Latest Fieldnotes

I spend my summer time looking for crop circles, I wanted to view the Swallow Formation below Walkers Hill. The best way was to approach from Alton Barnes via the footpath to Adam’s Grave. Where the path levels out for the first time there is an information sign, and by this languishes this magnificent stone. I have posted this with Adam’s Grave as it is most probably associated.

About 80m east of Robin Hood’s Pricking Rods is a smallish gritstone slab with 10-11 cup marks on it’s upper surface. It lies on the bank of a small spring.

Finally got here – it always seemed like one of those things I’d “get to do one day” and now I finally have!
Today was the day – unfortunately, it was absolutely bucketing it down and the stones were in the presence of some VERY LOUD Norwegians, so after about 10 mins, we aborted the trip and will be returning tomorrow....hopefully better weather and less obtrusive people will make the return journey more pleasant!!
That said, it was still the most stunning of places and well worth the 2 day journey, the 5.30am ferry and the very wet feet to witness it!!

Has to be the best circle in Lands end, if you only visit one, make it this one! The quartz (female, surely) stone bears close inspection as it is shot through with nooks and crannies containg miniature crystal grottoes. A great place.

Always a good energising feel here when the sun is out, the first place I ever noticed such a palpable, zingy, energy ... converted me!

The Logan stone here is one of the best I know of, it’s easy to spot, looking like a giant smartie sitting on a flat area of the outcrop and rocks easily (you just need to press lightly on the edge to set it going) but feels good and stable as it never rocks too far. A great boulder to sit on and appreciate the view across to Rough Tor while rocking gently.

Whenever I’m crossing Dartmoor on the pretty route down to Cornwall I try to stop off at Merrivale, there’s always something new to find.
No one has mentioned yet the strange little stream that runs along behind the car park area, check it out next time as you walk down toward the avenues, can it really be flowing back uphill? It certainly *looks* like it! Also why does it chose to follow the contours of the slope when any self respecting water would surely run down at right angles?
Another riddle to add to the Merrivale enigma :)

You can see the stream in question running left -> right in this ariel photo courtesy of multimap.com:

multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&x=256024&y=74832&scale=5000&width=700&height=410

I have to say the jury is out on this structure, I’ve not seen anything like it. The fact that its got a demolished railway line on top of it does not help.

The hill is called Picts Hill. The vilage – Pickhill takes it’s name from this hill. Pickhill is in the Domesday book – therefore this is not a weird Bailey Hill. There are no similar saxon structures that I can think of, and as an Roman structure it does not fit either, since it is too roughly engineered.

It makes little sense as an Iron age defensive structure since the area enclosed is too small, and there is no rampart as such.

The hill itself is square-ish and therefore this is doubtfull to pre-date the Iron Age. So for the moment I’m calling it Iron Age!

On the 1st edition OS there is a long mound and a short mound marked in the field next door, as well as some “mound foundations” and an earthwork. None of these are easily spotted today.

This site was definately of important at some time, we just need to work out when.

On a recent visit to Mitchell`s Fold, I carried on walking along the path leading from the stone circle which crosses Stapeley Common. At the Cow Stone, I veered to the right to climb Stapeley Hill.

Stapeley Hill is a saddleback hill and the ring cairn is situated on the lowest point of the summit, within the saddle.

The cairn appears to consist of an embankment encircling a circle of stones with a mound within the centre.

GPS: SO 31277 99037

Pipers Green Stud Bowl Barrow – 7.8.2003

From the Bee Garden Earthwork (East) the footpath north north west through the wood is fine, but then the track across the openland is not obvious on the ground – just head towards the huge electricity pylon in the distance, and you’ll pick up one of the main footpaths again, from about SU992643.

Otherwise from the car park at SU993635 (on the west side of the road that goes from Stonehill Road across the west edge of the common) latch onto the wide footpath from SU990638 and follow the map to the barrow.

The barrow is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (no 20145) and has heavy-ish vegetation over most of it, but a path goes straight over the top of it. It’s about 30m in diameter. The pdf document via the link below gives more info about measurements.

Bee Garden Earthwork (East) – 7.8.2003

The Car park at SU993635 is as good a place as any to start from. This is on the west side of the road that goes from Stonehill Road across the south edge of the common. There are several ways to get to the interestingly entitled earthwork. The small track from the main road at SU993636 is not really very obvious but it will get you to the earthwork in a small clearing. Or you may prefer to take the wider track from opposite the car park and then walk North on the footpath and hope to spot it from there.

This earthwork, on the far south of the common, seemed really small (maybe 30m square) and consists of a small bank and ditch with a raised and heavily vegetated interior.

Known as the nine stones, this is a small-ish ring of around a dozen stones. It’s hard to tell exactly how many, as there are many fallers, and I suspect that some have been “restored”. Yesterday there were certainly two recent additions, both of which wobbled when touched, and one of which had a patch of dead “I’ve had a stone lying on me, but not for long” grass behind it.

The circle is about 25ft across, and apparently it was originally a ring of up to 40 stones around a central cairn. It’s not known whether the ring formed part of the cairn or was a seperate boundary decoration.

If you fancy it (and you should), the directions on the excellent megalithic walks site are spot on. There’s a helpful link to the Nine Stones below.

