Latest Fieldnotes

The Roosdyche is a large trench on the Western slopes of Eccles Pike .The dyche runs North-South and is approximately 740 metres long with a maximum width of 32 metres and a maximum depth of 12.5 metres.The name Roosdyche was marked as an antiquity in the Ordnance survey sheet no 81 N.W quarter published 21 st march 1842 and is the earliest reference to the site that can be found .
What it might be is a subject of conjecture older locals will remember that it was described as a Roman chariot course very unlikey accept it does suggest the site was a one time circular or oval . The Roosdyche has been investigated by R .H Johnson in 1962 and students of Manchester University who concluded that it was probably of glacial origin with some
modification by man .

There are however several signs of occupation finds of stone domestic hand tools have been made I have two authenticated specimens .
Traces of earthworks exist in the Northern and Southern ends of the Dyche turning Westwards .However in The Bings Wood area very well preserved ditches can be found .
The defences extending westwards from the Roosdyche appear to be of classic Iron Age multivallate type and they are defending higher ground .The Roosdyche section of the defences is unusual in that this defended area is lower than the surounding ground and that a multivallate ditch systems would not give any advantage to the defender .
The required defence against slingshot and spears etc would be a flat bottomed ditch wide enough to make missiles from the higher Eastern ground ineffective and to create a killing zone for any attackers venturing in to the bottom of the ditch . Venutius was believed to employ different ditch defences to the Iron age norm .His expirience fighting with the Romans prior to the rebellion may have led him to do this .This ditch could have been modelled on those lines. The single rampart defence would have been strengthened by a wooden pallisade .

Iron Age forts had an entrance maze to keep any attackers at a disadvantage .One can be reconstructed out of the remaining ditches that Johnson thought were tributeries to a glacial meltwater stream .These ditches are broken straight through by the road that goes up to the Old Cricket ground and though Johnson concludes the Western rim is man made ,how did he conclude that the other ditches that interlock there including the Dingle which is multivallate were of glacial origin .

The Dingle ditches turn round the back of the main Roosdyche almost linking up near the old pig stys .they probably did as we Know this is where there was an old coal mine and just as the ditches at the Bings/Buggesworth end were quaried away so were these .

The Dingle ditches leave a flat plateux between themselves and the main Roosdyche and therefore we have a multienclosure site
consisting of main miliatary defences and living area with possibly Animal Enclosure or special persons residence such as at Stanwick

This is a favourite of mine.

I remember the joy when I first visited it. I knew it only as a dot on a map and was delighted to find a near-perfect unexcavated Clyde cairn of massive length and in a fair state of preservation.

The forecourt was particularly impressive at that time with its facade of orthostats and dry-stone walling.

Sadly, time has taken its toll. The facade is not as impressive as it was and the tallest orthostat (re-erected in the 60s) has fallen. All of this has happened in the last 10 years or so. Not through willful damage as far as I can see but merely as a result of vegetation now taking hold and weakening the structure.

Despite all that, it is still the best example of its type out of a number of Clyde cairns in the area.

Landscape enthusiasts are warned that it is closely surrounded on two sides by forestry.

I’ve updated the photos but kept two of the earlier ones on for comparison. They are from undated slides but probably from the mid 90s. For more detail, see the photo captions.

Directions

The first challenge is to navigate the twists and turns on the road from Croftamie on the A809 to Wester Cameron Farm (N of the site). Park where you can then walk E then S down the forest track.

Once in the forest, there are a number of rides to the right which give access to the moor. The one to take is the FIRST of the two (narrower and slightly obscured) close together at the end of the long straight rise in the track. This brings you out at the corner of the forest near the cairn.

Visited 10 March 2004

Well worth a visit if you are into decayed structures (6 out of 10). I entered the field by climbing over a wooden gate that is difficult owing to the close construction. First sight is a long mound with a standing stone on the left and a circular depression in the centre. Closer to the standing stone is the end of a close packed straight wall that still is exposed for several yards. From afar you can make out a few small stones about the depression, so it comes as a pleasant surprise as one climbs ever so slightly to look down and see this is filled by large slabs even if no clearly discernable structure. The back of the mound survives a bit higher, so it is a disappointment when one goes behind that this appears so nondescript. Here are the two modern structures that are presumably where the second mound used to be.

Near the airport but one for the yompers this. Coming from this direction I tried the field to the left of the cottage but found it to be waterlogged ground crisscrossed by ground water. So I made it through the waste ground to the right. Still one for the welly brigade perhaps as there was boggy bits and the very rough pasture on the way consists of large tussocks jostling for position. Not much further down the road is a Nissen hut and I would advise visitors to go by the track alongside this and the strike across for the howe.

Craw Howe is the mound just behind the pool extending to the fence crossing the right-hand end. Maybe the two other mounds are part of the hill one sees too. Probably not really worth all that effort as very little sense can be made of it. There are obvious signs of prior excavation/s and some of the stones on top are of recent origin.

Walked up here last week, having parked by the Bowl Rock (SW522367). A pleasant enough stroll up the hill, squeezing past a cottage on the way, then over a stile, look to the right, and there it is, on the edge of a sloping field which returns down the hill.

