Latest Fieldnotes

See previous fieldnotes for Access comments.

Wednesday 17 September 2003
If you get the chance, you have to do this. Take one sunny day in and around Avebury, preferably in good company. End the day sitting around and wandering about the stones as the sun slowly descends, giving a constantly changing lightshow on the stones.

It certainly works brilliantly in the area near the southern inner circle, as the sun sinks towards the henge bank to the west. I’d like to try it up in the north west quadrant next time!!!

And it’s great for easily-done but impressive-looking photographs full of light and shade!!!

Before the sun got too low I also took a walk up onto Waden Hill while Jane painted and John finished his investigations of the stones. Worth the walk for a nice overview of Avebury itself, a surprisingly clear and detailed view of Windmill Hill and my favourite views so far of Silbury!

Access car park at top of hill. From memory, bends in road mean care needed crossing road back to the viewpoint and White Horse. Pretty sure there’s a stile too. Paths and surface are reasonable but the slope is reasonably steep in places.

Best place to view the horse itself is when approaching along the road east from the A4361. There are a couple of places where you can stop for a quick look.

Wednesday 17 September 2003
Yet another significant ‘Avebury’ hill to add to the list. Fantastic views to the west.

Would be a good starting point for a longish but practical walk along the Ridgeway to The Polisher and then down into Avebury.

Or even better, with a full day available and if concentrating on the way things fit together rather than looking at the individual elements, maybe even straight along to The Sanctuary, doubling back along the West Kennett Avenue to Avebury, then back up onto the Ridgeway! Hmmm, that’s got me thinking....

Access parked at a gate just off the A4361 to the west, more or less opposite East Farm (slightly south). Walk of maybe half a mile, uphill but not steep, and (from memory) the surface is pretty even on grass. A couple of gates to go through that were unlocked. Terrain on site is a little rough and could be muddy or slippery in the wet.

Wednesday 17 September 2003
Wow! Well worth the pretty easy walk – for the views of Silbury and Cherhill and the general Avebury landscape if nowt else*.

But there is ‘else’!!! Plenty of ‘else’. Barrows. Really nice barrows. Enclosure earthworks. Quite spectacular enclosure earthworks (I thought). A real sense of ‘settlement’ somehow, I felt – despite the surprisingly exposed and, once you’re up there, kind of ‘remote’ position.

And of course there’s the generally held assertion that this is where it all started, which somehow seemed to make sense.

*Could even just make out the Longstone Cove! (Can’t see it on my photo though – too hazy....)

Access a walk of at least 2 or 3 miles from the nearest parking place. Walking as we did from Manor Farm to the east of Avebury, the Ridgeway is a reasonably evenly surfaced bridlepath-type track. The gate to the bit of the down where the Polisher is has been locked both times I’ve been there, but isn’t difficult to climb if you can climb at all.

Wednesday 17 September 2003
When I was here before I thought it’d be a cool place to sit & chill in good company. I was right.

Also had a stomp about looking at the sarsens in the area. Loads of them are beautiful and impressive. Made me want to go down into the Mother’s Jam etc & just wander about looking at stones, but didn’t have time!

Found a couple of stones nearby with holes in, but probably not ‘the holed stone’ that people talk about. Didn’t find the ‘cup-marked one’ either. Didn’t much care. This is such a special place.

Access ahem, I won’t bother with directions! The tunnel has ramps. The path’s pretty good. I assume everyone in the world knows you can’t get right up to the stones which are roped (or more accurately, ‘stringed’) off. £5 entrance fee on 16 September 2003. Various concessions. (Except if you forget your relevant documents as John forgot his UB40 or whatever it’s called at the moment!)

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Oh bl**dy hell! I’ve always said it’s not ‘overrated’ and it’s not. Sad? Yes. Undignified? Something like that. Overrated? No. How can it be? It’s both spectacular and totally unique. AND it’s a whole complex of ‘monuments’.

Of course it’s horrible having to share it with so many other people. And of course they’re irritating especially when they’re not very interested, ‘over-interested’ or just plain too damn loud.

