Latest Fieldnotes

What a top place.....I knew this was gonna be something special, and it didn’t disappoint.
Everything about it was class from the stones to the circles location...smart.

From the standing stone, visible from the track to Cambret Farm, the circle and four poster are 500ft away to the north over the otherside of the drystone wall.
Unsure of access rights...but we managed without any hassles.

The cairn and standing stone at Bagbie are both marked on the 1:50,000 O.S map but not this little four poster that stands next to the cairn.

A great little circle in a bleak moorland area with excellent views.

You can see this stone in a field behind the barn on the way out of Bagbie on the road to Cambert Farm on the way up to the Claughreid circle.....

It’s pretty straight forward finding the stones but some wall and barbed wire jumping is required.
The four stones, three still upright, form a diamond....Hard to say why, but it’s a bit of a dull lifeless place.

An uninspiring stone but close to the road so worth a sniff.

Ask at the farm before wondering about in the fields.
Me and Fitz had real problems finding the rock art at Torrs Farm and Number 3 was the only one we came across....you’ll need something better than the 1:50,000 scale map we had I reckon.

This is an excellent circle in a great setting....with its low circle of stones and fat central stone the site looks a sorta of a beefed up Bullstones/Cleulow Cross. It’s definitely one to track down.

Another thing the two sites share are the ‘caps’ growing up through the moorland grass this time of year.....an added bonus.

Walshaw dean was submerged under a lot of water at the beginning of the last century. Upon hearing that there was low levels of water in many reservoirs at the moment I decided that I would take a chance and see if I could see it. The water wasn’t as low as I thought it might be. I didn’t see the circle but I did get the opportunity to see the setting in which it would have been. Beautiful views and in a fantastic bowl-like arena. Next time there is a hose-pipe ban get up there

Burl could have seen this place, it may just have been pulled down very recently. Although I didn’t actually see the site (it was getting late and I had spent too much time at Walshaw Dean) there is a standing stone on a high bit of banking on the roadside adjacent to where the circle once was, coming from Mere Clough at the top of the hill the banking on the left comes to about 10 feet above the road, the standing stone is on a left hand bend shortly after a lay-by on the right.
I will find the site next time

14-10-03.
I visited Arran for work reasons so I was limited to the sites I could see... this one is conveniently on the verge of the main road road through Brodick A841, almost opposite a school.
An impressive slab of sandstone, there are faint signs of graffitti / letters carved into it.
.o0O0o.

Situated by the side of the road running through Glencoe, according to the board at the Isles of Glencoe Hotel this is an Iron Age hillfort. I didn’t have time to have a good look but took a couple of photographs from a distance – into the sun, so they’re not too great. One to visit next time I’m in the area...

I had a look for this one but couldn’t trace it....

This lies just to the west of the road after crossing the Ballachulish bridge. Best accessed from the side road leading into the village, and following the track down under the bridge and round. Pretty destroyed now, and no sign of either chambering or kerbs, seems to be being used as a field clearance dump as there were a lot of rolls of wire and such like lying around on it. Pretty sad, except for its location – the views along Loch Linnhe are stunning.

Ask permission to visit this at the Golf Club, which lies just beside the wee road leading to Ballachulish House. This cairn is pretty rubbed out, and only a few of the kerb stones survive, but the cist is still in situ, with a slightly dislodged capstone. Apparently when excavated in 1972 no skeletal remains were found, though there was evidence of previous disturbance. Fragments of a food vessel found on the cist floor are in the National Museum of Scottish Antiquities.

Visited this one last Saturday around sunrise. It lies just south of the busy A82 Oban to Fort William road, and parking can be a bit awkward. Head for Oak Cottage, beside the field with the stone in it, as the field belongs to the owner. A lovely lady, originally from Aberdeenshire but who married a local Cameron man. She told me that the stone had been broken many years ago by a horse using it as a rubbing post, but that her husband’s grandfather enlisted the help of a local stone mason to pin and re-erect it. Permission to visit will readily be granted provided the field is not in crop or being used for livestock. She showed me a marvellous photo she was given by a previous visitor, with the stone framed by a rainbow. It’s a real beauty, and one of the few surviving holed stones.

I had a walk down to this on Sunday morning. It lies behind the Alltshellach Hotel in North Ballachulish. Please ask permission to visit, the owners didn’t know of the existence of this rock, although they do now. From the side door of the hotel follow the track down through the grounds to an old jetty with a couple of iron mooring rings on it. Look south, and you’ll see two iron fence posts on the rocks of the promontory. Head for the western (right-hand) one, taking care as the rocks can be pretty slippery. When you reach the iron pole, look down at your feet....

Access is much easier now that there is a well made, but very narrow track from Wellow. The barrow is fantastic and a real must see! Being some distance from the Avebury circus, the interior was free from candles and other new age clutter. How Moth could miss the giant ammonite cast I’ll never know! The setting of the barrow and the surrounding hills is superb.

Accessible from Little Sodbury and Old Sodbury, but don’t try the footpaths from the A46 as they are invisible beneath crops! I parked by Old Sodbury church and took the footpath opposite that goes along the left side of the village school. This is the Cotswold Way and is well marked. Keep to the left as the path skirts a steep hill and then, when a wood is reached, turn right and climb steeply up the hill.

The land towards the A46 is quite flat and the fort is defended by two banks and a ditch. Listed as Iron Age, yet the inner bank is perfectly rectangular with rounded corners. It looks very much like it was re-shaped by the Romans.

Much easier to find in good weather.

Accessiblity note: Probably OK for those with sticks, though slightly uphill. Ground too uneven for any but the most rugged wheelchairs.

The banks of Bury Camp are in dense woodland near Colerne. The interior of the fort is ploughed out and arable. Very difficult to explore.

Must be the most interesting pub garden in Britain.

What a wonderful place, in the middle of nowhere surrounded by lovely countryside which is sadly blighted by the rubbish tip in full view as at Five Wells in Derbyshire. If you are going to visit a long barrow don’t miss this one.

A very elusive circle this one. I did chat to one farmer who kindly pointed out Ringstone Hill and told me it was no longer there. He had met someone 4 years previous who was also looking for it, and told me where the chap had said he’d found it (but there was nothing there to see). His directions pointed me to another farm where in the yard was indeed the remains of the circle now reduced to a circular ditch and nothing more. This farmer also confirmed it had been cleared some time ago. Imagine having a stone circle in your front yard and then clearing it? Tragic.

A very easy place to find directly accross from the picnic site marked on the map the enclosure is also marked on the o.s. map there are the remains of possibly 2 structures here firstly theres a small hill in the field with some low banks and ditches on top of it which are clearly circular secondly at the bottom of the hill some 30 yards away there is the remains of another structure this consists of a low circular bank of stones mostly fallen there are some large kerbstones and also a smaller rubble bank but this is mostly hidden by the undergrowth.
i first came here in summer and returned in october where i was able too see more of the structure maybe as the winter months go on i will visit again and be able to make out some more of this feature, but it looks to me to be the remains of a kerbed cairn although there is no mound in the centre.