This autumn’s ploughing doesn’t seem to have gone any further in. The badgers are still there. The outline of the mound was clearer without the foliage.
However I was quite taken with the large pool which had expanded quite a bit since my last visit. Something about the association between pools and ancient votive practises. It’s probably a pithead from a 20thC mine or something, but hey, idle speculation is fun.
Managed to find this stone at last having looked in the wrong place before. My thanks to Prof. Caroline Tisdall of the Conholt Park Estate for pointing me in the right direction.
What a very odd stone. The markings are shallower than I expected but quite obvious. The most prominent features are the 5 or more grooves which describe a very regular arc. Tracing it out, my fingers fitted perfectly. From the top of the arc the grooves split off at an angle and are straight but less well defined. There are other ill-defined marks but I didn’t want to remove the moss which was obscuring them. The “frame” at top of the stone is also a curious feature but has a “natural” feel to it.
What is one to make of this stone?
The geologists who looked at it in the 1920s rather sniffily dismissed the marks as natural but I’m not so sure. I’ve seen a fair number of sarsens but this is the first time that I’ve come across anything that looked like this.
When I was there (21.11.04) the light was not the best for seeing the marks as there was thick fog. It needs a good photographer with lights to bring out the details.
This massive stone – 2.6m high and about 4m circumference at the base – sits close to the River Irvine.
Not the most attractive standing stone I’ve seen!
Visited 19 November 2004
At one end of the main square in Darvel sits the bust of local-boy-done-well Sir Alexander Fleming. At the other end sits this curious piece of work described below by Rhiannon.
Can’t add much to her comments on the name except to say that I’ve read Dagon has been called the god of crop fertility and the inventor of the plough and that this is a very agricultural area.
Visited 19 November 2004
Nicely proportioned standing stone 2.1m tall.
In a field just off the A71. Convenient parking spot and gate close by.
Visited 19 November 2004
The Face Stone is a bit of a mystery. When you read about it you will see it described in non-commital terms like ‘celtic look’ or ‘celtic type’.
The stone is mentioned in the first preamble of the Duncombe Estate (1642) and therefore predates the erection of the majority of the moorland waymarking stones in the early 1700’s.
The stone sits beside the Cleveland Way and whatever it’s origin, it’s a lovely, scary stone, well worth a visit.
This is a fairly non-descript round barrow with a trig point planted on top of it and is the highest point of the North York Moors. The trig pillar is 1489ft (454m) above sea level. The views alone are worth the walk. This part of the moors seems to have it’s own weather system. I witnessed the cloud level drop from a few thousand feet to ground level in a matter of a couple minutes.
Another nice feature to look out for is the lovely Hand Stone. There are a number of Hand Stones on the NYM but I think this is my favourite. The carved ‘waist’ gives it a sort of totem pole look.
You won’t find this lovely stone on the map or on the MAGIC website but it’s definitely there, sitting beside the Cleveland Way.
The easiest way to access this area is to follow the Cleveland Way from the B1257. There is a covenient car park at the top of Clay Bank
“Seen one, seen them all.”
That’s largely what Dr Johnson said of this Clava passage grave when he came here with Boswell in 1773.
At least, he probably got a good view of it – which is more than can be said now. On paper, this is a great site. Five stones of the surrounding circle remain upright.
But it is covered in vegetation making access and appreciation very difficult. “A visual disaster” – as Burl says.
Access. . Roadside parking then it’s a case of finding the line of least resistance. Not easy.
Visited 2 November 2004
Strange, is it not, that someone looking for a location for a family burial ground should choose an area incorporating the remains of a neolithic burial cairn. But that’s what’s happened here.
So it was largely curiosity (and the fact that the site is on the way to Heights of Brae) which led me here despite unpromising reports about access and surviving remains.
The burial ground was, as anticipated, surrounded by a wall, gated and padlocked but, in the corner where the cairn sits, you can just see over the wall.
As for the surviving remains, if you don’t expect a lot, you won’t be disappointed!
Access. Park in Contin village. Short walk.
Visited 31 October 2004
Another Orkney-Cromarty cairn in an elevated position – 240m. The most visible remains are four stones from a polygonal chamber standing 1 to 1.5m high. Look around and you can see some low surviving stones from a second, rectangular, chamber which adds to the interest.
Nice site with great views and reasonably accessible.
You are supposed to be able to see Balnacrae from here (4 km NNE) but we forgot to look!
Access. Easy. From the Dingwall/Strathpeffer road (A834) take the turning for the memorial to writer Neil Gunn and park at the memorial car park. Follow the farm track immediately E of the car park to the site. Several gates but all easily opened.