But I found I can ‘tune them out’ and really feel like I got a lot out of the place by being patient waiting for it to happen. I can’t say it’s easy and maybe I’m just lucky or less easily disturbed or something. I don’t know.

Once that happened though, I found that I could see or imagine all the things that I can remember hearing about the place – some of the sight lines and so on. The avenue, the place of the monument in the overall ‘landscape’.... Of course there’s no point in me describing it – we pretty much all know it back-to-front.

Time flew. One of these days I’m going be able to give myself enough time for a proper look around. Maybe I just need to go more often than after 33 years and then 8 years!!! I’ve had a pretty good look at the stones and the henge now. Cursus and a few of the barrows next I reckon.

It is a mindbender and I’d love to be able to do it justice. I’d love even more if it could do itself justice. I suppose English Heritage don’t do such a bad job in some ways given the amount of attention (positive and negative) the place gets. But there must be a much better way. It should at the very least be free to people who can’t afford to go!!!!

And you should be able to book to go right up to the stones without extra charge. And they do seem to use Stonehenge’s entrance fee to subsidise EH and its other places, esp non-prehistoric ones! And...and...and....

Access we headed north off the A303 up the A345. Woodhenge is well signposted and has a fairly small car park across the road. There is a gate or kissing gate into the ‘monument’ itself.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Well I expected weird and I got it. Goodness knows what anybody who hasn’t read a bit about this site would make of it. I guess the info boards would help, but I still had difficulty even vaguely making any kind of sense of it!

If you’re going, read up first to get anything out of it!!! Also, get an OS Explorer or be with someone who knows what’s what if you want to see Durrington Walls.

Although I thought I knew which direction was in, we were unable to work it out for ourselves even though we later found it had been staring us in the face! (It turned out to be where I thought but we hadn’t recognised it because I had no idea of the size or where the main visible bits are....)

Access using the route we did, it’s a fairly long walk (a few miles). A lot is uphill, some fairly steep. Ground is largely pretty even. Couple of stiles and a few gates.

We parked in a passing place-cum-layby which was plenty big enough to still be used for passing even with my car parked at one end! This was at approximately map ref ST727565.

Bear in mind that other people on this website have left their cars somewhere they refer to as a ‘car park’. While references to this seem to be tongue in cheek, it was almost certainly at least as good if not better than where we parked!

We walked down the hill to a left turn heading north east along a lane which runs alongside a small river. About a quarter of a mile along, we turned right, through a kissing gate I think (though it could have been a stile). The path crosses a narrow grassy area, through the trees and across a little bridge over the river.

At the other side (east) of the river, the path heads briefly uphill across a field, meeting a farmtrack or bridlepath running roughly north-south. We turned left and followed the track northish.

The track stays maybe 50-100 yards from the river for a few hundred yards, but before long we could see a hill in front of us and the river was getting further away. There are some farm buildings just the other side of the river.

Very soon we could make out the profile of the barrow up on the hillside in front of us and to the left. About halfway up the hill I guess, we took a lightly worn but distinct path off to the left across the field, still going uphill. At the hedgerow was a stile and, I think it was here that there was a signpost to the barrow.

Over the stile and right, along the field edge following the hedgerow, slightly uphill I think. After only 100 yards or so I’d guess, there was a collapsed stile back to the other side of the hedgerow. The barrow is clearly visible and close, side-on straight up the hill from here. I think there is an English Heritage sign. There may be one more fence and stile, more-or-less directly in front.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Reaching the barrow, I commented to John that the final approach from this direction was a tiny bit disappointing, being uphill and from the side.

I feel it would be more impressive if you could approach the barrow directly towards its entrance, by continuing up the main track to the level of the barrow and then approach it by turning left. John was quite happy with it the way it is!

Maybe I’d been expecting something a little more overtly striking because I’d been looking forward to ‘meeting’ this place for a few months.

Approaching from the side, the first thing I noticed was the low retaining wall round the bottom of the long barrow’s embankment. It seemed incredibly neat and well-preserved. I was pleased with how well it had survived and wondered if it is one of the elements of the barrow that has been restored.

Round to the entrance and the barrow took on an extra beauty for me. It’s proportions are lovely and the stonework around the portal is beautiful (except for the scar where there has been a nasty plaque on the right.

