Latest Fieldnotes

This didn’t immediately ‘wow’ me like I thought it would. It wasn’t that I was disappointed exactly but I didn’t get that ‘buzz’. It was only when I got up very close to the individual stones, particularly the really wafer thin one, that this place excited me. The angle of the top of each stone was thrilling and had a really angry graphic quality.

I was surprised by the little henge it was in, which seemed too small for the height and sharpness of the stones. My God! When all the stones were up it must’ve been quite an intimidating sight!

Unstan is a great example of a stalled tomb and is particularly easy to access. No expensive ferry fares to Rousay, no long drive over the Churchill barriers to Isbister, no entry fees or booking required, easy parking, easy to find. But just because it’s easy, don’t think it’ll let you down. It’s great.

From the outside, the knowe is tall – about 2.5ms, I guess, and unlike many Orcadian tombs which are built on slopes, stands proud from it’s flat base like an upturned pudding basin. It doesn’t have a henge like Maeshowe.

A mercifully short stoop through a short passageway takes you into the chamber, which has been re-roofed with a concrete bowl with skylight. I like the way Historic Scotland have done this to many tombs on the islands as you still get a sense of the interior space and those wonderful stalls.

Drive up almost to the top of the hill, park and walk down to the tomb. It’s a horrible walk on a rough, well marked track for about 3/4 of a mile, but by christ, it’s worth it. What a fabulous tomb!

Nestling into the hillside, the crouching, squashy pancake layers of the mound don’t come into view until you’re quite close. It has a little passage entrance at the front – too low to get through – but on the top of the mound, which you just can’t resist climbing on, is a large horizontal metal sliding door. I pulled it back to reveal a dark gaping space with a metal ladder, inviting me to get in! I’d already grabbed the torch which Historic Scotland had politely left in a weatherproof box next to the information board, so down I went.

What magnificent construction! Corbelling just like at Maeshowe and Fairy Knowe – tight, precision engineering and a tall, tall chamber, boxy and with three side chambers and the front passageway going off it.

This was probably my favourite tomb of all on Orkney. Tons of character, fantastic views, beautiful construction, lots to discover and poke about with. It wasn’t long before Moth and Hob were inside, too, crawling into side chambers, squealing with delight, taking photos and generally having the sort of great time that only modern antiquarians do. Jacqui descended into the tomb and even Cloudhigh and claustrophobic Jamesie got in. It was quite a party.

I visited this site in June of 2004 ... it’s a nicely reconstructed fort with a neat souterrain and excellent views. While the souterrain was open for us, some have told me that they’ve found it locked.

The standing stone just inside of the entrance (and the altar stone just opposite, on the outside) are curiously placed, and had us wondering if they pre-dated the fort. I’m assuming that the standing stone, with its cross, was a pagan monument that fell victim to a monk many centuries later. If so, it’s one of the better examples of this I’ve seen.

As you leave down the stairs and the path, scan the hills to your left for the Fingers.

OS sheet 84 and a good pair of water resistant hiking boots were required to find this fine circle. We began searching from the boulder burials marked on the map, (and clearly visible from the road) and it was tough going. Next time, I’ll try the northern rather than the western approach.

The fence surrounding the circle may be electrified, so beware. On one side, however, there was a stretch with only one wire rather than two, making it very easy to stoop under.

If you’re here, don’t miss the wedge tomb, which is about 200 meters to the south, further up the hill.

Visited this site in June of 2004 ... the tomb was a bit hard to find, even with OS sheet 84. Tall ferns everywhere! I suggest starting with the circle, rather than the boulder burials (which are easy to see from the road north out of Lauragh). We started from the burials and ended up combing the hillside for an hour or so. We did find several other unmapped stone formations, however, that did not appear natural.

From the circle, look south and head up the hillside. You’ll catch sight of the fence surrounding the tomb. The fence around the tomb may be electrified, but there are gullies here and there that make it easy to slip under.

