Latest Fieldnotes

I’m not really sure what this is, other than it’s more than what it is currently used for – an animal enclosure. I visited this place on the way to the Gayle mines. There are two places locally called Castle – this place and Castle Knoll, at the top of the escarpment. But no obvious castle. Anyway, this enclosure comprises of a very rough circle of orthostats that have been left in situ and used to create an sheep enclosure. in the centre is a stone on top of a stone. From what I know about the region, these orthostatic walls were created at the very beginning of the clearance of the fields, an a guess I’d say that these were placed here during the late bronze age, as man made the transition to a farmer. However, they could be earlier – very little work has been done on these types of walls so far, although I have come across some partially cleared fields with orthostatic walls, associated to Iron Age type dwelling enclosures quite near to here so I’m pretty certain as to my interpretation.

The enclosure looks like it originally opened to go up the hil and a tight double wall of orthostats creates a narrow causeway which drives up the hill side for some way, then widens out in a similar way to what are known as “banjo enclosures” – creating a bottle neck or funnel into enclosure. These have so far been interprested as for animal use, however, my gut feel is that this was not the primary purpose here. About half way up the hill, just as you enter the mining zone the orthostats disappear. They don’t appear to have been taken, they just stop.

The steg, pepper and I visited the 5 stones as part of our holiday in the big green steg van. We had camped at a village about 5 miles away on the Tweed and this was a real bonus as we only realised we were so close the night before. We set off early and enjoyed the walk up the track in clear light. pepper was chasing invisible hares through the corn and we saw a deer. The stones are visible a away off, fabulous. Spent a a little while before going in, noticed a few boulders between the main stones, wondered if they were added later or were part of the original set up. Found some charcoal and a bone in the middle. Pepper was not interested in the bone and was reluctant to come back in the circle, very uncharacteristic on both counts.

Tremendous position up on a mound set in a near circle / saucer of hills, cheviots particularly sexy.

Dunno what to make of Duddo but it was great. Do go.

stegnest

From Brit Arch 1998 No. 39
“...from one of the two entrances, a ditched avenue led to a large sub-circular enclosure some 30M. across in the centre of the fort. According to Mr Payne, the enclosure may have contained a timber shrine as is thought to have existed at Danebury ”

I was a bit reluctant to visit this site as I had heard that it was completely ploughed out and when I asked permission to walk to the site from the cottage (It’s on private land) the very helpful lady said there was little to see. She suggested that I drive around the field boundary as my passenger couldn’t walk far. It was baking hot, well over 30C and was grateful for the offer so a couple of minutes later I parked the car in the shade of the trees which define the NE/NW quadrants and started exploring.
Pleasantly surprised to find that although the SW/SE part is completely under the plough the remainder is surprisingly intact with a small outer ditch, then a bank, then another larger ditch followed by larger bank.
This part has quite extensive views over the upper reaches of the River Dever, a tributary of the Test.
The only problem is that the ditches and banks are completely smothered with tree and scrub and photography is almost impossible, I did try! However perhaps the vegetation has preserved the remains of the fort as the ground does not fall that steeply on this side and field enlargement would have been quite easy.
Hampshire Treasures describe it as an Iron Age Fort (c600BCE) of univaillate form.
Disabled: Bank and ditch almost impassable but read fieldnotes for access.

On a recent visit to The Rollrights, I thought I`d go and have a mooch around for the Goose Stones on Chastleton Common, just a couple of miles away.

Approaching from the north-east on a singletrack road, as I crossed over the cattle grid leading on to the common I was dismayed to see a sign saying PRIVATE PROPERTY. NO PARKING.

I thought uh-oh, this is going to cramp my style, and it did. Slowly driving down the road, I spotted some stones to my right, so I abandoned the car in the middle of the road and set off to get some pics. These stones were the ones that hamish had seen, at SP2626228769.

Then I heard the sound of a vehicle approaching, so I had to dash to the car to allow the postman to pass. Further along the road, I saw some more, more embedded stones on the right. I had to carry on driving a short distance to the entranceway to a farm and parked there while I investigated my find. These two stones are at SP2570128746 and look more promising than the previous pile.

Carrying on in my quest, near to the south-westerly edge of the common, I saw another likely candidate, to my left. I parked next to the cattle grid leading out of the common and walked a short distance to a stone standing out of the ground at SP2537828682. This is the same stone that Celia Haddon has on her website Goose Stones
The published location for the Goose Stones (SP265288) seems to come from Paul Bennett and Tom Wilson`s booklet The Old Stones of Rollright and District, however, they were unable to find them.

