[visited nov 2003] Coming down into the valley west of Crow Hill from approx the Grey Mare, I had a purpose to fulfill. Namely the rectangular enclosure which had puzzled me last time.
I had a decent forage this time & discovered a few stones in the middle of it & also got a decent picture.
No idea how old it is as like the circles within the stone drift, it could have been made in modern times.
I havent been close to anything ‘neolithic’, be it stone or earth since leaving Cornwall last june, today i found myself here after simply jumping in the car and heading into the hills.Its wonderful here, the wind blows terribly strong across the stones, must have been rather difficult and still is i guess by the rather obvious evidence of pagan rituals here for those who did and do so here with such winds howling.I had the place to myself, being late in the day i was allowed to ‘wallow’ in the landscape here, the stones holding many many memories, the earth trodden over many days and nights holding the past within.First impressions as you approach from the farm are decieving, “just another earthwork” you think...until you find yourself abreast of these beautiful stones, shame yes that they lay flat, comparable to Stonehenge??, yes i would say so..
Markings on the grass banks of pagan origin seem to reinforce local use of this sight for ritual, the energies here also too...
Gib hill over yonder, presumably a burial mound so i read again, a very powerful spot.
To link with these stones brought images of many to me, when you dance with the stones, your footprints last forever!!.
5.3.04
First time at Carn Uny for a few years, work has been done since I was last here. The fougou is dry!, last time I came I could have done with wellies. Also the chamber has been enclosed more with now only a small hole in the roof.
Better still, I have the place to myself. I sit in the chamber and listen to the water dripping off the walls. Sunlight breaks through every so often catching the moss.
After a while it is time to go, duty calls up county. I will be back again, but I bet it won’t be so peaceful.
5.3.04
Perhaps it’s me, but...
I have read so much about this circle on the TMA that I just had to visit it. I walked in along the farmtrack (wasn’t too sure about driving in) and took the footpath towards the circle. Early March, only a few days since West Cornwall had a unusual amount of Snow, the path was fairly muddy.
Because of its reputation on the site I was expecting a hidden magical place.....imagine my dissapointment when I opened the gate and there in front of me was a farm with modern barns etc. I admit, the circle is lovely, although on this grey day it is not at its best. I walked around it, hugged the quartz stone (the farm out of site) and tried to get some of that feeling that many of you quote.
Nothing....I took some photo’s and trudged back to the car and drove to Carn Uny, where I had the fougou all to myself........
7.3.04
After spending most of the day hunting down 19th C archaeology on the western edge of the moor there was just time to take a walk over to this wonderful circle.
Easy to reach from the A30 but still gives a feeling of being away from the modern world (if you turn your back on the telegraph pole).
The sun came out for me to take a few photo’s (won’t bother submiting, same as others on already), but then the rain came down and I had to run for the car. Such is March on Bodmin Moor!
Has anyone found out what the M and C carved on the centre stone denote? I would think it has been used as a boundry marker, any idea’s?
These two fellas lay on open land besides the Great Asby Road. The most easterly of the pair is the most interesting and shows the remains of a ditch and a possible granite boulder kerb. There is also a small granite boulder in the middle of the cairn.
I got the name of this site from the 1863 map.
The site is on the junction of the track to Gaythorne Hall with the Great Asby ‘wilderness road’. There is a row of lovely rounded Shap Granite boulders amongst a group of trees beside the farmhouse, which could be the remains of a circle or kerb. The house does not appear on the old map so the stones may even be a clearance of ‘The 13 stones’, they seem too well aligned for that though.
Watch out for the free roaming sheep, they mobbed me.
Baaaa 4 feet good!
This is a very strange site. It’s situated on a rise on Gilts Lane and is very easy to access from the road.
The site itself is a megalithic jumble. All of the stones are lovely rounded Shap granite boulders, there are bits of kerb/circle running all over the place. It is possible to see the remains of at least two circles here but the whole thing confused the crap out of me.
I was up here today.
Hollin Stump is close to what I’d call ‘a wilderness road’ but is unfortunately in a huge, walled field with no obvious entrance. I did not go up to the cairn as I’m always loathed to scramble over a dry stone wall.
I had expected a much larger cairn but it appears that this once magnificent pile has been well robbed of it’s stone.
