Latest Fieldnotes

Not a very spectacular site but it makes part of a nice megalithic walk incorporating The Thieves and Drumfern.

Drannandow has five chambers (large but not the largest) symetrically arranged with one reasonably well preserved axial (facing E) and two pairs of opposing laterals (NW,NE,SE,SW) in poorer condition.

Sits at the head of the Coldstream Burn. Axial chamber aligned on nothing particular.

See photo captions for dimensions etc.

The public road to the site is narrow but you can park at the triangle where the farm road joins it. Ask at the farm.

Long and reasonably steep. Several gates.

Visited 2 May 2004

I’ve put this down as a chambered cairn even although no chambers are visible on account of its having a facade (quite impressive) and stones that look like portal stones. The chamber(s) await discovery.

I like my cairns naked and stoney not covered in grass so this gets big points on that count also. Glad to see removed, since my last visit, the “traffic cone cairn” which someone must have thought looked like a smart design addition on top of the cairn.

Two cheers also for the Forestry Commission who have left the cairn resonably open amid the plantation allowing some idea of the views it once had. Sadly though, those to the SE over the cairn entrance just glimpsing Wigton Bay are now obscured.

It sits in high ground above the River Cree and the wide Penkill Burn broadly facing their confluence and amongst a number of (currently) their tributary streams.

More detail in the photo captions.

Easy to get to. On a waymarked forestry walk. Follow the forestry/Knockman Wood signs from Newton Stewart. Gentle uphill walk. One gate.

Visited 2 May 2004

English Heritage have recently re-paved the approach roads (good), but the car park is still very pot-holed. A fence has been erected across part of the site to allow the local farmer to run his sheep there. The Frriends of the White Horse and local dog-walkers are pretty upset. Lots of low-flying planes can be noisy when the RAF decide it is time for an exercise. The ice-cream vans are handy on a hot day. The lack of any rubbish-bins on the site has led to their being a lot of litter at times. The local paper is trying to get the Horse cleaned again. This is done by the local (awful) cement works – perhaps to recompense for the high incidence of local asthma cases. Even worse they are burning old tyres there now. The local quarry is also trying to expand which will destroy a lot of local by-paths.

Having at last re-visited this site (see notes below) I am very confused. Its position in the park is very beautiful and tranquil, only the occasional car passing. The circle itself is mainly composed of the generic Sarsens but a curious extension to the N is made from conglomerate including the tallest stone at the termination.
There is a small double concentric prone circle somewhat N of centre of the main circle. Some of the stones are upright, some leaning and some prone. In the valley, apart from some used as road markers, there are several erect stones seemingly randomly placed.
How much of it is authentic? My own thoughts are that the circle itself “feels” right but the odd N extension looks as though an antiquarian has though to make a faux passage grave and while he was at it put a ruined cist in the circle for good measure!
The etymology for “Stonor” is, not surprisingly, “stone hill”.
This pretty circle needs more people to visit it, someone with more experience than me would be a start!

‘This is a fairly large standing stone for this bit of the world. About 3’ wide, over 1’ deep and 4’ tall. It comes to a point, is flat both sides and made of millstone. The flat sides face east/west.

This is a gorgeous spot. Stood on its own hillock, nestled amidst a multitude of low rounded hills, a number of valleys convene to form an idyllic enclosed landscape‘

- 16 May 2004

‘The stone stands just shy of the top of a ridge known as Hawkhurst Head, on its easterly side. Flat-on facing the north east. It is a wide, low stone, of millstone, somewhat casually coming to a point about 3.5’ tall. Jagged, and with a large shelf in one side.

A great view of the Goyt valley on that eastern side. Not visible from beside the stone but just a few metres back, beyond the wall that straddles the ridge, the great view continues. Grass covered hills, some trees. The stone itself stands in grass, kept short by sheep.

You can see the Dipping Stone on a nearby ridge to the west.