I was proud to have remembered my torch for once, so we took a look inside. And discovered that the batteries were sadly inadequate!!! One day I’ll get it right!

Quite a few signs of the repairs and reinforcements made before the chamber was reopened to the public. They don’t exactly look subtle, but I suppose they’re better than nothing. I’m no structural engineer so I’d better not complain. Funnily (?) enough, they’re even more evident on my photies....

Speaking of photies, I was going to take one of the legendary giant ammonite on the left upright of the entrance. But we couldn’t find it!!!

I have to say that at the time I couldn’t remember where it was and hadn’t seen a photo. Having checked on this website since, I really can’t see how we missed it. Unless we missing it because we were too close and it’s SO big?! Guess it must still be there?! My only photos of the entrance are a fraction too distant to make it out now I know where it is.

But most of the stones throughout are just dripping with chunks of shell and stuff – never seen owt like it. I was impressed. But then, I’m not a geologist either & know nothing about shelled creatures!

The chambers themselves are impressive, possibly even more so because it’s a bit of a squeeze to actually get in there and manoeuvre about to see them – or is that just me being perverse?

Probably not, as this really is the first barrow to even vaguely make me feel ‘cocooned’ – or perhaps what I really mean is ‘cockooned’ given the spectacular feminine imagery of Severn-Cotswold style barrows like this!

Access at farm on right of B3130 travelling east. It’s just possible to park by the gate to the farm. Ask to see the ‘stone’. They might snigger – the old chap painting the gate did when we asked! The stone (what there is to see!) lies on the farm side of the hedgerow to the east of the farmgate.

I emphasise this because the aforementioned ‘old chap’ didn’t bother to point this out, letting us set off blithely down the roadside verge.... (I hope he did it out of cantankerousness, otherwise he was just annoyingly unhelpful!!!)

The ground may be a bit rough if you have trouble walking, but the stone is only about 100 feet (?) from the farmgate, next to the hedgerow under a tree.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
No dog in evidence today. Good job. Had no biscuits.

You will think ‘is that it?’ You almost certainly will think ‘why did I bother?’ But you’ll probably also be glad you did. Me and my imagination were.

To confirm what Kammer says, I’ve read (can’t remember where, other than Burl’s mention) that the stone did, relatively recently, used to be bigger. Considerably bigger I believe.

Also see The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues , South West Circle and The Cove.

Access Going south through the village, when the circle is signposted left keep going. (It might even be signposted too.) As you reach the far end of the village there is a bend left with the Druids Arms on the left. Immediately after the pub there is a small car park. Park here.

If you can resist going straight for a pint, there is a gate from the car park to about 5 fairly steep steps up to the beer garden. When the back door of the pub is unlocked you can also get through that way, but it still involves steps. The stones are set in well kept grass on a gentle-ish slope in the beer garden.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Well, when we arrived the beer garden was deserted and the setting seemed fine. (Sorry Oci!) We had a look at these BIG old rocks and stood on walls at the top of the beer garden working out the relative position to the Great Circle etc and the SW Circle.

This was relatively easy. We orientated ourselves by the tops of the trees in the Great Circle’s field, the Church – which lies between the Great Circle and The Cove (...hmmmm!), and, less pleasantly, a farmer’s huge stockpile of old tyres that we’d noticed not far from the SW Circle!

This gave useful visual support to John Wood’s observation a couple of centuries ago (related by Burl) that The Cove would align on a straight line through the centre of the NE and Great Circles. (He also says that Hautville’s Quoit aligns on a line through the centres of the SE and Great Circles.)

Curiously none of this is mentioned in English Heritage’s little info sheet, though it does give loads of interesting info about a geophys survey of the main site. (Once you’ve waded through the usual woolly ‘what stone circles were for’ and ‘folklore’.)

Anyway, nice Cove! Inevitably a little reminiscent of, but very small in relation to, the Avebury one(s) – but still big stones in comparison to an awful lot of megaliths! Wonder what coves were? (I’ve read a few theories of course.) Pre-dates the circles according to Burl.

