Latest Fieldnotes

Two short stones on a roadside bank (south). The eastern stone is gradually being engulfed by gorse. Both stones support ironmongery, presumably in order to support a gate. Why put this in the TMA? Just a feeling. I don’t think the metalwork is contemporary with stones and they don’t have any notch marks for a timber gate of the sort they used before hinges etc. Besides, they are so low lying I can’t believe that they would have made an effective gate. So why are they there?

However, given my experience at Lower Boxton what do I know? Check it out if you are in the area. Park as directed for Lower Boxton

As an aside I reckon the word Boxton is derived from Boagstown, probably named after some Anglo-Saxon character who descended upon these shores between the 6th and 10th centuries.

A bright, if breezy day on the Slamannan Plateaux with clouds scudding east, their dark bellies hinting that the weather could change any minute. It didn’t and good old Sol hung in there. A fine day to seek out a couple of stones clustered in this area (according to my old OS 1:25,000 Pathfinder map).

Didn’t take long to find. Odd setting I thought. Strange ‘rashie‘ field but the circle of trees surrounding the stone had a charming air. Beech and Elm, although the wee Elms seem to be on their way out. The stone was of sandstone and I fancy I can see hints of the wavelets left in the sand during the Carboniferous. Stone and trees sat within a raised platform, having me think that there was a cairn associated with the stone.

The land about still didn’t feel aright and I explored further as the map had referred to ‘stones’. New pond for shooting and some of the old shelterbelts seem to have disappeared. Some ruined building and a collapsing dyke. Maybe the stone is built into the dyke. Still no sign. A buzzard screeches above as a cloud passes across the sun, making me shiver. Lots of grasshoppers, meadow browns, dragonflies and a jangling of Goldfinches bring me and the sun back. I returned to the other stone and said goodbye, generally feeling good about the spot.

Went on to visit Boagstown and South Bankhead but not before the “Danger!. Deep Water” (or words to that effect) sign. I reckon there has been a bit of opencast mining here. Could explain the disappearnce of one of the stones.

On getting home I decided to view Canmore before logging into the TMA. Ahh how to steal a soul’s thunder..............

...........Stone ‘A’, situated in a small paddock on rising ground, is 0.4m by 0.2m and 1.0m high, with its main axis E-W.

Stone ‘B’, on top of a small rounded hillock within a circular plantation ring, measures 0.5m by 0.15m and 1.4m high.

Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (AC) 24 April 1959

Both stones show little evidence of weathering and are probably not prehistoric.
RCAHMS 1963, visited 1954

The more northerly of the two stones recorded by the OS (1959) could not be located at the date of survey, due to the disturbance of the ground in the course of opencast mining operations, but the more southerly of the two is preserved on the top of hillock at NS 8853 7385 and matches the description of the OS (1959), having an enclosing bank around it. A local informant described the stone as a marker for a dog burial, which would confirm the view of the previous authority (RCAHMS 1963) that the stones are not antiquities in view of the limited signs of weathering on the surface of the stones, a view with which the current author would concur.
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 27 July 1992.........

...........Ho Hum. Guess I just saved some other numpty making the journey. Glad I found out the hard way all the same and did manage to read the Earth aright.

If anyone does fancy visiting, I reckon it may be best to park at NS882738, the former entrance to the opencast, as long as you don’t block access completely. Mind out for the fly-tipping and burnt out cars. This is bandit country.

We got a bit confused trying to find these intially.

The road we thought we needed to drive up said “private roadway no entry” so we drove by and realised that we had missed it! If you carry on until you see Arran Aromatics on your right you can take the unmade road directly opposite (think there was sign for a cement or gravel factory?) and carry on down here. Turn right when you hit the tarmaced road and the stones are on either side of the road behind the HUGE hedges.

We went last week and the corn was really high in the field on the left where 2 of the stones stand – it made for an amazing picture, with the stones rising out the amber waves of grain. There are gateways all along the hedge and each one gives a unique perspective of the stones...lovely.

The stone which stands on it’s own in the 2nd field looks somewhat neglected and sad. Maybe they should plant corn around it too, to add to the ambience?

Look out for this one! As you drive North through Brodick it sits right on the very edge of the road on the right hand side. If you hit the museum you’ve gone too far, but I doubt you’ll miss it – it’s pretty huge!

A lovely added bonus as we were heading back towards the fery after an afternoon spent on Machrie Moor.