An alternate route ... further north on the road, past the boulder burials, you’ll come to a fence that climbs the hillside. Walk along this fence through a couple of gates and look for the tomb on your left.

The tomb is a fantastic specimen!

This place will stay in my memory for a long time, it is the place where my trusty SLR, which over the past 22 years has travelled with me from the arctic to the tropics, finally gave up the ghost.
The cairn is a splendid ruin, even in the horizontal rain. Just before we reached the circle Stu said “I wish the sun would come out”. His wish was promptly granted, but then just as we arrived at the cairn, the heavens opened, goddamn Loki.
It took us an age to suss out the cup and ring. Stan must have taken hundreds of photos or been extremely lucky, to capture it for his Cumbrian rock art book.

There’s a curious narrow, linear rubble feature just a few metres to the south of the cairn that’s worth looking out for.

I dragged Stu up here to get his opinion of what might have been going on. I’d also found a couple of references to a stone row to the north east of the monument.
We searched all over the moor for the possible remains of a row but found nowt.
Our best guess is, that there is an outcrop of limestone pavement running north east on the low ground about 40 meters from Penhurrock. This pavement is quite narrow and given a lot of squinting and gurning and an inexperienced eye, could possibly mistaken for a row.

Hob and Jacqui hadn’t been here and were going home next day. They didn’t have a car with them. We did. It was past 6.30 and it would probably be closed. But we went just on the off-chance. We got lucky AGAIN.

Avoid the commercialism. If you’re not bothered about buying postcards and want to have the place to yourself, do as we did and go after the visitor centre is closed at 6.30. Park in the empty car park. Walk round the side of the visitor centre towards the beach on the deserted grassy path. Follow the ‘time line’. Pay no fee. The four of us had the place to wander through, consider and be amazed at without coach parties or tour guides; the time to stare and wonder and think and imagine. Moth and I returned next day at the same time and with guide book in hand made our own tour.

Skara Brae was first place on Orkney where I got a real sense of the LIFE (rather than the death) of neolithic Orcadians. It was easy to imagine people living here: hear the low rumble of their voices, smell their dinner cooking, bump your head on the fish drying on racks over the fire, feel the smoke stinging your eyes, smell the damp sheepskins, hear a child crying for her mum from the warmth of her little stone slatted bedstead...

The people who lived here were no different from us. Their dreams and aspirations were precisely the same as ours: to feed, raise and love our families as comfortably as possible. You can be very close to them here.

Absolutely enchanting and unmissable.

I didn’t expect mighty megaliths or a Caithnessian Carnac, but I was mildly disappointed at first view that each stone was so very teeny.

But what they lack in size, they make up for in numbers. Mighty numbers! Rows and rows poke up through the heather, some a bit wiggly and knocked off course now, but many still running in straight lines down the hillside pointing in the direction of the coast.

It took me a while to like it here, but in the same way as one mackeral isn’t very impressive but a great shoal of fish all dancing together become beautiful, so did this place.

I had high hopes I’d be able to ‘do a Dorian’ (see page 424 of the big papery TMA) among the little stones here, but I was disappointed. The weather was too cold even to take ones gloves off, let alone reveal one’s cherry muffins.

Amid the modern paraphenalia of a bustling light industrial and trading estate on the edge of Kirkwall harbour hides this underground chamber. Vans and trucks rush past delivering crates of fish only metres from its weird surface mound, which is fenced off and locked.

Going down into it is really quite steep, though not as steep as Mine Howe. You descend about 3 metres into the ground. To the right is a small storage chamber area, about 1 metre cubed and the passageway leads off to the left, curving round slightly and running for about 4 ms. You have to stoop. It then opens up into a large chamber with four really extraordinarily beautiful pillars, with supporting capitals tied into the walls of the chamber. And lovely corbelling. Another masterpiece of construction. Take note ye architects of ugly industrial buildings! A functional building can be beautiful and long lasting!

Like many of the tombs and souterrains hereabouts, a powerful torch is provided for the visitor, this time by the keeper of keys in the jewellery shop round the corner.

