Latest Fieldnotes

We visited on 24th June, parked in the layby and walked up to the site, after spending a while there in the sunshine we took a circular walk up to Men Scryfa, Nine Maidens (Boskednan) and Ding Dong Mine then back down to Men-an Tol. It was a beautiful walk and with time to linger took around 3 hours. There’s a fantastic view of St Michael’s Mount in the bay from the path between Nine Maidens and Ding Dong mine and a lovely clear babbling stream to dip your feet in and jump over on the way down between the mine and Men-an Tol.

Visited on June 25th 2003, late afternoon in some fine Cornish rain. This really is my absolute favourite place in Cornwall, it was my third visit but the first for four years and it was as wonderful as before. As other contributors have said, there’s a special palpable atmosphere here. It’s a hard place to leave – I love it !!

I was lucky enough to have Fitzcoraldo show me the Upleatham barrow and the cup marked kerb stones.
Being used to Derbyshire barrows I thought Upleatham was quite impressive, although it’s tree covered it’s still a good height.
But the highlight without doubt was the cup marked stones. I’ve got to admit it was a real buzz uncovering the heavily marked stone.
The views through the breaks in the trees are excellent; it’s great to see the contrast of Roseberry Topping and Eston Nab alongside the industrial coastline to the north.
Cheers Fitz.

29th June 2003
Beautiful place, it goes to show how you can convert what is an essentially defunct way of life, into a necessity for the future. I am of course taking about the preservation of wildlife. Great countryside for a head-clearing walk after a boosey night in Winborne, and prior to a 350 mile trip home back to Huddersfield.

29th June 2003
Bizarre, this place is unbelievable. As you can tell by the images there are stones everywhere. The earthworks are breath-taking. Will visit again in two weeks time with my wife.

29th June 2003, My first visit to Stonehenge. Coming over the hill to see that induced a spontaneous and collective shout of some unmentionable Anglo-Saxon. It was so much bigger than any picture lets you believe. Trapped behind it’s chicken coup it had little or no ambience, as the hoards of people with their gadgets welded to their ears walked blindly round. Stonehenge is best looked at from a distance, where you can blank out the swarms and cars and the ice-creams. I know this sounds depressing, and the stones do need to be looked after but I can’t help the way I feel.

29-6-03.
Coming in from the south, you can’t miss the house – and I spotted the top of the stone peeping over the hedge.
Easy access, right on the road.
.o0O0o.

I have to admit my main reason for visiting Flag Fen was to reacquaint myself with the timbers I had last seen on a cold windswept beach near Hunstanton 4 years ago. At the time I had dragged along the girlfriend of the time and her 2 kids to watch a ring of wooden posts and a central trunk very slowly emerge from the water – I don’t think they were ever conned by the promise of ‘a day at the seaside’ again after that.
For some reason I’d left it a long time before going to see the remains of the circle in their wooden tanks, perhaps I needed to put some distance between them being there on the beach and being here at Flag Fen. Francis Pryor’s book had reawoken my memories and brought back the feelings of that day – I’m not going to go into the rights and wrongs of the subject, I think the issues were well covered in the Forum posts of the time.
Walking into the large open fronted barn was a strange experience. The central timber is placed at the end and it was almost like walking into some kind of hallowed hall with the trunk forming an alter as its focal point. The smaller split timbers that made up the continuous circle were laid out under the water, some were in with the trunk while others were in a separate tank. The view of the timbers was difficult due to the layer of green pond slime that seemed to be growing on the top of the water in one tank, I presume there is a reason why the water is not changed regularly. I was almost tempted to put my had below the water to touch the posts, but didn’t, partly because I wouldn’t want to cause any damage to the 4050 year old wood and partly because it just didn’t seem right – disrespectful somehow.
I spent quite a while in the barn and there was nobody else around. While I was there something whizzed silently above my head, I looked up to see a young swallow on the wooden beams of the barn being fed by it’s parent before the adult flew off again to gather more insects for the youngster. I was struck by the whole ‘life, death, rebirth’ thing, the timbers had grown, been felled, shaped, moved to a sacred place near the coast, erected and become the centre of ceremony, abandoned, covered in rising water and then peat, been forgotten about, uncovered by the sea and returned to the land of the living, become again the centre of attention, been dug up and brought here awaiting the next part of their journey. The swallow had been born in Britain, grown up then flown to Africa, overwintered there and then returned to Britain to raise it’s own offspring who would repeat the cycle. Somehow I felt that seeing the timbers again had completed the cycle for me too in some way that I can’t explain. A sad but quite moving experience.

