Latest Fieldnotes

After its restoration, this is now a rather good recumbent stone circle. Quite a lot of the internal ring cairn is now visible.

This is another one I haven’t seen for 18 years. Before restoration (see photo), the flankers had fallen but otherwise it looked ok.

The circle lies at the W edge of the distribution of RSCs. It also has the most westerly orientation of the recumbent (235 degrees).

Access. A Historic Scotland site with all the usual car parking and picnic tables. No obstacles between the car park and the site.

Visited 20 March 2005

Almost completely lost to several centuries of the plough, the barrow’s dimensions are pretty tricky to calculate.
Ah well. T’aint too bad as the barrow’s isolated location along with the great views from up here to a number of other Bronze Age burials in the vicinity more than make up for its unexciting proportions.

Excavated by Bateman snr and Mitchell in 1825.
They uncovered a human burial within a rock cut grave, and some evidence for later re-use.
Excavation info: J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”

The barrow is on private land.

When I was last here (1987), there was no wood – at least surrounding the circle. So it’s the opposite of Aikey Brae. Win some, lose some.

Not a great site – and not helped by the trees. Recumbent, one upright and one fallen flanker and two other upright stones.

See it if you’re in the area.

Access. Park at NJ 957 504. Follow the forest tracks, as shown on Landranger, to approach the circle from the S. On the track into the forest to reach the site, watch out for a left turn after about 50m. Easily missed! One gate but rather rough going in the forest.

Visited 19th March 2005

Not been here since 1987. A bit more overgrown since then but, otherwise, looking good. The circle, that is.

Reconstructed in 1981, it’s a good example of recumbents in this area – especially, the embanked circle.

For some reason, it failed to uplift me. I think I felt the same the last time. Perhaps it’s the surroundings, especially that spooky ruined house!

2.8m recumbent + flankers + 6 other stones.

Access. There’s a path from the Gamekeeper’s Cottage which is the building off the track running NE from Strichen Mains. You can drive here. It was muddy but ok. Alternatively, you can park at Strichen Country Park (the lake at the other end of that track) and walk in. One gate and one stile.

Visited 19th March 2005

This has to have the most beautifully proportioned recumbent and flankers of all the RSCs.

The flankers (pushing 3m) are amongst the tallest and the recumbent is over 4m long. Together they make a wonderful composition – especially given the bulging shape of the recumbent.

It would be great to see them against the horizon but, sadly, the trees get in the way.

The recumbent has four cupmarks.

Enough circle stones survive to give the line of the circle. The recumbent and flankers are way off this circle line suggesting that they may have been built first using a wider community effort leaving the local community to add the smaller circle stones. Other circles eg Loanhead of Daviot exhibit a similar feature.

Access. Just to add to the previous comments, another way in is from the most southerly part of the wood. Vehicle tracks from there lead straight to the circle. No fences, gates etc.

Visited 16 March 2005

Another “top ten” recumbent stone circle.

Level recumbent, framed horizon, dressed outer faces .... it’s all here. With a couple of outliers thrown in for interest.

Here the recumbent is about 2m long – amongst the smallest. Four other circle stones remain.

Access. Park at Backhill and go through the gate at the east end of the plantation. If the field is in crop, it is easy to walk through the plantation to get a close view.

Visited 16 March 2005

You have to close your eyes to the mess elsewhere in the circle but the recumbent and flankers here are a joy to behold.

It happens to be the heaviest recumbent (53 tons and nearly 5m long) but what really makes it special is the recumbent’s smooth outer face and the level top.

From inside this circle you can get a good impression of that classic RSC outlook. The recumbent just below the horizon with the flankers breaking the horizon line. A window through which to view the moon.

Access. Merrick has given the directions. I’ll just add that there is a disused roadside quarry providing a handy parking place opposite the point where you enter the wood.

Visited 16th March 2005

Quite low, no more than 75cm in height, the tree covered barrow is roughly 19 x 16m in diameter.

On the whole this mound is typical of the barrows that have survived on the enclosed farmland of the White Peak.
Surprisingly(?) both Batemans dug this mound, William first in the 1820’s followed by son Thomas 20yrs later. A large number of finds were recorded. Consisting of an inhumation in a rock cut grave, a bronze dagger and a handful of quartz pebbles.

Elsewhere within the mound a polished stone axe, stone battleaxe, flint and bone tools along with sherds of Beaker pottery were found.
Further evidence revealed a re-use of the barrow in Romano-Britsh and Anglo-Saxon era.

The knoll is one of the ‘woodlands for the millenium schemes’ and so seems to be an excuse to pile a few millstones together and throw a meaningful poetic plaque at them. The view however is superb with barrows on horizons near and far in every direction.
Access is from the Mount Pleasant Farm side of the knoll.

Excavation info:
J.Barnatt’s “Barrow Corpus”

As with many of the barrows in this area of the Peak, Larks Low has been somewhat rattled by the plough.

Today the barrow measures approx. 12 x 9m in diameter, and stands to a height of 50-75cm. A rock cut grave covered by a limestone slab held several cremations and a inhumation.
Animal bones, a small burial urn, quartz pebbles and a bronze pin/point were also recovered.

A nice enough little barrow tucked away in a very quiet corner of the Peak, 800m walk through the dry (most of the year) wooded limestone valley of Rusden.

Finds from:
J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”

Ruined but still impressive.

If you want to see the longest recumbent, this is it – 5.2m. No west flanker and only two other upright stones.

Great views.

Access. Close to the road – from where you can get a good view even if the field is in crop. Nearby passing place big enough to park in.