This is definitely one for the completists. The henge does not appear on the OS map, but is mentioned on the MAGIC web site as a scheduled monument. The henge is about 1m in height, and around 65m in diameter. There are apparently two opposing entrances, identified from crop marks, in the East and West. The Icknield Way passes by and is visible to the NE.

I approached on the path from the NW. The henge site can be seen across a field surrounded by barbed wire, showing signs warning of Rat Poison and other evils. Staying on the path (marked on the OS Map), and skirting around this field leads to the field with the henge in it. Luckily, the crop had recently been harvested and I crossed to the henge site itself, which was heavily overgrown with weeds. Sadly, there’s really not much to see here, unless you enjoy staring at an uncultivated patch of land surrounded by farmland.

I was quite surprised when I found out where these were. A few years ago, before my TMA interests, I’d attended a job interview in the modern office block that overlooks the mounds. I remember assuming at the time that they were just a modern landscaping feature…

Antiquarian descriptions state that the mounds were once all surrounded by ditches and outer banks, but these are no longer visible. What are visible today are the inevitable cycle tracks across the tops of the mounds, which are situated a short walk from the shopping centre. The mounds are fairly evenly spaced, on a N-S line. Only one is undisturbed, three having large depressions indicating where shafts have been sunk, and the two most southerly have been tunnelled from the sides.

All in all, a bit of an anachronism in the modern(!) town, but I’m glad they’ve managed to survive.

A smart stone but because it is so worn... a diagram of what is actually on the stone is well handy to fully appreciate it.

About 100yds south of the Bullstones and over the field wall is another upright stone, I can find no details or records of the stone, it just looked a tad suspicious being so close to the Bullstones.

Not having read anything about Roughting Linn, I had no idea the ditches and banks were earthworks as I fought my way thru’ the bracken to the rock. It was also a bright sunny day so a lot of the smaller carvings were hard to pick out.
Again I didn’t have much time here and it was shortened by a gang of oap’s dragging me back thru’ the gate to join ‘em in their picnic.

A nice enough little stone.......handily just over a metal gate so access is pretty straightforward.

Th hut circle at SE024979 is about average in size, measuring 8m north south and 9m east west. it’s walls were made of large dry stone block on the inside and out with a rubble fill. The only entrance was to the south. Outside the circle, toughly to the south east are a number of large outlying stones which seem to respect the arc of the hut circle and may therefore be contemporary.

I went to see what I could see today and saw a stone circle.

I can see why there is confusion, since I also found several hut circles, and squares and other shapes all located broadly in the same area identified as a hut circle on the OS – a clear understatement of what is going on here!

This stone circle sits in a place of prominance in the middle of an apparent pre-historic settlement, that includes a number of huts, field enclosures and other signs of human activity. Including a cairn not too far away.

The circle is small – 10m across and appears to be a nine stone – circle with several stones missing. The embankment that it sits on is approx. 11m in diameter.

Most of the stones appear to have slipped from their original position and a few seem to be missing altogether. The stones themselves are small – the largest is less than a metre high. This is not surprising as the strata of the local rocks means they are subject to easy fracture and these stones appear to have done well to stay so large.

Interestingly, two different types of stones were used to create this circle. The majority of stones were limestone but at least two were sandstone.

One of the sand stones appeared to have human-made drill holes which were very shallow – perhaps 5mm deep.

I didn’t have a lot of time here so I spent it looking for the large slab with huge cup and ring marks.....a stunning stone.(NU02158 28230)

There are quite a few other worn carvings on the stones above the first small quarry you come to when you enter the moor by the path near the cattle grid. The main slab is beyond these near the ‘edge’.

The eight stones placed closely together are all of the same rough size and shape as many of the original Rollrights, just a couple of miles down the road, and most notably, in the same weathered condition. Many of the stones used as kerbstones at the roadsides in the village were not as weathered, but we did notice that some of the larger ones bore tell-tale signs of a different past, more weathered, dressed differently, more ceremonial and probably part of the same something that the alignment were once part of.... but what, we couldn’t say.

I’m not an expert in rock art matters.....
But...as you leave the ‘main panel’ and head uphill toward the trig point, not heading for the stile though, go to its left. Just before the fence is a cup marked stone with fresh looking peck-marks.

NU 07390 29244.

The first time I saw pictures of the Ketley Crags shelter I knew I had to see it... the pictures had been burning in my mind.....it really is just one of those places you gotta see.....it wont disappoint.

I spent what seemed like an age looking through the bracken and rocks for the rock shelter......it musta been the last rock I went to.
It’s a real jaw-dropper.......it’d be hard to top this place in my opinion.

There’s also plenty to see on your way over Chatton.

The carvings are pretty definitely less than 300 years old: they’ve been carved onto a quarried rock face by a metal chisel. BUT don’t admire them any the less for that. They are delicately carved, obviously by a talented individual, who was not only a craftsman but also literate as well since they most closely resemble carvings on the Hollywood Stone in County Wicklow, Ireland, dating from the Early Bronze Age. It is pretty unlikely that an eighteenth or nineteenth century miller from Bossiney had visited the place himself so he must have seen pictures of these or similar prehistoric Greek carvings. Either that or his imagination was as impressive as his technical skills.