I have been tortured by thoughts of this site since I came across it on the MAGIC Map a couple of weeks ago. The first thing that drew me to it was the name, it’s a fantastic name. The next thing that drew me in was the 1863 map of the area, which showed not only the enclosure but stones and tumuli as well. I started thinking to myself that it’s most likely to be Iron Age but then again, a roughly circular enclosure with associated stones....hmmmmm that doesn’t sound particularly Iron Age. The final barb that twisted into my imagination was the proximity of the site to the A66. The road that carries me to Mayburgh and Castlerigg, the road that carried Tuff axes to Yorkshire and Yorkshire Flint to Westmorland. This road looms large over my megalithic wanderings and wonderings, it’s my megalithic route 66.
Back to the fieldnotes. This was going to be my last chance to visit this site for at least a month I had planned to stop at Rey Cross on the way here but Stainmore was in a state of white-out with drifting snow so I thought better of it and pushed on to the lovely Eden Valley.
The weather had changed by the time I had dropped down into the valley, it was cold and windy but no snow.
I followed the wee road from the A66 to Coupland and then parked up just beyond the cattle grid and walked up to the public footpath that runs along the George Gul.
The Gul is a wonderful steep sided valley that narrows into a gulley and has a number of caves in the cliffs. The caves are wonderful places carved out of the lovely red sandstone, the weathering around the caves is outrageous and creates an other-worldly atmosphere. One of the caves is large enough to stand up in and bears the marks of it’s visitors in the graffitti carved into the soft red sandstone walls.
Whilst mooching about the main cave a lady shouted up to me from the Gul to ask what was in the caves I told her that there was nothing much and scrambled down for a chat. She was a local farmer out for a stroll with her dogs. I asked her about the Druidical Judgement Seat and she said that she didn’t know anything about it ‘s history but would walk up to it with me.
We climbed up the bank from the Gul to the site. My first impression of the site was the view. The site is situated on a promontory of steep sided land between two becks with lovely views to the Pennines beyond particulaly Roman Fell. In the back of my mind I had been hoping that this site would be a henge but I didn’t dare get my hopes up too much.
The site is on a narrowing spit of land and is as circular as the geography allows, it consists of a low bank with a shallow internal ditch surrounding a roughly circular encloure. The low bank and ditch run right up to the edges of the spit and in some places are slipping down the steep sides due to erosion. There is one entrance into the enclosure which is situated on the western side, which geographically is the most logical place to put it. The enclosure itself has a number of low features within it, the most noticeable being two, low, parallel, narrow ridges approximately 4m long and which could possibly be two side of the same feature.
The diameter of the whole site from bank to bank is 86m and the ditch is approximately 3m wide.
After mooching around the site and saying good bye to the farmer I set off in search of the stones that were marked on the 1863 map.
The site is on rough ground and borders a golf course, there has been a fair bit of landscaping to create the greens and fairways. There is an area of rough grass between the course and the enclosure and there are a number of stones laying around that could qualify as fallen stones, most are made of lovely Shap Granite.
So what are my conclusions? Is it a henge? I don’t know. It could be an Iron Age enclosure but the ditch and bank and too low and shallow to be of any great defensive use besides, why build a low bank and ditch on a site that has natural defenses provided by the steep sided slopes of the spit of land?
With reference to the 1863 map and looking at the site with it’s two sets of stones, nearby tumuli and the enclosure, then yes it could be a henge but I would like to see what other people make of the site before I commit myself. I would also like a look at the SMR summary if anyone has a copy.
All in all, I would say that it’s well worth a visit, it is a beautiful wild place jammed in between farmland, a golf course and Route 66. (-:
Visited West Kennet last week. As ever disappointed to find the place littered with tealights and other ‘ritual litter’, who ARE these people who are leaving the tealights? Everyone on this fieldnote page seem to realise heat is damaging to the stones! as is burning incense.
Im reading a book about the west kennet long barrow and it states that a probable use for the barrow was as a place of initiation – initiation of a soul from this life to the next, (rites of passage) as well as initiations for the living, who spent time in solitary confinment in the barrow.
I meditated on the barrow recently and got the distinct impression the barrow should be Closed. Did you know that when first excavated, the barrow was found stuffed full to the brim with flint gravel? When closed my megalithic people, it is most obvious that this place was supposed to STAY closed.