Crossing the coastal fields to Castle Howe the vegetation was tall and rank, making this is the worst time of the year to investigate such a ruinous or fragmentary site. I never learn. Couldn’t really tell what was underfoot, seemed to be channels and/or ruts of some type as I neared the hill. Coming up my feet encountered a multitude of lumps and bumps and I appeared to be climbing over different levels on the hill, putting me strangely in mind of Wideford Hill Cairn. What a struggle to reach the top it had been. Be very careful going about the summit still. Once there I found it took a while to tell the chamber wall from the outer protection of the excavator’s wall. Rather disappointing. The inner area looked like a rockfall and I wasn’t aware of seeing any steps at the time. Mindst you the modern wall isn’t weathering well either. Just about worth it still.

Last time my friend visited, someone had “sacrificed” a chicken on one of the stones and left its innards all over the place.

Now, just what the F**k is that all about?

Fortunately, the stones were free of chicken guts last week when we visited!

Ooohh, we got really wet!!! but then the sun came out and it was incredibly warm and sunny....and then it rained again!! Be prepared for these moors, the weather, like the landscape, changes constantly.

I am pleased we saw these amazing stones in the misty and wet atmosphere though – the setting seems just right for such extremes of nature. Maybe that’s why our ancestors felt it necessary to provide such extreme monuments?

Too much to take in on one visit. we parked at the little gateway across the road from the signpost and made our way out across the moor. on the way we saw what seemed to be 2 out-lying stones, one on either side of the path and a partially destroyed cairn with a broken cist embedded in the earth on one side of the path. already excited by this I really couldn’t take in the scale of it all once we hit the “big” stones.

The plan is to return next year now that I have had familiarised myself with it all a little – and pray for more sunshine!

We went out on a walk with a local countryside ranger last week and he told us of an American woman who had asked to visit the 5 smaller stones in the field alone with him. When they got there she said that this site should never be excavated but she wouldn’t tell him why. She was absolutely adamant about his and he said he sensed a fear in her – he was sure that whatever reasons she had for such a request where absloutely valid to her mind.

The sense was that the stones had been placed there to “contain” something – whether real or otherwordly, I really don’t know but I had never really thought of this before. I can’t remember whether this was explicit in what she said, or just suggested but it did make us stop and think – and come up with even more “what if"s and “why"s

(It certainly made for an interesting debate around a couple of bottles of wine later that evening....)

So, we sat there and wondered at what lies beneath and started to feel a sense of trepidation! The mind can play tricks on you in such a place.....in the end we decided to sit within the “circle”, our backs to the 2 larger stones and felt a sort of calm fall over us.

Still would like to know what had spooked her so much, though!

Couldn’t see the Boar no matter how hard we looked, but my foot did fit the footmark which was quite exciting. We climbed up the hill at around 7pm and we were the only people up there – it was amazing being able to see the whole glen at 360 degrees. The end of a perfect day in a most perfect place. You really do get a sense of an unchanged landscape – the history echoes all around.

And just in case you are like me and think that it looks like a long walk up to the top – we ran up in 10 minutes and it’s really quite easy!

Only the western side of the fort still has well preserved ramparts and ditches. They’re not particularly spectacular, about 4ft at their tallest and the ditches slightly wider.

Patches of erosion reveal the grounding stones, possibly the remains of facing. There seems to be an entrance still visible. The original ramparts must have covered quite a larger patch, roughly 150m diameter, assuming the fort was vaguley circular.

Careful at the south end, there’s a drop down a cliff into a small disused quarry.

The Pepperpot can be easily found (even in summer when obscured by bracken) by following these directions lifted from the site
keirg.freeserve.co.uk/ilkley/white.htm:

Behind White Wells, take the path upwards from the west end of the building. Where the land levels out, there is a small steep path up to the right – scramble up! After 50 metres the path divides – keep left up the edge of the escarpment to join the main path on the top. There is a carved rock only 6 metres up the main path – a small rock with 5 carved cups.
Return down the main path for a few metres looking for a faint path to the left. The Pepperpot lies 15 metres into the bracken to the South West.

Popped up to Oxfordshire on a whim at the weekend, my first visit for a while, and the first since the damage.

The photos I’d seen really don’t put across the sheer mindlessness of the damage. It looks as though some progress may be made, as tests were being undertaken for removing the paint – see the picture of the info sheet, and test area.

A tourist coach arrived while I was there. They’d spent about 5 minutes at the King Stone, and were being rapidly shown around the stones. I don’t spend a great deal of time at sites (so many sites, so little time), but even I’m not that quick, and I’ve not paid for the privilege of a guide!

I have just returned 2 hours ago. It is the first time that I have set out to ‘intentionally’ visit a stone circle site (I think I saw one when I was a child) and I have been quite blown away by the experience. I visited this site at Hordron Edge and two more circles on Barbrook Moor.

I didn’t find too much difficulty, at all, finding the circle at Hordron Edge, but like most of the other people who have posted here, I did have to climb over an already cut barbed-wire fence and stumble up a short steep incline. There I followed a track for tractors and Jeeps and eventually (1/2 a mile maybe?) just off the track I saw the circle. It has been a very cloudy day, with an ever-present feeling of rain, but it stayed dry for me and quite warm and humid.

