Latest Fieldnotes

Visited 11th May 2003: This was the last site I visited on my way back from Oxford. I found it from memory, having seen it listed on CARN. Thought to be a standing stone, the Hindwell Stone stands 300 metres (west north west) of the Four Stones. Although it’s a lot smaller than the stones in it’s neighbouring site, the type of stone and shape is similar.

I got more excited about this little chap than I did at the Four Stones. The surrounding hills, and Old Radnor were easy to see, and there are no nearby houses (unlike the Fours Stones). The ploughed field had a slightly Zen quality, with the stone sat on a small island of uncultivated soil. I really enjoyed visiting this obscure little megalith!

I thought these two stones might be hidden away behind the church, overgrown and forgotten, but no. The glacial erratics stand outside the main entrance to the churchyard with the grass neatly trimmed from around them and I got the impression that the inhabitants of the pretty village of Anwick are rather proud of them. The larger stone (nearest the church) is about a metre high while the smaller stone is about half that – it’s hard to tell whether they were part of the same rock as the folk tale suggests or not, although the larger stone looks like it could have had a large chunk knocked off of it near ground level. It’s also difficult to know whether this was their original position, but why move the stones to stand outside a churchyard?
Interestingly the churchyard appears to be roughly circular (I didn’t have time to fully check it out) and it is said that before the original stone was moved and broken (if it was ever moved) that a Dr Oliver ‘attested that it was of druidic origin’
A local curiosity, or the subject of pagan idolatry – who knows…
Lovely little village though.

Visited 11th May 2003: The Radnor Four Stones were my penultimate stop off on the way home from Oxford. It was my first visit to the site, and I was travelling ‘sans map’. I overshot on the A44, turning off too far west. After asking directions from a friendly farmer I doubled back, and eventually ended up in the right place.

The four stones are enormous, but sat as they are in a big flat field, it all seemed a bit of an anticlimax when I got there. The stones are so squat and rounded that they could almost be sat on the surface rather than embedded in the ground (obviously this isn’t the case). They don’t seem to be orientated in any obvious way. I didn’t feel my eye being drawn to anything specific. I’m new to the ‘four poster’ thing, so perhaps it takes a while to tune into. After all that driving I was probably in the ‘wrong place’ for the Four Stones.

It goes without saying that this is a truly megalithic site, probably pivotal in a landscape of smaller sites, so it that respect ‘je ne regret rein’. The visit left me wondering what a four poster is doing in mid Wales!

After driving up and down the lane, past Alsia Farm, past Alsia Mill we eventually found the style that leads over the hedge. The directions we had said “in a field just past Alsia Farm on the left” – so, with Alsia Farm on our left, we scoured a completely empty field! One compensation was the strange engraved cross behind a pond directly opposite the entrance to the farm – very nice! Anyway – up the road, round the corner, over the style. The landowner (very nice man) came to greet us on both of our visits to show us the way across the field. He has very kindly also put signs up pointing out the footpath to Bosfranken and the well. Down the hill, just on the right, is a rusty old gate, apparently to keep the animals out (fair enough – what animals exactly! ;o) We saw none!) Inside the gate is a place out of time; out of synch with the rest of the world. It’s beautiful. Slate slabs lead to the tiny, undisturbed well and stream. The flowers growing around are so colourful (at the right time of year, I suppose!), as are the clouties hanging from the branches. We sat for a while listening to the faint trickling of the water, and could have stayed forever. Meanwhile, back in the real world – we had to leave, but will be back. You can’t help but get a feeling of calm, and sense an accumulated power here.

Visiting Thornborough.

Come off the A1 at the B6267 junction heading for Masham. Before going to the henges I recommend a quick diversion:

After about 1/2 mile, take the next right to Kirklington, after about 1/2 mile you will enter the village, turn left and park up to visit the church.

Inside the church, to the right of the door are a number of prehistoris remains held in a cabinet, including Bronze Age pot fragments and an Iron Age bead.

Take time to view the heads in the church, in particular have a look at the “Ogmios” head, and the “fish lady”.

brigantesnation.com/SiteResearch/EarlyChristian/CelticHeads/KirklingtonHeads.htm

Once you have visted the church, back in the car and carry on out of the village (church on your right) for 1/2 mile to the juntion. Here, turn right and travel for about 1 mile till you get to Nosterfield. Turn left into the village and park up.

To get to the henges, continue walking in the direction of travel (south) out of the village until you come to a wooded area on the left. this is the first and best preserved henge. There are no access rights to any of the henges but I hear some terrible folks just walk in and look around!

Once you’ve seen the northern hange continue south down a track which runs alongside the central henge on the left. you will also see the landfill site (owned by North Yorkshire County Council) on your right, and lots of evidence of quarrying all round.

At the end of the track turn left to head towards the henge. Again I could not comment on the use of the gate to gain access to the henge. Notice that the some of the stones in the intrior of the henge wal are half covered with “gypsom plaster”. I have a theory that the henge walls were plastered white.

