Latest Fieldnotes

As anyone who’s familiar with the Glen Lyon road through Coille Dhubh will know, there are a lot of lumps of rock beside the road. One of them may well be the “tall upright Clach Taghairm nan Cat” described by Archie McKerracher, but I couldn’t be sure. I will try to find out his source for the story, and see if the present road was always the route into Glen Lyon, and then return for another look.

I tried (and failed!) to find these stones today. My mistake was to only read the CANMORE entry, and not download the PSAS report by Fred Coles. CANMORE only quotes a footnote by Coles in which he describes information given to him about four “’great stones’ close to Comrie Bridge” – he dismisses these as just boulders. But it wasn’t these that he was describing as a circle of 5 stones – the circle is apparently a mile and a furlong south of Comrie Castle (which is next to Comrie Bridge). So I was looking in the wrong area today (as presumably were the RCAHMS, given the bit they quote), but I shall return with the PSAS description soon and see what I can find.

The Lawley is a long ridge shaped hill of about 1240 feet situated to the North of Caer Caradoc Hillfort. At first glance the hill appears to have no ancient earthworks of any note, however look closely enough and ideally with a light dusting of snow, three distinctive ringed enclosures can be made out, The largest and clearest is located on the summit, another is located about 400 yards North, a bit lower on the ridge. And a third is slightly oscured by trees another 200 yards North and slightly lower down the ridge again. Their purpose is unclear and not much is known about them, but they look prehistoric, likely to be bronze age settlements or primitive hillforts in my opinion.

Robin Hood’s Butts consist of two fairly small tumuli situated on the 1600 foot high plateau of the Long Mynd that covers a very large area to the west of Church Stretton. The two barrows themselves are fairly unremarkable for the South Shropshire area, though they are probably the best two examples of the bronze age tumuli that litter the entire area of the Long Mynd and to my knowledge they are the only two tumuli in such close proximity to one another in the area, though I admit I’ve not seen them all. There are at least a dozen tumuli on the Long Mynd, all of similar proportions and condition as well as Bodbury Ring – a Bronze age enclosure/hillfort, The Port Way – a Bronze age track and a handfull of dyke type earthworks.

This hillfort lies on a very steep sided and impressive hill about 2 miles NE of Church Stretton. The hill is about 1500 feet above sea level and can be seen as a very obvious landmark from many miles away. The fort itself occupies the entire summit of the hill and consists of two levels where habitation may have occured and is almost entirely surrounded by two defensive ramparts and ditches. An ancient trackway cut into the side of the hill leads up to the fort on the east face of the hill from the nearby hamlet of Willstone. There is quite a noteable feature on the west face of the hill, a cave that has quite a famous legend associated with it. The cave is located a few feet below the outer rampart and can be fairly trecherous to reach. Also there is marked on the map two tumulii on the approach to the fort, though I have not been able to locate either of them myself.

Field Visit by Clive O’Sullivan.

As I live very close to Boddington hill and have visited the site many times.
I can comment on the site for any body wishing to visit the prehistoric hill fort.

The whole site is currently owned by the forest commision and is a picnic site with activities for the public. There is parking close to the site for a fee. The forest commision close the site off at 9pm each night.

The Map reference; SP 883080 1 mile east of Wendover

The Oval prehistoric fort is situated on a promontary. So can be classified as a promontary fort.
The earthworks enclose an area of 17 acres.(7 ha).The earthwork is complete except at the northwest. The east side being preserved in the best condition, still standing 13 feet above the bottom of the ditch in some places. Of the remains of the defences; an inner scarp is still detectable as well as a ditch and bank along the east side. The west side has no remaining ditch but still a bank.
The Main gate is presumed to have been at the northwest and has been completely destroyed by a farm that existed there since 1768 (known as Calloway farm) Rubble and tiles are still in evidence of the demolished farm at the NW.
Within the defences are several features; These include two dells. The dell at the N is waterlogged most of the year. The second dell which is more to the
south is dry. An old disused concrete reservior exists approximately in the centre of the earthwork. The whole site is mostly over grown with brambles and trees.
The site was breifly excavated at the south east in 1964 to reveal pottery and some post holes. A  profile of the bank and ditch was revealed.
The bank was formerly held back by posts with a rubble revetment. In front of the bank was a ‘V’ ditch.
The excavations can still be traced as a scar exists in the bank. The depression across the foot path is from the same excavations.
As the site is very long it is possible a second gate existed at the south east.

A notice board says the oval fort was in use from 600 bc till about 400 BC.

ref;
-guide to prehistoric England (Nicholas Thomas 1976)
-SMR wendover
-from imfomation notice board

Clive O’Sullivan 10/nov/2003

As Grrr notes this is all occupied by a very smart stud farm but a footpath skirts the N side and views of the ramparts can be seen from here. Following the side road signposted to the church, much better views can be had of the S side.

Disabled: Parking might be possible at the stud farm (Please ask) and part of the N part is circled by a flat path with wide views to the N. To the S, parking is possible where the road branches to the church (is this area private?) but the road is steep.

