Latest Fieldnotes

I used to live very near to Wincobank Hill and visited the site many times. It is clear that the banks of the hillfort were subjected to intense heat as vitrified stone is very easily found. Must have been some fire! Definately worth a visit. Superb views over Sheffield from here.

This is one of the few Hebridean Passage Graves to be located on the mainland. It is close to the Isle of Skye so not far away from the usual territory.

The most visible remains are a capstone partly covering the small rectangular chamber. Traces of the E-facing passage can also be seen.

Excavation in 1965 showed that the cairn had been enlarged from a round one to a square one and that a facade had probably been added to the E side of the cairn. An interesting change of design which would bring it closer to a Clyde cairn layout.

Near the roadside just E of Dun Telve and Dun Troddan.

Visited 25 July 2004

There are two Hebridean Passage Graves to be seen in Benbecula – this one and Airidh na h-Aon Oidche. They are within 400m of each other and intervisible.

Stiaraval, which has lost most of its cairn, has a typical layout. A passage entered from the SE leading to a circular chamber.

The stones are impressive. One passage stone is about 3m long and there are chamber stones over 1m tall.

Impressive views to the S. As is the case with many cairns in the area, the builders of Stiaraval chose the slope of a low hill as the location rather than 25m further up on the summit.

Definitely worth a visit.

Access. Drive E at the crossroads at NF805536 and park at the landfill site. A path running alongside the fence heads S in the direction of the cairn. On the way is the Rueval Stone at NF812532.

The cairn can be accessed from the track which runs E from NF805536.

Some of the cairn material has been used to build sheilings.

The nearby cairn mentioned by Billmac is Stiaraval.

Visited 29 July 2004

This is a long cairn, its most prominent feature being a 3m stone leaning at a great angle. Other stones are visible in the turf suggesting the line of a chamber.

Interpretation is difficult especially as all but the S end of the cairn has been covered in sheep fanks. The tall stone may be part of a facade linked to the chamber.

In its favour, access is easy. Park at the church then through a gate. But there are a lot more interesting sites than this one to spend time at.

Visited 29 July 2004

Pulpit Hill – 26.9.2004

Unremarkable hill fort, but still worth the short (500m) walk up the hill from the small gravelly car parks at SP833046. The car park is on the north side of a minor road, not far from the A4010. This minor road (signposted Great Missenden, and others) comes off from a roundabout just north of Princes Risborough.

Nice, simple hill fort. Although it is on the crest of the hill, it’s not a steep slope, and the surrounding trees mean the view is patchy. But without the trees this would have been a very stunning and commanding position, especially on the north side.

Well signposted from the carpark. Some of the walk is steep, and uneven. All on National Trust openland.

I believe there used to be another cairn, a little further up the path called “Dukes Road” .I think it was called “Apron Full Of Stones”.

Situated on the top of Wharncliffe Crags. A series of enclosures formed by stone and turf banks surveyed and later excavated by the late L.H. Butcher and members of Hunter Archaeology Soc. 1958-1960.
The excavation revealed a cobbled floor and entrance plus post holes. The finds were mostly of roman pottery including some Samian ware. It was concluded therefore as a Romano-British settlement
There is a long standing legend that this was once a church of Whitley village (now lost). It is also in the area associated with the Dragon Of Wantley. There is no such place as “Wantley” and I wonder if it could be a corruption of the place name Whitley.
See above plan for results of the excavation.

This Hebridean Passage Grave sits on a small tidal islet. In the neolithic the three islands were one landmass and the watery landscape which characterises the Uists today did not come into effect until about 2000 bce.

Traces of the passage and chamber on the islet with several peristaliths visible at tide level.

Access. Parking ok on the approach road. Through one gate then over a tricky barbed wire fence to the shore.

Visited 29 July 2004

Another example of where a bit of signposting might demonstrate that the Uist tourist authorities recognised they had some wonderful sites which they might want to share with their visitors.

This 5.3m tall stone looks a little like an arrow head – it narrows near the foot then tapers at the top.

Great views – pity about the weather on our visit though.

Visited 29 July 2004

What’s happened here then? Stones all over the shop. Big stones, little stones, upside down in the heather stones…..Looks like the setting could be any one or more of the suggestions given in the fieldnotes below.
It’s a pity about the erosion of the moor around the stones, but it takes little away from what is an interesting place.