Just down slope to the north-west is a round raised earth structure, built into the slope, perhaps 4’ tall, flat topped. about 10 paces across. Potentially its related to the standing stone‘

- 16 May 2004

The ‘OS Ref’ for this site should be amended because 988814 puts the stone some way south of the ridge, which is misleading because it is actually on the other side of the ridge and closer to 988814

Prominent on the hill as viewed from the shore, a little further along than St.Peter’s Kirk. 16m E-W by 18m, most of it is grass-covered but (at least now) higher up is bare and there are some stones on its top. Even with binoculars there is no definite shape to them. It is probably a settlement mound and there is apparently suggestion of a level platform to the south. Down at the uppermost shoreline there is at the land’s edge levels like those I noted in the cliff’s edge to the right of the Scapa Distillery outlet (Broch of Lingro). There is hereabouts an angle of drystane wall jutting out that may be something more than that. You cannot get to the site from the coast owing to a very taut barbwire fence along the coast. A better bet is probably the farmtrack to Ness of Campston.

It was by going up a wide ditch, presently dry, knee-deep in vegatation that I reached the end of the field with the Leafea stones. From here I could fill my camera with their image. After getting back I realised that the way chosen was the worst of several to reach Leafea and Brockan (it strikes me with hindsight that the best way is likely to be not to go down the turnoff to Warebeth but instead continue along to where the Outertown road takes a sharp turn and go around the field edges at that point). The two standing stones (1 & 1.2m high) are at right angles to the coast, earthfast. Not part of the arrangement were a couple of natural boulders of which one filled the gap.The story goes that a dog unearthed human bones at the stones’ base. Now the uppermost stone is part of the barb-wire fence. It is often difficult to fathom why some stones are chosen and loads of others aren’t. Just behind where I stood (HY23040928) is one of decent height, either side of where ditch meets coast are another two (HY22980917,HY22990917) and I think I remember another on the way up. All these ones differ from Leafea by being the usual taller than they are broad.

HY54040403
Passing Comely I saw some stones together at a field edge. At first I thought it was a small pile dumped there. On closer inspection they are all part of of a short earthen mound and not one of modern appearance. At the cliff edge behind it is a standing stone. Looking into the bay there is very close to shore a shallow area (HY54050403) in front of which is a line of stones that isn’t fieldwall.
HY54010382
Where the Comely track first skirts the shoreline a very short earthen ramp comes down. To the right of this are some thin slabs under the track. Looks at first like a wall of a cist. Not a wall because the walls along the coast here are even drystane courses. Indeed the slabs were backed up to one such – the wall has an apparent termination at the structure’s RH end but it goes behind it. Against the bottom of the RH end I saw a modern rusty waterpipe of several inches diameter, though this discharges alongside not inside the flat area in front of the slabs. Here the 1:25,000 shows a well. So could it be the remains of a tank ?

My first picture of Brockan I shot from the northern end of the Leafea Stones’ fence. I took several more from nearer the Outertown road later but I think that the pictures will show it looks better from below. Even on CANMAP this is still down as a chambered tomb. Understandable for the size. But a partial excavation found two chambers each with a short passage leading to a common paved stone-walled enclosure (I am reminded that at least one beehive structure used to reside in Breck Farm’s stackyard). So CANMORE says present thinking is a secondary broch settlement or a small Skara Brae type village. Despite, or perhaps because of, the proximity of both Warebeth and Breckness I don’t quite buy it as the former.Three stones still protrude from the top. I tried several other tracks to approach it but none came much closer (it strikes me with hindsight that the best way is likely to be not to go down the turnoff to Warebeth but instead continue along to where the Outertown road takes a sharp turn and go around the field edges at that point). Looked at from the road there appears to be a possible something in the field to its left, though admittedly only a possible cropmark. There used to be a Brockan Standing Stone at HY23140987.
Brockan and my suspect share the same 6-figure NGR. There is a spring next to Brockan and a well close by my suspect. About the same distance from my suspect as that is from Brockan, at HY233096, a cist with three bodies was found in a probably natural sandy knoll in 1845.