There is no longer anything to see at the original site of the Moneydie stone circle. Now a cultivated field, the last standing stone was removed by the farmer around 1960, and lies on the verge by the side of the road. When Coles visited in 1910, there were 5 stones on the site, all but one of which had fallen, suggesting a circle of diameter c27m.

The RCAHMS only list one stone (the one still standing on Coles’ visit) as definitely having come from the circle. However, I believe that the other 4 stones can still be seen, and perhaps another one. Close by the listed stone is another of very similar size and shape. Across the road from these two is a third, again sharing the same attributes, on the edge of a burn.

Retracing your steps towards the main road, there are 3 further stones under the trees. The first you come to is on it’s own, once again the same distinctive triangular shape, and has an amazing pattern running through it, looking almost like the rings of a tree. A bit further on are two stones together – one of the same shape as the others, the other longer and thinner rather than wide and triangular (see photos above).

Although this would appear to be the only stone circle in Moneydie parish for which there are physical remains (presuming that the stones at Cramflat and Gellybank never formed circles), several once existed (see folklore below).

Wednesday 30 April 2003
We made an abortive approach via the lane off the A84 south of Lochearnhead to Edinchip itself, on the right when travelling south. Very unfriendly notices at an apparent dead-end with very little turning space. So we turned (carefully!) and continued down the A84.

In no time we were pulling up at a little access road on the right of the A84 (still heading south) at the foot of Auchtubhmore Hill.

There are a couple of very pleasant looking little cottages at the main road end of it, and access stops at a gate after around only 20 yards (guess!) or so. Map ref approx NN578212. It had stopped raining and the sun was coming out!

We parked by the cottages, walked a few yards up the lane and turned right up a track that the OS map shows clearly as a path following a disused railway embankment. (Sorry, can’t remember if there’s a gate or style at the bottom of the path or what….)

After a very short distance we reached the embankment and our hearts sank at the sight of an apparently very new, certainly very high, gate and fence, barring the track. It continued up the embankment and down the other side. (I don’t remember any signs by the way.)

As we stood dejectedly contemplating our next move, John looked north east along the valley and pointed out that the moisture from the earlier showers was still hanging in the valley, lit by the sun.

It was very pretty and lifted our spirits enough for us to become ‘philosophical’ about it. Confident statements such as ‘We’d never have found it’ and ‘It’s probably crap anyway’ were exchanged.

Before turning on our heels however I nipped up the embankment ‘outside’ the fence, for a better look at the view of the misty valley.

I had taken no more than a glance at the view when I realised that the construction of the accursed fence I was standing next to had been misconceived as it reached the top of the embankment. It was considerably lower than elsewhere. And fairly easily get-overable, even for a non-beanpole like me! (‘One’ hesitates to use the word ‘climbable’ of course)

With a whoop of delight I summoned John. Confident that I knew exactly where we were on the map, I spent a few moments reassuring John on the ‘right-to-roam’ in Scotland and the legal ‘no-damage = no crime’ principle of which I have an in-depth knowledge (ie I read something once…).

This was itself followed by a few moments reassuring the Moth underparts that they were safe from sharp, pointy, tearing, rending bits of metal. And (DEEP breath Moth) over we went. John of course just stepped over. Gangly freak.

We walked for a very short time and looked again along the valley running off to our right. We both came to an immediate halt.

As if a rainbow itself had drifted down to nestle in the bottom of the valley, the moisture still suspended in the air at the foot of the surrounding hills had now taken on rainbow hues! It was breathtaking!