Unfortunatly for us, who love to visit the barrow, this is the message I recieved! x
If anyone is interested in promoting the proper use of the barrow through educating its visitors, please contact me as I am trying to start an action group: [email protected]
The area around Gibbet South was burnt off at the end of Feb 2004, and for the first time in quite a number of years the stones and rubble bank of the circle are quite visible.
Although it has to be said it’s still nowt to get excited about.
Having lived in the area I had heard all about the legends of Dozmary Pool being bottomless and the last resting place for Excalibur.
A pre-teenage swimming party by myself and friends in 1983 in a bid to search for excalibur revealed that the pool was not bottomless and the bed littered with bottles of wine.
A local legend has it that the name of the pool comes from Dozy Mary, a lazy minded girl who was murdered here.
Many years ago I lived in Darite and Trethevy Quoit was a popular place to visit. However, one mystery always nagged at the back of my mind, what was that hole in the top slab for? Some reports suggest that it was carved by a young man as a tribute to his sweetheart. Can anyone shed any light on this?
Trethevy Quoit has to be one of the best preserved sites I have visited, in spite of being so accessible.
For access, see Glenvoidean.
This cairn would not really be worth making a special trip for but worth seeing as one of the four in the area.
It’s a Clyde cairn in its less common round form but it has been so damaged that very little of the features can be seen.
See photo captions for more details.
Visited 7 March 2004
For once CANMORE provides no detail apart from this being a burnt mound below which at low water levels can be seen the tops of upright slabs forming an oval structure. This is on the same side of the loch as the Howie Manse and I feel excavation would reveal the area about it to be perhaps as complicated. Opposite the gate that gives entrance to the Grieves Cottage field is a gate to the field on the other side of the road, and you can see the (on this side slight) mound over by. When you approach this it seems more like two mounds – either that or at one time it was rather large. There are some bigish stones in this, especially where it falls away to the shore, but I could discern no structures.
Down on the beach much of the geology seems to be flagstone pavement, including some immense slabs. Must have been low water because I could easily find various upright slabs buried about here. Raymond Lamb in “The Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Scotland , 27...” says that the drought of 1980 not only exposed this Bronze Age structure but also an erect row of slabs fifteen metres ESE of the house beside a wall, and that the waters must have risen by at least a metre since these were built (it is only 2m deep now in most of the deeper sections). Certainly some of this doesn’t require even waterproof shoes to get close to. Make a nice paddle. I’m not sure I didn’t see one or two extra upright scattered about as I couldn’t make out the recorded structure’s outline myself. Could some of the flagstones also have been part of structures, or at the very least abutted them? Tried to decide but was unable to do so, simply a feeling. Raymond also says many crude stone implements lie on the loch bed.
Between here and The Howie of The Manse is a roofless structure ( HY520092 ) that looks mediaeval , with empty arched windows that feel vaguely churchy . Actually this is a “Gothic boathouse”. Look inside and the larger seaward section is filled with what looks like the top of a giant’s hogback, with a hollow underneath . Very Romantic.
For access, see Glenvoidean.
Unfortunately, time and the restricted winter ferry timetable meant this one had to be dropped from my recent trip. Infuriating when you’re standing at the bottom of the track and another half hour would have done it.
It’s a Clyde long cairn (53m long) which, from all accounts, although overgrown, still has three chambers with capstones visible.
I’ll just have to come back.
You can visit the four chambered cairns on the W of Bute in an easy three-hour walk. To avoid repitition under each site, I’ve put the location directions for all four here with cross references at the other sites.
Drive up the single track road from Ettrick Bay and park in the small car park at Glecknabae
To reach Glecknabae, walk back down the road a few hundred metres to a gate on the left. The cairn is visible in front of the gate.
For the other three sites, follow the farm track to Kilmichael. After about 10 minutes, a signposted track to the right leads to Carnbaan.
To visit the other two, continue up the farm track. As you reach the first farm buildings, St Michael’s is in an unfenced field on the left.
For Glenvoidean, take the track on the right after the cottage just ahead of St Michael’s.
Glenvoidean is arguably the most interesting of the four but it is gradually being taken over by a gorse bush which not only spoils the understanding of the site but spoils the view over the Kyles of Bute.