Have to say being sited in a beer garden quite appealed to us. (Ahem, what a surprise!) So, better to enjoy the ambience, we grabbed a pint of Wadswoth 6X each and drank to the glorious Mr Stanton Drew....

Also see The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues , South West Circle and Hautville’s Quoit.

See main Weddings at Stanton Drew page for Access notes.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
It is (now) possible to approach this circle directly from The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues.

Considerably more unkempt than the main site as a result of being in an apparently uncultivated field, the stones here are all fallen. And a bit overgrown. And almost impossible to photograph.

But this doesn’t prevent this from being a nice circle featuring large and interesting and aesthetically pleasing stones. Ace.

Also see The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues , The Cove and Hautville’s Quoit.

See main Weddings at Stanton Drew page for Access notes.

Tuesday 16 September
While there John and I had the Great Circle down as marginally smaller than Long Meg and her Daughters but when I looked in Burl later, it’s actually a bit bigger. As my copy of Burl lives in my rucksack I really ought to remember to look at the damn thing on site a bit more often!!!

As we walked round the Great Circle looking at the fallen stones, it became simultaneously easier to imagine the circle when the stones were standing and more frustrating that the vast majority are fallen.

This is an amazing place, that would be truly mind-boggling in a Hurlers, or Machrie Moor way if only the stones were standing!!. Kind of almost in an Avebury way if you look just at Avebury itself, the West Kennett Avenue & Longstone Cove. (Leave out Silbury & everything else though, because that’s where Avebury leaves everything else trailing!!)

John’s still slowly converting me to the opinion that more circles should be ‘restored’ – not in the Cullerie sense, ‘just’ re-erected as well as possible. Never would’ve said that a few months ago! (I’ll probably change my mind again anyway next time I see a ‘badly’ or ‘overdone’ one!!!)

In fact, you only have to look at the damaged but BEAUTIFUL NE circle to see what I’m on about. If the Great Circle was anywhere near as complete as this, we’d all be mind-blown bunnies I reckon.

Big stones, most of them standing. Nice proportions

Maybe it was the defiant insubordination of the smaller circle in close proximity to a much bigger ‘monument’, or maybe it was something about the proportions. Or maybe it was something else. But somehow, the NE circle in relation to the Great Circle put me in mind of Cnoc Fillibhear Bheag in relation to Callanish.

Well, I know what I mean, even if nobody else does!

(The Avenues are sh**ged and seem very strangely aligned, but they’re still a nice little bonus!)

Also see South West Circle , The Cove and Hautville’s Quoit.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Access coming from the west, we took the B3130, turning right at the signpost for Stanton Drew. This junction is remarkable for a strange little cottage on an ‘island’. One of the most bizarre domiciles I’ve ever seen – looks more than a little like a toadstool. Shame about the incongruous big brick chimney.

Driving into Stanton Drew, the circle is clearly signposted to the left. There’s a small car park, and entrance to the field where the main circles stand is by a (kissing?) gate with an English Heritage honesty box.

And if you’re lucky (we were) a little stock of b/w photocopied A4 single page info sheets. Nice touch but makes it annoying that they don’t do it more often!

There’s another kissing gate just before you reach the Great Circle. Looks bizarre because (at least at the moment) the only fence either side of it is a single string! This is not visible from more than a few yards away, so it just looks like a gate standing in a field!

The ground around the main and north-east circles is reasonably even, on a gentle slope.

Access to the south west circle is, from memory, over a stile and possibly through a gate too. Or 2 gates. Or 2 stiles. (Sorry!) The small field is also considerably less even and level.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
I’d been looking forward to this one for a very long time, since spotting it in Burl’s ...Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany – many years ago, not long after I got the book.

Despite having read quite a bit about it, the place still surprised me, particularly just through the sheer size of the Great Circle, and I guess, the cohesiveness of the whole ‘complex’. Guess it’s not ALL that often that you visit sites that are so distinctly and unavoidably inter-related. Shame about Hautville’s Quoit....

Also see The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues , South West Circle , The Cove and Hautville’s Quoit.

Carn Brea – 1st October 2003

Carn Brea is a great big hill just outside Redruth, and is currently the second oldest excavated and dated occupation site in the county.