I quickly fired off a few photographs with rapid variations in exposure, depth of field and zoom. But as is so often the nature of hastily grabbed pictures of a natural lighting phenomenon, although worthwhile, they only partly capture the feeling. I’ll post one or 2 here when I have the facilities!

Onwards. The (gated and locked) track that I mentioned follows along the bottom of the embankment on the left, and very soon the path along the top of the embankment (which was still clearly trodden, by the way) made its way down to the track.

After following the track for around 5 or 10 minutes we were beginning to think our ‘we’d not have found it’ comments were going to come true. Some thin-ish woodland had started to develop to the left of our track and the ground there was rising to meet us as we progressed.

Just as we approached some 5-6 ft high metal framey-sheltery-type structures on the left, we spotted what seemed to be one or more ‘extra-distinct’ (you know what I mean!) mounds behind them….

John spotted a big stone and we went to look. Oh yes!!! Good spot Mr Eagle-eye John!!!!!

It’s a mess! But for us at least, WHAT a mess!!!! There is a special delight in a site that you’ve visited ‘on spec’ that exceeds (even low) expectations.

Many of the retaining kerbstones are visible through the groundcover (or perhaps uncover?). And much of the mound is treacherous to walk on when damp because the ‘fill and cover’ stones of the mound are so near (or through) the surface. Mind your ankles!

There are lots of pretty big lumps of (disturbed) partially buried stone. And yes, several bits that are unmistakably parts of a chambered cairn, most obviously a capstone still raised on one side by one of it’s supporting stones.

It’s strange, I guess that to anyone who knows even a bit about burial chambers and cairns, the site was almost like a rather muddled ‘exploded’ or ‘cut-away’ diagram! The relatively tiny bit of knowledge I have left me fascinated but confident of what this site once consisted of.

We liked.

I’d never got round to visiting Flag Fen but after reading Francis Pryor’s Seahenge book my appetite was well and truly whetted. As it was Fathers Day I had parental visiting obligations to attend to before heading off towards Peterborough and having made a late start as usual, it was 3pm before I got there. I was worried about navigating around the southeastern side of the city after I had left the A1 but luckily Flag Fen is well signposted on the Peterborough ring-roads and it’s easy enough to follow the signs out through an industrial estate and then out into the low lying fens to the site itself. When I got there I was rather surprised to see only 6 cars in the car-park – not that I was complaining, I think most of them belonged to the staff who were very helpful and informative giving me a potted history of the site. Just outside the centre I noticed a container of umbrella’s for the use of visitors on wet days – I thought that was a nice touch.
First stop was the Preservation Hall, lots of displays and information on the way in and ‘atmospheric’ music playing unobtrusively inside. Many people might not get excited at what seems like a random jumble of old timbers on display inside the building but it’s not everyday you get to see the remains of a bronze age trackway still in situ. Thanks to the info boards it’s possible to work out the individual lines of posts that formed the 1 kilometre link between the dry raised areas of Fengate and Northey between 3300 and 2900 years ago.
Next stop were the reconstructed Bronze Age round houses. I was surprised at the amount of room inside while at the same time still being cosy – I want one! The interior was laid out as they believed these dwelling may have looked, with carved wooden beds, weaving frames, tables as well as a hearth etc but there was no sign of any reproduction bronze tools – probably thought to be a bit too ‘portable’ to leave on display.
Next up was the Holme-next-the-Sea timbers housed in their own barn – I’ll cover those in the Seahenge section.
By now I was getting short of time (Flag Fen closes at 5pm) so I only had time for a quick look at the rather fine Iron Age round house and like the others it was well furnished inside with suitable tables, beds, benches, wooden and pottery bowls and frame for the preparation of animal skins. A quick look at the excavated section of Roman road and then onto the museum. It’s only small but has a decent display of the various finds from the site including part of what is believed to be the earliest wheel so far found in Britain. I tried to get a photo but it was on a revolving ‘thingy’ and in the low light the picture came out blurred. My favourite displays though were the bronze swords, daggers and spear heads – the ones shown on the front cover of the ‘Seahenge’ book, for those that have it.
Time to go before the staff shut the gates and there were still parts of the site I hadn’t looked at or had had to rush, the web site recommends a couple of hours to look at everything, I would suggest much longer. Nice place, nice day out.

