This stone is not on the map so may be modern, but there are no less than four early settlements on this tiny island with numerous hut circles and a promontory fort. RSPB reserve with access by launch from Martins Haven.
I cannot quite remember the exact location as I photographed it while running from a ferocious thunderstorm. Some of the early settlements may be monastic. Local name for this stone is “John’s” stone. Perhaps it is just a cattle scratchpost.
Hidden away in one apex of a St. Andrews cross of paths by Blackdown Lodge. The lodge (on army ground) stands in one apex, the barrow is in the opposite one.
Missed this completely the first time I went to look as I thought it was on the other side of the army’s fence !
Largely overgrown with several large depressions in the top, but still worth seeking out.
Easiest to park at the Hawley Lake sailing centre and walk from there.
There are four entrance graves on the rocky summit of South Hill with a dozen or more on the North Hill. The two hills of Samson ar very similar to the Paps of Jura in Scotland and the Paps of Anu in Ireland.
Blackbury Camp is an Iron Age ‘fort’ or settlement site located about a couple of miles north-west of Seaton in East Devon. There is a remarkable sense of solitude at the Camp, surrounded as it is by woodland and farmland. Many locals come here to walk their dogs or let their children run around the largely flat interior.
The banks are still fairly high in this oval shaped camp with entrances located at either end, although these may be modern. The most interesting feature is the main entrance which is still defined by large ramparts that form an almost box shaped entrance. The entrance slopes down towards a slight valley and looks directly out towards higher ground. The ‘rear’ of the camp is on the higher ground that spreads out to reach the Broad Down Necropolis a mile or so distant.
It’s a lovely, shady place to stop off if you are heading down the B road towards Exeter and Dartmoor beyond. The camp is looked after by English Heritage.
johan 2003
Tuesday 2nd September 2003.
After scrambling to the top of nearby Roughtor, we decided to visit King Arthur’s Hall. Easily found, but not too accessible for anyone with trouble walking, this is situated about ¾ mile from the road. One of my party had recently undergone knee surgery and found the undulating moor land too difficult to proceed. Parking is strictly a haphazard affair and the opportunity to end up stuck in the mud must be avoided.
The site is visible quite soon after commencing the walk, but as it comes into view the feel of gravitas surrounding it, and its location, become more and more apparent. In the film ‘Excalibur’, knights and druids are seen in ceremony on a hill top henge – this is such a site, but set low, in a shallow bowl. It reminds me of the landscape that encircled Culloden for some reason, more suited to clansmen.
As a meeting place this must have been impressive. Neutral territory that required a concerted effort to reach, the location making skullduggery and ambush a huge difficulty. Anyone attending a meeting here was on their own.
Of course, this is the part of Cornwall where the chance to buy ‘King Arthur pasties’ and ‘Lancelot fishing nets’ tend to colour any site which referes to the legends, but for atmosphere and spectacle, this is a hidden gem.
It was this very site, and Ironman’s post, that fired up my imagination to find these things! Last year I did!
Amazing place. Most walkers wander by oblivious ignoring the curious forms! Even when the moor is teeming with visitors, this backwater is usually empty of folk.
The name is said to be pronounced ‘doobler’ by the locals. Possibly deriving from an old regional word for a ‘large, shallow dish or plate’, according to Phillips in his book ‘Brigantia’.
Having read Paul Bennett’s book, I made a trip up there last April.
This charming, tumbledown, overgrown circle, camaflouged by newer dry-stone walls takes some finding, but it’s certainly worth the effort!
It’s perched on the flanks of the Backstone Beck valley. I must’ve walked near it dozens of times over the years and never noticed it. Maybe it’s because it’s hidden amongst more recent constructions, or maybe it’s only noticed if you’re actually intent on finding it! The stones nestle into the moorland vegetation, partially obscured by great tussocks of sedge. To me, the attendant man-made remains don’t seem to detract from the peaceful sanctity of the place.
As can be seen from the lush vegetation in the pictures, parts of this site are very damp. This is due to an underground stream running close under the earth.