“Almost entirely destroyed” all that is left is visible on the eroding cliff. It may be very little compared to what was once there but there is surely value in a vertical section that gradually reveals itself without any person having to excavate it ! A watching brief by archaeologists would provide useful results in time. And it goes a long ways along the cliff, over two points of the coast. Either side of the central broch there is 20~30m of settlement, and the broch itself nearly 12m diameter. Apparently there is a slice of a chapel in there too, which I wish I had known at the time. The most obvious structures at this stage in its unveiling are slab-sided floor drains. My photos will tell the story better – all comparitive clarity after Ingshowe and Berstane.

Nearer Comely than Campston this very low round “indeterminate mound”, originally down as a burnt mound without reason, is an insignificant lump in the nearer corner of the field that also holds St.Peter’s Kirk, and to the right of a big field boundary drain. Didn’t see any of the “protruding large stones” meant to be atop it but saw what struck me as many more stones than just the slumped fieldwall alongside down the ‘cliff’. To the left of the drain you might make out two boggy nausts, long disused and one partially infilled in case you wonder then what they are.

There can be no doubt that this is an ancient sacred Well. It sits on Holly Hill, and the village that it gives it’s name to was the site of an significant bath house in Roman times, possibly including a temple.

A visit to Well church may well reward you with a sight of the goddess of Well spring – a fish-bodied female figure is carved into one of the external window lintels.

The only other place where this image has been found so far is inside the church at Kirklington – the next village into which the spring at Well flows.

Bronze age round cairn, mostly soil, with some kerbstones still in place.
11m diameter, i.5m at it’s highest, with a whopping hole, resulting from antiquarian excavation.
There’s a stone in the middle of the hole, which looks like a standard ‘Am I a gatepost or not?” kinda thing, with a gatepost type squared socket, and what might, at a stretch, be a worn cup mark to muddy the issue.

About 20m to the SSW, there’s another stone, about 1.5m tall. Not a gatepost, I’d say, but been used as a rubbing post. It’s not as weathered as the stone at the Poind, but it’s possibly harder stone. It is more weathered than other stones in buildings, walls, gateposts etc in the vicinity.

Both the cairn and the stone are in a ridge and furrow field to the south of Bolam Church. There’s a handy bridleway down the edge of the field.

The cairn is confirmed as BA, but the SMR entry mentions the ‘subsequent re-use’ in reference to the gatepost. I’m not sure what they mean the cairn has been re-used as. A gatepost holder? For a single gatepost? The nearby standing stone is not mentioned at all. So any thoughts of prehistoric provenance for the stone must remain purely speculative.

This is an uncertain find. It is an out of place stone that sits on the gravel bed to the north west of the Northern Henge at Thornborough.

I think it may be significant in that it sits more or less on a straight line between the Sacred Spring at Well and the Northern Henge.

A similar line is followed by the longest pit alignment that is coming away from the northen henge – discovered on the Nosterfield Quarry. The pit alignment is thought to be Iron Age, the Spring at Well was used to feed a Roman bathhouse which was probably related to a temple.

Were it not for the lack of naturally found large blocks of stone locally this stone would probably pass off as an eratic. But such things are largely unknown in the area and therefore there is a good possibility that this was placed for a purpose and therefore requires further investigation.

Managed to get up here this week for a look-see.

A couple of holes in the ground, with stones laying beside them waiting to be raised. Not sure how many they’ll be working on in total.

Information notices have been graffittied by the locals who are against the restoration. Had a quick chat with Cherryl Straffon in St Justs about the restoration. Her comment? It’ll be good to see the big stones up again...