Visited 15th June 2003: Julian mentions this site in the Modern Antiquarian book, and includes a photo of Kendric’s Stone. This was my second attempt to see the stone (the first time there was a service going on). We found the stone at the opposite end of the church to the altar, next to a tiny wooden vestry. It has a plaque next to it, and when we visited there was some sort of dried grass propped up against it. This stone really doesn’t look very prehistoric, and it does look heavily worked.

The other point of interest at this site is the raised circular churchyard that surrounds Llanelltyd Church. It’s sheltered by trees, and has a wall running around most of it. At the back of the church some buildings are built up against the churchyard, so that you could walk onto their roofs from ground level. It must be weird sitting in a one of these buildings, knowing that there are human remains just on the other side of your wall! All in all it’s a pleasant place to visit, but I have yet to be convinced that this type of churchyard necessarily has a prehistoric link.

Visited 13th June 2003: It was a spectacularly sunny day, so I thought I’d peg it up Pendinas during my lunch hour. My objectives were to find and photograph the round barrow and hut circles within the defences of the fort, then find my mate who was working somewhere on the hill clearing bracken.

I parked at the end of the footpath that approaches the fort from the north, and got to the top in less than 20 minutes. Once I’d caught my breath in the shadow of the Wellington Monument, I headed off to the south west to try and find my barrow and hut circles. The latter were easy to spot, but it turns out they’re not easy to photograph (nothing I took was worth posting up). Then I spotted what I’m pretty sure is the round barrow.

By this time I was running out of lunch hour, so I headed back down the hill, and with some help from a local woman who was walking her dog, managed to track down my mate. He’d hidden away at he top of the Rope Walk Fields, and was wielding a scythe very professionally. We had a few minutes to chat, then both of us had to get back to work.

Wednesday 30 April 2003
The weather had declined from ‘fine’ to ‘OK’ up until around the time we were halfway up the driveway to Kinnell, where it started to drizzle. But it remained reasonably bright and the fine spray was actually quite refreshing after around 6 hours in the car!

We walked round to the yard at the back of the farm to ask permission. As anyone who has been there will know, the drive passes very close to the circle (I had to drag John away) and you can have a good stare in the process of going to ask.

Incidentally, is it just me who finds this amusing? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind at all. In fact I quite like it. As other people have remarked on this website, specific permission guarantees a relaxed visit – not that I’m very timid anyway. It just tickles me.

Anyway, we were, as usual, kindly granted permission. By a person of the male persuasion for a change!

I really like Kinnell of Killin. I liked Julian’s pic and description of it in the big ‘papery’ TMA. And ever since it came into sight as I ran up the drive on my first visit, I’ve really liked it. (It was time to head home really that day and I didn’t want to ‘push’ my partner at the time too far!)

Every time I’ve been there the weather has been ‘changeable’ at best, but I always find it pleasant place. Although it’s a small circle surrounded by big hills, it’s in a wide graduated valley and, for me this reinstates a feeling of space. If you imagine it without the imposing farm buildings and the field wall that passes too close for comfort, I find that the little site really ‘opens-up’.

I wonder if at some stage someone will add some notes about this circle and not mention rain?

26-6-03
The slopes here have been flattened slightly. The result is a relaxed, curvy outlook, which feels almost submissive with the area wide open to the skies.

.o0O0o.

26-6-03
This had an industrial feel to me, as if people had been taking advantage of it.
The wildlife in the area surrounding this henge seemed to consist of seagulls and plastic bags blown here from the nearby landfill site.
Recently a crop circle appeared in the next field: now I like crop circles but this seemed to be laughing at the henge; well the last laugh is at the wheatfield, it is one which is earmarked for quarrying. A sad place.

