Latest Fieldnotes

My beautiful wall has completely gone, leaving an aching space like a tooth sucked from the gums.

This stone was described by the OS in 1984 as “not found – probably destroyed by ploughing”. Bit of an exaggeration , it’s alive and well just very difficult to find. The full grid ref is NN 89921 49591. If you are keen enough the best way to find it is to take the track that circles Creag an Loch to the North, leave at the fire break after the Linmore Burn, look out for an embankment that heads East into thick forestry, a GPS would be useful from here or just crawl/barge about 50 metres into the trees until you find the small clearing. At the moment the fire breaks to the North are covered in storm damaged trees and pretty impassable.

I’m sure Iron Age hillforts have their interest and like many in Northumberland the location is often stunning, as it was here. The many-walled fort was probably built more for show than for defense and may have been visible from some distance.

Similar to the Doddington Ringses, there is also traces here of man’s earlier use of the landscape by the finding of rock-art.

Two panels were found in the region of the fort in the 1860s and moved to Alnwick Castle Museum. They are illustrated by Stan Beckensall (2001 p166) who also shows the earlier drawings of Collingwood Bruce.

Apart from a rock slab given in the Beckensall archive as Beanley Moor 1, most of the carved rock now present in the landscape appear to be of the unimpressive cup-marked variety. They are certainly quite challenging to find, and even harder to interpret!
I’m certain there are more out there but there are alot of rocks to examine and in this game the light is not always perfect.

A grey mist all over the landscape in late January. The South East chamber (as referred to in TMA) is indeed pretty scary-looking from the outside, and I crept in and lay down with no small trepidation.

Funny though – it all went away very quickly. In sharp contrast to the outside world, the chamber is dry, calm and (at least on a day like this) comparatively warm when you’re out of the rain and wind. The Cotswold Stone lining the chamber also makes it more light than you might expect. Thanks are due to who or whatever placed a pillow stone in just the right place... I could have drifted off but for the arrival of a troop of American children.

Incidentally, it’s worth comparing the quality and intricacy of the stonework around the North and South entrances to that of the dry stone walls opposite them!

A long east west running ridge strewn with granite boulders. Many balance on top of each other at wonderful angles. At the west end of the ridge and set apart from most of the stones is a clump of stones that include King Arthur’s Bed.

To reach the tor take the road from Berriowbridge up as far as the moor gate. Park here and walk along the track passing Hawks Tor on your right. Access from the track is restricted due to razor wire. This has been erected to stop people breaking down the walls/fences. To reach hawks Tor it is necessary to retrace your steps back down the road to a gate and public footpath sign on the left. Go through this and follow the footpath until access signs point you in the direction of the tor.

Trewortha Tor can then be reached once the fields surrounding Hawk’s Tor are passed. King Arthur’s Bed is on private land and access is subject to certain restrictions which from the end of August 2005 can viewed on www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk or in person at Trewortha Farm

Grassy burrial mound found in Norsey Wood Local Nature Reserve, unable to find out much about it except for the details on the sign, and what is detailed here.

Not too often you get rock art so close to the top of a hill. At (approx) 306 m it’s only 8m from the top. Meikle Findowie stone circle is lower down to the North.

21/12/04 – Sal + Jimmer

Upon visiting Nine Stones Close at the midwinter solstice we were happy to discover the sun appeared to be setting along the sloped top of the stone nearest Robin Hoods Stride. We assumed the sun would finally dissappear between the “chimneys” on the Stride. You have to stand in the circle at the right place to observe this.
Unfortunately we didnt have time to hang round and see the sunset for ourselves as Arbor Low was calling
Is this as a result of the stones being reset, or was it truly intended? Or is it all to do with the moon? Since the southern moon rise was 3am I was too lazy to check this theory out....maybe next year!

I like the oak tree just hanging out with the stones...very much like the one at Nine Ladies.

Can we also point out that despite easy access to the stones through two gates in the surrounding dry stone walls, it appears the wall between Robin Hoods Stride and the stones has been damaged by people climbing over it. This “direct” route to the stones is really unecessary and it only takes seconds to detour through the gates.

