Latest Fieldnotes

[visited 19/4/3] Yet another hacked apart site with only sporadic clues left as to what on earth was actually here. It’s easy enough to find due to the large stone standing defiantly by the side of the road. I found further stones in the hedgerow & field to the North, where the OS map marks a few stones. My notes say 6 or 7 in hedge & 5 in the field, the OS map has 7 in the field.

As to what I think was here, well... 3 in the field seem to be in an arc, giving the other two as outliers or even a row. Presumably the howevermany in the hedge were dragged there from the field. And the one by the road?

One final note, I _think_ you could see Avebury from the one by the road.

[visited 19/4/3] So first of all I went to the church in Alton Barnes, St Marys, which a pleasant enough Saxon church but not what I was looking for. A bit of intelligence took me to All Saints, the church in question located surprisingly in Alton Priors.

I can happily confirm it is indeed on a mound, there is a 1700 year old yew tree in the churchyard (according to the certificate inside the church) and there are indeed sarsens under the floor boards. The church is no longer used but is still consecrated and is maintained by The Churches Conservation Trust.

I was pondering on how I was gonna find the sarsens, but one is located to the right as you enter the church, under a handy trapdoor. I presume one is located under another trapdoor near the altar, but someone seems to have built a plywood stage over it...

This is well worth a visit if you are in the area and (I think) is open everyday in the summer. There is a note on the door telling you where to get the key from if its locked.

[visited 19/4/3] An interesting and bracing walk from Avebury, especially with a fierce cold wind straight into your face for the majority of the walk. But cross the ridgeway and head down over the gallops into the fields of stone and the heart lifts.

I walked to the south of the copse, then round the back with the density of stones ever increasing. It was a cold day but I spent about an hour here, searching for the elusive Polisher. I had to give up in the end, if only cos my Avebury carpark ticket was in danger of running out. However I didn’t go home entirely empty handed, I found two stones with holes in and a nice sense of well being.

[visited 19/4/3] Another ruined circle with Sarsens in hedge rows nearby and lonely survivors standing proud. Bizarre to find it so close to Avebury however, WK avenue is clearly visible, yet somehow seems to ignore this circle.

No purpose is apparent given the location, but who said anything had to make sense.

[visited 19/4/3] Whilst in the area I thought I had better take a look at a genuine archaeological fiddle at The Cove, as these things are getting increasingly rare. I was disappointed to see no info board & no activity but the complex metal work around the stones was fairly entertaining. Lots of other intrigued looking people as well.

23-4-03. I had just been up to Kettley crag and decided to investigate the Kettley Stone marked on the OS map; this rock is the only feature in the immediate vecinity so I presume this is it.
It’s in a very sheltered little valley, with a fort, settlements and rockart nearby. Only the rabbits here now.

Does anyone know anything about it please ?
Can’t find it in my book.

.o0O0o.

I visited this circle about eight years ago.
When we eventually found it after a long cold walk, I remember I got what can only be described as an electric shock when I touched one of the stones.

Very strange. Anyone offer an explanation for that?

I like Kingston more and more and everytime I go I find more historic places. None as old at the Coronation Stone (lthough the nearby bridge dates from 1180 and is said to be the oldest bridge in Surrey), but still interesting, and a welcome relief from the shoppers. The coronation stone isn’t necessarily of any significance pre-900 AD, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that it was a local landmark or important stone before it was used to crown saxon kings (it would nice to think that kings wouldn’t be crowned on any old thing). I deliberatly haven’t used the phrase ‘Kings of England’ because although this era is hardly part of my historical expertise I’m not sure any kings could honestly be said to control ‘England’ as a whole at this time and I’m sure there is a plaque on Bath Abbey (I lived in Bath for 20 years) saying something about King Edgar being crowned the first ‘King of England’ there in the 10th Century; which may well be a controversial statement in itself anyway? The stone is greywether sandstone / sarsen....so I wonder if that has any significance?

PS – Historical note – the wonder of the internet tells me that Edgar became King of Mercia and Northumbria from 957 and King of Wessex from October 959 making him ruler of the three most important areas of Britain. Edgar was formally crowned in 973 in Bath Abbey.