There can’t be a more impressive sight at nine o’clock in the morning as these massive erections! We stopped to admire the sheer unimaginable bulk of the single obelisk next to the road, rudely caged up behind a fence doing it’s damnest to out-tall the trees surrounding it. It must’ve been 25 feet tall – a real neolithic skyscraper. We wondered how deep the root of the stone was and settled on between six and 10 feet UNDER ground. This is one big mother! And if that is not enough, cross the lane and you see two more! The sun broke through as these two of the three magnificent menhirs of an alignment of perhaps five stones jutted out of a field of bright yellow corn, today with added interest as somebody/rutting deer/aliens/weird vortex/UFO/drunken pranksters (delete as applicable) had created a wonderful corn circle. I couldn’t make out the pattern precisely as I had no vantage point from which to gain height.

As the traffic swishes past on the A1(M), just 50 metres away, it’s great metal gantries and signs looming over the scene, you realise that the route of the A1(M) is probably as old as these stones themselves and it’s precisely why they were placed here.

Gently ruined and flattened and not half as impressive as the central circle, time has softened this henge, though you can still gain height by perching on its flattened banks in order to see it’s saucery interior. It’s big, it’s wide and open and you shouldn’t miss it.

After the jungly rainforest of the North henge, this one is a delight! Suddenly you can understand what the builders were on about! With massive earth ramparts, the hint of a ditch, and a distinct raised central platform, this has an everyone’s-welcome, inclusive market-place-type feel to it. Surely not a burial place, to me this feels like a place for the living: for singing, dancing, meeting, trading, playing and ceremony. Moth and me sat for sometime on the top of the bank at the southern end trying to make sense of it, looking to the wooded Northern henge just 500 metres or so away and down to the southern henge, it’s soft contour just rising out of the field 500 metres in a straight line to the south.

With no clear entry point to this enormous site, now thickly wooded, we parked up and clambered through a bit of broken fence on the western side where the lane skirts it. It takes an enormous amount of imagination to work this one out just because its a bit like hacking your way through some subtropical jungle. The bunnies scampered out of our way, the deer bolted, a family of tapir cantered away and I half expected to see a monumental python drop hideously from a branch...If you have a wild imagination come here! (I lied about the tapir). But despite the verdant undergrowth and dense woodland you can still make out the banks and ditches and the vast internal space. It’s very moving, actually.

This vast site consists of an area of craggy outcrops, now run by NT. As we approached from a back lane we could see pillars and tors and chimneys of rock rising impressively out of a heather and willowherb purple hillside. Magic! We parked next to a sign saying ‘No parking’, knowing we weren’t going to stay long and headed off up a track to get a closer view. If only, if only we’d had more time here – this is a HUMUNGEOUS site, certainly worthy of a whole day’s exploration. There’s a neat expensive car park further up the road from which NT will extract your money. The promise of refreshment at a kiosk lured me in, but we left caffeineless. I can’t wait to return here. But I’ll bring my own coffee.

A tortuous lane through bleak rolling moors pitted with white limestone scattered here and there lead us as close as we could drive (I’m not a walker) to this curious little stone .... circle? To call it a stone circle is stretching ths imagination, but it’s not a cairn, as suggested by the map, but a four poster, of a type more commonly viewed in Scotland. One of the uprights has cracked off and fallen inwards. You can see that it was originally built on a little mound. I had been warned that is was mightily underwhelming, but the peace and clarity of the atmosphere here, coupled with completely silent solitude and tear-jerking views makes up for it’s damaged state. This is a corker.

Weird and wild, these natural outcrops of rock are *absolutely breathtaking*, their crazy eroded shapes mushrooming up like giant mad cowpats from their cliff overlooking glorious dales scenery. Try as I might, I couldn’t find the cup marks I had read about. Anyway, go there – I challenge any one not to be mind-blown.

Sand Point is rather like Brean Down, and sticks out into the Severn Estuary just north of Weston super Mare. If you are equipped with a decent map you will easily be able to avoid paying 70p on the toll road, not to mention avoid going through the seething heart of Weston. But anyway, by the time you’ve driven out along Sand Bay all this will be long behind you and you can park in the surprisingly free NT carpark right at the end.

We walked out along the salt marsh and finally had to make a perilous scramble up the cliff to the top of the point, which was bedecked in various limestone grassland plants like the weird carline thistle. It was as peaceful as could be with the distant sound of the lapping waves, and the sun beating down on our heads. It really was very quiet and I felt remote from things (especially the throngs in Weston – it is incredible that two such dissimilar places could be so near to each other). The rocks are all jagged, though there are easily negotiated paths (assuming the sun hasn’t got to you too much) and plenty of grassy places to sit. The end of the point is about a kilometre out, but as usual most people don’t get quite this far away from their cars (or the icecream van, and who can blame them).