Geological fault lines surround the circle on three sides. Compass and temperature readings can exhibit wild fluctuations! Apparently, tests in the late eighties recorded a difference in temperature between stones inside and outside the circle at certain times of ten degrees Fahrenheit!
I visited again in late June and noticed a 6-foot long stone, laid on it’s side in the bottom of the quarry behind the circle. Probabley nothing, though a flight of fancy had me thinking of ‘recumbent menhirs’!
Traces of green candle-wax graced the stone, indicating pretty recent activity!
We also thought we could hear water and have since found that a well lies there, only usually apparent after heavy rains.
A magnificent boulder, must be 10 feet high!
We parked at the junction of the A61 and the tiny road from Wike village. A place frequented occasionally by car thieves so lock up your valuables if you leave it there!
Over the dicey A61, avoiding mental speed-freaks, takes you through the grand gateway into the Harewood estate…
The rock itself is isolated, standing alone in a north facing field, bounded by woodland.
The views northwards are far-reaching, Almscliffe Crag being easily seen and in direct line with the spiral carving on the north-western face of the rock. It seems to be seven concentric rings, though they are now very indistinct… Graeme Chappell reports on his excellent website that the midwinter full moon would set behind Almscliff Crag at the major lunar standstill when viewed from here, around 1800 B.C.!
This excellent entrance grave is in a mound 26ft in diameter. The entrance passage is no less than 18ft and is roofed with five capstones. Well signposted on the circular footpath around St Mary’s and impossible to miss.
An angled passage of about 16ft leads to the chamber. Two of the six capstones have collapsed leaving the site in a delightfully unrestored state. Excavations revealed a male skeleton, ashes and twelve inverted urns.
August 21st 2003
Took my three kids here on a beautiful day on way back towards holiday camp in Weymouth! We had a celebration of Clarissa’s GCSE results!
Tom, aged 8 yesterday, just fits under the capstone at the entrance, bet he won’t next time! All three moaned across the fields but totally loved the site.
The pond was totally dried up and cracked.
Across the field is some digging, fenced off with wire, looked very sandy, with thousands of ducklings running around it......... excuse my ignorance but no idea what the idea of this was!
Took pics will submit once arrived.
Fantastic site. Two days earlier had walked around Maiden Castle. From both you can see the chess piece that is Hardy’s Monument (Captain Kiss me Hardy, not Thomas, Tess dies at Stonehenge Hardy). What a horrible way to connect two such powerful sites! The big and the small.
Hellstone certainly has atmosphere and inspired the hell outta me!
This is the largest barrow in Britain and very few people know of it. This Romano-British site at Bartlow is on the Essex/Cambridgeshire border at TL 586453. Originally the largest group in Europe when there were seven enormous barrows here. Then the now disused railway came through and flattened four of them! The largest survivor is 45 feet high and the highest in Britain. The wooden staicase gives access to the top without causing erosion. You can then look down on the other two giants. Many suberb artefacts have been recovered and are now in Colchester Museum (Bartlow was formerly in Essex).
Access is via a footpath, but it is not well marked. Bartlow is a small crossroads hamlet with few houses. Look for the “Three Hills” pub and the path is beyond the entrance to the big house next door. It seems incredible that this magnifent and enormous site is so little valued locally. The largest barrrow is second only in size to Silbury Hill (excluding mottes and castle mounds) and if Bartlow were in Wilts rather than Cambs there would be hundreds of visitors every day. Go there and be amazed!
This stone looks like a palaeolithic venus figure to me and I wonder if it hasn’t been partly shaped by man. Situated opposite the church and at the head of the lane leading to a deep ford, it is garlanded on May Day when the villagers commence a procession and hold their fete in the main street. Very good show every year and worth a visit.
This is my local hillfort, but it is almost impossible to get a decent photograph of it! Situated on a spur overlooking the River Stort, two banks and ditches enclose 12.5 hectares. The ramparts are still over two metres high, but absent where the steep drop to the waterlogged land by the river is a natural defence and still impassable. The fort is huge and must have been a very important defence of the Trinovantes as the territory of the Catuvellauni began across the river.
In private hands as a residential property called “Wallbury Dells”, access is limited.