After throwing a little bit of thought & research at this site. I think it may be a Rath.
Mr Burl defines a Rath as ” Sometimes a pre-roman but more often an early christian banked-and-ditched sub circular enclosure. Most raths were family farmsteads but some were small defensive sites”.
I think this term may also be applied to Towtop Kirk

This huge cairn is not far off the Cleveland Way footpath. It’s a huge biut sadly wrecked cairn and is situated on the highest point of Cringle Moor (Cranimoor).
The centre has been hollowed out, probably as a hikers shelter and ably assisted by gamekeepers looking for material for their butts.
It’s a windy place on the best of days but the view from the escarpment edge is worth the walk.

The Poind (Burial mound) is easily visible from the track from Bolam West houses, where permission to wander about the field can be sought. The Man (Standing stone) is on the other side of the Poind, not visible as you come along the track. It’s a very weathered bit of sandstone with what look like iron deposits, visible as raised veins. It’s wide face faces the Poind, from the side, the deeply eroded runnels form a jagged silhouette. The other thing that stood out, was the cleft in the bottom of the Man. It looked like the Man had been taken from the same rock as the outcrop, and that some of the weathering had taken place prior to it being stood up.

The stone looks like it’s local, as can be seen by the similarity to that of the bedrock outcrop in the same field. It seems that both the Poind and the Man have been placed purposefully in relation to the outcrop. The outcrop itself has what may be the highly eroded remains of cups. But I could see why there might be considerable doubt, but it is very soft stone, as can be seen by the erosion on the Man. The cow, rabbit and sheep crap that covers much of it didn’t help make it any easier to decide if they were solution holes or nearly gone cups. In better light, it might be easier to tell one way o the other.

The Poind is home to a number of rabbits, and the Man has Owl pellets in the grooves on the top. The spot commands a good view over towards Tyne valley to the south, and a clear view of the Simonside hills to the north. It’s easy to see why the historical record states that men were ‘set to watch’ here during the reiver years. They would have had a darn good vantage point to look for the signs of reiving activity.

Visited 23rd September 2003: I was initially drawn to Carreg-y-Bwci because, on the Landranger map, it looked like a round barrow with a name. Also, as I had Alfie with me, it had the extra appeal of being near the road.

I parked just to the north of the site near the cattle grid, and walked up to the site. Although I’d done no research at this stage, it was pretty obvious from the beginning that something was a bit unusual. The boulder in the centre of the site is enormous, and unlikely. It could almost be a natural rock, incorporated into the site. The tight surrounding circular bank is well defined and rounded (almost feminine). Smaller stones lie on one side of the site, looking almost like kerb stones. I was just totally stumped as to what I was looking at.

Definitely worth visiting if you’re near Lampeter, if only to ponder the meaning of it all.

Monday 3/5/04
I drive past this site (well, on the road waaaaaay above it) almost every day and finally get round to a visit. It’s a long walk down from the road which climbs up the ridge of the Moorfoot Hills down to the peat moor. The views from here are stunning though- along the Moorfoot ridge, the complete skyline of the Pentland Hills, Berwick and Traprain Laws, Arthurs Seat and across the Firth of Forth to Fife- wow- what a final resting place. I follow the side of a new forest and trust my GPS to find the cemetery. At the end of the trees I start to notice circular patches of light green grass rising ever so slightly from the peat and short heather- just as well I visited at this time of the year otherwise the whole site would have been hidden in vegetation. There are apparently around 50 small cairns here, but I can only count about 30 or so- some of which I have to use my imagination! They only rise about 20 cm from the ground, but the largest is around 4 m in diameter. I guess most have sunk into the peat below. The whole site covers an area of 160 m NS by 70 m EW. Still- an impressive site with great views of some of the major archaeological and megalithic sites of the Lothians.

Monday 3/5/04
Driving up a dusty and hot track I can see the orange pipeline marker sticking out of the hedge- apparently where the remains of this possible stone circle were first discovered in 1994. There’s a large tree next to the hedge and sure enough, there are three large sandstone slabs and many large stones at the base. I climb up the gate that overlooks the field and check around the pipeline marker, but all clear of stones, so I guess these must be them! The field next to the fence has been meticulously cleared of any stone remains. The large slabs are loose in the ground and lying horizontally, as are the large stones. I check all of them, but no marks apart from possible plough scrapes.