Another reasonably undisturbed Hebridean Passage Grave with a good many peristaliths visible.

The passage area has been exposed at the top of the cairn but not entered. Like Barpa Langass, the cairn sits on the slope of a low hill rather than some 35m further up on the summit. The passage (ESE) points obliquely towards the hill.

If you only have limited time on the Uists, this would be one to visit.

Access. You can drive up the track which runs N of the cairn. It gets a bit rough but there is room for turning/parking at the gate near the cairn.

Visited 28 July 2004

Another Hebridean Passage Grave, this one a bit of a wreck. It sits in a long mound with the passage unusually orientated S.

For access and directions – see Dun Bharpa.

Visited 28 July 2004

The privately-funded excavation of Kilpheder in 1952 by Tom Lethbridge with the help of a local skipper helped bring about an awareness of this class of monument.

Sadly, there is little to be seen at the site now other than the tops of some wall courses.

Access. Drive NW along the track from Cille Phaidair village until you reach a crossroads. Park here. Continue walking NW for about 200m. The site is in a mound on your right.

Visited 29 July 2004

Shhhhh. This site is a secret.

It is probably the best preserved example of a very rare kind of Scottish site and this is just about the only place you will find a reference to it*. It’s not even on Canmore.

North Uist with its total indifference to heritage tourism seems not to have heard of it. There are no references to it in its tourist literature and there are no signposts or paths at the site.

Wheelhouses (see Miscellaneous for a more complete definition) date from the Iron Age and are roughly contemporary with brochs. They are found only in the Western Isles and Shetland.

I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story. Definitely recommended for anyone visiting the Uists.

Access It’s not a difficult site to find but it is not visible until you come upon it so a good map or a GPS will help. Start by skirting the E (right) side of the cottage situated at the NW end of Loch Shornaraigh. Cross between the two inlets and head for the higher ground in front of you. Once up there, turn right through the gate and keep going for about 200m. It should be in a dip in front of you.

*One other source is the excellent but probably out-of-print The Lost Wheelhouses of Uist by Susan Hothersall and Robert Tye (2000). The definition of a Wheelhouse given below bears a strong resemblance to that given in this publication.

Visited 27 July 2004

It was sorta strange to find out that Elgee described the Low Bridestones as “Perhaps the most remarkable example of prehistoric walling....“. Cos like that was the first thought that struck me about the stones, that it was walling.....

In the Peak District there are quite a few field system walls from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age that have the same appearance today as the Low Bridestones (tho’ on a much smaller scale admittedly)....
In the case of the Peak’s ‘walling’ the double row of larger stones and slabs once held a rubble infill....Whether that is the case here, I dunno.
Although the two larger ‘gatepost’ sized stones here in the Bridestones might kinda scupper the that theory......

Corkin’ set of stones whatever they are anyway.....

There are two surviving chambered cairns on Barra – Dun Bharpa and Balnacraig. As they are only 800m apart, both can be easily visited together. This is by far the more interesting of the two.

As it is relatively undisturbed, it is one of the best examples of how a Hebridean Passage Grave would look once it had been sealed up and fallen out of regular use.

The cairn is about 5m high with many peristaliths still in place. The passage and chamber have not been opened but their location can be determined by the position of roofstones visible on top of the cairn.

Given the height of the cairn, the passage/chamber must either be located high in the cairn or, more intriguingly, be furnished with very tall sidestones.

Access. We drove up the metalled road to the museum which leaves the main road at NF656019 but stopped when the houses stop as the track looked a bit rough after that. It was.

After that it’s a bit of a stiff climb up to the cairn with a few fences to cross.

However, when we reached the cairn (from the SW), we noticed what looked like the posts of a waymarked track approaching from the NW and continuing to Balnacraig. I don’t know where in Barra it starts but it might be worth checking out.

Visited 28 July 2004

Having read Canmore and other reports before the visit, I had expected to be underwhelmed by this site.

Comments like “has been much disturbed by secondary buildings and its present form bears little relationship to its original plan” do not raise expectations.

To my eyes, what you actually get is a well fairly well preserved Hebridean Passage Grave with a lintelled passage plus chamber with a few side stones still standing a most of the rest fallen into the chamber.

