Latest Fieldnotes

As it was pitch black by the time we arrived here, you can barely see the stone in the picture but as the site wasn’t even mentioned here I thought it worthy of inclusion.

Travelling North on the A499, turn into the driveway of a large mansion type house immediately after the right turn signposted “Penygroes”. The stone is in a field beyond a fence on your right.

On a windy road near the village of Dinas, a 5 foot tall standing stone stands in the middle of a field. In the same field appears to be some form of hut circle.

On a windy road near the village of Dinas, a 5 foot tall standing stone stands in the middle of a field. In the same field appears to be some form of hut circle.

Pointing to the sky like a huge finger, this stone has a lovely texture to it and is atleast 8 feet tall. Great views on the peninsula, it is clearly visible on the B4417.

This is a magnificent site. Not marked on any OS map I have seen. Travelling North towards the B4417 from the village of Sarn Meyllteyrn, look out for the gate on your right hand side (there is room to park).

Looking for the rock art up at Skyreholme was Fitzcolrado’s idea, I don’t think either of us had seen pictures of what we could expect up here.... And this stone paid off and made the longer than necessary uphill walk well worth it.....
One face of the boulder is heavily covered in cups and there’s a coupla grooves and worn rings thrown in for good measure...there are cup marks all over the boulder although not as concentrated...
Excellent.

I grew up in sight of this old hillfort from my bedroom window in Crosland Moor.

The history of the site is that it was first occupied during the Bronze Age. It later became an Iron Age Hillfort when much of the earthworks were dug out. The site was suddenly abandoned after an explosion caused by internal combustion in one of the walls, about 400BC . Excavations found vitrification amongst the stonework in part of the walls (this could be the source of the local legend about it being a worm’s lair).

The hill laid abandoned until after the Norman invasion (despite popular belief that the Romans occupied the hill. No evidence has been found to support this) when the De Lacy family built a castle and re-dug and extended the earthworks. It is reported that the castle was still fairly intact (although ruinous) in the 16th Century, but the site was used as a quarry until no stonework remains above ground.

The pub was built in 1812 and it is said that a tunnel was found that led down into the hill. Alas, no one was brave enough to explore it and it was sealed up when the pub was built on top of it. There are a number of local legends about tunnels leading out from the hill. The pub used to be good for lock-ins, and a few of us used to see in the solstice sunrise up there in the 1980’s... but it’s been taken over by a chain now and tries to attract the carvery crowd. You even get your beer on a ****ing serviette!!!

The tower was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Silver Jubilee.

Andy H

Amusingly, the farmer has placed a “Watch out, Cairn about” sign on his gate (referring to his dog and not the chambers). Ask the farmer and he will direct you to a stile leading into a field of bracken.

I can’t believe no-one has posted regarding this site before. Perhaps the most spectacular site on the Lleyn Peninsula, with cracking views out to sea.

Not the easiest place to find. Park at Cilan Uchaf farm (there is a large car park), walk down the track to your left and keep going towards the sea, climbing any wall you come up against. Keep your eyes to the right, as this is where the chamber will appear on your right.

The chamber itself is typical of those in North Wales, but the views are anything but.

From Y Ffor Burial Chamber, just cut through the farm and you will see it ahead in the distance.

Visible from the B4366 between Carnarfon and Bethel in the middle of a corn field.

Travelling North from Carnarfon on the A487, leave for the B4547. Just after you go under the A487 turn right. As you drive uphill, try to keep an eye behing you to the right. The stone will be visible in a field. Access to this field seems impossible, though.

The henge was still in a heavy mist when me and Fitz arrived so we didn’t get to see the surrounding landscape......pity, but hey...

The place is tiny (compared to other henges I’ve seen) and the bank is very low...the entrance is damaged and there’s a small quarry hole that destroys some of the banking.....Overall at top site tho’....

This Iron Age burial mound dates from around 10 BC and may have contained the body of Addedomaros of the Trinovantes. The grave goods give an insight into the extent of Romanisation of the local aristocracy more than 50 years before the Claudian invasion. There were 17 wine jars, chain mail and a coin of Augustus struck in 17 BC which had been mounted as a portrait medallion. Other items included a statuette of Cupid and figurines of bull, boar and griffin. Trade with Roman Gaul was already influencing fashions among the rich.

I have to agree with Moth......while up at the circle Fitz and me had the same kinda thought...that the biggest stone in the circle could be naturally sited

This is a cracking little circle with views to match.... Even tho’ some of the stones struggle to reach above the height of the grass and heather the circle is still pretty well defined.

Visit on a clear day and enjoy........

Me and Stu ventured up here after a visit to Yarnbury Henge. The landscape changes once you’ve past the henge. You are now in the mining zone and part of a desolate but not unattractive industrial wasteland. There are tips, shafts and the remains of the mine buildings everywhere.
We parked up at the top of the lane and this bloke comes up all friendly like, and asked us what we were up to. We told him that we were looking for circles, he reckon he’d been coming on the moor for 15 years and had never seen a circle. I showed him the map and he told us which way to go. He then asked us if we liked watching lapdancers. I asked him what he was doing on the moor he said that he was off to kill some rabbits and then shoot a porn film. At that point all his mates turned up in 4X4’s and they drove off in convoy across the moor.

From the top of the lane you should take the right hand track and head for the chimney. Once you’ve crossed the dam and are heading up to the chimney you pass through a gate. Walk up the bank to about halfway between the gate and the chimney and then turn sharp left and charge across the beck on to the far bank. The two circles should be a dozen or so meters in front of you.
These are not stone circles, they are circles of stone – ring cairns with the banks composed of earth and small rocks. The most southerly of the pair is a lovely looking thing the more northerly one is a bit wrecked but recognizable.
These two monuments are in the zone between the track and the beck. To return don’t bother charging back across the beck, just follow it downhill and you’ll come to the gate. Check out the mineshaft capped with a rough corbelled roof. It’s a lovely relatively recent example of modern practical megalithic masonry.