I managed to get some photos with what I think was Hayle and St Ives bay in the background, despite the farmer’s dog in the next field warning me away (or so I thought).

The dog was warning me, but only of the bull that was in the field, which I didn’t see until I was almost back to the stile! There had been no sign of it on my approach to the stone (thanks to the sloping hill, no doubt), but suddenly it was just there! So be warned...

This massive, carefully restored cairn was given its name after excavation and renovation in 1899. It’s a real platform, rising maybe a metre of an half from the level ground and is edged by kerbstones all the way round and has a diameter of around 6 or 7 metres. It has a long low chamber topped by big capstones with a tight squeeze of an entrance partly blocked by a deliberately placed slab.

I was desperate to paint its soft, cushiony shape and hang out here a bit! But as it was, the wind up here was howling so I was only able to do a notated sketch whilst we munched our picnic. I was happy to get in the long chamber, not least to get out of the wind which felt colder as the sun disappeared behind the thickening clouds.

Although this is probably the Scillies’ main ‘hollywood’ site, I didn’t like it here as much as the Innisidgens.

This is a return visit to this cairn and I’m pleased to say it has not altered much in the interim.

It’s somewhat remote and probably gets few visitors which adds to its attraction. To add to the pleasure, although the weather over had been rather wild, once here the wind dropped and the sky turned blue. Perfect.

There are great views from here. To the N is Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond. To the E are the Kilpatricks. The line of the cairn points to the end of the Campsies but due to its low-lying position, they are out of sight.

There’s not a lot to see at the site. No chambers are visible but you can see the two portal stones of the axial chamber.

For more detail, see the photo captions.

You could get here from the nearby Lang Cairn but a more scenic way in is via The Whangie (an interesting rock formation) which can be reached by a path from the Queen’s View car park on the A809.

The ground is rough going and, rather than go in a straight line from the Whangie, go down to the forest to the W and follow the narrow path by the fence until it starts to run W. When you come to the junction with another fence, there is a wider path running NW to the site.

Visited 17 March 2004

I had forgotten about this broch till I just this moment came across the prints. To paraphrase it’s one of the ruins that Petrie buggered about a bit. It stands quite well behind Hoxa but this wall is his reconstruction. Would have been nice to go inside the wall but the interior was completely taken over by very tall nettles, so went further along the road got into a field and proceeded up the long ramp of a mound that approaches the broch from behind. From the ‘hilltop’ there you look directly into the structure. Lovely it is.

Stone avenues between here and the Little Howe settlement at the coast are only the product of field clearances. RCAHMS NMRS number ND49SW 1 also reports that indications of structures about it are rather later. If so why does the mound lead up to the broch instead of more generally about it? I remember that Mine Howe is said to have been reached via one of the other mounds – perhaps it wasn’t simply a case of this being the only dry route at the time.

There are actually two ruined circles. They’re on a flat gravel plain, in a sheltered valley, next to a river. The access is good, as there is a car park at the edge of the field. There’s even an information board, which curiously makes no mention of the circles.
The northern circle is almost totally wrecked, with only a couple of boulders standing to over 1m. The circles are the largest I’ve found in Northumberland, and quite unlike those to the south on the Whin Sill, and very different from that at Duddo. They don’t even bear a passing resemblance to the nearest circle across the hills at Five Stanes.

The southern circle is slightly better preserved, but still has only 9 stones easily found. And 7 are now recumbent, though the packing stones around them indicate this was not always so. There are other stones buried beneath both circles. It’s difficult to say if these were always such open circles, as there were a lot of stones removed in medieval times. Smaller ones would leave no trace. There is a artificial bank leading down to the river, and building on the other side, so this might be a place to look for any of the missing stones.

The only reason the overgrown lump that is Green Low gets a mention anywhere..ever..Is because of the Beaker burial Bateman (who else) ripped out of the barrow in the mid 1840’s.
The (k)cist he uncovered contained a real haul of finds..with the inhumation....a flint dagger, a handful or more of flint tools and arrowheads, a food vessel/beaker/urn, bone tools and fools gold and a body of a child was also within the cist.
The barrow was opened again in the 1960’s...more flint tool finds were made as well as burials from the romano-British period...
(info:J.Barnatt’s “Barrow Corpus”
B. Marsden’s “The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire”)

You’re probably better off checking out what came out of the barrow..which is displayed in the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield, rather than visit the barrow itself.

Slipper Low is visible as a clump of trees behind the farm of the same name......Whats left of the barrow is perhaps 10 x 9m in size.....it’s a messy site and ploughed out.
No real reason to leave the roadside and see it close up........

This barrow seems to go against the overall norm of a Peak Barrow by being perched right on the top of the highest point on Hollins Hill. Measuring 14 x 13m it stands about 1.5m high.

Obviously with the barrows dug out centre it’s been tampered with in the past, but I’ve not come across any records of excavations (edit see misc post).

With Chrome Hill, Parkhouse Hill and High Wheeldon all clearly visible from the barrow, it enjoys excellent views.

My guess is that Hollins Hill is in fact private property......
If you do go up there.... remember the spirit of the Kinder mass trespass of way back when don’t burn strongly in folks’ minds round these parts (more’s the pity) and especially not with the farmers.

