keeping it to your right at all times.
The moor here is extremely wet and composed of tussocky grass and sphagnum so water proofed boots are a good idea. You’ll notice that even the sheep stick to the roadsides
Walking over the tussocky grass is like walking on a ploughed field and quite heavy going but it’s not a long walk so worth putting up with and if you go in spring you have the pee-witting lapwings and the odd snipe for company.
As you walk over the moor it is easy to imagine that this landscape hasn’t changed for thousands of years, but you’d be wrong. If you check out the many small channels that have been cut through the peat you’ll see evidence that the area was wooded, numerous branches of what looks like birch protrude through the peat.
When you reach the large beck you’ll have to find somewhere to cross, be careful the rocks are very slippy.
Once over the beck you need to look out for a low ridge, on the eastern end of this ridge is a low mound with numerous patches of sedge upon it, this is the circle.
The views from the circle are superb, to the south east you can see along Arkengarthdale to the hills beyond and to the north west you can see the nothern Pennines that border the Upper Eden valley.
None of the stones of the circle are visible until your actually on them. There are four upright stones and at least five fallen stones. The stones are unusual as they are quite thin, about the thickness of a gravestone
A number of stones are missing but by walking the circumference of the circle you’ll notice a number of small buried stones protruding through the ground. I estimate the diameter of the circle as being about 20 metres.
If you look to the slightly higher ridge to the west of the circle you’ll notice a few low stones. It’s worth checking these out, I haven’t a clue what the feature is but there are a few stones on the top of the mound and it is possible to trace a circular pattern in the small loosely scattered stones on the flanks of the low mound.
The Mudbeck cup marked rock is one of these.
All in all this is a lovely circle set in the wonderfully desolate upper Pennine landscape.
The cup marked rocks are a bonus.

After your labours a pint in Britains highest pub awaits you a couple of miles up the road at Tan Hill.

I visited this site on 17th April 2005 and it was very easy to find. Recent visitors had placed a wreath on top of the tallest standing stone and a penny in the hollowed out bowl on top of the same stone.

I’m not sure but I think there may actually be two rings of stone with a gap of only 1-2m between them. I’ll go back some day and have another look at this and edit this accordingly.

This is my very first posting and I hope to make more, detailed postings in future but at least it’s a start!

Sadly the henge only survives as a cropmark now-a-days... Once some 80m in diameter the earthwork had entrances to the NW and SE.

All is not lost though the Round Hill barrow that sat within the centre of the henge is still going strong, a huge thing... over 30m in diameter and a little over 3m in height.

Neither henge nor barrow have been excavated.

This site is quite close to the back road from Downholme to Richmond. Beckensall & Laurie describe the site in their 1998 book Prehistoric Rock Art of County Durham, Swaledale and Wensleydale.
Apparently there are three carved rocks here centred on Thorn Hill. I spent a good hour scouring the area, I found bullet cases, smoke bombs and weird parachute looking things (this is army land) but only found the one boulder. The other two carved rocks are earthfasts so I presume the’ve been buried.
The rock pictured is a large boulder surrounded by sedges. Beckensall and Laurie describe it as the most remarkable of the three carvings and as ” a glacial sandstone boulder, which has a triangular or heart shaped groove pecked into it: unique in this region. The boulder is isolated and obverlooked by rising ground. The upper surface has been defaced in antiquity, possibly to remove a more prominent carving”.

Maiden Castle Revisited.
May 2005
It’s almost 3 years since I was last at Maiden Castle. The last time I visited the site I was totally confused by the whole thing. So today the sun was shining and I thought I would have a run up Swaledale and give the place another coat of looking at hoping that during the intervening 3 years I may have become a little more knowledgeable and could look at the monument with ‘new eyes’. I was wrong it’s still a crazy place and I still haven’t a clue what it’s all about.
The top of my field notes says ‘invisible’. Even though I knew where the site was, I scrambled up the unenclosed hillside almost missing it.
Huge amounts of time and effort were invested in creating this monument, thousands of man hours, think of Mayburgh then double it, I paced the inner rampart and it came to 400 paces exactly. Yet if you didn’t know it was there you would never seen it either from above or below, WHY?
The only possible sign to indicate to anyone that there was something here is the large, eroded mound at the eastern end of the stone avenue. The mound is visible from the high ground above Grinton and may have been a marker for the monument.
There is another mound to the west of the monument which has a modern cairn on top of it, but the mound itself may be natural.
I’ve not too much to add to my original observations of the site.
There appears to be 2 large squarely set blocks at the junction between the avenue and the monument, these could possibly be seen as gateposts. I also found evidence of dry stone wall beneath the rubble of both the avenue and the ramparts. One of the circular structures in the southern rampart has a definite hut circle groove about it with evidence of at least 3 courses of stone walling.
Maiden Castle is a strange site. I get the feeling that if it was located in a more accessible part of the country then it would have been interpreted, reinterpreted, excavated, argued over and classed as a very important monument. I don’t know whether the fact that it remains a little known, poorly understood monument is a good thing or a bad thing. What I would suggest is, if you’re in the area pay it a visit. I guarantee it will impress you and confuse you in equal parts.

This is a lovely looking stone. So its unacknowledged position under a large conifer by the side of the path in York Museum’s Gardens seems a little odd.

I e-mailed the museum later in the week to find out something about the stone, and was informed that it was one of two stones discovered on the moors around Whitby and given to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society by Canon Raines in 1895. It’s partner is now lost.

This is a site for the enthusiast as the walk is not easy but the bonus is there is plenty to see along the way theres a vast assortment of cairns, settlements and other ancient remains.
The scenery is absolutely stunning too.