We asked at the farm if we could have a look at the long cairn. Slightly bewildered as to why two apparently ordinary people would want to view an old cairn in THIS weather, the farmer indicated how close we could drive to it. This cheered me. However, it was a fair old walk over uneven ground (no path) in FOUL weather to the very edge of a promentary.

The cairn was long indeed, and tall, too, with some of the rubble poking through. But hellish neglected and in this weather, nothing to write home about. I couldn’t see an entrance to it at all, and the day was too HIDEOUS I lost interest in looking for it and began the long march over the bog back to the car.

It’s location IS splendid though, windswept, remote, overlooking other islands with the waves crashing up onto the beach just metres away.

We turned up at Maeshowe visitor centre at Tormiston Mill at 5.10pm hoping to book a time to visit with as few other people as possible. How lucky we got! The last tour was due to go five minutes later and only had two other – rather disinterested – Chermans on it. We paid our £3 each fee and toddled off down the path towards the mound.

The henge was the first thing that surprised me, being so crisp and well defined. As Julian says in the big papery TMA the whole construction really is like a great grassy sombrero! Our guide, a young archaelogy student, met us at the door and showed us down the long passageway, beautifully square, made of single long slabs of sandstone. It felt very like crawling into an Egyptian tomb but without the multicoloured wall paintings. And then the chamber opens up in front of you! Wow-wheeee!
It was wonderful not to have to share the interior space with too many people. You really wouldn’t want to be in there with a coach party of 20 garlic-breathed Americans.

Apart from the painstakingly neat, tight corbelling, the sheer height of the pyramid roof and interior proportions of the chamber the thing I found most notable was that the tall corner stones seemed to be the same shape, size and have the same ‘angle of slice’ on the top as the stones at Brodgar.

The guide gave a very thorough talk, only snippets of which I caught as immediately I sat down on the dry gravel floor and got out my sketchbook. Photography in the chamber is not allowed, but they couldn’t stop me drawing. From the bits I heard she seemed to dwell at length about the Vikings (’bloody Vikings’) and not enough about construction techniques for my liking. Rather than whinge I just kept scribbling.

Once the Cherman visitors had seen enough to be able to ‘tick it off’ their list, they departed leaving just the three of us. Suddenly it felt very big in there! And very, VERY tall, as I was still sitting cross legged on the floor. The guide seemed happy to have someone to talk about it to that took her away from her usual spiel. Moth discussed the chronology of the tomb with the guide who didn’t know enough about other British sites to be able to accurately place it against West Kennett, for example.

It may cost £3 and you may have to share it, but it IS worth it.

This stone is unmistakeable and incredibly significant as it is in perfect alignment with the entrance passageway to Maeshowe.

Typically Orcadian, being tall and flat, Barnstoneworth United, as I took to calling it, was always topped with a perching curlew or oystercatcher.

As you travel around the Stenness landscape, this stone always seems to be visible.

Sadly, not much to see here, except a bit of a rise in the ground. We attempted an approach, but a herd of very excited cows, with calves and the most enormous bull prevented us even entering the field. This herd meant serious business.

Just off the main Stromness to Kirkwall road offering stunning views across the Loch of Stenness is Deepdale standing stone.

It’s a large single menhir typically Orcadian, being flat and like a playing card about 6 feet tall on a little rise. From up there you can see the entire landscape of the Great Sacred Monuments of Stenness including:
-Brodgar
-Bookan
-Stenness
-Tomb of Unstan
-Maeshowe
-Watchstone
-Barnhouse stone
- many, many tumuli and cairns and even the summit of Wideford Hill could be seen peeping up over the nearby hills.

We sat for ages up here by the stone, gobsmacked at the richness of the neolithic landscape and staggered we could see just about all the ‘Hollywood’ sites. I couldn’t resist painting it all. Unbelieveable position for a stone. Don’t miss it.

To add to the complexity of all this – someone has been doing some searching to the left of the road leading South – about from this car onwards for about 100 yards themodernantiquarian.com/post/26829
and has cut back the vegetation to reveal 7 fair sized stones that are currently fully visible (July 04).

