Latest Fieldnotes

King Edward VII was, I suspect, completely unaware of it but a perfectly good chambered cairn was largely destroyed and used to build the base of a flagpole to commemorate his visit to Stornoway in 1902.

On the day of our visit, it’s 28 degrees. That’s hot for me. We should be enjoying cold drinks in the grounds of Stornoway Castle but, instead, we slowly wind our way up the spiral path to Gallows Hill to see the remains of this cairn.

Not much to see really. Some chamber and passage stones and one peristalith. There may be more but the vegetation is high. No flagpole left either.

What is interesting is that this cairn (and the few others visited in Lewis), when intact, were clearly meant to be seen from a distance. They are all in prominent positions with all-round views.

Contrast this with the chambered cairns in Uist which are frequently positioned on the sides of hills.

Visited 2 August 2004

Burl describes the site as astonishing , you have to agree . 9 stone circles all abutting each other makes for an odd site , without a helicopter very difficult to photograph . Grid Ref is H 711 745 . 2 miles N.E. of Pomeroy , Co. Tyrone .

Compared to the Uists, there are few chambered cairns on Lewis and Harris and this, on paper anyway, looked like the best surviving and so worth a visit. Helpfully, it’s on a waymarked trail (of sorts).

On the Eye Peninsula, head for Garrabost. Turn right at (if I remember correctly) Graham Avenue at the top of which is a parking area leading to the start of the trail. The information board has been vandalised!.

The cairn is visible on the horizon which is just as well as some of the waymarked posts have fallen.

And it’s a good one.

The stones of the square cairn are clearly visible and you can still trace the forecourt, passage and chamber. Many of the remaining stones are over 1m and the tallest is 1.6m.

From its location on top of the hill there are all-round views.

Recommended.

Visited 2 August 2004

An elipse (28m x 21m) comprising 16 stones, all fallen and with seven visible in the peat cutting.

Great views all round although apparently no significant connections with the hills to the S associated with Callanish.

Visited 2 August 2004

Oh dear! The largest standing stone in Scotland; a bit of a tourist trap perhaps as well as a mecca for megalith hunters. Maybe, even, a second Callanish.

So what do you find when you get there? Well it’s signposted from the road but then you drive through a very unattractive area with rusting cars. And then no information at the stone itself. Doesn’t even say how big it is.

Given the good record of information boards located at other sites, you might have thought that the Lewis authorities would want to talk this one up a bit.

And there is a story to tell – apart from its height. See the Folklore and Miscellaneous postings here.

Now this absence of information should not have affected our visit since we had all the stuff from Canmore. Yet, somehow, I did not get the buzz from this site that others clearly have although I did enjoy searching around for the “lost stone circle”.

Visited 31 July 2004

Monday 2/8/04
Three circular enclosures; A at NT17515363, B at NT17675365 and C at NT17745382. A measures 17 metres in diameter (and also has an internal circular stony mound), B 5.5 metres in diameter and C 8.5 metres in diameter. The site classed as B is 140 metres ENE of A and C is 180 metres NNE of B- all would have easily been intervisible with each other before the forest plantation.

Quiet and remote forest on Auchecorth Moss. Three rings of moss and grass rise from the earth, three sites of cremation and final rest. An early evening August sun beams down into the clearings and the forest rings with birdsong. The distant call of cattle. Butterflies, dragonflies and a myriad of insects fill the air. The sickly sweet smell of the heather moorland. Crows peck at the field behind me and distant hills just seen through the summer heat haze.

Monday 2/8/04
In a clearing in Deepsyke Forest just off the road stand an old 20th Century tower, the purpose of which I don’t know- there are also four strange looking pillars on the way along this road marking the fringes of the moorland. Just SW of the tower is the remains of this long cairn. It’s now reduced to a grassy mound only about 50 cm or so high, but still running to a length of approximately 55 metres and is wedge shaped- the eastern end of the cairn measuring about 16 metres wide. Through the long grass many stones still remain at this end, some of which are up to 70 cm long, but most hidden under the moss and grass.

Monday 2/8/04
I drive down to Auchencorth Farm to ask permission to visit this stone and am greeted by a friendly old farmer on his quad bike with his sheep dog on the back ‘aye, you can jist aboot see it fae here’. I drive back up to the main road and wander across the empty moorland in the direction of the ridge of the Pentland Hills dodging the flying ants. The stone stands about 1.8 metres high and is rectangular at the base though tapers up to a point towards the SSE. It’s aligned SSE/NNW. There are three massive grooves on the east side about 1 metre long and up to 10 cm deep. Above the grooves a panel has been chiselled off and apparently there is the fragmentary remains of well-cut Roman capitals on it, but I can only just about make out one or two letters.