Visited 31 October 2004
To access Dolbury park at the Killerton House car park (see link below), go through the gardens around the front of the house, and follow the path upwards. Whilst climbing the hill passing the sequoias, there is clear view to the south of Woodbury and the nearby barrows distinctive on the horizon. You eventually get to the top of the formal garden and go through a gate in a metal railed fence.
From what I can recall from the information boards at the top, Dolbury is on the top of a volcanic outcrop, the inner embankments are older than the outer enclosure and the main entrance was on the northern side. The eastern side didn’t have any embankments to protect it due to it’s steepness. The site has never been excavated.
A possible origin of the dragon myth is that it was created to protect from looting sacrificial offerings made to its well. The existance of the dragon could never be disproved due to the fact that no matter which you visited, either Dolbury or Cadbury Castle, the dragon would invariably be at the other!
This forlorn Sarsen was (allegedly) pillaged from the now destroyed Mill Barrow (SU094722) and used to mark the Rev. Brinsden’s grave. I see from Rhiannons’ post that it may have been the capstone!
Slightly taller than it’s compatriot overlooking Rothbury, but only just. It just has to be a boundary marker for the cairnfield. I guess there may be have been more in the area, maybe there still are.
The cup marked rock, about halfway between the track and the standing stone, has a lovely great enhanced natural bowl. Slightly discordant is the name ‘Fiona’ carved large over one of the cups.
A couple of the cairns have survived quite well, and kerbs are almost complete. I’ve a slight problem with the idea that the others are clearance, and not grave markers, as f they are the result of agricultural clearance, it was a very half-hearted affair. The rest of the field is still littered with stones that would make it a bit hard to plough.
There are a few excellent glacial erratics, that if they were in Cumbria would merit the title ‘Thunder Stone’. There’s also a top-notch natural feature in the form of Ship Crag and the dome of outcrop next to it. Mesolithic rock shelter if ever I saw one.
The ground is quite decent going, low heather, boggy in places, but the track is easily followed. As with much of the area, there are a couple of pine plantations, and in the one to the west, heading towards football cairn, is a stone that would be a good candidate for one of these putative cairnfield markers I mentioned.
Rather unsurprisingly given it’s location, it has a nice view of the nearby sacred hill of Simonside.
It’s probably bikeable, but not very good for wheelchairs due to the many streams that are forded by a single plank.
We visited the cloud on sunday the 14th 2004. This used to be a local walk for me for years, as I grew up in this area. The views from up top are incredible, whatever the time of year. This is one place where you can’t help but feel alive after the walk to the top. From a distance the cloud is always there on the horizon, huge and magnificent!
There are only 4 stones remaining. With plantation on three sides, and Dues hill rising behind them, these stones are almost hidden from the surrounding landscape. Remove the trees, and a superb view of the flanks of Simonside could be had. I’d always assumed that this would indicate some kind of deliberate placing of the stones in relation to Simonside, as so many other sites seem to have this hill as their focus.
But I’m not so sure now. Despite the view to Simonside that would be possible without the pine trees, I couldn’t shake my attention past them, and my mind kept returning to Dues hill. It’s etymological connection with the Duergar, the black dwarves of Simonside’s mythology, and the strange nodules in the bedrock were far more interesting than the over densely planted view blockers. Combined with the possible long mound on Hareheugh hill, and the BA boundary dike and barrows at Holystone, not to mention the cairn circle at Piper Shaws, it all just gets too confusing. There are many other sites potentially connected in some way, but I shan’t belabour the point.
Grouse shooting, ever present wet bracken and driving rain didn’t help the pondering process much either. I gave up looking for traces of the fifth stone.
Still, these are large standing stones for Northumberland. The tallest of the kings tops 2m, and it’s quite remarkable to find four in a line in these parts no matter how tall they are.
If you’re sticking to footpaths (as it’s a good idea to do in shooting season), it’s a couple of miles from the handy parking spot on the Hepple-Holystone road. The path via Dueshill Farm gets quite narrow and slippy at points, and the bracken is a pain in the butt. There are a couple of stiles, so disabled access is not good.
Originally discovered when excavations took place in the grounds of Hillbury House. Now very little remains of this barrow in what thse days is the Nazareth House complex. Without the aid of a detailed map (and assistance from the County Archaeologist at the local musuem), you would be forgiven for assuming this rise in the ground was just an attractive piece of landscaping.
