Latest Fieldnotes

I could barely make these out from the road, above all the vegetation. It’s no surprise I couldn’t find the Clodagh circle on the ridge on the opposite side of the road with this level of growth...

Looking at the map, this sits beyond a farmhouse at the end of a trackway. I followed the track past the house, but couldn’t see anything of note. I was being watched by a clan of kids, so couldn’t go past the gate to see what was further in the field.

Fourwinds reported on his website that a ‘demon dog’ from the adjacent house guards this site. As I parked the car, a dog did indeed come bounding out, barking aggressively. The dog’s owner soon followed, and I explained that I wanted to see the stones in the adjoining field. She was very friendly, coming from London (Wembley) herself, and was amazed when I told the story of the ‘demon dog’. I made friends with both her dogs, and used her garden to take photos of the stones themselves. Sadly, I couldn’t get into the field to see the circle close up, due to the presence of a couple of young bullocks, but it’s plain that only two stones remain of the circle.

If you do visit here, the house owner desperately misses a good English cheese and I’m sure would appreciate someone dropping some in!

Parking in the farmyard, follow the track through the farm, which eventually snakes up the hill (it’s marked on the OSI map). The stones are beyond the second gate on the track.

I found it difficult to make out the form of the circle, which doesn’t seem to follow the Irish RSC pattern. I may just not have seen it, as all the stones are quite low, only about a foot or so high. A nice setting though, even if the stones aren’t that great.

The map also shows a Standing Stone and Burial Ground close by, but I didn’t spot them.

17/06/2003

Our latest visit to Tintagel ended in us not even visiting the castle. The village is quite awful now so we parked just outside the village towards Boscastle and visited St. Nectans Glen and waterfall, which will not disappoint. Afterwards we carried on to Boscastle and paid our latest visit to the Museum of Witchcraft, where we always end up spending a couple of hours reading every exhibit, a must see.

March 2003

Pleasantly surprised with our visit to Trellech. There are Harold’s Stones, the Virtuous Well, Tump Turret (site of Norman motte and bailey) , the sundial in the church and a supposed Druid altar in the churchyard.

It was a bit of a miserable day but our youngest girl (3 yrs) seemed to enjoy the stroll once we got going and it even stopped raining.

I am intrigued that there are so many things to see in this village yet receives little publicity. The village could do so much more to promote itself.

26/05/2003

Site needs to be visited to appreciate the scale of the construction. Unfortunately we visited on a day that a historical military event was being held. We had to pay five pounds entrance even though we weren’t really interested in the event. Couldn’t really get a feel for the place with so many people about and so much going on. Will visit again and check the events diary before leaving home.

Little Kit’s Coty (aka The Countless Stones) – 4.9.1999

After visiting Kit’s Coty this was obviously pretty different (and not so ‘impressive’ when showing someone else the site) but the old ‘countless stones’ routine is always a good one to get a newcomer involved in the folklore of ancient sites.

Without the benefit of a proper map I didn’t know where to park so I had parked just outside the enclosure where a track meets the main road (described by Kammer as a ‘demi lay-by’). Bit of a tight squeeze; I didn’t know at the time where else to park, but there are now some better suggestions in the posts below.

Kit’s Coty – 4.9.1999

I visited this on Saturday 4th September 1999. I know the date because it was the first away game of the football season and this was a short detour on the way to watch Bristol Rovers triumph at Gillingham.

Strangely I had forgotten my camera, which was a shame because the place had a great vibe about it and I felt like the pics would have somehow reflected the vibe.

I had parked in a strange back road (totally empty except a burnt out car – hhhmm – circa TQ747610) just off the road back onto the thundering A229, then crossed the road and walked down a steep track (an overgrown signpost marked this path) which leads down towards the fields where this huge dolmen stands.

I will definitely go back one day………

This circle is incomplete, but sits in a wonderful setting near the banks of the Ardrigeen River.

Unusually, it seems to be situated at the foot of a rise rather than on the high point.

Not much left of this, unfortunately. Just a pile of stones, looking like field clearance, on the ridge. A couple of uprights on the edges provide the clues.