It is a Clyde cairn with one axial chamber (at its N end) and two lateral chambers (E and W).
For more detail, see the captions to the accompanying photographs.
Visited 7 March 2004
This circle is visible from the road – more visible since my last visit due to the reduction in the number of trees in which it stands.
Four stones stand to their full height and there are the stumps of four others.
Visited 7 March 2004
Royds Edge has the big embankments that you would expect, but the lower end seems to square off more than you might expect for a henge. The site is in a fantastic landscape setting with a steep cliff to the south, a great view across the Holme valley towards Castle Hill Fort, and the impressive Meltham Cop.. In a museum in Huddersfield there are the exhibits of an excavation of these earthworks, two stone discs of about 2 inches in diameter, a stone mould and a small while bead.
Oldfield Hill is visable from the road up to Wessenden Head and looks like a settlement of about 2 acres in a sheltered valley.
8th March 2004
This must have been an impressive circle when it was complete.
Signposted and near a road, only three stones remain of seven which were reported in the late 18th century. But even in its depleted state, this is still impressive.
One of the stones measures 2.8m high x 2.2m x 1m and has been split by frost. The other two stones are 2.2m high.
Visited 7 March 2004
These stones were surrounded by ploughed fields so had to be photographed with a long zoom from the nearby footpath.
They are 1.5, 1.7 and 1.9m high.
Visited 7 March 2004
Heading East from Black Coppice Cairn towards Round Loaf, the upright stone appeared on the horizon. The plateau on which it stands to the North of Hurst Hill had been badly burned last summer and most of the vegetation had been removed exposing the peat layer which was now eroding.
The site consists on 1 upright stone (a rare feature on Anglezarke) and the possibility of others emerging through the peat.
Views of the surrounding landscape are superb from here, with Great Hill to the North East, Round Loaf to the East, Winter Hill to the South and the Lancashire plain to the West.
On the very tip of the little headland down from Rennibister souterrain this site is a lot better than it looks from the road. You have to go over a barred metal gate, inside which is the usual muddy rectangle where livestock have gathered. The grass-coverd mount presents a slightly horned apparance. From the rocks by the burn to the furthest on the left rock the mound totals 52m and from this line to the seaward side maxes out at 16m as the mound rises. At its highest points I made it to be 2-2.5m structure remaining. Next obstacle is two barb-wire fences under a metre apart running across the top – my little legs just made it .
Most of the lower mound is before this, and as I found out the better stones are scattered across here. Coming up to the top there is an area of scattered stones, about two metres wide and encompassing 13m across, which appears to go around what remains of the central tower (the turfed horny section). You can make out inner and outer walls. As I climbed over to the coastline several fulmars flew out from the cliff-face. I found a spot on the left where I could get down to the shore – I must warn you that I found the seaweed around the cliff deep and slippy-slidey. From here you can follow from the left about 36m of remaining structure. Most of this wall is exposed, but alas the majority of the stonework is (now at least) small friable stuff. But the base is exceptionally well delineated a thin black and brown section ramrod staight!
Before I left I turned to look at some big birds in the sea. Imagine my surprise when the binoculars revealed one to be a seal just offshore. And the others turned out to be seal heads too. I made out five. The one nearest me revealed its flippers additionally as it bathed. At this point I left them to the quiet.
I had always been put off by the idea of crawling through the 2’ square entrance passage and then this last month I find there is a ladder down from the top like at Wideford Hill Cairn!
If only the gate in the fence around it wasn’t so stuck , the bolt took a lot of convincing to come back across. Down inside I turned around and felt almost hemmed in . As you descend you notice the uppermost corbelling and the flat ‘roof’ are painted grey to show they’re not original. Around the sides are several rectangular niches. Opposite the ladder off the bottom is the entrance passage, easier than the dimensions make you think but with damp gravel on the floor. Looking in there was light beyond that made me believe the other end still open (thirty foot long I was once told) but out in the open it probably needs more than the cursory search that I made.
The first time I went, sans camera, it was well illuminated inside. When I went back again even though the sunshine did not appear much less the interior was mostly in the shadows. This is another of those places best suited to a compact camera (digital for extensive depth of focus) and flash.