A glorious cairn with a long chamber – about 4 and half metres, with four great capstones. These are only just breaking through the top grassy covering of the cairn giving the appearance of exposed ribs.

Its kerbstones keep it from flopping, so it still looks pert and strong. Not only is the cairn itself heart-stoppingly perfect, it’s location is breathtaking with views over turquoise seas facing east to St Martin’s and the scatter of the Eastern Isles.

By heck, this place is lovely!

Down the slope a bit and closer to the sea than Innsidgen Upper, this cairn has mostly lost its kerbstones. Its chamber is now open at both ends and has only two capstones left which are completely exposed: its a lot more ruined than its sister, Innsidgen Upper.

But it is charming – covered and surrounded by a well-manicured soft carpet of closely cropped heathers and moss, giving it the appearance of a pom-pom.

We literally stumbled upon (or should I say INTO) this ruined cairn on the south of St Mary’s as we were walking along the clifftop path that skirts the end of the runway of St Mary’s airport.

I had to get into it, of course, and felt around with my foot to see if there was still an open chamber underneath, and there was.

Think of all the superlatives one could lavish upon a place and you have accurately summed up Boskawen-Un.

The proportions of the size of the stones and their intervals and the size they enclose are all just about perfect. Nestled in gorse, they’re not that far from the road but it feels like a different world. We leaned up against a west facing stone and watched the sun set, the shadows lengthen and literally thousands of starlings wheel and whirr around us as they went off to roost.

The stones seem to whirl and spin around their madly leaning axis stone.

Moth had been here before, of course, and was ridiculously keen to show it to me. I now see why.

If you can see only one site in Land’s End, make it this.

Just a stone’s throw from the ever-dominant ruin of Ding Dong tin mine’s 19th century engine house, we found this wonderful place with the help of Ian McNeil Cooke’s book ‘Journey To The Stones’, while en route and on foot from the Nine Maidens to Lanyon Quoit.

This such a wonderful place, its skin ripped off to reveal its internal structures to the elements. A splendid long grave, open at the top now, lined with big flat slabs faces east to greet the morning sunrise and lovely kerbstones ring the whole rubbly construction.

Definitely worth poking around in the gorse for!

This turned out to be quite a surprise. I wasn’t expecting much at all, and although many the stones were horribly littered about, you could still make sense of a chamber (two of the side slabs still stand) and a capstone – albeit a capstone partly morphed into a millstone. It still has enough to satisfy.

It also sits on a nice little mound about 70cms high so you get a real feeling for its size.

We couldn’t find anyone to ask about entering the field, so we climbed over the wall and walked along the field edges as respectfully as possible, other than when I fell over in the mud! Ha!

What a wonderful little barrow this is, crouching like a hermit crab on the edge of big field. We were expecting it to be overgrown and gorsey, but some kind soul had recently been along with the secateurs.

It still retains a pleasing amount of height and nearly all of its kerbstones.

I didn’t get this place at all......(it’s only a short steep climb up Bole Hill of several 100m’s from the stones of Strawberry Lea). But most of the remains (well kinda the most sorta visible) up there seem to be related to the old lead smelting workings...
Then again if your’e an hardcore hillfort fan then it’s possible I guess you might be able to find something...

Excellent views over Sheffield.....

In the 18yrs I’ve been going to Barbrook III.....I don’t think I’ve ever seen it properly.
Until now that is.....the moorland fire that has slowly burnt out over the last few days or so has stripped back all the long grass over quite a large area....(the ground was still warm and smoking in places).

Barbrook III has always impressed me.....but even more so now...
All the stones are quite visible as is the bank....Stones that before were seen as being only a few centimetres above the grass... are now a decent height....

I’d suggest getting over there as soon as you can and see the circle before the grass makes a come back.

Easier Access

Since it was showing a glimmering of Spring we decided to set out for this hillfort. Having read the notes about access we opted to try from the South. Parking in the street at Upper Hale we walked onto the common and across a sandpit. We started seeing the “Water Catchment Area” signs once we had crossed the sandpit but they applied to an area of woodland that is on three sides of the hillfort so you can walk up to and around the fort without crossing into the signed area.

It was good to visit on such a clear day, wonderful views from the top and it’s great when a site is actually recognisable from descriptions like the scheduled monument record. The drop on the North is particularly impressive.

Whooo! This one’s a whopper! Amidst an area teeming with standing stones, this one really stands out – and its the sheer bulk and height that does it. It was flatter and wider than I first thought and perhaps 3 or 4 metres high.

When we saw it, it looked beautiful surrounded by rows of scented narcissus. Lovely!

What a reet bugger to find! With two maps, a diagram AND ocifant’s GPS, we still spent over 40 minutes scouring about eight fields before we spotted it. But it was worth the hunt to see its ancient construction. There was other evidence of quite a large settlement here.

There are plenty of footpaths in the area near the circles but, once there, they were difficult to see in the long October grass. A visit before Easter would be better.

An interesting feature of the site is the three concentric circles of the ring cairn (of which only the centre one remains complete).