Strange timing – I was wondering what to do / say about a stone I visited near Trefignath almost 10 years ago – it’s the stone that stubob has just posted a photo of (I think). I visited Anglesey around August 1993. In those days I didn’t buy maps, but even from a road atlas I could work out the way to Trefignath and Penrhos Feilw. Whilst walking from Holyhead train station to Trefignath, on the minor road to Trefignath, I was surprised to see a stone standing in the field to the right (i.e. west of the road – I was coming south from the town). All I can remember was that it was close to Trefignath and there was very little else around. It was only about 30/40 metres into the field I think. It seems like the same stone in stubob’s photo – my photo is almost the same but I angled mine to have the Holyhead hills in the background.

I visited this circle after Sunkenkirk so unfortunately it could only be an anticlimax for me and it didn’t help that it was late teatime and a cold wind was starting to get up. The outer stones are all fallen and scattered and the central setting just seems too perfect, as somebody else notes it almost feels like a fake and the steady stream of visitors somehow add to that feeling – you don’t get the sense of isolation you get at other sites. You do see some funny things at some stone circles though – while I was here a couple of blokes pulled up in a car, got out, and started putting on fencing gear including the masks. I though I was going to get to see some fancy sword-play in the circle but instead they changed back, got in the car and drove off again. Odd.

What an amazing place Sunkenkirk is, and the walk up to it just adds to the sense of pilgrimage to the site. I had stopped close to Cragg Hall and contemplated driving over the rough track to the circle but I spoke to a couple of families with small kids who were walking past to ask their advice. Luckily for me they knew the area well and as they were walking up to the circle themselves to take the children on an Easter Egg hunt they let me tag along, which was nice as the track is unfenced for the most part and wild untamed beasts are allowed to roam freely (ok, so they were placid cows who completely ignored us, but they were bigger than me and had more legs. To misquote Orwell – ‘two legs good, four legs faster’). The stones can be seen from a fair distance but it’s not until you get up to the gate that leads into their field that you really appreciate the circle, Burl calls it one of the finest stone circles in western Europe and of all the circles I’ve seen, I’m not going to argue with that. He also claims 55 stones remaining but I was so caught up with wandering round them that I forgot to count and to be honest I don’t think it really matters. The location, the layout, the size, the views and the walk up to the circle are everything – this was my first visit, I just know it will be the first of many. Absolutely fantastic.

These stone baffle me. Yes, they stand in the foreground of Black Combe which conjures up such terms as ‘ominous’ and ‘looming’, but I’m not sure they have anything to do with it. That mass of rock lurks to the north and the smaller hill that contain the Lacra circles is just to the east, and at first I thought the two stones may be pointing in that direction but now I’m not sure of that either. A report from the late 18th century suggests that they originally stood as part of a burial mound which has now gone but if they are in their original position and orientation then the axis of alignment is roughly southwest-northeast, either pointing out to sea or in the direction of the valley of Whitcham Beck – were they indicating a safe route between the hills or were they just grave markers? If the direction of the narrow edges of the stones is taken into consideration, then its northwest-southeast marking the lowland plain between the sea and the hills – another possible trackway or route? Then there’s the angled tops of the stones – are they meant to be looked along to some celestial phenomenon, or were they meant to channel something down to the tumulus?
As for the figures, the tallest stone to the NE is 3 metres tall while the other is about 2.5 metres high and they stand around 4.5 apart. There are said to be cup marks on the stones including Julian’s pubic triangle (!) but err… I forgot to look for them.

If your thinking of visiting this site just click on the map for directions because my best attempt at directions would be’ on the back road from Newburgh to nowhere’ !

CANMORE list this as a sandstone boulder with marks as a result of weathering...... Not a chance mate!

This is a lovely little standing stone with great examples of cupmarks on two side and the top. The stone stands on a little mound surrounded by stones added by the good folk of Newburgh in the 1850s. The field that the stone stands in also has a few little mounds dotted about.

Parking is for one car only in the farm road end just next to the site.

The local residents would like it if you don’t block the road so please leave enough room for a tractor/horse and cart.