Here’s my tuppence worth on this wonderfully-located but enigmatic site.

The circle of stones has one on the E facing slightly “into” the circle and, if the next one along had been present but the mirror image, they would have formed the shallow E-facing forecourt which is a common feature in Hebridean chambered cairns.

The large central stone would then be a backstone to the passage and chamber entered through this forecourt.

The only problem is that Audrey Henshall (who wrote two large volumes on the Chambered Tombs of Scotland) supports the view that it is a ruined building.

But what are Historic Scotland playing at? The signpost describes it as a homestead (which is what it is scheduled as) but the information board (one of the old ones) refers to it as a chambered cairn.

Visited 31 July 2004

Great location with spectacular all-round views just a little spoiled by telegraph poles punctuating the view to the S. Two stones remain standing out of the 18 which formed a large true circle (41m diameter). The peat has been cleared from the fallen stones.

Signposted from the road. Enter by the gate and head uphill to the right for the seat where there is an interpretation board.

Sleeping Beauty is visible from the site and the board makes two interesting points.

First, the stones are graded so that, when erect, the larger stones would have been at her head and feet (obviously this depends exactly where you stand to view it – there is no suggestion of a backmarker or outlier).

Second, from this position, her profile is different from that seen at Callanish and the inclusion of another hill gives her the appearance of being pregnant.

Visited 1 August 2004

No megalithic meditation here due to the proximity of the road. Perhaps best visited on a Sunday (ouch!).

Interesting double kerbed cairn which, from Canmore, appears to be how it was originally constructed. There is a central cist. Over 100 postholes were found under the cairn laid out in a trapezoidal shape. Interesting, especially as the axis of the cairn is aligned with and visible from the Callanish avenue.

Just a little north of the Curtis’ home and exhibition area. There’s a layby with interpretation board on the other side of the road.

Visited 31 July 2004

I parked at the crossroads S of the site then made the short stiff climb up from the main road. On reflection, it might have been better to park in Breascleit village and take the more level walk over the field.

Either way, you are rewarded with excellent views up and down the sea loch and over to Bernera.

Not much to see at the site. The N side and backstone of an E-oriented chamber remain.

Visited 31 July 2004

Close to Bernera Bridge Circle (see Access notes for that site).

A good spot to view these stones from (if you can mentally block out the bridge!)

Visited 1 August 2004

First a pedantic point. Ron Curtis, writing in 1988, dismissed any idea of this being a circular setting. Neither a full circle with half fallen into the water nor a semi-circle by design. His views were based on the position of the stone hole of the easterly of the two N stones relative to the holes for the other two large stones. This stone hole was established prior to re-erecting the stone.

Also, there is a small stub of a stone just over the fence to the E which is aligned E/W but would be N/S if it were part of a circle. It can best be described as a group of standing stones all facing roughly S looking over to what is now mainland Lewis.

If anything, this makes the site more interesting. The stones are located just below a wide level ridge of ground and, if they were meant to be visible markers, this would have been a more obvious location for them.

In their current location, clinging to the hillside, they are much less visible. So it must have been important to place them precisely there.

Astronomical? Well I can’t comment, but what I’ve read for this site sounds less convincing than the theories put forward elsewhere.

Access Information layby on right over bridge. Short, steep climb up steps to the site.

Visited 1 August 2004

Saturday 24/7/04
I’d already biked about 25 to 30 K across some very desolate and remote country before arriving at the summit of Birkscairn Hill. As I near the summit the hills to the west open out into a giant bowl all dark and brooding. The wind up here is so strong I am struggling to remain upright and it doesn’t help that there is horizontal rain. The cairn itself has been much remodelled over the years and a modern summit cairn has been built from some of the stones- it offers a welcome shelter from the unrelenting onslaught of the wind and rain. The cairn still covers an area of around 10 metres in diameter with some large kerb stones amongst the remains.

Friday 23/7/04
On the right hand side of the road leading out of Peebles to Innerleithen there is a recess built into the wall to accommodate this massive quartz stone. The sign next to its says that it was an erratic deposited in the ice age and the first written record of the stone was in 1462 when it was used a s a boundary marker for the town. Such an unusual and large quartz stone (about 1m by 70 cm by about 2.5m) would not have gone unnoticed in megalithic times and it’s continuing use as a boundary marker in later times reaffirms this.