What a busy little bit of Hampshire this is! The Counties of Dorset and Wiltshire meet, the Dorset Cursus approaches from the SW,the Ditch(Dyke?) forms the boundary in association with Grim’s Ditch, a Long Barrow, tumuli and enclosures and a finely prominent aggar of the Roman Road.
A short walk SE shows that the earthwork is still very well defined and preserved, on the NE(Hants) side a deep ditch, on the SW(Dorset) side a smallish bank, Which was the defended side? Grim’s Ditch marks the boundary of a vast Bronze Age ranch so it would be nice to know which earthwork came first.

Disabled: Difficult from where I parked in the lay-by on the A354. However, my old map didn’t show the new parking area shown on Streetmap. Where I walked was flat but bumpy.

Couldn’t see this at first as the approach to the top of this bare and almost flat topped ridge hides it from view. Once there however it’s quite rewarding, a sinuous ditch with banks in places, sometimes climbing gently up the hill or following the contours where the ditch becomes a flat path with the natural steepness of the hill on one side and a smaller bank accentuating the drop on the other. From looking at this very short section it’s impossible to say whether it was built to keep raiders out, stock in or a huge statement of property ownership. Was it pallisaded? It seems unlikely as maintenance and patrol of this vast ranch boundary would tax even a modern stock farmer.

(“Soldiers Ring” ESE, marked by a prominent clump of trees, is Roman)

Disabled: Parking available up a cobbled road, right next to a gate. Gentle slope on grazed turf to top from where some of the ditch can be seen. Extensive views.

More of a fortlet really, worth a visit more for the view and the ambience, than for any great remains. I visited here in summer 1994, and (assuming the intervening years have been kind) the remains of the fort are still covered with trees, and the ramparts are still visible in places. The area was littered with stones that may have been bits of the fort. It definitely affords excellent views over the sands, with the southern lakes hovering in the background.

If you go to visit the three brothers,
( themodernantiquarian.com/site/80 )
the fort is easily reached from the bridleway, through Strickland Wood. However the path involves rough woodland surfaces, not suitable for those of limited mobility. The area is a nature reserve, noted for it’s unusual lepidoptera, so tread extra careful.

Last Wednesday afternoon (05/11/03) I was in the area and decided to visit the Dunino Den. As peaceful and mystique as the Den is my afternoon was shattered when I came across a gent in his mid to late forties hacking the head of a rabbit. Which to me seemed already dead, I hope! This site is for all to visit and enjoy and although this was ment to be a place of ancient sacrifice. I do believe in modern society there is a time and place and mindless acts as described are totally unacceptable, not to mention it is also a serious breach in law and order.
Have respect and enjoy the wonders of this site. I live locally and have spent a great deal of time searching the den and using this natural point of beauty as a medium to get closer to nature and to free the mind of modern day life.
I recommend for those of you who read this and are of the same mind as myself, go and pay a visit and clear the mind.

In February 2003, myself and a rambling buddy were wandering the moors above Ilkley. We noticed the heather had been recently burned off for the grouse to feast on the young shoots, leaving the huge enclosure at Woofa bank visible. Climbing down, I paced the low rubble walls to be about 50 meters in diameter. The site holds various cup-marked rocks, one of which is actually part of the wall. In fact the plateau contains up to a third of the carved rocks of the moor. An enclosure nearby (at Green Crag Slack) is tentatively dated at Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (Edwards and Bradley 1999). In the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze age the whole area was covered in light scrub, with hazel, alder, birch and pine covering the plateau, according to pollen analysis. It has also been suggested that a shallow lake may have occured here. Not only were conditions favourable for settling, the area is thought to have been part of a major trade route across the Pennines.

Did you find the little well that lies roughly north, Ken? Dunno how old it is but it’s very ‘well’ preserved!

I came back to have another look here nearly 4 years on from my initial visit, armed with more information and the benefit of 4 years intensive stone-visiting. Although Canmore describes 3 stones, there is a fourth, at a greater distance from the other 3, but on exactly the same ENE-WSW alignment. The 3 stones lie approximately 7m apart, the ‘outlier’ is 35m away from the most easterly of the 3. Not sure about this – it’s not as large as the 3 in the row, but just looks and feels right. The most easterly in the row does have some possible weathered cup marks on the upper face.

According to Canmore, the four poster measures less than 3m across, and contains 2 recumbent boulders on the SW and NW, and two smaller earth-fast boulders, both broken. The NW stone has 3 cup marks on the upper surface.

And that’s almost exactly what is here. It lies at the SW end of the stone row, and the view up to the NE is quite spectacular.

Revisited this today armed with a bit more information. There are two sites here, the row/alignment, and the remains of a four poster. Both of these contain cup marks.

Visited 24th August 2003: Cashtal yn Ard is one of the megalithic celebrities on Mann, so we approached it with some excitement. This turned out to be well placed, because the tomb is something special. I was still trying to get my head round the Manx tomb architecture, and this was the place to do it. If you had to see one tomb on the island, this should be the one.