Two medium-sized chestnut trees grow out of it, and a unlovely set of flats in the vast Nazareth House grounds back onto half of it; a concrete path cuts across the barrow, access for the flats. Sad.
Though little, this is the most aesthetically pleasing of Northumerland’s stone circles. The stones are reminiscent of single stones in the south of the county. It’s position links the Lammermuir hills and the Cheviots most nicely. Weathered grooves second to none, with cups marks too. There have been allegations of a burial in the middle, but nothing conclusive has been found, bar some undated charcoal.
Access up the track is easy enough, but the tromp over the field should ideally be done after the crops have been harvested, both for ease of access, and in respect for the farmer, who has had a poor harvest this year.
A large round barrow dominates a green sward belonging to a Victorian villa in Wrexham, Jewel of North Wales. Fairy Oak lies within the grounds of a Victorian walled garden, with neatly trimmed lawns (as if for croquet), and busy traffic the other side of the red brick walls.
The grassy, rotund barrow – about seven feet high or so, and probably not dissimilar in size to Churn Knob – takes up most of the garden. One huge and clearly ancient oak tree grows out of the southern side of the barrow, whilst an equally huge chestnut springs forth from the south-western corner.
The owners of the property have plonked two fairy silhouette figurines (of the type found at a garden centre near you), on the barrow, the elvish characters racing their way across to the chestnut tree. Sweet. Corny. Inevitable. The trees themselves provide a wonderful amount of shade and a sepulchral, cathedral-like quality to this well-kept round barrow. The house is called ‘Fairy Mount’, and can be found on ‘Fairy Road’. Splendid that the ancient structure is commemorated in the name of the street – even though it is invisible from the road.
The house has just come onto the market – and I can’t afford it! Bah!
This is the most northerly of the series of Iron Age forts in this area, Danebury, Norsebury, Woolbury, that line the River Test.
The original slight univallate fort was later strengthened and given another entrance.
The banks and the ditch are in a fine state of preservation although fairly heavily wooded, the centre is grazed and private.
The site was used well into the Roman period and in the Battle of Andover in 1016 (King Canute v Edmond Ironside) it was used as Canute’s camp.
Access Parking available close to S. entrance, level, short walk to kissing gate. Parts of level inner walk have many tree roots and the ditch bottom can be rutted and wet.
Visited 23rd May 2004: Not really a proper visit. We were pressed for time, and I decided not to try and get access to this site. I’m guessing that the stones stand on land belonging to Llechdwnni Manor House. At the very least, this would be a good place to start making enquiries.
Otherwise, take a pair of binoculars and view the stones from the road to the east.
It’s a pity that the local villagers trashed this barrow in 1750 when they completely removed the middle in a fruitless(?) search for grave goods. It sits on a fine spur overlooking the Vale of Pewsey and is surrounded by a multitude of linear banks and ditches and early field systems. From the link below it is not clear when the 10ft high Sarsens at the entrance were removed, they would have been a grand sight.
Access Close to road and field gate, rough pasture.
28m diameter, over 3m high. Right next to the ‘so-called housesteads’ car park, on the other side of the road. Unrecorded 18thC excavation has left a great wide ditch running through the middle. It’s been neglected in favour of more recent, rather irritating archaeology.
There are a couple of smaller relatives nearby, situated, as this one is, in the dip between two picturesque lines of crags. This one is right next to a gate off the B-road, so is much easier to find than the others, which don’t get higher than half a metre, and are easily missed when the grass is longer in the summer.
Possible long barrow. This is contested by some, but asserted by others, who point to the lack of other similar natural features in the area. Claims are also bolstered by alleged traces of stone facing on the SW end of the mound, and the presence of rock art in the locale. Nearby flint scatters add a little bit more credence to these claims, though some of the flints have been attributed to the Mesolithic. I’m not sure of the dates for the cultivation terraces nearby, but they may have more to do with the IA hillfort.
A farmer I spoke to about it said that locals have always believed it to be a burial mound.
Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t get an answer from the house to get permission to wander about their fields, so I gave closer examination a miss for the time being, and settled for peering through the trees from the nearest right of way.
Small-medium hillfort with double ditch and bank structure.
Banks are low, ditches shallow, patches of bedrock protrude.
A number of hut circles are still visible.
Good views of Carr Hill rock art site to the NW, overlooks the confluence of the North and South Tyne to the SW.
Would suit Ottodini tribe looking to protect the upper Tyne from Brigantian incursion.
Ask at Laverick plantation Cottage for permission, as the rights of way which are still marked on some old maps as leading up to the fort from the trees, have been altered.
Poor access, requires climbing stiles.