Returning along the top we saw some strange bumps in the ground – there turns out to be a bowl barrow here (this is where the os trig point is) and slightly to the east, the remains of a disc barrow. Disc barrows are pretty unusual; there are only a couple of hundred in the country, most in Wessex, so perhaps this would have been one of the most westerly examples? It’s been suggested that they’re usually burials of important women (though it’s not proven).

Whatever, don’t get too excited because there’s not exactly a lot to see of the barrows. In fact if anything you may get confused by the nearby earthworks of a more recent motte and bailey castle. But it’s a lovely place on a sunny day. And if you’re into birdwatching apparently unusual migrants are often spotted from here.

Visited today (2nd August 2003CE), 2 days after Moth’s wet visit. I was luckier – beautiful day, almost too hot. Hundreds of butterflies flitting around the top of the Tump. Inside – brilliantly illuminated by sunlight. I’d wasted 45 minutes scouring the area for a shop that sold torches on a Sunday, remembering the darkness from my previous visit 2 years ago; but this time the natural daylight showed up every detail except in the 2 southern chambers.

I live 180 miles from the Tump, but have friends nearby whom I stay with occasionally. On my first visit I had come alone, and spent some time sitting in the womb-like darkness, absorbing the past and the silent mystery of the place. Today I had 2 companions – my God-daughters, aged 6 & 9. I had recently sent the eldest the ‘Caveman’ issue of ‘Horrible Histories’ magazine – a comic designed to interest children in History – and there was a feature in it on West Kennet Longbarrow. In my covering letter I had mentioned that she lived very near a similar Longbarrow, Hetty Peglers Tump, so when I visited this time she begged me to take her there.

I had expected that the Tump would lose some of its mystery in the company of 2 easily-bored kids – but I was wrong. Although my in-loco-parentis duties prevented me from sitting in silent contemplation, the same old sense of awe and the vague awareness of the closeness of ancient presenses came over me the moment I crawled beneath the portal. Even the kids were touched by the strangeness and peace of the place. They became quiet, almost reverent, as the explored every inch of the interior, pointing out features – like blocked up cavities that were only visible when a torch was shone through a crack – that I had previously missed.

There was much evidence of modern magical practices: the portal was guarded by two small bundles of grass, tied in knots; there were clover flowers stuck into interior holes and cracks; a letter- illegible through damp and time- rested in a small cranny, held in place by a stone with a  feather beneath it. Does anyone know what these symbols mean?

A visit to Hetty Pegler’s Tump is an intense and compelling experience, even in ther company of distracting children. Strange: spooky, yet comforting; almost impossible to leave. Once inside you wish you could block off the portal and rest there forever. I shall be back.

PS : Incidently – I agree with a previous correspondent. “Hi Julian” graffitied into the – agreeably unobtrusive – information board is simply crass and gives all antiquarians a bad name. We should leave no trace of our visits.

This cup-marked stone lies on top of a cairn in a field full of interesting things – nearby is a cup-marked stone, a long cairn, a medieval moated site (once thought to be a Roman camp) and a pair of standing stones.

The cairn was excavated in 1884, and found to consist of a pile of small stones overlaid with earth to a diameter of around 9m. Close to the base of the cairn, and S of the centre, fragments of human bone were found underneath two small flagstones. The cairn has a flat top to it, which is 5.50m in diameter, and rises to a height of 0.75m. Around the central cairn is a ditch which varies in width from 2.75m to 4.20m, and is 0.70m deep. Around this is a low bank 0.90m wide.

The stone lies on the cairn’s flat top, but it is believed that it once stood upright here. On it’s W side are 9 large cup-marks, while there is a further single cup-mark on it’s N end. It has been mistakenly reported that in 1838, this stone was actually close to the two Bridge of Lyon stones. However it appears that this is as a result of some confusion, as the New Statistical Account actually describes the Bridge of Lyon stones as “two obelisks, the one about 6 feet high: the other lying on the ground, having been undermined some fifty or eighty years ago”.