Standing stumps would be a more appropriate description of this site, I must admit I was a bit let down. For some reason the name had got me going.....
3 barely visible stumps, one less so than the others.
I don’t know if the old O.S map I have has them in the wrong place, it just didn’t seem to fit..... A guy who lived in a house at the top of the drive had seen me hanging around, became suspicious and asked me what I was up to. He showed me the stumps, and assured me they were what I was looking for after seeing the look on my face.
Disappointed I left with....with not even a photo.

The bog at the bottom of the hill Elderford mentions is there just about the year round and on my visit to the stones this year, last years stepping stones had just about sunk in the mud.
An excellent site, it’s small size gets me everytime.
Try and catch a sunrise at the stones if you can, you won’t be disappointed.

Although Caer Leb is a bit eroded and silted up it’s still worth a look. A roughly square site with a lone stone stump just off centre.

I’ve read that Caer Leb was first thought to be a Medieval moated site but after excavations Roman coins were found so it was then attributed to them instead. Now after excavations at a similar site at Llansadwrn have shown it to be 2nd Century BC, Caer Leb is now thought to be originally Iron Age, and used at various times through the centuries.

Don’t you just hate it when you can’t get close up to something. I don’t mind a bit of trespass once in a while, but heavy duty barb wire fencing kept me out.
From a distance the stone looked to be over 7ft tall and quite impressive.

Oh.......
This can look so right.
So how can it look so wrong at the same time?

I was lacking a bit of time so I didn’t really get to have a proper look for this site. But on the same side of the A5 as this burial chamber a field or two closer to Bryngwran there is a small stone quite high in the fields.

A great site, although I’m a bit unsure of the restoration techniques on Anglesey, an overuse of bricks me thinks. But it’s one of the sites that they can be easily ignored.

There is a small stone further up the road from the chambers in the opposite direction to Ty Mawr approx.SH259801, it stands on a small mound with a few smaller loose stones around it. Not O.S marked, so it may be nothing.

Dunmallard Hill, shrouded in trees, hides a true hill-fort. It uses the steed slopes of the hill to good effect, adding to the defence with a deep ditch and rampart within.

The fort is quite small, parhaps 1.5 acres in internal area. Within the defences there are traces of low wide ditches, presumable dwellings and other related structures.

The rampart is extremely variable, in some places rising 10m above the base of the ditch, yet in others is almost not existent.

I didn’t know this was here, it’s (needless to say) not marked on the OS map... I spotted it whilst we were driving along Glen Lonan, and stopped for a closer look. The eastern stone is about 1.5m tall, and the western just under a metre, aligned approximately E-W.

The location of Maiden Castle could not have been strickly for its defensive position, as can be seen fron the photo, its position made it vulnerable on one side and also meant the occupants had limited views of the surrounding area. If anything it hides amongst the hills.

This poor defensive positioning is an aspect shared by several other Brigantian earthworks of presumed defensive capacity, including Maiden Castle (Reeth), Stanwick (North Yorkshire), Carl Wark (Derbyshire), Scoles Coppice (South Yorks), Castle Steads (North Yorkshire) and quite a few others. This has caused a fair degree of confusion in defining what their purpose actually was. There seem to be several schools of thought on the subject, each may be correct for particular earthworks. These vary from seeing these as tactical camps not intended to be held in difficult circumstances, to being seen more as symbolic or even religious in purpose.

“Maiden Castle is a defended settlement (probably home to a family group) of the 1st millennium BC. It would have been located within or near to arable fields. The enclosure is circular, has a diameter of about 65 metre and is defenced by an inner rampart, ditch and counterscarp bank. The ditchs and the banks, which may have been topped by wooden fences, would have been much more substantial to provide protection against attackers.

A few very low earthwork features are visible in the interior of the enclosure including two circular platforms of about eight meters diameter which may indicate the positions of circular huts, These are likely to have been of timber construction, with wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs.” From a sign by the earthwork.

We stopped here on the way home from Mull. Although rather dominated by Clach na Carraig, the huge standing stone just adjacent to it, the kerb cairn is in pretty reasonable shape, with 12 of the original 15 stones surviving.