There’s mention here of a survey finding lots of stones and discounting them as probably “natural” but these look very characterful and several are extremely gnarled – just what you’d choose if you needed some, so I don’t know.

Further complication is the mention of a previous barrow with lots of stones – that would have been in the field adjoining these I think.

From this position, of course, Avebury and Silbury ARE visible.

This lovely granite stone sits beside the B2588 heading west out of Penrith. It’s a good sized stone. There are other possible fallen or cleared stones on the other side of the field wall.
In his ‘Carnac to Callanish’ book Burl mentions “vestigial lines of standing stones” at Newton Reigny. The village is only about 1km to the north west making this stone a possible survivor of one of those rows.

On the road out of Fort William that goes to the two Stiell Falls you have Ben Nevis on your left and Nevis Forest on your right. Go along this road as far as the peat track that is part of the Cow Hill Circuit in the forest. At the top where it meets the West Highland Way several directions are signposted including that for 2.8km (ha, ha) to this vitrified fort. A long steady walk along the forest road.

Eventually you reach the point where the signpost points to the Dun Deardail track off the West Highland Way. You go over the most incredible turnstile, of such a size you could literally take a pram over it – except the track is strictly for the feet. It is basically a gravel path consolidated by black bags of something spongy underneath, so that you have the strange (and at times disconcerting) feeling of walking on a deep forest floor.

Just before the fort is a big hill called An Dun despite being nothing of the sort, purely natural. At one marshy spot there is a duckboard walk. I cannot recommend this site to anyone that is not either very sure of foot or else foolhardy – you imagine beforehand someone will have made a level route straight into the interior of Dun Deardail but instead find yourself clambering up the steep sides on a not-quite-straight stony path. The narrow path is composed of different materials, the right hand section (below the level of the left by several inches) is all fragmented planes of presumably bedrock whilst the left is small boulders and rocks, the right all grey but the left of differing hues not all owing to vitrification. I think in far drier weather climbing over the turf would have been my choice instead. Once you do reach the top its mostly depression, with a narrow outer circuit at the edge of the sharp drop about the site.

There are what appear to be reasonably sized structures around the edges of the interior but my view was rather damp and this really is the wrong season for a major recce unless you can get around nettles and such.

Dun Deardail is one in a line of vitrified forts that stretches from Craig Phadraig outside Inverness all the way down to the West Coast. Most of its names refer to a fancied connection with Princess Deirdre (see miscellaneous) but it is also known as Dun Dearg Suil ‘Hill of the Red Eye’. This has been read as a reference to usage as a beacon hill when surely one could as well read in a folk-memory of its vitrification or an astute inference by analogy that this had happened.

Dewerstone Settlement – 21.6.2004

I knew nothing about this site except for what I could see on the map, which showed a semi circular earthwork on top of the hill, and a homestead within the enclosed area.

The whole area is National Trust land so it is open access. The settlement can be approached over Wigford Down (a much flatter route), or from the river valley below. Many walkers in the area park at Shaugh Bridge. Or Cadover Bridge, but this is further away. There is no vehicular access into the actual National Trust land (e.g. from Goodameavy).

There isn’t much to see though, especially with the dense bracken. The paths are cleared of bracken but not the rest of the hill top. Presumably the semi circular earthwork would have cut the hill off from the rest of the downs.

The views from the nearby Dewerstone Rocks are stunning. But please treat the rocks below with care; two rock climbers died on them last year.

West Saddlesborough Hut Circles – 25.6.2004

See the page on the Stone Row & Cairn Circle for directions.

There are several hut circles in this area. Take your pick! I’ve just added pics on one of the best ones.

West Saddlesborough Cairn – 25.6.2004

See the page on the Stone Row & Cairn Circle for directions.

About 50 metres from the start point you should notice a cairn. It’s possibly a rather ruined kerbed cairn.