Within 1/2 mile of Lower Swell, on the far side of an arable field which is next to a minor road running west from the village, lies this long barrow. The crop in the field had been recently harvested, so I was able to walk downhill across the stubble to see it.
It appears to be in an unusual location, very near to the bottom of a dry valley, with a conjunction with another dry valley on the opposite side. The barrow retains some height, too, although it was difficult to estimate due to its complete covering in bush and other vegetation.
The north side is twice as high as the south, due to the barrow being oriented along the side of the valley. There are many animal holes dug around its base. Although I saw rabbits, from the size of the holes I think that badgers have made a home here. No megaliths visible.
GPS: SP 17015 25774

Cow Common Long Barrow GPS: SP 13511 26272

Not much of interest to say about this long barrow. It lies like an island in the middle of a large arable field next to a minor road just over 2 miles west of Lower Swell. I walked up the tractor tracks in a field of wheat to reach it. No megaliths are exposed.
On my way back to the road, I startled a deer hiding in the wheat, which didn`t bound very far away. Shortly afterwards, I was startled by a fawn jumping out of the crop in front of me.

Am I an enthusiast? From Juamei’s entries, and the fact I’m here, I guess I must be.

I had problems finding this, despite Juamei’s directions. I had a couple of false starts, stopping when I saw Footpath signs in Milton Road. The trick is to keep going, over the speed bumps which do nothing to deter the local boy-racers, past a Cost Cutters supermarket, across a couple of mini roundabouts. Milton Road eventually comes to a T junction (mini roundabout, so you can swing back round easily), the required footpath is on the right, as Juamei says, as you approach this final junction. The entrance to the site is some 30yds along the footpath, on the right.

The site itself could be wonderful. Dragonflies and butterflies buzzed and fluttered during my visit, but sadly, despite being designated a Nature Reserve, it is quite dilapidated. Rubbish is strewn around, I heard a gang of kids making a ‘camp’ of an old fridge and car bonnet off in the bushes somewhere. Firepits are strewn around the area, and the memorial block is now only a tribute to the freedom of expression and artistic talents (or lack thereof) of the local youth population.

A historic site, deserving of more attention.

OS map required as it is on an unclassified road off of an unclassified road a little west of Cradoc, which is itself 2km or so northwest of Brecon.

Stands on private land, but the owner of the nearest house told me ‘everyone just goes up to it’. The land owner is somewhere in the village of Battle. If you do fancy trespassing the stone is visble from the road and less than a minute’s walk away from the gate that will let you into the field in which it stands.

The Battle Mound and Standing Stone, is one of a group of standing stones which stand on the north bank following the course of the river Usk.

Leaning slightly to the south, the Old red Stone megalith is covered in the pale green moss familiar to anyone who has seen the standing stones on Anglesey. It stands raised on a stone cairn, which is now mostly covered with grass. Square in plan, tapering slightly through weathering it is impressive to stand before.

A local archaelogical publication gives its dimensions as: Height: 3.96m, Breadth: 1.22m and Thickness 1.01m

OS Map required.

Be prepared to walk across several kilometres of open moorland. If you cycle it is up and up hill on the way there.

Two stone circles.

In the hills around 4km northwest of Trecastell/Trecastle.

From Brecon take the A40 to Llandovery; turn left at the far end of Trecastell. Head up the hill for almost 1km; take the first right and keep on going for 3km until the road stops at a gate (signposted ‘unsuitable for motor vehicles’).

Worthy of note: on the right is a tumulus with an OS triangulation marker on it (trig point 383m OD).

Continue on the track (as far as I am aware this is a Roman road) for around 1.5km.

The reservoir to your left is the Usk Reservoir; there are two standing stones close to the end you are looking at, but not visible from the track.

The track will rise and curve to the right, at this point up ahead to the right is the highest point; a hill called Y Pigwn (with a roman fort on the top). Look carefully along Y Pigwn, most of it is open moorland, but running up along its right hand edge is a fence, beyond which is the green grass of pasture land (there are also trees on it which can be seen against the skyline).

This is what you want to walk towards, at some point leave the track and wander in that direction, you shouldn’t get lost as you are headed toward the field boundaries along the edge of the moorland.

You should be walking across a gently rising saddle of land and the larger of the two circles should come into view first.

Neither circle is visible from the track.

In guide books Mynydd Bach is described as a ritual complex, because nearby are also the standing stones as previously mentioned, cairns and a round barrow.

The smaller of the circles has only four remaining stones, but it is possible to locate the empty sockets of a further four more which reveal it to be a small circular setting rather than a four poster. All the stones are leaning and less than 1m high. It is 8m in diameter.