I dont know whether it was the thrill of searching and finding the site or the energy from the site and its surroundings itself (probably a bit of both), but i found myself grinning like an idiot for 10 minutes whilst I explored and wondered about the circle(sorry for babbling here!).

I can understand why everybody has described this area as very magical, my thoughts instantly drawn back to what it must have been like so many thousands of years ago. But most of all, I found myself naturally ‘connected’ again to my surroundings and landscape. I felt very happy and very relaxed.

Again I wondered whether I was feeling high from finding the place (plus high from the climb I just had to get here, and the ‘little’ brandy in my flask of coffee) or from the energy from the site itself.

Anyway, just to say that my visits to these sites will not be my last, and I hope to discover more about these places and what they signify-signified to us strange humans!

Again I apologise for any unneccessary babbling but I just wanted to say these things while I am still in the thrall of my day.
To summarise: No problems getting there (as long as you don’t mind climbing over fences and going up steep hills) and well recommended to anyone who is thinking about going there!

Approaching Via from Brodgar today I noticed just before the Via B&B a large chunk of stone with a reddish cast in parts. Over the way is what used to be a fair size quarry so it might be simply one that got away. Then on my way back I took another look at the dip that it was in, and seeing the rise against Via thought “ha-ha, settlement mound”. Looked it up on Canmore and found that in the 19th century a cist (since gone) was found in this barrow. So where that ‘boulder’ lies is perhaps the scar of excavation.

Bivallate hillfort. The banks and ditches of the fort are quite visible, but not particularly large, about 3ft above ground, the ditches maybe 5ft wide. The earthworks are mostly on the northern side, as the southern side is a rather steep slope, more of a cliff with ferns.

At the top of this cliff, easily visible from the A696, is the formation known as the piper’s chair. It’s a large flat oval of rock, about 15ft by 8ft across. Either end has broken off, otherwise it would have looked even snazzier. It’s striking profile is the result of it sitting atop a stratum of much softer sandstone. The same quartzy stone used in many of the megaliths in this part of Northumberland. The soft stuff has eroded, leaving the harder disk sitting like one of those rocks in a road runner cartoon. The harder disk also has a couple of veins of quartz pebbles embedded through it.

On the top of the chair, are numerous basins, some of which are natural, some of which look enhanced, one of which has been carved with metal tools to make a font-like basin with a strange shelf to one side.

It’s littered with modern graffitti from the last century, but part of this is the creation of a handy foothold on the east side, making it easier to climb on the top.

A substantial (3m tall) boulder at the foot of the crag upon which the Piper’s chair sits is named on the 1866 map as ‘The tailor and his man’. In a curious echo of the nearby ‘Poind and his man’.

There’s not much to see above ground here. But there are some banks about 4ft high, and some apparent hut circles.

The banks are stone and earth, as can be seen clearly at one point where they have been cut through by a more recent track. It’s in an eminently defensible place, with a nearby fissure by the name of Long Byres, hinting at the possibility that this was a good spot to keep cattle penned.

In July, the bracken occludes the earthworks, but in winter, at sunset, this will be a much more visually satisfying place. but perhaps not particularly accessible.

This motif gets a mention on page 122 of Stan Beckensall’s ‘Prehistoric Rock Art in Northumberland’.
However the map ref given in the book is a few nundred metres out. it’s best found by finding the ‘Jubilee stone’ off to the north of the path leading from the Poind and His man and the Middleton stone.

The motif is on the bedrock about 3m NE of the memorial stone. Note that the Jubilee stone is not prehistoric as some web sources imply, but it does give a good idea of how the stone used in prehistoric monuments erodes. It’s only been there a hundred years, and the words are galready gone at the top. The fact that it’s made from the quartzy sandstone made me wonder if it had once been a menhir.

It’s a simple, heavily eroded motif, consisting of 6 cups, one with a ring and an arc, another with a ring. The natural surface of the rock has been pecked to enhance natural grooves.

The site has excellent views to the Simonside hills.

I’m not sure if the record in the county SMR implies the stone is not in its original setting, or that it may have been removed all together.

If the latter, then no worries. It’s still very much there.

Like other stones in the area, it has the apparently obligatory (for south Northumberland standing stones) view to the sacred hill of Simonside.

Like others in the area, it is also made of a sandstone that weathers into dramatic vertical grooves.

Like others in the area, it is rectangular in cross section, on a rough east/west orientation of the wider face.

Like others in the area, the stone contains chunks of quartz.