West Saddlesborough – Stone Row & Cairn Circle – 25.6.2004

I knew nothing about this site except for what I could see on the map, which showed a litter of boundary work and hut circles, plus a cairn circle and a stone row, running for about 175 metres from SX554634 to SX555636

No obvious places to park. Best I could do was to find a suitable snippet of land off the road (which runs from Cadover Bridge towards Wotter). The whole area east of the road is Access Land. Probably the simplest place to start and to get your bearings is from the road side cross and footpath (marked with a tiny ankle height marker) circa SX552634.

The area is a litter of old field boundaries and hut circles, with bracken added in for fun (however, some of it has been recently cut away from around any archaeological features). I think I found the cairn circle and stone row. About 50 metres from the start point you should notice a cairn. Another 75 metres on from this (towards Saddlesborough summit) you should start to spot a low ditch and bank of some old boundary work accompanied by the first of several hut circles in the area. The map suggested the Cairn Circle is just to the north of this. I traced some stones in a circle in this area but it as definitely one of the days when you wonder whether you are seeing stone circles because you are looking for them or because you really are in the right place? All stones were tiny except for one massive stone! By the by, as you get slightly higher there are suddenly great views south, over Plymouth and out to sea.

However the good news is that there is what seems to be a long row of stones leading away from this area, down the hill. And an easy way to spot it is to look for one of the star shaped markers in his area (see pics above). I walked the line and counted 53 stones. The row seems to curve at the end as the slope gets steeper. The row ends about seven metres from a small gulley and a sign that marks the boundary with the Shaugh Lake part of the china clay works.

Drizzlecombe Complex – 23.6.2004

This is such an amazing complex, but I made the cardinal sin of not having hardly any time to visit. It definately does deserve a few hours, and it a bit of a trek to get to.

Directions – Again, I basically agree with the travel instructions on the Megalithic Walks link below, but be slightly warned that despite this being marginal land everywhere there don’t seem to be hardly any spaces to actually park at his so-called car park!

For the less mobile, or for those who want a more a sure footed route towards Drizzlecombe an alternative route for part of the way is to walk along the well made track towards Ditsworthy Warren House. This track starts from a fork just as you come towards the car park and winds around Gutter Tor and over to the house.

As you round Ditsworthy Warren House, you will soon seen the Drizzlecombe complex in the distance, which emphasises just how large two of the stones are. Don’t be tempted (as I was, like a kid seeing a sweet shop) to head straight for the stones in the distance. It can get pretty marshy that way. As you head down the hill bear slightly right, it’s definately a bit drier that way.

I can’t say much about the Drizzlecombe complex except please visit, and please allow some time to marvel at all the various remains in the area. The complex is in a remarkable bowl with various hills and minor Tors hemming it in.

Ringmoor Stone Row and Cairn Circle – 25.6.2004

I thought I was going mad trying to find this. I mean, how hard can it be with a map and compass, good weather, and knowing where you are starting from (Brisworthy Stone Circle)? When I did get here it seemed like a lot more that 300 metres from the Stone Circle. It was probably a mix of it being uphill, across long-ish tufty moorland, and not being able to see the cairn circle until you get pretty close to it (I had mistakenly interpreted the directions from the Megalithic Walks website link below to think it could be seen from all around – it can’t be seen unless you are on the plateau). Don’t be fooled into thinking that stones over to the west might be the ones you want. They aren’t. Just head directly uphill (north or NNW) from the stone circle and you will find Ringmoor.

The cairn circle is nice if a little wild and windswept. You do start to get a feeling of being on the top of the world now, with views all around, and the Princeton TV Transmitter looking like you could reach out and touch it (it’s actually about 8km away). The row leads away from the circle and is very clear. However, I couldn’t find the small kerbed cairn said by Burl to be about 240m along the row. At first I thought I was going mad, but then I seriously started to believe that it could have been destroyed in recent years?

By the by, the black line marked on the 1:25,000 map, going straight through the row, is not a field wall, so don’t expect a large wall as I did. It’s probably a reave; an ancient field boundary ditch and bank.