Friday 16/4/04
In front of me hangs a menacing bible-black sky, to the left, the Edinburgh City Bypass and to the right a landfill site. I follow the line of the pylons until it opens to a golf course. Heading up a small hill I am soon hidden by trees and following the arrow on my trusty GPS. The hill soon becomes a tangle of trees and bushes and it’s a bit of a scramble through it all. Somewhere in here are the remains of 111 cists, at least one of which was built with a cup and ring marked stone and many contained Neolithic and Iron Age remains. The GPS tells me I’m on the site, but there is nothing on the ground I am standing on. I explore further as the site once stretched along the ridge of the hill. Unfortunately, a quarry has destroyed the SE section. It looks like the remainder has disappeared under the tree growth. I do, however, find rectangular indentations running approximately NE/SW- one of the few remaining graves? A mostly destroyed site unfortunately. Most remains have gone, no cup and ring marks and very little ground evidence.

A great looking, thick-set 1m high lump of a stone. It’s just over the hill from ‘The Dipping Stone’ which is marked on the Dark Peak O.S maps.
Like the nearby Murder Stone this stone also seems to stand at the head of two valleys.
Grid reference SK99839 81479.

When I saw that there was an entry for Thimbleby Moor I was amazed. I used to manage the estate that owned the moor in the 1980s and I’ve walked it many times, but never noticed the stone circle. The land is still privately owned, but since there were no photographs on TMA I felt that I ought introduce the moor to my new digital camera regardless.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon in May with a haze that slightly veiled the distant hills. From Multimap I could see that the circle was near to the boundary wall with the forestry that runs alongside the moor, so I thought the best way to find the stones was to follow the wall. I plodged through boggy areas thick with sphagnum and reeds and scraped through newly burned heather stalks.

Stones of varying sizes are strewn over the moor and at each group I looked around to see if they could be the circle I was looking for. All the time I kept thinking “If I was going to build a stone circle, I wouldn’t pick this boggy area, I’d build it up on top of that higher ground ahead”.

Eventually, I reached the slope and as I came up towards the brow, two very obvious standing stones rose into view. I hurried to the top and saw two more at the southern edge.

The larger of the two northerly stones has a cupped top and weathering marks that are reminiscent of the Devil’s Arrows at Boroughbridge.

I paced out the circle, which was about 35m diameter and then paced out the distance between the two northerly adjacent standing stones at 8.5 paces. I paced out anticlockwise around the circle and at each 8.5 paces there was another half-buried stone, though a few were missing altogether. I estimate that there would originally have been 12 stones forming the circle.

The circle has a southerly outlier that’s still standing at a rough mid point between the circle stones, but very close to the circle. At the northern side there is another similar outlier, a little further from the circle. It has all but fallen and pokes out of the ground at a very shallow angle.

I took lots of photos of which I have posted only a few. The one with me in it was taken on time delay with my camera balanced precariously ontop of the northern outlier with the lens cap propping it up at the correct angle. I posted that picture to give an indication of the size of the largest stone, which was probably around 1.2m.

On my way back I chose a different route to avoid the bogs and came across another standing stone at least a couple of hundred metres NE from the main circle. There were lots of other stones around and it was hard to be sure, but I thought there might be the possibility of another smaller circle.

There is a field near the edge of the adjacent moor that commands a wonderful view over the valley below and in the middle of the field is a circular wood, grid ref: 447578,496641, marked as “Moor House Plantation” on old-maps.co.uk. It looked as though there may be a mound and a ditch, rather like a small henge. The field is fairly well in view of the farm house and I was running out of time, but I intend to return and ask permission of the farmer to go and inspect the wood more closely.

It’s a great feeling to be the first to photograph and provide field notes for a site.