‘Stone Circles of Cork and Kerry’ suggests parking at the road junction and approaching the hill from the West. I parked on the junction as suggested, opposite a gate to a field full of cows. That’s the one, I told myself, leapt the gate and set off. Crossing the field, I was aware the cows were watching me. As I’d passed them and was starting to climb the hill, I heard the thunder of hooves behind me. I turned to find two of the beasts charging me! I waved my stick while backing away, which confused them for all of 5 seconds before they started forward again. Luckily I was close to the electric wire fence, and ducked under it quickly. The power wasn’t on, but I hoped they didn’t know that. I’m sure they could have uprooted the fenceposts easily by just leaning against the wire. They came right up to the wire, and looked around the corner of the hill, where I’d started climbing. I looked back to find they’d doubled their numbers! I continued up, but drew a complete blank. I was on the wrong damned hill, trapped by a herd of manic cows! Maybe waving my stick hadn’t been such a good idea…

I looked around, and found another trackway up the adjoining hill, so decided to try my luck that way. On top of this hill, I found two very sad looking stones. Surely this can’t be it? Half a page in Roberts’ book for this? I looked around, almost in desperation now, and spotted, just on the brow of the next hill along, what might have been a glimpse of a stone. No turning back now I thought, and made my way across. Electric wire was everywhere along the field boundary, which also had a substantial hedge. Milling back and forth, I found only one spot that looked traversable, and what looked like a droveway on the other side.

I clambered through and let myself down, only to find myself being sucked under into very soft earth. I lost my balance whilst trying to reach firm ground on the bank, slipped and put my hand down into a bed of nettles! “This can’t get any worse”, I thought. “There’s nothing left to happen. I’ve been chased and trapped by cows, sucked at by the ground, and my hand bloody stings all over! Get some dock, quick.”

Back on firm ground, I started toward the crest of the hill, when I spied more cows looking at me. For once, luck was with me when I saw at least two lengths of cattle wire separating us. And there were the stones! I boldly marched up to take my pictures. Sadly, the ground was too overgrown to actually enter the circle and I didn’t want to antagonise the cows any more than I had already done by approaching the boulder tomb a little way off, so I turned to try to find my way back to the car.

The droveway seemed the best idea, despite the soft ground, so I followed it for a short way, only to find it petered out after 50 yards or so. The farm was obviously in the other direction! Undeterred, I continued on through the nettles. Hey, my hand and leg were stinging like nothing I’ve ever felt before. There was nothing left to go wrong, was there? I came to a field boundary, like a small thicket, but one that the cows had been through before. The ground was soft here again, and there were other more obvious signs. Must be a way through then, right? Well almost. I battled my way through, then came to the ubiquitous electric wire fence again. A nervous glance around, no cows, and over we go. I’m now in a field, that appears to border a road, and there’s a gate! I rush across to it, scale the gate and find myself less than 50 yards away from the car. Sweet mercy! Back in the car and relating the adventure to Mikki, bugger me if the original bolshie cows don’t come right up to the gate where I started and look straight at us, as if to say “if this gate weren’t here, pal, we’d have you!” So take Jack Roberts’ advice and park where he suggests, but walk up the road a short way before looking to head across the fields.

I took Fourwinds’ advice (see his website for details) and ignored the sign about the bull (on the road to the northeast, which our landlady’s local handyman had confirmed was only there to scare off the tourists and avoid any litigation if they hurt themselves), and used the next gate down with an overgrown track. This led directly to a field boundary, through which I could see the circle. Unfortunately, there was no obvious way through the boundary so I made my way to the corner of the field, and shimmied over the wall. Looking around the field I now found myself in, I couldn’t see any break in the boundary at all! There must be one, as the cows had obviously visited recently.

Anyway, the stones were a wonderful introduction to the Irish style, and I could see the cottage from within the circle! Must remember to check when we get back ‘home’ later.

5-7-03. Visited in misty rain, almost disappeared down the numerous badger holes, and the bracken was waist-high!
.o0O0o.

The views from here are wonderful.

The capstone sits, looking like some futuristic airship briefly docked on the uprights. My imagination was playing overtime just standing staring at it...

Went there. Loved it.

Mikki wants the house next door, just so we can say “look what we live next to!”

The White Horse, as we see it today, only dates from the 19th century but there are local legends that it was cut over an earlier horse facing in the opposite direction.

The are above the horse in known as Bratton Camp and is a maze of archaeology from many periods.