Any secondary building was limited to the outside cairn material and, reading the reports again after the visit, maybe that’s what they meant.

But don’t be put off. This is a site worth visiting especially if you’ve come to see Clettraval anyway.

Visited 27 July 2004

A 1.5m standing stone about 200m S of Clettraval chambered cairn and on the way to Tigh Cloiche.

Not much else you can say about it apart from the splendid view.

Access – see Clettraval

Visited 27 July 2004

This is a cairn which seems to have lost its way.

It’s a Clyde Cairn in the heart of Hebridean Passage Grave territory. Probably not the only Clyde Cairn in the area admittedly but the one with the most positive identification.

Quite a lot to see here especially if the nearby standing stone at South Clettraval and the slightly further away Hebridean Passage Grave at Tigh Cloiche are included.

Clettraval consists of an unusually long five-compartment chamber facing E and a straight facade of fallen stones running N/S (best preserved in the S). An Iron Age wheel house, not very well preserved, has been built in the W end of the cairn. It was excavated in 1934 (see Link).

The views from here are splendid – even on a cloudy day. The cairn sits on he 100m contour and, to the S, are the low-lying Lochs Bhaghasaraidh and Steaphain.

Access is very easy. Drive up the metalled military road which runs E from the crossroads at NF718722 until you reach the first radio mast where there is parking. The cairn can be seen in the field opposite.

Visited 27 July 2004

The Head Stone is a natural rock outcrop that from some angles looks a little like a head on shoulders. A clear view can be had from the A57, west of Sheffield on the hillside above the road.

It can be reached by follwing the public footpath opposite the farmhouse, down over the bridge in the woods and up the steep hillside. The views to the west of the stone are lovely.

It would be reasonable to suspect that the route of the A57 is pretty old, and the Head Stone may have been an important marker on the route.

The Hordron Edge stone circle is about two n’ a half miles to the west.

Growing up in the Vigo Village just above Coldrum, I have such happy memories of these stones and whenever I retune to the area, I all ways make sure that I have an hour alone with the stones. The one memory that I have constant from all my time at the stones is early one winter morning; I spent the night asleep below the collapsed chamber, awaking at dawn and looking out across the fields before the mist had lifted with the sun just peaking over the horizon, a deep orange glow. The stones absorb the morning light, heat and colour a man made beauty that has stood the test of time.

Coldrum is a magical site, it is peaceful and tranquil at all times, even with the farmer ploughing his field the noises all seem to be reflected away across the valley. It is still all year round.

Not the best preserved Hebridean Passage Grave on North Uist but one of the more accessible. For access and other sites in the area see Carinish.

Not much of the chamber and none of the passage is visible.

It is unusually housed in a long cairn which, viewed on the approach, is still rather impressive. Typically, it faces E where the cairn may have been horn-shaped.

Some of the peristaliths are still visible especially on its N side.

Visited 27 July 2004

At the lower end of the Loch of Skaill take the B9055, the road on which you see a phonebox against a house. The site is at the far roadside corner of the field past this. A modest and assuming earthen barrow. Once upon a time a cist was found here. In 1946 it was no longer, but RCAHMS reported a tradition of a chambered structure. In 1967 it was believed this roughly circular mound could well be it. If so it looks as if several stones from the chamber/s have been re-used as there are several over half a metre in the drystane wall alongside that are very out-of-place.
The mound is about 15m across and 1.2m high. RCAHMS also describe it as flat-topped, but this is a relative term. Like most earthen mounds it has a bland covering of grass. Alas I did not walk upon it as a tall ‘Orkney gate’ stood in my way. Not photogenic in itself, it commands a broad panoramic view of the Sandwick countryside about as you can tell even from the roadside.
This ‘dominion’ includes several lochs and many sites of various Ages, including well-known tumuli and tombs. It must surely have been a site of some importance due to these vistas, only the hills above the Loch of Skaill (Kier Fiold and Sand Fiold) overlooking blocking the view somewhat – though you can still see Skaill House and everything to its left from here .

This was the last visit of the day and what a crackin’ stone it is. Not too sure I get the ‘stone-triangle’.....dunno why, there are two other stones forming the triangle.....Just didn’t spring to mind that they were all part of the same thing, like the way say Ramsdale did/does.