.o0O0o.

21-6-03
Entering the wooded area, I immediately saw the banks, steep and dark, under the trees. It was impossible to see the henge as a whole, hence difficult to get a scale.
This henge had a sleepy, foreboding nature, and felt a little creepy to me.

.o0O0o.

26-6-03
I visited this area three days previously but was looking in the wrong direction; I only found the northern henge. Armed with a map and compass and personal guide, I found the others this time ;-)
.o0O0o.

I’d visited the southern part of Dane’s Dyke in the past on the way north either to the seaside or to Rudston but had never given it the examination it deserved. This day I planned to visit the various sections of the bank and ditch after having a look at Starr Carr. In the end I didn’t get to the Mesolithic settlement site and it had gone 4pm by the time I reached the carpark at the RSPB nature reserve of Bempton Cliffs which is fairly well signposted and makes an excellent start for a visit to the earthwork which is about a mile further east along the coast. After spending about half an hour watching the thousands of puffins, guillemots and gannets the weather took a turn for the worse and huge black clouds charged in from the west. There was no way I would make it to the dyke before it started raining so while watching everybody else dashing back to their cars I set up my camera and happily snapped away at clouds speeding over the cliffs and out to sea. Then it started raining – and I mean *raining*. I packed the camera away and started what seemed a very long walk along the cliffs in the pouring rain. Everything got soaked, the rain went right through my coat, the long wet grass left my trousers with water running down the inside and I had my own personal lake inside my boots. Strangely though it hardly bothered me, the cliff edge was deserted, just me, the birds and the elements, which is what it must have been like here for thousands of years – I have to say I really enjoyed that walk.
Eventually I got to the northern terminal of the earthwork which is best described with words like ‘huge’ and ‘looming’. There was still some evidence of the ditch on the western side but both bank and ditch finished just short of the cliffs, I’m not sure if it was designed that way to allow a narrow easily defended entrance to the enclosed area or whether the gap had been created in more recent times. Trying to get some photographs was a nightmare in the rain but I a snapped a few pictures showing the bank disappearing into the distance then made my way back to the car along the field edge this time, scouring the soil for flints but as usual found nothing.
Next stop was the central section of the earthwork where it is cut through by the B1229. Parking was only possible on the grass verge and the view to the north was limited by the trees that partially cover the bank – the view to the south was much better.
Following the road it takes a turn south at Flamborough village and doubles back west as the B1255 where there is a sharp left signposted turn as the road dips through a small wood. As you drive down the track the bank is just to your left all the way down to a carpark where the dyke ends and a gully runs down to the sea.
As it was getting late I only had time for a quick look round and as the area was covered with trees it was difficult to figure out just were the earthwork ended and the natural features began, I’m guessing they were extended and built up by the original builders anyway. At least it had stopped raining and I managed to get some photos of the bank under the gloom of the trees before setting off home. The next day I went to work in wet footwear – my coat took about three days to dry out...

Although nothing now exist of this site, I think that it needs a mention on TMA as it is one of the few Bronze Age Burial Sites to be found in Lancashire.

Discovered in 1963 when a farmer uncovered a burial urn in land adjacent to Astley Hall Farm. Excavations of the site was carried out between 1974 and 1977 when a further urn and four cremations in shallow pits were unearthed.

Four of the six burials where found in an area enclosed by a ditch or trench 36feet in diameter the other two on the southern edge of the feature.

At the southern end of the feature there appeared to be an entrance and a cobbled forecourt, but as this area had been disturbed my digging.

30 feet to the south a pit was found containing 30 sherds of prehistoric pottery and a handful of flints. Charcoal and evidence of burn was also found.

A further three empty pits were found, one in the central area and the other two to the east.

URN 1 contained the remains of a 40-year-old female with signs of osteo-arthritis. The remains of a second younger body were also present. The urn also contained a burnt small flint knife and a struck flake of igneous rock believed to be Neolithic.