Church Hill Camp / West Wycombe Hill Fort – 30.8.2003
There is a great little hill fort on West Wycombe Hill. Most of it is National Trust property and totally open access.
If you fancy a bit of a walk, park at the large car park at SU825947, next to the West Wycombe Garden Centre and walk across the road and up to the summit. Most of the paths are relatively ok and reach the summit at some point, although one less well used on the direct south is very steep.
For the less energetic, or less mobile, there is a further large car park at the summit on the North side of the church at SU827951. A small road winds it way around the south and east of the hill fort up to the summit (past a striking red roofed school and the Hellfire Caves).
The south side of the summit (next to the imposing but gaudy Dashwood Mausoleum) is very steep and seems to have no extra defences. The East side is far less steep and had an impressive double bank and ditch. The defences on the west side are also quite impressive. A largish stone (1 metre square) lies plonked in the rampart near the main church entrance on the north east side. Whether this has any meaning is presumably unknown.
The churchyard of St.Lawrence’s Church comes right up the defences on most of the north east and north west parts, and may well be a desparate attempt to Christianise the site. Flint from the chalk / flint mines of the Hellfire Caves dominate the buildings on the interior of the fort, both the Church, which is apparently located exactly above the Inner Temple of the caves, and the Mausoleum.
The info board on the lower car park bears the following relevant info, strangely entitled ‘2000 Years of History’…..“West Wycombe Hill (also called Church Hill) was given to the National Trust by Sir John Dashwood in 1935. The Mausoleum and caves are still in the hands of the Dashwood family. In the Iron Age (between the 4th and 5th Century BC) a sizeable fort with double ramparts was established on the hill as a defended settlement which would also perhaps have become a local center for trade and religion. It is possible that the unusual siting of the church within the ramparts was a deliberate attempt to Christianise a pagan Saxon sacred site. The dedication of the church to St.Lawrence might indicate that the site was venerated further into the past as this dedication is often associated with Roman sites. West Wycombe Hill may have been a site of religious worship from at least the 5th Century BC, throughout Roman, Saxon and medieval times up to, and including, the present day”
Standing with your back to Coetan Arthur facing South look over Whitesand beach over the White cottages on the horizon you see a large rock called Clegyr Boia.
To get there walk back over the coast path past Whitesand, past the holiday cottage with the turfed roof, take the left path (not the coast path). Follow it until the T-junction then take the left turn on the path. Keep walking trough the farm along the duck pond and you will see Clegyr Boia arising. The Footpath ends on the St Justinian’s Road. Take a left turn follow the road than take first turn left along the moorland you get closer and closer to the rock. Off the road is a small layby from the layby is a very small path mostly overgrown in the summer climb up it. You will see an iron bar in the rock this is where a healing well is in the rock. The local people still wash their eyes with the water as it suppose to clear their eye sight. Keep climbing up and enjoy the view.
Pottery find on this site was dated from 4300-3300 BC. It is a very special site. The settlement is called after Boia a Celtic chieftain and druid from Ireland. He and his people where the last nonCristian Celts. In 525 Boia was beheaded at Porth Lisci (Lisci Harbour) and the settlement and its people were destroyed. Nobody has lived on the rock since.
I’m so lucky to own the land on the North site of the rock. I visit the site often. On one of my fields I’m making a 2.2 acre piece of LandArt with different circles. You can see it from the rock.
It is my opinion that Clegyr Boia has a connecting line with Coetan Arthur.
Yesterday we visited Moel ty Uchaf and although we were expecting something much bigger we were not dissapointed this is truly a wonderful place the views from this circle just blow you away what I particulary noticed about this place as opposed to many other circles I have visited is the complete tranquility here, there are no major roads nearby and no motorways buzzing in the background fantastic.
We decided to take the trusty kite out today and fly it from the top of the hill. Whilst flying the kite we noticed some anomolies at the bottom of the hill in the opposite direction to which we’d walked up the hill (see my photos). A jumble of huge stones, more boulders, a peculiar slate arrangement and the remains of a cairn similliar to the size of glassonby in Cumbria, but this one was made up almost entirely of white quartz! The grass is so thick here it must hide so many secrets and all round the circle you can find stones hidden under the turf if you look hard enough theres so much to see here if you just look. Also on the track on the way up, if you look in the field before the first farmhouse, I’m sure there’re the remains of another stone circle(?). We also found the chambered cairn on the way up to here but failed to gain access. Our bellies were calling us but its halfway in between Moel ty Uchaf and Cynwyd on your right hand side just next to a farmhouse in a small enclosed field.