After hauling my ass up to the top of this hill, I discover a track/road and parked cars on the other side of the summit. Well, I do like walking uphill so I won’t complain, but if you want to take the easy way up, I guess the top can be reached by car from Carnkie.

I noticed a car park on the map at the south side of the hill (at the bottom – around SW681412). I couldn’t see any road signs towards it so I drove via Carn Brea Village and the furthest I could get was a small layby at SW686412, which already had one burnt out car in it. But it is a decent (but not signposted) place to park because two paths up the hill start from close by. One path is wide and goes around and up the east side of the hill and the other is more overgrown and goes up the hill into the middle of the Neolithic enclosure, through what is believed to be the ancient entrance.

It’s not easy to see much of the ancient bits on the hill though (even with the detailed drawing in Cornovia), but is well worth it for the view and the vibe. Not surprisingly the view from the top is amazing, including a good view across to St.Agnes Beacon.

September 2003 The first thing I noticed when approaching the Nine Ladies was the pristine state of the turf and the tell-tale traces of the plastic netting beneath that peeps through in a couple of places. The neatness and tidiness of the grass give the circle a bit of an artificial modern air but I can’t really recall how the placed looked when I was last here a few years ago. Once the wild grasses and flowers have started seeding themselves in the new turf the place will look a lot more natural but it’s already a huge improvement judging from some of the previous photographs of the site. One thing to note though is that you’ll be lucky to get the place to yourself as it is popular with families, couples and walkers at weekends, but I’ll bet it’s a cracking place first thing in the morning or in winter. As for the stones themselves, there are of course 10 now, I think the one discovered in 1979 is the fallen slab to the east of the circle – there may originally have been more. The diameter of the circle is about 10 metres and there is a faint trace of an outer bank and what may have been a small cairn or earth mound near the centre and according to Jacquetta Hawkes there were entrances to the northeast and southwest. At least one of the stones (to the east) has some kind of (modern?) carving on it as does the King Stone which is now known not to have been an outlier but once formed part of a now destroyed cairn. For some reason I had remembered the King Stone as being larger than it is – it’s only a tiny little thing.
When there are people around it’s difficult to feel any kind of atmosphere at the circle and the traces of fires and bit’s of rubbish around the place don’t help, but when you get a couple of minutes of solitude then the place still has a little touch of magic about it. The small copse of trees block any views to the north and east, it could be that the eastern view towards the Derwent was obscured by a small rise in the land anyway and it’s difficult to tell whether the Wye valley to the north could have been seen from the circle.

This was a hard one to find, I walked right past it although it is just next to the track (to the east) and only found it on my second attempt. Stanton Moor South (T43) is one of those sites that it’s only really possible to see as you move round it due to the rich covering of heather, if you stand still and close one eye it just disappears into the undergrowth. Once you start picking through the greenery it does become a little clearer though, a bank about 15 metres in diameter and about half a metre high in places with a small gap for an entrance to the south. There are a few stones dotted around the bank but it’s hard to tell which may have stood and which were boulders used to pack the bank, there is also a slight trace of a cairn near the centre. The entrance that leads from the path through the west side of the bank into the circle is a modern intrusion but is useful for finding the site which like most of the others on this eastern side of the moor has fine views across the Derwent valley and to the hills beyond.

This ring cairn or ruined stone circle is easy enough to find as you walk north along the main path that leads to the Nine Ladies. About 230 metres south of the Nine Ladies look to you left (west) for a raised oval of heather about 20 metres away. Evidence of the bank is heavily covered with heather like most of the other sites on the moor but from the central cairn it’s form is clear and walking around it reveals the bank still stands nearly a metre high in places. It seemed to me to be better preserved to the west, which is also the most overgrown side. There are entrances to the north and south and in a couple of places on the eastern side the small boulders of the bank have been knocked down making them look a little like extra entrances – it’s worth rooting around at the south entrance for the inscribed stone that bears the Heathcote’s T56 identification for the site. My estimate for the diameter of the bank is about 25 metres, as to whether it was originally a ring cairn or stone circle is difficult to say, if it was a circle then it has suffered differently from the nearby Nine Ladies that managed to keep its uprights and (just about) loose its bank and central mound. Here the situation is reversed – it reminded me a little of a larger version of Barbrook II minus the uprights.

