Latest Fieldnotes

Gor blimey! What a windy place! Visited here in September 2001, and have NEVER been anywhere so windy! The force of the wind probably explains why the rocks in the area are so smooth (but hey, I’m no expert!). It was this place that made me bald, I swear! There’s a little shelter, which I later discovered was Daniel Gumb’s House. Or the remains of, at least. From reading up on this area, it seems to have suffered a fair bit at the hands of the quarry works... nothing is sacred *sigh!* Nice place – good walk to the top, and a cracking view from the top!

I took these photos in 2001, when I visited this place... I felt really lost at the time, and thought I MUST have taken a wrong turn! Then, suddenly, and not at all hidden, was the little car park and information board! Just behind a hedge and some cottages was the structure... although it was so close to the other buildings, I recall feeling like I was in the middle of nowhere – very peaceful. Not another person to be seen or heard. I liked it.

We managed to miss out the 15 minute walk by mistakenly passing the carpark and driving up the forestry commission track straight to the circle. Trees had recently been cut so the views were superb all round. The distinct lack of restoration only improves this site, which feels much more “complete” than other more manicured circles.

Access to the fort is easy enough. Just off the A6097 is a minor road, the footpath that leads up to the fort is well signposted from here, and there’s room to get a car off the road.

The fort encloses roughly a hectare. Entrances can be seen in the NorthWest and East.
The forts defences are still in good nick, a triple bank and ditch to the East altho’ this side is covered in trees, the size of the the defences is impressive,
on the West a bank ditch and counterscarp.

The site sits behind two large mounds, the one nearest the entrance, is called Robin Hoods Pot and at over 6m high is thought to be a barrow.( See Rhiannons post Robin Hood’s Pot )

A top place.

Bingham henge is sadly no longer with us.........
Well no actually it is.
It’s just been wrapped in a 1m layer of clay (for it’s own protection) and carefully placed under an industrial estates car park.

The really sad bit is...... I’m visiting industrial estate car parks..........

The henge is tucked away behind the petrol station in Gunthorpe Bridge, on private land, so a bit of gate hopping is in order.
The site is now badly silted up and eroded. A central platform can still be made out as can an entrance in the south-east. The north and western sections are silted up and a drain cuts thrugh the western part, using the henges ditch at one point.
A nice enough place, and worth a look if you’re in the area.

Situated on the northernmost point of the British Isles, the rocks of Muckle Flugga and Old Stack are the last pieces of land before the Atlantic Ocean.

Discovered in 1905 when a tremendous storm uncovered parts of the village. Up until such time the only thing of note on the peninsula was the 17th century manor house.

The remains of many civilisations which inhabited the site have been found there, Picts and Vikings to name but a few.

The site is a wonderful place to look around but alas a lot of the clues that could have been present during the initial excavation were lost due to the innocent naievity of the archaeologists all those years ago.

Luckily a very similar site is at this moment being excavated not to far away at Old Scatness, this new site should help fill in the blanks about Jarlshof.

Sorry folks
it’s not a standy stone or a menhir, most likely it’s part of a chapel that was attached to the Parish church just off the Market Place. Parts of the chapel which dates back to the Anglo-Saxon era and collapsed in the 18th Century can still be seen on the Market Place side of the church
The stones antiquity was only “realised” in the 1850’s and the railings which surround it date from that time
Whilst the stone has no provenance as a coronation stone for seven kings it is in my view likely that the centre of Kingston may have been the focus for religious/ceremonial activity going back to Anglo-Saxon times as the area on which the church is centred is in the middle of what was a gravel island in the Thames.
The river channel has long since silted up but is clearly shown on the archaeological records for various developments in the vicinity

6 miles SE of Portsoy and rising to 1412 feet, Knock Hill plays a major part in the landscape of this area of NE Scotland. It is an extict volcano visible for miles around, and can be seen from many sites.
It provides a Northern focal point in the megalithic landscape like Benachie and the other sacred hills further South.

Appalled at the metal cover to the site – a necessity I suppose following bad excavation, but why make the roof a white eyesore that can be seen from mainland Orkney?
Still a wonderful site and well worth a visit particularly last week when we had it to ourselves in glorious weather and crystal blue seas.

I was a lovely clear day brought about by extremely strong winds, which came apparent when I walked up the golf course to the site! The clouds were racing so a dull spell soon turned into a spotlight for the rockart on the top of the hill.

Very clear views in all directions: from various parts of the Moor you can see: north to Broomridge and Goatscrag close to Routin Linn; the hillforts of Humbleton and Yeavering; the Cheviot itself; Weetwood Moor ; Kettley Crags and Chatton; and over to the sea. Fantastic.

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Most of the marks here are cup-marks.

The major slab of flat rock to the west end of this site feels like it should have markings, but the sandsone is quite soft and it is very exposed : I couldn’t see any definate marks apar from ones which looked natural and are 2 feet across.