Friday 23/7/04
The forest opens out to a clearing to the east of the firetrack (again there are Forestry Commission ‘S’ posts around the site where they have cleared the trees from it). I climb up from the drainage channel at the side of the fire road and can see one of the ramparts due to the presence of many outer facing stones still in place. This settlement sits in a hollow with the hillside it is built on actually higher that it- so not a defensive position. The interior is irregular and there are no discernable features to be seen.

Friday 23/7/04
A very mutilated site caused by stone robbing, cultivation, planting and felling. There are many pits and tussocks in the interior, but nothing to interpret. Sections of ramparts still exist, but only to a height of less than a metre, the best of which (an it ain’t that great) is found on the NW side before the forestry plantation begins again.

Friday 23/7/04
A sort and steep climb up from Peebles Hydro Hotel and into Glentress Forest brings you here. The fort covers and area of around 250 by 195 feet and was once forested, but was cleared of trees in 87/88 to offer a grand view over Peebles and the Tweed Valley. The inner site has many ditches and bumps, but none discernable as hut circles.

Friday 23/7/04
Not a lot left of this settlement and even more difficult in summer due to chest high grasses, ferns and assorted vegetation. This site (along with the nearby fort) was cleared of trees in 87/88 and not much remains in the interior. The only real visible remains of the ramparts are to be found on the north and east of the site where the external ramparts still stand to a height of about 2.5 metres and the internal to about 1 metre.

Coming up from Birsay village take the A967 until the Vinbrake junction and then take that. Cornfield right to the very edge, so a closer look will have to wait several months. The wheat being tall you can only see the tumulus in two places. Fortunately the views being at right-angles to each other partially compensates. Closest to is at the corner of the field behind a Nissen hut, with a big fencepost to rest the camera on – no-one objected at the time to my going to that point. The other view, about twice the distance, is after the road turns left. Though you can see it most of the way going down towards Newan (Newan Chambered Cairn is confusingly not here but beyond Stanerandy near a disused quarry on the hill) look out for a pair of flatface-aligned stones and between there and the fence above Newan you are looking straight across at it.

August 97
Kat and I stopped off at this famous clootie (or rag) well on the Black Isle on our way to the fantastic Groam House Pictish Museum. It’s, er, quite a sight! The well is now a trough beside the road into which a natural spring flows. Then around about this in all the trees are thousands of cloots. From the usual hankies to old socks and even the odd tartan insole. The whole site is kinda disgusting, though it’s heartening to see the ancient ways and traditions still very much in use.

Sits ‘On top of the world’.
A really strong sense of ‘up-aheightness’.
Made all the more so by the low scudding cloud.
Combined with the lumpen bumpiness of the earthworks and the gnarled chunks of prone stone, the position in the landscape makes this a memorable place, and well worth seeing, even for a bit of a detour on a dreary day.

There’s such a contrast betwen the limestone here and the sandstone over on Stanton moor. Check out the grooves, bowls and hollows, imagine the stones they’re on standing, illuminate them in your mind, with sunrises, sunsets and moonlight. Imagine their silhouettes and changing shadows as the light plays across them throughout the years.

It’s always good to see what can be done when careful attention is paid to the arrangement and placing of stone and earth. Nice one ArborLow-building-people of yesteryear, a job well done.

NT6765865982
28/11/02
After a days of hillwalking and visiting some megalithic sites at Whiteadder I make my way back down a track next to Bothwell Water. My attention is caught by a group of recumbent stones looking not unlike a ruined stone circle. I have a closer look and am surprised to find that one of them is cupmarked. There are five cup marks and although two of the larger cups look natural, the other three look classically megalithic to me. The stone is approximately 75 cm long, 35 cm wide and about 50 cm high. On the north face of it are two cup marks in a vertical line, 8 cm diameter and about 5 cm deep. On the west side, one large cup mark 13 cm in diameter and about 3.5 cm deep. There are three large earthfast stones next to this and many smaller ones around. This site isn’t mentioned in the RCAHMS CANMORE database.

Friday 23/8/02
Atop Spartleton, the highest hill around the Whiteadder archaeological landscape, a cairn 17 m in diameter. Despite a triangulation pillar just to the north and a modern summit cairn built on top, the original cairn still stand to about 1.2 m. The view from the summit is amazing. I sit here for ages soaking in the scenery, contemplating the ancient land around, then plug into my CD player and let Godpseed You Black Emperors ‘Lift Yr Skinny Fists’ wash over me- a phenomenal soundtrack to an equally phenomenal land.