Classed as a ‘Platformed Bowl Barrow’ rather than a ‘Platform Cairn’.
Perched on the quarry cliff tops with corkin’ views all round.
The barrow is in excellent nick compared to the others close by....stands about 3m high...platform around 25x26m in diameter with the barrow about 19x15m. A bit of damage to the northern side where a stone wall looked to have crossed the platform.

A footpath leads to the top of the hill starting at Arm Lees Farm (SK262553) then on to Moor Edge Farm. From here follow the path above the quarries.
A bit of a long way round but the quarries and dis-used mine shafts on the moor make a shorter route impossible.

The earthworks lie either side of Wessenden Head Road between Marsden and Marsden Moor. Maps have variously described the sites as either settlements, homesteads or henges. Both earthworks are on farmland, so permission to visit needs to be requested from the nearby farmhouse.

I last visited the site during the mid 1980’s and only had time to see the Royd Edge earthwork. A roughly circular enclosure about ten yards in diameter, with one entrance and now partitioned by a modern drystone wall.

A magnometer survey bu West Yorkshire Archaeological Services follows.

Magnetometer surveys were undertaken at 2 earthwork enclosure sites, to determine whether gradiometry would identify archaeological features on Millstone Grit geology and to find evidence for other domestic activity or a ditched field system outside the main enclosure. Although outwardly similar in form and function, the magnetic responses from the monuments were markedly different. At Oldfield Hill there was virtually no detectable response from the infilled ditch. It was thought that thisprimarily reflected the high percentage of stone in the fill. At Royd Edge the infill was predominantly silty soil and the ditch gave a strong magnetic signal, demonstrating that features could be identified on Millstone Grit geology under the right conditions. Isolated anomalies thought to have been caused by archaeological activity were identified inside both enclosures. There was no geophysical evidence for the continuation of archaeological activity outside of the enclosure at Royd Edge but isolated responses north of the enclosure at Oldfield Hill could have been indicative of further human activity.

If you’re up here, find it. It’s strange, weathered boulder with a depression and notch eroded/carved? Right at the top of the northern peak of Rough Tor, just along from the war memorial plaque with the dragon on it.

Halangy Down Settlement – St.Mary’s, Isles of Scilly – 3rd October 2003

For directions and comment, see Bant’s Carn.

This was a really evocative site for me, and I could well imagine people living here. The courtyard house is excellent, although the rest of the settlement would require more time to explore to try to make more sense of it all.

NB – It should be said that although there is evidence of settlement on the site going back to the Bronze Age, the settlement we now see probably belongs to the second to fourth centuries AD.

Bant’s Carn – St.Mary’s, Isles of Scilly – 3rd October 2003

Given that just by getting to St.Mary’s, and presumably having a map, you have shown a lot of initiative and commitment, I won’t try to describe the minutiae of getting to sites on the island (but might just make a few comments). Most major sites are signposted, but I was disappointed (in general) at the poor signposting of paths, especially given that I have read others say that Scilly sites are well signposted, and the general fact that tourism is the main economy of the islands.

I have to say again that I was disappointed at the footpaths in the area. There doesn’t seem to be a coastal path from the east, which was a disappointment. It was signposted from the large pylon but it was a shame to have to come inland and via a scabby pylon (and past a road that said ‘Private Road’) to get to one of the most important multi-period sites on the islands.

Like the tomb at Higher Innisidgen, this is a real ‘show grave’, despite being eaten into the surrounding field walls. What a great place and great location. The chamber is higher than most and I can imagine that the entrance would have been pretty special in its full glory.

Higher Innisidgen Entrance Grave – St.Mary’s, Isles of Scilly – 3rd October 2003

Given that just by getting to St.Mary’s, and presumably having a map, you have shown a lot of initiative and commitment, I won’t try to describe the minutiae of getting to sites on the island (but might just make a few comments). Most major sites are signposted, but I was disappointed (in general) at the poor signposting of paths, especially given that I have read others say that Scilly sites are well signposted, and the general fact that tourism is the main economy of the islands.

