Latest Fieldnotes

I am really sorry to be negative, but this mound does not feel like a tumulus to me. It is more rectangular than round, and this part of the park was used as an US Air force base for a while from 1944. In fact the D-Day landings were planned from here by Eisenhower.
The ground around is littered with smaller raised areas. Perhaps where corrugated iron huts once stood.

Park at SX654923 and walk up footpath.

One of four triple rows on Dartmoor. Runs for 146m E (downhill) from a cairn. W half better preserved.

Re pure joy’s choice of name, it corresponds with that used by Burl so can be confirmed.

There are actually three rows here. The NW one is described below and is the best preserved. Double row running for 112m NE from cairn and ending in terminal stone.

N of the tor at SX561709 is a ruined double stone row running W from a cairn and visible for about 27m.

To the W, on the other side of the road at SX559707, is a single stone row running SW from a cairn for 132m ending in a terminal stone.

When I visited, two years ago I had only the OS map and my intuition to find this one.

As baza says, it’s in a copse, which requires you to trespass. I went in winter when the undergrowth had died back and after frightening a least half a dozen pheasants as I paced up and down, I found a monumental stone, now sadly down, and pretty much ready to be reclaimed by the earth. It was undoubtedly the Hoar stone. All mossy and uneven and covered in leaf-mulch and fruits of the forest floor, it’s over 10 feet in length. This one is crying out to be re-erected before it becomes lost to us forever, as it surely will be if it is left in it’s current condition.

Goodbye Hoar stone.

It is very difficult to imagine that something like this could survive, in an area that has very few visible remains. This site could easily look like several piles of agricultural waste. It’s nice to think that there could be perfectly preserved burials in them thar hills.

Surrounded by trees (the saviour of the barrow in Lincolnshire), this long barrow is right in the middle of a farmed field with no footpath. It is probably best to go at harvest time. It is however visible from the road.

As you drive between Binbrook and the A18 and pass Hoe Hill Farm (which is currently up for sale!), this barrow is immediately adjacent to the left. It is completely enveloped in trees, thus probably protecting it from the itensive agriculture of these parts.

To avoid crossing the River Meavy, park at Devil’s Bridge on the B3212 and walk south along the east bank.

Two stone rows, one double (N) and one single (S). Both run roughly E/W from cairns at their E ends.

The N row runs for some 125m but is damaged in places by a ditch and a leat. An 1859 account says that it ended in a pillar 7.7m high which had fallen at that time. It is no longer there but would have been the largest on the moor. A low circle of stones surrounds the cairn.

The S row runs for 60m and is also damaged by a ditch. Its cairn is also surrounded by a circle of stones.

Park on the B3212 near Warren House Inn and follow the footpath N.

Double stone row with 49 well preserved paired stones running northish from a cairn for about 140m and terminating in a blocking stone.

Shorter (but less attractive) access arrangements (from those given in the link) are to park at Blackaton Cross (SX570632) and follow the track NE past the clay works.

The two alignments here are unusual in that they have different orientations. West runs E/W and East runs N/S.

Visited this in August this year and did not have any access problems.

Reading the previous post and Burl’s notes, it sounds as if both tried to access the circle from the footpath running past How Farm.

I took the road to Seascale Hall and parked at the gate where the footpath from the W joins it (roughly NY040027). Following the footpath under the road and along Newmill Beck both avoids any fences and, until the last minute, views of Sellafield.

Visited 25th August 2003: The Kew or Giant’s Grave is a an unusual site. Just as I was getting the hang of interpreting the Manx burial cairns I found myself flummoxed by this strange selection of stones.

The Kew is a double row of stones, the gap between the rows getting smaller at each end. The stones all lean inwards in such a regular fashion that it seems unlikely that they’ve subsided. On the western end of the site is an old field boundary, marked with a hedge-bank. This is close enough to the stones to give the impression that some of the site may be buried underneath it. At least one large stone in the hedge-bank looked like it might have once been part of the monument.

The site can be viewed from the track that runs past it, but the hedgerow makes this a bit tricky. There’s no public right of access to this site itself (something I didn’t realise at the time of our visit).

We visited this secluded location in May 2003 with permission of the landowner. The motifs are on a ridge running SW/NE from the (Iron Age) Dun just West of the farmhouse to a Dun higher up the ridge. Most of the carvings are faint. However, this is a wonderful place with wide views.

I had previously entered this circle on this website as ‘Corrie Hill’, having visited a few years ago.