The weather was good so we decided to have our picnic leaning against the forecourt stones near the tomb entrance. William loved the kinky portal stones and the square chambers, but I had to persuade him to be careful because some of the smaller stones moved when he clambered on them. Alfie crawled all over the place, and cruised round the monoliths, propping them up. It was a very relaxing visit.

Parking at the bottom of the lane is a bit tricky because there’s barely space to get two cars through. The gate by the road is on its last legs, and the gate into the tomb’s enclosure is unnecessarily small. There’s also a moderate incline up to the tomb, so wheelchair users and pushchair users beware.

We had the pleasure to be at Tara Hill the afternoon of Samhain 2003. We walked the hill and really enjoyed ourselves. Before leaving we stopped at the Holy Well or Well of the White Cow. The water was sweet, cold, and clear. We took some of the water home with us to the USA. I feel this water has a healing power. As does the sacred land. The well has been rebuilt and cleaned very well. Livestock has been kept out too. So the water is safe to drink. Enjoy the sweet water and the vibes. Leave a coin for the drink, we did.

Visited 24th August 2003: I spotted Ballafayle on the Ordnance Survey map, so we decided to take a look on our way to Cashtal yn Ard. Given the low profile the site has in the tourist leaflets and on the web we were surprised to find that there’s good access to the site, and quite a bit to see. This was my first proper Manx cairn, so I found it very puzzling.

The lane runs right past Ballafayle, with space for a car to park. Immediately opposite the cairn is Rullic Ny Quakern, a Keeill that was later used as a 17th Century Quaker burial ground. Access to from the road to both sites is unnecessarily hindered by low stone stiles.

Another one supplied by George Currie, he mentioned it on the Scotstone list and so I wandered out there today to have a look. It’s definitely a disrupted four poster, though there are several other stones lying nearby – field clearance or part of something else? I’m not sure. George thought he saw a cup mark on one of the stones, but I’m not convinced. Nice little placement though, and ignoring the trees it sits on a little platform just below the summit of the hill.

Having been priviledged enough to have spent the last 3 months of the 2003 season as the site custodian, could I encourage visitors to NOT put plastic flowers into the grave-pits? They soon blow into the adjacent cow-field. :-)

Just to clear a common misnomer up, it’s not the circle of uprights at Cairnpapple that had the solar alignments – it’s the cove (was roughly around the West end of the North Grave) and semi-circle of pits (East side of the Cairn 2 reconstruction) that did this. This was possibly the earliest structure on the site yet identified. Standing in the centre of the cove and looking through the Northmost of the pits gives you the approximate horizon-point of sunrise on Summer Solstice, with the Southmost pit indicating sunrise on Winter Solstice, with both Equinoxes and the four Celtic festivals being indicated by the other pits. However, two pits indicate unknown festivals, suggesting that Cairnpapple has a fuller Neolithic Calendar than we currently fully know about. It’s also worth noting that most Neolithic monuments with alignments indicate a small number of events – Cairnpapple, however, gives us the four Festivals, the two Soltices, the two Equinoxes, and four lost festivals. Impressively comprehensive! The other point worth noting is that the Ministry of Works reconstruction of the site in 1949 inexplicably only reconstructed six of the seven pits in the arc, the missing one indicating Beltain/Lunasdal – the location of this missing pit is just on the NW edge of a kerbstone in the NE perimeter of the Cairn 3 area which was damaged by a local taking it upon himself to build a Beltain fire on it in, if memory serves, 2001 (easily identifiable – the burn-marks are still there, and it’s cracked – some locals refer to this kerbstone as “The Beltain Stone”, although as a cairn kerbstone, it never functioned as such).

As a local who grew up about a mile along the Ratho road (the Baird Road end), I know this site pretty well. Which is why I’m slightly bamboozled as to why the label on this page’s header puts it down as having an “artificial mound”! It’s not artificial at all – the cairn is the real deal. The only thing that’s modern about it is the perimeter wall, which wasn’t there when I was a kid and, I think, was added as a consolidation measure by the council when they tarted the place up in, if memory serves, the 1980s. Prior to that, it was a jungle in there, and was a great place for us local kids to romp around in and scare each other with stories of witches scarificing children on top of the cairn under the full moon! :-)

I was on my way to Strotoiller when I spotted this near Dalnaneun Farm. The chamber and capstone are completely exposed and not much of the original cairn is left. It is interesting to see the construction of one of these cairns. Well worth a visit. Lots of places to pull in and the barbed wire fence is just below crotch height so not too difficult to manage if you are of average height.

This is in a garden but quite easily seen from the drive entrance. I am led to believe it is a burial mound aka Giant’s Grave.

George Currie discovered this stone on our recent trip to Upper Gaskan – themodernantiquarian.com/site/4228

On the track back downhill, as we were nearing the road junction, he leapt off the track into the trees and began brushing pine needles off a large boulder. We stood, wondering what on earth he was up to. Then -“Aha!” – we all piled in to see what he had found. And there was a cup marked rock – one cup surrounded by a circle of several more. The photo’s aren’t too great as it was dim and dark in there, but George scores again! We think he can smell them....