The site is pinpointed from afar by a pair of windswept trees... I can see these trees from my back door :-)

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Just east of the triangulation pillar, it’s hard to make out the enclosure while you are in situ.
The rock art is found at the centre of a small cairn. The markings are really faint, didn’t come out on my first picture so had to resort to marking the main points with water.
Extremely windy up there but it provided a clear view to the sea one way and the Cheviots on the other. Lovely open skies.
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It’s hard work this one – struggled through knee-deep heather to get here, felt like I’d waded through a mile of thick treacle.
Hard to find too: and I was a bit disappoined to find that the beautifully clear stone I’d seen pictured in a book had turned into a monster of a lichen colony!!
One for the determined.
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The outcrop of Buttony is now covered by trees, inhabited by deer (I heard one but couldn’t see it).
To find it from the southerly part of Gled Law look to the east, you can see a Pill Box on a hill. The Wooded area behind it contains the Rock Art. My OS map shows it as open countryside but the trees are quite mature.
To the southern edge of the wood is a gate, the rock art is up towards the north-west of the area.
The largest slab is open to the sky so is “spotlit” on a bright day; the two intertwined carvings are towards the top end of the outcrop.
Well worth stooping through the trees :-)

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This place is quite an astonishing curiosity. It lies underneath a house called, unsurprisingly, “The Caves” and was open to the paying public until about 1840. As you walk down the steps into the main chamber you are presented with the sight of thousands of bones stacked neatly from floor to roof, bones of bear, ox, wolf & deer. Apparently loads more of the more interesting ones were taken away(where to ?). Later the cave belonged to a Bishop Law who reckoned that the bones were proof of the Biblical Flood and put several monuments/ grottos in the garden above to put across his point! Worth a visit although the garden was a bit overgrown when I went there. Access is only granted a couple of times a year, generally on those days when all sorts of other, usually private, places are open. Local newspaper would have the dates.

What a wonderful site. Majestically ancient and mysterious, with a couple of resident horses who didn’t pay me any attention whatsoever.

I guess we’re lucky that the Victorians didn’t take all the stone. It’s still possible to make out a couple of the chambers from the stone peeking through the earth, although they’re covered in moss and I would guess will be impossible to see in high summer.

I loved this site, and will treasure the memory of it for a long time to come.

Like Rhiannon, it was raining when we arrived here, but luckily it was only another brief (though heavy) shower. We’d parked right by the gate to the field, by the footpath sign and I donned my waterproofs for the first time this year for the short trip across the field to the stones which were easily visible from the car.

I’ve never seen so many dandelions in one field before. I also have to say I’ve never seen so much dung in one field before either. And so varied in colour, texture and consistency! Keeping my head down to check my path, essential in these conditions, I progressed carefully to the stones.

The wind must have been in the right direction, as although the M4 was clearly visible, there was no traffic noise to be heard, even when the rain finally stopped.

There’s not much left of the original mound now – it’s probably less than a foot or so high from the rest of the field, but easily discernable. The landowner had stacked up a lot of brushwood at one end, and the stones themselves had quite a bit of undergrowth on and around them.

What we have here are two uprights, and what looks like a collapsed capstone leaning against them. There is indeed a ‘bite’ out of the lower end of the capstone – see the photos. It reminded me very much of the hole in the capstone of somewhere like Trevethy Quoit, but cut out to the edge of the stone.. a sad and dilapidated site holding only memories of it’s previous splendour.

...and I couldn’t find the wheelbarrow....

This would originally have been a very impressive burial chamber but, sadly, the B3315 goes straight through the middle of it! Before the damage it would have been 12 metres in diameter.

The cup marked stone at the entrance is a cast replica of the original, which is now in the County Museum in Truro.

This excellent little four-poster requires a bit of effort, as it’s up the top of a wooded hill. Surprisingly, the OS map tracks turned out to be relatively accurate this time, which is a bit of a first...

The stones form the corners of a 3m square, graded to the SW, where the largest (1.2m tall) stands.

It was a bit misty today, as you will see from the photographs, and I could only make the stones out when I got within around 30m. Pity, as the views are supposed to be pretty spectacular from here. I’ll have to wander back on a good day!

This magnificent little circle stands on the spur of Airlich hill just above the farm of Meikle Findowie. It consists of two circles, the larger outer one being around 8.5m in diameter, with 6 of the 9 stones still upright. The 3 largest (on the SW arc) are now recumbent. There is a smaller ring of stones inside these, all of which are very low, and only 5 remaining.

These are the sad remains of what was once a four-poster, which enclosed a cairn. Only two stones now remain, though excavation of the site in 1954 found the sockets for the other two. It was dated to approximately 1600 bc.

This stone stands around 50m to the SE of the chambered cairn, visible in the background in one of the photos. It is around 1.4m in height, and about 0.7m in width at the base.

A large chambered cairn, but very ruinous now. Enough remains that the general shape and size can be made out. It was excavated in 1954, when it was measured at 190 feet in length, with width varying from 38 feet at the SE to 20 feet at the NW – it is oriented along a SE-NW axis. Four lateral chambers were noted from the SW side. Even in its present condition it is quite impressive, although walkers in the Glen have started a small cairn near the SE end, visible in the photographs.