The horse lies to the west of Westbury and is well signposted.

There is a good viewing point on the B3098 at ST 885 517.

I should have read the previous fieldnotes! I scrabbled around trying to see anything, until I stumbled upon the bridle path. I managed to spot the stone through the hedgerow, and grabbed this shot.

Mentioned on an information board at the west end of the village, but I couldn’t locate it, and a local postman wasn’t aware of it when I asked.

There is a quarry to the north of the village, and the chamber is shown on the OS map as close to the quarry. Hopefully its still there...

Spotted this from the N25 on our way home. It looks to be around 5 feet tall. Once again, cows in the field prevented a closer look.

Marked as ‘standing stones’ on the OSI map, I’d expected to find a pair here. What I actually found was a three stone row. Two of the stones are similar in size, and about 5 metres apart. The third is much smaller and about 25 metres to the NE of the other two, but in line with them. The middle stone had a small boulder placed atop it. I didn’t enter the field due to the presence of cows nearby.

A narrow chalk footpath/bridleway leads up from Blewbury to the Downs. Today the track is lined with field scabious, poppies, cornflowers, lots of blue flowers which I couldn’t identify and the most wonderful little purple orchids which are quite rare and only grew on very chalky soils such as was now underhoof. A quick canter past the old chalk pits lead us up to the top of Churn Hill and... there it is! Churn Knob! We couldn’t actually get very close on horseback, ironically, because it lies directly beside one of the privately owned ‘gallops’ which casual riders are forbidden to use by The Expensive People. We got as close as we dared without being shot or set upon by slavering hounds for me to take a couple of pics.

It’s quite big, perhaps, 10 or 15 metres wide at it’s base and seems to rise quite steeply. At this time of year it is resplendent with wild flowers glowing purple in the hazy sunlight. But it’s the position of the knob which is so impressive, for the views up here are remarkable. Looking north you seem to look vertically down over Blewburton Hill and across to the Wittenham Clumps. The graceful curves of the cooling towers of Didcot Power Station are just over to the west and on a clear day I’m sure you’d be able to see Oxford. It’s from this position that St Birinus (whoever the f**k he was) preached a sermon. To remember this, for the millennium, local Christians have erected an unsightly and monstrous cross on the Knob. A deeply offensive and outrageous piece of vandalism in my opinion. Throw the perpetrators to the lions!

...I rode south out of the stables in Blewbury and trotted alongside Blewburton Hill. This cracking hillfort covers the entire area of a ‘freestanding hill’, if you know what I mean, with phenomenal terracing all around it. It looks really ‘sculpted’. You get a really good view of it as you drive along the A417 Wantage to Reading road, as many people do every day, but I bet they haven’t a clue about this gloriously placed defensive village.

Obvious confusion with Silbury, (as Google keeps telling me) one wonders if the name comes from the same root? The trees planted in the 1960s are now being removed (since Sept 2002) and the area allowed to revert to the natural chalk downland. Access is difficult as it is on or near MOD land and there are tank tracks and occasional artillery firings over the area.
I’ve flown over the site hundreds of times as the Parachute Centre I used to belong to (Netheravon) is next door. I loved hanging out the door of the plane trying to spot as many archaeological features as I could, things like the Cursus and the Avenue showed up well in dry summers.

I really like this little barrow cemetery. After driving through the pretty town of Alford a series of twisty roads lead you out into the wilds of east Lincolnshire, you can’t go much further before you fall into the sea at Chapel St Leonards. This isolated rural position gives the dozen ploughed closely set barrows a lovely peaceful atmosphere – few cars ever pass by on the nearby road and the quiet is only occasionally broken if the wind changes direction and carries the sound of the seaside fairground over from the coast. In the past when I have visited the site it has always been deserted, this time it was home to a herd of young cows. As soon as they saw me walking up the track they stopped their chewing and came over to the fence that surrounds the barrows, I didn’t go any closer as the fence is only flimsy. Funnily enough the presence of the cows allowed me to get the only half decent pictures I’ve ever taken of the site, none of the low mounds are over a metre high and are usually overgrown but the cows added some kind of scale to the photos – thanks chaps!
Finds from the site include a whetstone and a dagger. C14 dates the cemetery to around 1750BC.