If you are visiting Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor these beautiful stones are well worth the small detour.

We visited this site on 19 May 2004. It’s a kind of hard to find (and photograph!) due to a thick roof of rhododendron leaves. A nice combination of prehistoric cup-and-rings and much later runes. A meeting point of two worlds!

We visited the easy reachable site on Lamp Hill on 19 May 2004. It is quite remarkable that only the 6 domino cups are carved there and not a single other cup and/or cup-and-ring. It gives the site an exclusive feel with splendid view to the surrounding landscape.

Visited here on a gloriously sunny crisp day today. It’s shocking to have to admit, but despite having lived in Dundee on and off between 1997 and now, this was my first visit to Balgarthno.

The site had been cleared of grass, and was completely “bald”, save for quite a bit of broken glass. However, I didn’t get the feeling of sadness that others have mentioned – I found it quite a cheery place, even despite the noise of the A90, the power lines and the industrial estate.

One thing I did notice that isn’t mentioned on CANMORE or here is that there appeared to be a “causeway” of some kind stretching off to the east. It was a frosty day so that may have helped show it up, but there was a definite raised section running about maybe 30m in length by 3 or 4m in width, with what appeared to be a very shallow ditch on either side. There’s no sign of this to the west, so it doesn’t look like a natural feature, it does smack of an “entrance” or processional causeway of some kind.

This is a splendid stone.

It lies about 2km S of the other decorated stones at Menteith and has been moved slightly from its original location.

Located at an altitude of 25m it could be the lowest lying cup and ring stone.

GPS reading (12m accuracy) NS 56421 99536.

Access Ask at Malling Farm. They get a few visitors a year and seem happy to let you walk down to it.

Visited 13 January 2005

I can’t resist a superlative!

“...at 342m, [this is] by far the longest chambered cairn in Britain ...” PSAS 132 p118

This enigmatic and unexcavated site has only in the last decade or so been interpreted as a chambered cairn. The higher and wider S end is seen as a Clyde cairn to which a long “tail” of a cairn has been added.

There is certainly a very clear chamber towards the S end and some partly visible stones at the extreme S end which could be part of another chamber.

It is, of course, the length which makes the site special and worth seeing – and comparisons have been made with the cursus monument tradition.

Aerial views can be seen on the Canmore website.

Access Easiest access is via the Keltie Caravan Site which is signposted just E of Callander.

Visited 13 January 2005

With a rainstorm raging and under the watchful eye of some rather large Highland cattle we found the Tordarroch ring cairn. It was very helpful to have a 1:25000 os map to find this clava ring-cairn. The outer stones, with a diameter 113ft and with 7 of the 11 visible stones still standing (graded to the s-sw), make this an impressive site; although the ring-cairn is in a sadly ruined state. The inner face of a fallen curb stone in the s-sw of the ring-cairn has 30 cup marks carved into it. Worth a visit as a 200yd walk will get you from the roadside to the centre of the circle, but it is also easily viewed from the road.

A rare and unexpected Bronze Age treat to be found, surprisingly, in the heart of Wrexham. In the centre of Wrexham County Borough Museum stands an unassuming box on a plinth, with a large piece of black foam rubber resting on its top. Lift this up, and suddenly you are transported back in time approximately 3,600 years, as you look down into a Middle Bronze Age burial cist. Even more exciting is the fact that the original inhabitant of this large box remains in situ, grave goods beside his disarticulated bones.

Brymbo Man, as he is known, was discovered in 1968 when a new housing estate was being built in Brymbo (pronounced ‘Brumbo’), an outlying village near Wrexham. Near what is now 79 Cheshire View (give a big clue on the terrain; the most wonderful views of the Cheshire Plain can be had from the local hills; evidently just as emotive these days), a workman’s pick hit Bronze Age pay-dirt approximately 1 foot below the ground’s surface. Intially they had discovered a capstone five and half feet long, but below this lay a burial cist, containing a human skull and a few bones, besides a large beaker and a flint knife. The entire lot, including the cist, was intially moved to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff – but happily, 30 years later in 1998, Brymbo Man came home to his present resting place in the County Museum.