Directions
This place is quite easy to find once youve got directions! As you don’t see it until your right upon it! Anyway take B4401 off the A5. Pass through Cynwyd and about half a mile down you’ll see a red telephone box and postbox on the corner of a lane on your left hand side. Go up that lane ‘til you come to a gate leading up to a hill. We parked our car just behind this gate in a field. We asked the farmer who said it was fine as it is still a public place. Then follow the path up the hill and on the top you will find the circle and over the other side of the hill the ruined/overgrown cairn (and other structures). Enjoy!
I failed to find this at the weekend.
The EH Monuments record describes the site thus:
“The site lies on a gentle south east facing slope at the north east corner of a small wood.
The portal dolmen has one large upright and one adjacent inclined stone, together with a number of smaller stones on the northern side of a roughly square depression which measures 3m across and 0.2m deep. The upright limestone block measures 1.54m long, 0.72m thick and stands 0.94m high above the present ground level. The inclined stone immediately to the east measures 1m long, c.1m wide and 0.5m thick. Surrounding the central depression is a circular bank of small stones which measures c.10m in overall diameter. The bank is 2m wide and stands 0.4m high to the south.”
I could see two possible candidates for the ‘small wood’, but couldn’t find a way through the hedge from the road (which is a bit of a racetrack!) I’ll have to leave this for someone more local to investigate further.
There is also a possible Long Barrow in the same vicinity, which is close to Chastleton Barrow Fort and the Goose Stones, so lots of evidence for this being an important centre at one time.
Popped in here on Saturday to pay our respects. As Jane says, it’s almost totally hidden and you wouldn’t know it was there unless you were specifically looking for it.
“You didn’t see me, right?”
Visited this at the weekend, but not much to see, to be honest.
Parked at the bottom of the hill, there’s a parking area at the junction with the main road. Pleasant enough walk up the hill (the road is marked as no through route for motor vehicles) – very quiet, even the traffic noise was negligable, so very peaceful.
If you walk up the road and reach the pylons, you passed the barrow. It’s in a field to the left – no obvious way in and it’s in the middle of a cultivated field so I didn’t trespass to get to it at all. All that can be seen is an uncultivated ‘lump’, although there are apparently a couple of possible entrance stones to be seen.
There are good views all around. 2-300 yards difference in the location and it would be a different story though.
Very impressive especially as late summer turns to early autumn. This plateau fort is situated on high ground overlooking the Lea Valley. It encloses 4.5 hectares and is watered by a stream which rises inside the fort. The main bank is still more than 2 metres high and the ditch was originally 3 metres deep and nearly 7 metres wide. There are several entrances, but only the one in the west side is original.
Located above the Halangy Downs courtyard house settlement and about 1500 years older, Bants Carn is a round cairn surrounded by a low wall. The entrance passage is 14ft long leading past two portal stones to the central chamber. Very easy to find from the cliff top footpath from Hugh Town.
Located on a steep slope below Bants Carn and overlooking the sea, this settlement is very similar to that at Chysauster. There is one courtyard house and other interconnected oval houses with a likely occupation period of 500 years. Romano British and so much younger than the nearby tomb of Bants Carn. Interesting to speculate on how the residents related to that ancient tomb.
This is the largest and best preserved of a group of eight on Porth Hellick Downs. It is 40ft in diameter with a 12ft passage of leading to a chamber covered with four capstones. Entrance is aligned to the Long Rock Menhir.
Situated in a stunted pine forest on Mcfarland Downs, this stone is not easy to find. Well worth the effort as it is 8 ft tall and most impressive. The branches of the tree behind give it an almost Hindu appearance. Some people clain that there is the vestige of a face carved on the top surface while others see a vulva. I just see one of my favourite standing stones.