Unlike others in the area, it has no visible cupmarks, and the bottom part is visible, showing very clearly the extent to which the stone has weathered since it was erected. Above the level of the surrounding soil, the NW edge is heavily weathered, below this, visible as a result of the sheep and cows using it as a rubbing stone, the bottom is very rectangular and unweathered. Deliberately shaped even?

It is this anomalous aspect that may suggest it is no longer in situ, as livestock activity at other stones hasn’t resulted in the revealing of this kind of feature, but it is the kind of thing you might expect if it had been relocated, or re-erected. There’s been some extensive quarrying of the nearby crags, and the field the stone stands in is in the route of the exits from the quarry.

One thing that I am becoming more sure of, is the choice of stone from a particularly quartz rich substrata must have been deliberate. It’s unlike the majority of the stone in the area, being found mostly in the standing stones. Presumably it’s not very good for buildings. It has made me think twice about a discounted gatepost I saw on the way though.

From The Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel we headed along the Cumbrian Way that passes below the scree shoot and the Pike of Stickle. Then set off upwards towards the Pike calling in at the bulging bottom end of the shoot.

Then up through the bracken to the foot of the thimble shaped Pike of Stickle. We took the wide sloping grassy ledge that heads west and upwards before traversing eastwards to the quarried rocky ledges directly above the gulley of the main axe factory site. It’s a bit of a hairy route and you can end up feeling pretty exposed on some of the eastern ledges. But it gives you an impression of what it might’ve been like working up here.

After copping for some of the best views in the Lakes on top of the Stickle (Ingleborough is visible on the southern horizon on a good day); we headed off to Loft Crag before descending its buttress to pick up the path below Gimmer Crags. The smaller scree shoots here also contained many chippings and cast offs from axe production.

Much like Graig Llwydd in North Wales where the axe factory scarred the mountain with a deep notch. The workings here appear to have separated the Pike of Stickle from the rest of the Langdale Crags.
All in all a chuffin’ top place....

It’s a short climb up the hill opposite Raisgill Hall to the ring cairn, which is located above the old lime kiln visible from the road.
It’s a bit of an uninspiring site overall, but the views over to the Howgill Fells help it along.

This site is slap bang in the middle of a well-trodden path from Danby village. Drawing from memory, there is one chunky standing stone and what appears to be the remains of an embanked stone circle or ring cairn. The site has obviously suffered much damage and tampering over the years. On a clear day the view is lovely. I will return to photograph the site.

Visited 23rd March 2004: Having failed to find Creggandevesky Court Tomb, I decided to go and see Beaghmore before it was too late. It was a relief to find the place without too much trouble, and thankfully the rain was holding back. The sun even came out!

There’s so much here, it’s impossible to describe concisely (so I won’t try). In summary, it’s a tightly packed collection of Bronze Age stone circles, stone rows and cairns. None of the stones are especially large, but coming from Ceredigion I’m not put off my small stones. It was a beautiful scene, with the rain hardly gone and bright oblique sunshine. I inflicted some badly played harmonica on the stones before heading off for one last try at finding Creggandevesky.

Incidentally, access to the stones at Beaghmore is good. A wheelchair user could get at 95% of the site, perhaps with a little assistance in some places. There’s a good path running down the length of the site, and parking is easy.

NY41640 05884.

This is a great double circle. Although it’s been battered, enough remains to get a feel for what the stone circle might’ve looked when un-disturbed.
Unlike the RMS entry we thought there are perhaps 6-9 stones left in the outer-circle, only 3 now built into a wall remain upright. The other possible stones are now fallen and are at ground level.
The inner circle stands on a large mound (well large for the circles 20m outer diameter), and has 3 remaining stones.
Excellent views to the east out over the Tongue to the high ridge that includes Forswick, Ill Bell and Yoke. Whilst to the north Threshthwaite Mouth.

There’s room to pull off the road that heads through Troutbeck and then Town Head, at NY414 062, bang opposite the ‘bridleway’ you need to take. Follow it down for 0.25miles to an old slate quarry, the track passes through the actual circle.

Massive dolman just outside Carlow town. Cap stone is 130 tons and is said to be the biggest in Europe. It has a small layby for cars.

One word about this is MASSIVE. The capstone itself is made of granite and I still have the scrapes in my belt buckle from where I scrabbled up. The dolman itself feels much more like a huge rock they managed to prop up with some stones and its a good way down if you fell off the top.

Over all the site felt to me much more male (a la Stonehenge) in its vibe. Not somewhere I felt relaxed but some where I relaxed as I left.

I visited again on 8th June 2004 and got some half-decent photos. I think an overcast day is best! The spirals do not seem to be as clear as they were several years ago, when I took my previous photos.
Please note this site is by the edge of the road, and not one and a half fields up the hill as the latest digitised footpath map shows!