I can’t remember where I got that name from, but it has been pointed out that the site seems to be the same one as this, added by Merrick. And I’m quite happy to go for ‘Druidstones’.

Merrick’s pretty much said it all, all I’d add is that it’s certainly well worth a visit if you’re around!

When I went, I approached the same way as Merrick did in the end.

I had a word with a (slightly eccentric, but very pleasant) woman at the bungalow at the top of the hill, who said that the farmer is quite happy for people to visit the circle.

Obviously, it’d be unwise to approach if it could cause damage to crops and it’d be a REAL shame to abuse this trust.

When visited in August this year, someone had chalked in a cup and ring mark on the large flat horizontal stone to the right of the axeheads. Widely spaced rings with a groove.

Not something you would do on a whim so did someone see something which only shows up in certain lighting conditions?

Photo posted.

Revisited the Kilmartin area on this year’s August Bank Holiday although why I chose this particular day when I could go there on any day remains a mystery to me. The main Kilmartin sites were overrun with visitors making anything from photography to contemplation well nigh impossible. Only at Ri Cruin was there a brief gap in the crowds.

I had planned to leave Achnabreck to the last to get any low sun that might be around. A good strategy as it turned out since all remaining clouds disappeared (along with the visitors) and I had over an hour to become aquainted with the carvings before another group arrived just as I was packing up.

I’ve cross-referenced the posted images with the drawings and location plans in the PSAS 103 article.

References to Achnabreck Wood are to the panel further up the path from the main panels (NR857906) – named, of course, before the Forestry Commission cleared away the surrounding trees.

Visited this site in Summer of 1997. Easy, short hike from SouthEast of the village of Kilmarie (cross stepping stones at the mouth of the burn, Abhain Cille Mhaire, and basically hug the coast on a fairly well-marked trail heading basically East). Site was fully accessible, in good shape and interesting – well worth the trip. The entrance was partly collapsed, but open.

Side note: the rock band Jethro Tull (on an album called ‘Stormwatch’) has a song called “Dun Ringill”. I do not know if the song references this site (I’ve not seen another of this name) or some imaginary place. Any Ian Anderson/Tull fans out there know?

Visited this site in Summer of 1997 and must agree with IronMan post above – there was quite a bit of litter for such a remote site. The roof was considerably caved in and was a larger orifice than the entryway. The hike to the site is definitely a long one, but well worth it in good weather. I also checked out the nearby (“neolithic flint knapper”) cave which is more of a shallow, shetlered room that a cave. I will attempt to post a pisture of the cave here (though as it’s not actually part of or immediately adjacent to the Rubh an Dunain site, it may be scrubbed)

Not O.S marked.
About 350m SE-ish of the lake on the southern boundary of the Longshaw Estate.
I guess 8x8m in size, with nice sections of double kerbing.

Toot Hill’s barrow is only a small affair, 8x9m and just under 1m high.
Barnatt noted the site as a possible barrow in his ‘Barrow Corpus’, since then though it has made it onto the NMR.
A small gritstone slab sticks out of the barrows top, about 50cm wide and 60cm tall....whether it is anything to do with the barrow seems uncertain.

Excellent views with the weird summit of Shutlingsoe visible in the SSE and the moors of Wildboarclough filling the eastern horizon.

The earthwork marked on O.S maps that stands on the summit of Toot Hill, is a deer pound from medieval-ish times when the Macclesfield Forest was a Royal Forest.

This may be the only Pictish symbol stone to get a full entry on TMA – the justification being that it is considered to be an earlier menhir to which symbols were later added. Honest.

3m high. In a field to the left of the road N of Edderton village.

By car, follow the signs for West Linton golf course from the W side of the village. After the final turn, drive past the clubhouse until you come to an “Authorised Vehicles Only” sign. Park here or, if like me you were not convinced of the legitimacy of this sign, drive a few hundred yards further on until the golf course crosses the road. Park here. The site is on a rise to the right with the information board just visible.

Not a spectacular site by any standards and rather overgrown in August this year but worth a look if you’re in the area.

Ruined cairn at edge of forest and accessible by forest tracks.

Cairn originally about 23m diameter – part of chamber with lintel exposed.

Lies about a quarter mile SW of the more famous Balnuaran of Clava cairns. Most prominent feature is 2.4m high monolith from surrounding stone circle. Other stones are visible but difficult to establish a clear overall pattern.

Can be reached from the Historic Scotland site of Garrywhin 400m to the NE or by extending the Loch of Yarrows Archaeological Trail.

18m diameter round cairn with passage and chamber.