A short distance to the northeast is the larger circle, it has 21 remaining stones, and pits suggesting 3 more. At the southeast is a jumble of larger fallen stones, which it is suggested may have been a ritual entrance (I suppose something like a small Swinside). There is a very slight rise in the centre of the circle. Like most Welsh circles, the stones are low, between 0.4 to 0.6m.

All stones, like most in this vicinity are given as being Old Red Sandstone.

There are some other stones close by: ‘Prehistoric Sites of Breconshire’ Children & Nash claim that the two circles are linked by 3 low stones, (which I couldn’t locate), whereas ‘Clwyd and Powys’ CADW Guide has an illustration that the stone setting is to west of the smaller of the two circles.

The CADW guide also mentions an isolated stone 3m long lying some 100m southeast of the larger stone circle.

It also mentions that the barrow is not visible from the circles.

A4215 from Brecon heading west to Defynog.

The stone is close by, but hidden from the road by hawthorne trees on the approach to a severe right hand bend indicated by black and white warning chevrons.

Before approaching the chevron markings up ahead, the road to your right will be tree-lined. there is a place to stop infront of field access gates. Walk towards the chevrons. The wedge shaped coppice on your right narrows as you conitnue towards the corner up ahead, just before the coppice ends you may well see a well worn gap between hawthorn trees leading to the stone.

The stone is on the other side of the coppice (only 3 to 4 metres away from your side) and should be visible through the trees. It is now incorporated into the field boundary, close enough for the fence to run directly infront of it.

Around 1.5m in height and quite broad, the stone reminded me of a grave stone in its dimensions, in particular as it has a broken curved top edge. Situated under the permanent shade of the trees the gravestone effect is added to as the stone has taken on a green colour.

OS map required.

On Myndd Illtyd approx 2km Southwest of Mountain Centre 1 standing stone. Situated on Traeth Moor Nature Reserve.

From Brecon: just before the cattle grid marking the end of the reserve is a pond. At the pond leave the single track road by heading left. follow the field boundary (you should end up leisurely curving around to end up walking back towards Brecon) and eventually the stone will come into view (5 minutes walking).

Just under 1m in height. Old Red Sandstone, but unlike the square Mountain Centre 1, this stone is more like a boulder, deeply eroded and pitted, much like the Rollrights.

OS map required

On public Moorland with numerous rights of way.

On Mynydd Illtyd, 8km west of Brecon and 1.6km Southwest of Brecon Beacons National Park Mountain Centre.

From Brecon, opposite the right turn for Blaengwrthyd Farm. Visible from single track road. Situated close to the field boundary.

The stone is square in plan, and stands just under 1m high. Gives the appearance of a broken stump, leaning towards the track. I believe it is made of Old Red Sandstone.

Near A40, 5km west of Brecon, Powys.

OS map required.

Public rights of way lead up to it.

Worth it for the view alone. It is worth bearing in mind when visiting that the tree covered hill across directly to the east also has a hillfort on it but that there is no public access to it.

Oval in shape, single bank and entrance, 112m across (east to west). Evidence of quarrying and perhaps the remains of a medieval stone foundations.

Mountain Centre Standing Stones 1 and 2 are nearby.

Clach a’ Phlaigh, or the Plague Stone, stands on top of Carn na Marbh, and is said to commemorate the plague victims who were buried here in the 14th century. A tablet on the stone is inscribed with the words:

“Here lie the victims of the Great Plague of the 14th Century, taken here on a sledge drawn by a white horse led by an old woman”.

However, just as there is a belief that the mound is a barrow which was re-used, Clach a’Phlaigh may well be a genuine standing stone. If this is the case, there is another similar site nearby – the Bridge of Lyon cairn – which is also made up of a mound topped with a standing stone.

This pair of stones are just one part of an interesting area on the banks of the River Lyon. Close by is a cup-marked stone, a long cairn, a medieval moated site (once thought to be a Roman camp) and a round cairn topped with a cup-marked standing stone.

Only one stone now stands, while 5m to the NE the second is partly buried, with only a metre of it visible. In 1838, the cup-marked stone which now lies on top of the nearby Lyon Bridge round cairn (supposedly Pontius Pilate’s grave!) was actually close to these two stones, having apparently fallen at the end of the 18th century. This has led to suggestions this might be the remains of a four-poster.

However, the same cup-marked stone is supposed to have stood upright on the cairn on which it now lies, and the New Statistical Account actually says “two obelisks, the one about 6 feet high: the other lying on the ground, having been undermined some fifty or eighty years ago”. This makes me think that perhaps the half-buried stone might be cup-marked on one of its buried faces, and that it was confused with the stone on the cairn which did once stand there.