URN 2 contained the remains of a seven year old. It was noted that the bones had a green tinge probable caused by the breakdown of a copper or bronze article. The urn also contained charcoal, earth and pebbles, fragments of a miniature collared urn and fragment of what was either a small wooden bowl or cup.

CREMATION 1 contained the remains of at least one body.

CREMATION 2 contained the remains of the one body of a child or adolescent.

CREMATION 3 contained the remains of the one body.

CREMATION 4 contained the remains of an adult.

This information was taken from The Surviving Past by John Hallam

Visited 5th June 2003: I asked permission to park at Caer-Arglwyddes, the farmhouse to the north west of the circle (the circle is on a public footpath so no need to ask about access). With Alfie in the baby back-pack I headed off up in approximately the right direction for the circle.

The weather was all over the place. It had been raining when I left the car, and during the walk up the hill it had cycled through a variety of conditions. The grid reference I used to get to this site is probably too far south because I got to the circle much quicker than I’d bargained for (my GPS gave me SN6965491183). The stones are very low to the ground, so it was largely luck that I found them. Up by the circle the sun came and went, and when it shone the light on the wet grass around it was beautiful.

What a tiny little thing Cylch Derwyddol is! I don’t know how much stone is hidden under the soil, or how much exposed stone has been eroded away, but this site can’t have consisted of anything very large when it was built. Stone circles are very unusual in Ceredigion, so I got excited about it despite the size of it. It crossed my mind that this could be a cairn kerb, but the stones are very small, and there’s no sign of any cairn material (it’s listed as a circle on the NMRW).

The Little Findowie standing stone is part of a much-disturbed site. Standing on a cultivated river terrace above the River Braan, it protrudes from a pile of other stones, including some filed clearance, arranged in a line E-W. A few metres to the S is another pile of stones aligned the same way. The two lines converge slightly to the E. Some of the stones in the N line are buried flush with the ground. Given this alignment, and the translation of name, Stones of Worship, it is easy to see why this was seen as the possible remains of a chapel. However, the stones are so irregular in shape that they obviously didn’t come from a building.

It has been suggested that the stones could be the remains of a circle, with only one remaining standing. Certainly there are several other stones of a similar size and shape in the piles, and this would appear to be a more likely origin than the chapel theory. But if a circle had been destroyed at a time of cultivation, would the remains have been arranged in two parallel piles pointing E-W? Interestingly, considering the E-W alignment, Meikle Findowie stone circle is 1.5km due E of Little Findowie, and to the W is a notch in the hills created at Glen Fender.

It is for this reason that I believe the stones at Little Findowie are the remains of two stone rows, related in some way to the circle at Meikle Findowie, and perhaps aligned with the setting sun in Glen Fender.

170m to the east of the Eagle Stone is a ruined ring cairn on the northern edge of a small cairnfield.
The ring cairn is roughly 17m in diameter, the rubble bank is very overgrown but is on average 40cm high and 2m wide. The northern section of the bank is lost to 2 hollow trackways.
Hardly impressive it does however have some excellent views to the White Peak in the south.

Visited September 2001: On the way to Clynogg Fawr William fell asleep in the car, so we started this excursion at the pub, sitting outside with our drinks as he dozed. When he woke up we left the car in the pub car park and headed off to find the chamber. We walked through the churchyard, stopping off to look inside (quite an interesting little place) then and down the lane, eventually following an overgrown path to get to the chamber.

This is a beautiful little site, overlooked by the an array of mountains including the amazing breast shaped peak of Gyrn Goch (see IronMan’s photo) and cairn topped Gyrn Ddu. The chamber itself is charming despite the iron fence. We clambered underneath it and explored, but I only found out relatively recently that we failed to spot numerous cupmarks in the capstone. Well worth the walk, especially if you take into the account the added bonuses of the church and the pub!

Again, pointed out to me by Iain, this embankment is in line with the stone circle and Brown Gelly. It may also line up with the Hurlers and Caradon Hill but neither are visible(except for the TV mast). The trackway passes between small barrows for approx 25 yardsup the hill. There are also two barrows on the hill above and to the right, covered in vegitation.