The museum have made much of this corking find, and have a very good display on the Bronze Age as result – very child friendly, too. Probably the next best object after the cist and remains is the reconstructed head of Brymbo Man, giving an idea of what the ancient peoples of this area looked like; not much has changed, really!

This is a real archaelogical and anthropological gem, well worth a look if ever you are passing.

Find out more at:

https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/brymbo_man/bm_revealed.htm

Yar Tor Triple Stone Row, Dartmoor. SX 6810 7495
This rather heavily disturbed stone rows runs NNW-SSE obliquley down the slope between Yar Tor and Corndon Ridge. The higher, southern end terminating at the ‘Money Pit’ cairn, the lower northern end now distroyed by later medieval field enclosures. Two Bronze Age reaves also cut through the mid oart of the row. The row is located on a north facing slope so that the field of view to the observer is drawn solely to the north. Viewed from the southern end of the row, some 30m from the cairn, due to later robbing of the larger stones, the rocky outcrop of Sharp Tor fits neatly into the outer ring of stones formed by the cairn. This direct link with a major topographical feature and the stone row is quite unusual on the moors. Easy access, car park some 100m away, though try to go when the vegetation is not at its height, the stones are quite small and/or recumbent, though the view makes up for this.

31st July 2004: I failed to visit this stone, even though we stayed the night in Uig. Just ran out of time. However, I did see it from the quayside in Uig, armed with binoculars and a Landranger map. As we sailed away on the ferry I watched it wistfully (the one that got away).

A substantial cairnfield with quite impressive embankment made of rubble about half a metre high. Most of the cairns have been robbed for stone but some have survived. There are wonderful pasturelands one side and wooded escarpment to the other. Not really worth going to see especially but you can have some nice walks around here

A cairn field with some substantial mounds upto half a metre high and an intrigueing double ditch most of which has been cut through by modern roads. The site is in a well maintained wooded modern enclosure. Two fields down there is a possibility that this double ditch continues, but I am not sure yet.

Visited 1st August 2004: Having missed this stone when I visited in ‘95 I was pleased to see it ‘in the flesh’. This is one of those extremely accessible sites that you can drive right up to. Compared to its neighbours (with the possible exception of Olcote) it’s extremely unglamorous, but there’s something intriguing about the contrast of old and new here. At least Stonefield hasn’t been chopped in two by a road!

16th Jan 2005

Can confirm Rhianon’s news that they are working to reclaim Uley Bury from nature. They’re making a bit of a mess of it but I am sure things will improve.

Great views down to the Severn and across into Wales, so this would have been an easy place to defend. The walk around the fort is about a mile in length, most of it being in the ditch, apart from the far west end.

16 Jan 2005

I find myself far from home and looking for somewhere to walk after a late night the night before. A book I have gives details of a walk from Uley to the hillfort then onto the Tump and then via another village back to Uley.

We set off up the steep escarpment behind the church reaching the eastern end of the fort (Uley Bury), the walk around is nearly a mile but well worth it, the views are amazing. Reaching the far end of the fort we joined the Cotswold Way and followed it until it reached the road beyond the tump (no scrambling up the bank for us). Turning back on ourselves we walked along the road (there is a good grass verge).

At the tump we missed a troop of ramblers by about three minutes... phew! I have come prepared, torch, waterproofs... it looks like it could be a long wet crawl in. Imagine my surprise after getting all dressed up for a trogloditic exploration that once under the large stone at the entrance you can virtually stand up and everything is nice and dry.

Kathy, my better half and not one for dissapearing into holes even sticks her head under and comes into the inner sanctum. There we sit eating oranges (yes we took the skins with us) and marvelling at the workmanship.

What I can’t figure out is why is the tump so large and yet the chambers only go in about 20ft? Must ask on the forum.

We opted not to continue the walk as it said in the book but headed back along the road to Uley. Not quite so easy between the tump and the hillfort we opted to retrace our steps around the hillfort rather than follow the raod back into the village. The pub in the village brews its own beer, didn’t try it, still recovering from night before.