A few snippets re location. If coming from the west on the track past Lenteverne and you want to get to Innisidgen via the coast, you need to take the path to the right (downhill). After 100metres you then continue on slightly left (instead of crossing a tiny gully to the right which takes you to the coast path for the south) and you will be on the coastal path. It is a ‘lower’ grave in terms of height above sea level rather than lower in terms of south from the higher (i.e. the lower grave is actually to the north of the higher grave). Both are on the footpath. If you approach the area from the West it is much easier, because the path to the higher grave is signposted (and that path runs past the lower grave anyway).

‘Higher Innisidgen Carn’ is a real ‘show grave’. A beauty; in a beautiful location. It just screams perfection. I noticed a strange similarity to the rocky outcrop above it (as if it mimicked it), and I swear I saw someone move in the rocky outcrop whilst I took a picture of both. Spooky.

For info on ‘Lower Innisidgen Carn’ see the separate page.

There is another chambered cairn in the area, marked on the map at around SV923122. If I found it, then all I found was a few jumbled stones just off the higher cliff path. I think maybe I didn’t find it. Didn’t have enough time, and the undergrowth in the whole area was pretty fierce.

Harry’s Walls Menhir – St.Mary’s, Isles of Scilly – 3rd October 2003

Given that just by getting to St.Mary’s, and presumably having a map, you have show a lot of initiative and commitment, I won’t try to describe the minutiae of getting to sites on the island (but might just make a few comments). Most major sites are signposted, but I was disappointed (in general) at the poor signposting of paths, especially given that I have read others say that Scilly sites are well signposted, and the general fact that tourism is the main economy of the islands.

This is obviously a strange one because of its location right next to an X shaped daymark (within an unfinished Tudor fort) and it being cemented in place, but seems to be recognised as a menhir. It was first recorded by Borlase in 1756 as sitting on a mound. Stones litter the immediate area possibly suggesting a previous cairn?

Give all the above I felt the menhir was in a rather ‘cold’ place. Couldn’t get much feeling of ancient history!

Buzza Hill Entrance Graves – St.Mary’s, Isles of Scilly – 3rd October 2003

Buzza Hill can be reached via a footpath up from the east end of Porthcressa Beach, or from just off Church Road (either a footpath from the Power Station, or via the Hospital Lane).

It’s well worth the short climb. Not only does the hill give you the best views back over Hugh Town but also it contains one existing entrance grave, one that was probably an entrance grave before a windmill was built on it in 1834 (and which is now ‘King Edward’s Tower’ and lots of stones that might be some sort of chamber (between the two above ones).

Compared to all the ‘show graves’ of the islands the entrance grave is not great (only one capstone in place), but the position is fantastic and it is a very enigmatic place. The Cornish Antiquarian William Borlase excavated two chambered cairns on the hill in the mid-18th century. He found neither pottery or human bones.

The kerbed ring around the tower is excellent in places and I guess it would have a been a classic entrance grave in it’s original form.

St.Agnes Beacon Cairns – 2nd October 2003

Can’t really miss this hill, just west of St.Agnes village. Easy to reach, via numerous public footpaths around the area. National Trust openland. Closest place to park is at SW706507, facing a metal farm building, with room for about 8 cars. But you can also park at many other places in the area and walk to the beacon via footpaths or roads.

The OS map shows 3 cairns on the summit. Two towards the highest point (at the south east end of the summit) and one at the north west end of the summit area. All are in light gorse, with the most southerly one the deepest amongst the thorns. None stand out massively, and there are many other similar mounds round the hill. I cannot believe that some of these aren’t also burial cairns.

The hill stands out for miles around, and the views from it are totally stunning. The highest point isn’t actually a cairn, but the old beacon, which is topped with a panoramic plate showing you the landmarks for around 25kms around, including several windfarms, the china clay area around Roche (24km away) and Carn Brae (10km away).

The Bolster Bank is visible to the south and southeast of the Beacon, but isn’t totally obvious ( an OS map will help you orientate yourself). It is believed that originally this Dyke enclosed the whole of the coastal area around the hill, cutting it off from the surrounding land.