Visited 15th March 2005

Came up Saturday morning hoping to walk to the quoit....thick mist covered the hillside and Kathy decided she was not going out in it...So we drove back down the hill to Botalack and had a stunning walk along the cliffs in wonderful sunshine.
Sunday morning (21st march 2005)and the mist had lifted and we walked up from the Trewallah turning accross freshly burnt scrub. It is great to see all the old field boundrys exposed and i kept me eyes to the ground in the hope of finding something interesting....
The quoit sits in all its glory surrounded by sunshine...I am always a little unsure about entering these ancient places but in the end I squeezed my self into the quoit just because I could (and that was after a full breakfast!)

Walked over to the castle afterwards then back down to the car, Kenedjack was hooting at me but time was against me....perhaps another day?

Almost ploughed out. Only the slightest mound remains here, in diameter it’s maybe 17m or so...tricky to say.

The location of the barrow and its views over to Aleck Low, Minninglow and Kenslow Knoll are still impressive even if the barrow is not.

Thomas Bateman excavated here a coupla times in the 1840’s, his old fella, William, had already given the barrow a seeing to 20yrs earlier.

The barrow turned up a number of flint tools (?) and waste flakes…Three burials from the Romano-British period were also found in the barrow….
(info on finds: J.Barnatt’s & J. Collis’ “Barrow Corpus”)

An excellent recumbent stone circle. The west flanker has fallen but it remains an evocative site with its massive recumbent and largely open outlook.

What a difference from when I was last here in 1987 when the circle was completely surrounded by trees (see posted image).

Access. a23’s directions are spot on. The parking place is at NJ 9561 4706.

Visited 19th March 2005

The man on the gate at the Rollright Stones suggested I check out Chipping Norton car park en route to The Hoare Stone and Lyneham. This stone certainly looks similar to the weathered stones in the region.

There are two cairns/kists on the top of the hill,up from the confluence of the Langcombe Brook and the Deadman’s Bottom.Very close to these are three circles of stone which were once thought to be cremation circles but are now thought to be the remains of houses.
There are a total of twelve cairns over the course of the Langcombe Brook,eleven of these still have there kists .The most well known of these is known as Grim’s Grave.The others are on either side of the brook,some easy to find and others not so.Three of them are barely above the grass and will be lost forever in a year or so.
This is an excellent site to visit and is only a short distance from Drizzlecombe,so is easily accessible.

Stopped off here on the way home from Brum. Absolutely stunned to have the place to myself on a Saturday afternoon! Panos will follow if I can stitch them correctly...

Apparently today is the day when the police decide whether to charge the person arrested for damaging the stones. As for correcting the damage, the decision has been taken to follow the ‘dental pick’ route. Tenders have been issued for conducting this work.

Found during the “dig” of 2003 by geophisical survey. This round house is 8 meters across and contained a large broken pottery vessel dating from 1400-1000BC.

There are 4 recognised cairns in this patch, with a couple of other possibles. They’ve all been robbed out to some extent, but the 10m diameter one at NY79627084 has a clearly visible cist cover in the middle. Close by is another 10m jobby, at NY79617080 and a smaller one of 6m at NY79577086. A bit further towards Kings Crags is the largest of the bunch, at 17m, grid ref. NY79867105.

Whilst there is no direct evidence, it’s got to be a fair bet that these cairns were placed in reference to the phenomenal stone of Gwenhyfar’s chair at queen’s crags, which is easily visible in the pictures, which also played a possible role in the placement of the two small stone circles nearby. It’s a darn complex landscape around this part of the world.

8 Digit ref: NY80057103. The cist has two cupmarks on one of the stones. There is at least one more cist about 20m away, but it’s not as clearly defined as the one with the cups. There’s an IA homestead between the cists and the Haughton Common/Simonburn circle, with a nice clear bank around it, currently full of trees, disguised as a disused sheepfold.

A bit of an oddity as for many years they were considered to be long barrows, and still are by Hampshire Treasures.
The confusion arose because the most prominent group consists of two bowl barrows and a twin bowl barrow surrounded by a common ditch, all on a NE/SW alignment about 150M long.
There is another twin bowl barrow and a rare saucer barrow near by and a further two bowl barrows to the W.
Conjoint barrows surrounded by a single ditch are comparatively rare.

Could one speculate that these marked the burial of several family/tribe/clan members who died at the same time?

(The “Earthwork” shown to the N is an IA univallate Hill Fort)

Access
Gentle gradients on good tracks from car park but drops steeply near barrows.
Area fenced off but access possible at bottom of field through a “Hampshire Gate”.
Area popular with walkers as the whole of Hampshire and the IOW can be seen from the track, especially at the Monument.

The best of the two cairns in this area can no longer be reached as the local farmer has closed the newtake on advice from his solicitor.This how ever has been over turned by the courts and it should be accessible again in the near future.The other one is slightly north and just to the west of the newtake wall,fortunatly outside of it so can be reached.Both these are only800metres south of the B3357so are easily reached.

The two kists on Stennen Hill are less than 100 metres apart and are within the Stennen Hill settlement.The best preserved of the two is only metres away from the remains of one of the houses.If you wish to visit the site the easiest way is to walk up the track through Powder Mills farm and go in a north westerly direction when you come to the end of the buildings,being careful of the damp ground around the old tin workings.

This cairn/kist is inside the Stannon newtake and is just to theeast of a short piece of reave that runs in a north east direction.There is another cairn that is almost on the reave but this one is in a poor condition with no kist to be seen.

There are two cairns/kists on the east side of Legis Tor,one has one side and an end,the other has two sides left standing.The one with the two sides has the cap stone lying flat on the ground to the south but the cap stone seems to be missing for the other one.They are both only around 100 metres up hill from the extensive enclosures which are on the side of the hill rising up from the river Plym.

This kist is easy to find being not too far south of the B3212 road near to the two car parks on the left side going towards Princetown.It is also quite close to the reave which runs in a north east direction.