Visited on a glorious summer’s day in August 04.
The view is awesome, the site curator gave me a loan of his fieldglasses with which I could clearly make out the Wallace monument in Stirling, almost 20 miles away, and see the coastline of Fife with the continuous stream of traffic snaking over the Forth road bridge 10 miles, or so, over to the east.

While I was there an ‘alternative type’ group turned up, armed with compass’ and crystals. They sought out one of the large stones to the west of the cairn which was duly identified, by means of a compass, as a lodestone or magnetic stone. Once identified, they brought out their cargo of crystals and placed them on this stone to presumabley charge them with its power.

Not as easy to find as I had thought, though it is well signposted once you get near to it. The portal tomb is fantastic, in a secluded little grove all of its own it seems to enjoy a little protection from the elements and agriculture/development. Because you cant see it until you are right beside it it seems all the more impressive and imposing when you do reach it after the anticipation of walking up the trackway and through the gate.

It has been rebuilt and supported of course, but most of the evidence is hidden inside the tomb or covered in moss and undergrowth so that from the outside it looks pretty much untouched.

While I struggled to get photos while crouched in the bushes and wearing a pair of gloves to stop my fingers freezing off (surely the one great advantage of plastic camera bodies!) I wasnt getting photos as good as this tomb deserves. I was about to pack up and leave when a torrential shower poured down on top of me, the choice was either to make a run for the car or get inside and hope for the best! The ugly concrete beam inside the tomb doesnt add much to the feel of the tomb, but it makes a practical seat right between two uprights, giving great shelter!

Once the rain had stopped I decided to try using the flash in wireless mode after fiddling around with it inside during the shower. The first few looked promising, part of the tomb is under the cover of a tree and shaded from the light, the photos looked a lot more balanced with a bit of illumination over this part to the front of the tomb, and under the capstone. Getting in closer and as low as possible from the opposite side, facing the sun, I could feel the tomb looming over me and with the widest possible angle I got a few shots that really show the carachter of the place and the dominance of the tomb. At last! All thanks to the rain and bitter wind :)

Photos here: cianmcliam.smugmug.com/gallery/353977

Wow, what a place! The ‘ring’ is huge, a well preserved high bank with steep sides apparently used as a sports and recreation centre by the locals! Dozens of people walking, cycling, kiting, playing football and jogging, with a small army of children using the megalithic tomb in the centre as a climbing frame-cum-fortress. Great. At least it does have easy access and a carpark though I would have traded that for a less crowds and more quiet...

The tomb itself is very nice, it does have traces of grafitti and the stones are rubbed smooth from the feet of thousands of kids but at least its still standing and isn’t enclosed by an ugly fence.

I’ve seen lots of great photos of this tomb (one won a stage of photographer of the year in a magazine) and it seemed the kids would prevent me from getting a few moments alone to study it and the surrounding henge (with nearby trees). Slowly circling a group of young children playing under the watchful eye of their parents isnt really a great idea so I took the opportunity to walk the entire circumference of the henge in the freezing wind, dodging dogs and joggers. The park has a sign warning that the gates are closed at 4 o’clock in the evening. It was a quater to. Marvellous.

Five to four and the crowds vanish into thin air, a couple and their kids arrive to fly their kite so figuring they must be wise to the gate times I made my way to the tomb in the centre as quick as possible unpacking the camera gear as I go. After the experiences using wireless fill flash at Gaulstown Dolmen, I pretty much knew what I wanted in my head so in the ten minutes I had the place almost to myself I got shots of every angle with different sidelighting arrangements, trees in the distance lined up nicely though the sunset was a bit of a damp squib.

I also realised why I should always carry the tripod with me, the angle of the flash from the ground is just too low and the little stand thing Nikon bundle doesn’t work so great in the grass. In future I’ll bring at least one if not two tripods to hold either the flash or the camera, this should hopefully avoid the bright patch of grass along the line of flash. Much better.

A great place to visit, though make it early to avoid the multitudes!

Photos here:
cianmcliam.smugmug.com/gallery/359909/1/14303199