Try the approach from Hangingstones Road. If you’re in a car, you can park by the Cow & Calf Rocks... if not, it’s a bit of a hike from Ilkley Train Station, and the edge of the moor is very steep, but this route takes you through the amazing prehistoric landscape of Green Crag Slack and Backstone Beck.

Once on the moor, to the west of the Cow & Calf are the Hangingstones – an outcrop down by the Victorian Quarry. This flat outcrop features some of the strangest variations on cup and ring marks you’ll find anywhere.... and an amazing view over Wharfedale.

From the Cow & Calf continue straight forward and up the ridge in front of you. This takes you onto Green Crag Slack where there are hundreds of Cup and Ring marked rocks. The Pancake Stone (that can be seen balancing over the edge of the moor), The Haystack Rock and the Planets all lie along this ridge. The path to the South West takes you to the Idol Stone, Green Crag and the Woofa Bank Cairnfield. To the South East, the path curves round to the Backstone Beck enclosure (a Neolithic & Bronze Age walled settlement area containing a couple of well designed rock carvings).

Continue along the path to the south, up onto the next ridge and bear right until the path joins the boardwalk up to the Twelve Apostles.

Here, break off the main path and follow the small path that leads from the eastern edge of the circle towards an obvious outcrop about 1000 yards away. Here you will find the Grubstones circle (a small circle likely to be the kerbstones of a robbed cairn) in the heather about 10/20 yards south of the gamekeeper’s hut. Watch for the gamekeeper tho’... he’s an arse. You’ll spot him on his quadbike if he’s around!

You can then head back to Ilkley by taking the path around the resevoir dyke, over Lanshaw Delves and Green Crag and back down to the Haystack Rock (look out for the Little Skirtfull of Stones Cairn and the Idol Stone on the way.

Andy H

With a close proximity to the road and the unfortunate location of neds’r’us (Aryshire branch) Ballochmyle feels doomed. The sheer disrespect of someone who feels compelled to carve their name onto such a unique and ancient piece of art is both astounding and deeply deeply depressing. Erosion so noticable around the bottom part of the wall will probably get it eventually if human folly, Buckfast and a closed mind don’t get it first.

It _is_ intially hard to find but once you know where it is you notice that there are paths to it. The one friendly local who went out of his way to show it to us left us with the dire warning ‘don’t tell anyone how to get to it or those kids will find out and destroy it’. Sadly this is so true. It would have been better if that fabled dog walker who discovered it had been turned back because the rain came on.

On a happier note some of the vandalism seen on earlier pictures (black paint and crayon) seems to have been washed away.

The sheer variety and frenzied activity of the two walls here, for me, denotes an extremely important site. It’s just my opinion but I reckon this was a stopping point on a route around the area to other sacred sites, a ‘station’ if you will.

For me this site far outstrips Achnabreck and Cairnbaan and is well worth a visit if only to scare the ‘neds’ off!

The Nag’s Head is a natural rock sculpture on Wingletang Down. (see also Wingletang Cairn Cemetry). This area is fully exposed to the Atlantic and the hard granite has been cut into fantastic shapes by wind and water. The Cornish antiquarian, William Borlase, saw the weird shapes, cup marks and hollows as being “Druidic”. All are natural and Borlase’s “Druids’ chalices and bowls” are not cup and ring marks. This should signal caution to modern antiquarians when looking at similar depressions elsewhere in Britain.

Forty-three cairns have been found in the heather of this exposed moorland. Some are retained by kerbs of granite bouders. Field walls to the north-east connect some of the cairns.

Rivock – Probabley Old English for ‘Riven Oak’.

At first this area gave me little inspiration to explore. Over the years I’d made a few trips through the barren interior of the plantation there. It always seemed a dead and forbidding place, so it was with little enthusiasm that we undertook a trip to search for the many cup-and-ring marked rocks we’d heard were there...

The entire wood is private land with one bridleway running through and one footpath that ends at the boundary! The only way to find anything is to accidentally wander off the paths and be ‘lost’!
Of course, I’d never advocate trespassing!

Within the plantation are lots of cup-and-ring marked rocks. Unfortunately they are covered in 30 years of conifer needles and accumulated dross!
It’s slow-going going crawling about on all fours, searching for the stones and scraping away the earth to see if there’s any carvings... fun though!
We only found a few during an entire afternoon – have to get ‘lost’ up there again soon...

There’s also the curious ‘Rivock Oven’; a sort of ‘chamber’ of rock with a chimney. And the Rivock Well. And probabley more that we haven’t found yet...

Apart from irate landowners, beware of the floating ‘hooded figures’ seen there in 1998 by council countryside workers who were resurfacing the bridleway! (Maybe they were the ‘Genii Cucullati’?!)

I was here halfway through August. The portal stones were overgrown and there were lots of nosey cows about but this place is impressive nonetheless. The field is called Three Stone Field, the central stone is 12ft by 6ft and the mound was 219ft long by 78 ft wide.There was a grave at the eastern end containing the crouched skeleton of a young man. There were four chambers at the south eastern side, one was empty, the others contained twenty-six skeletons in total.

This is another fine barrow damaged by indiscriminate excavation, the chambers are collapsed and the portal also collapsed. It is worth a visit, on the B4070 to Stroud take the turning to Bisley by the pub, go through the Hamlet of The Camp, the barrow is on the right up the hill. No difficulty parking.