From the central henge you could carry on down to the southern henge, through the gate on the other side of the road. My favorite henge is the southern one. Although it is the most destroyed, it is also the mose tranquil.

Before going home, I’d also recommend a visit to another site.

If you read the friendsofthornborough.org website you will notice that we keep banging on about post hole alignments.

One the the alignments heads from the northern henge to St Michaels Well, at Well. If you rejoin the main road (in the car) and turn left, than take the next right, you will get to Well. Once you have negotiated the steep bank at Well, take the next right and park up at the Church. The church has many relics of interest. Including some find “celtic heads” and other carvings on the outside of the church. Look hard to find the horned god, fish woman and naked man shaking hands with a giant. The cross was probably from a Devils Arrows type megalith originally.

brigantesnation.com/SiteResearch/EarlyChristian/Well/Well.htm

What you have seen during this visit are clues to the significance of the area of Thornborough and it’s northern perimeter. The henges, whilst being of fundamental importance are only a part of this ritual landscape. The “god figures” held in the local churches, the significance of St Michaels Well help create a wider ritual landscape that shows a “deformed continuity” of ancient beliefs.

Visited 18th April 2003: I looked for this site with just a Landranger map, and couldn’t find it. From the road I saw lots of stones that looked like they may have once been part of something, but it was all very inconclusive. More photogenic than these was a big pile of old cast iron baths.

Subsequently I’ve seen an old black and white photo of the site at the NMRW (sadly undated) showing the site to be a classic dolmen. What I can’t be sure of is whether the site still exists, but from the write up I suspect it does, and I was just looking in the wrong place.

Dalginross sits in a small clearing, surrounded on three sides by trees and on one side by a quiet country road, beside the Muirend cemetery. The area is very peaceful, and the road quiet. Looking out from the circle, you are rewarded with magnificent views of the distant hills.

When Coles visited in 1911, two of the stones were standing, but now only one does, while the other three lie in approximately their original positions, encircling the stump of a tree at the circle’s centre. Standing back from the circle, it can quite clearly be seen that its stands on a slight mound, about 0.5m higher than the neighbouring flat ground. At least twice in the 19th century the site was the subject of amateur archaeological investigations, as the Rev. John Macpherson, minister of Comrie, described in 1896:

“There were three large slabs of stone Iying upon the ground, which apparently had been at some former period placed erect by some loving hands to mark the last resting-place of some departed friend or hero. By the aid of some of the Comrie masons the stones were placed in a standing position. Curious to know what lay beneath the surface, we dug up the earth in front of the largest slab, and came upon a stone cist placed north and south, 7 inches long, 1 foot inches broad, and 1 foot 3 inches deep. The only remains discovered was a thigh-bone, but whether it at one time formed a part of the leg of a Celt, a Roman, or a Saxon we could not tell. An old man who then lived in the village of Comrie told us that in his young days the same mound was dug up, when an urn filled with ashes was discovered.”

Visited 20th April: I visited this site in the hope of finding something of the burial chamber that once stood here. Lou dozed in the car while I ran around like a loony with my GPS. I found nothing but sheep in the field where the tomb supposedly stood. There was a slight bump in the field, but nothing that I could conclusively identify. Perhaps for someone with a bit more time and patience there might be clues to find here, but in the end I gave up.

Visited 15th April 2003: This is the strangest natural feature I’ve seen in a while. It’s a long narow curving band of scattered rocks, stretching from the Carn Menyn Chambered Cairn down into the valley. From a distance it looks river like (and a bit alien) winding it’s way down from the Preseli ridge. I pinched the name ‘Stone River’ from the book Prehistoric Preseli by N.P. Figgis.

I’m usually a bit sceptical about the connection between ‘natural’ sites and artificial prehistoric sites, but this one left me relatively certain that it was of significance to the people who erected the Preseli sites. The fact that the Carn Menyn Cairn was built directly at the head of this feature makes this likely. From Bedd Arthur the river can be seen stretching away from majesty of Carn Meini, down towards the flat fertile land where Gors Fawr is sited. The river is also very easy to see from below (e.g. from the Rhos Fach Standing Stones), like an arrow pointing to Carn Meini.

There’s another photo of the Stone River, taken from Bedd Arthur, under the Carn Menyn Chambered Cairn section, as well as some shots of the cairn showing the beginning of the river.

This feature is strangely un-sung!

Visited 28th April 2003: After St. Lythans we headed for Tinkinswood, and weren’t disappointed. It was a sunny evening, and the tomb looked great in the contrasting light and shadow. William was very happy playing here, because the chamber is so large. He kept running up to the edge of the capstone, which scared us silly as it’s a long drop to the ground in places. The cists behind the chamber were interesting, as was the beautiful dry stone walling on the east side of the site. The nearby power cables and pylon didn’t bother me too much, certainly not in comparison to the uncomfortable feeling I got at the Countless Stones. What a great place!

I remember going here when I was a child, on a rainy holiday, crossing muddy fields to the chamber. Now a path has been place beside the stream that borders the field, and a wooden bridge crosses it. Inside the center of the chamber there is a standing stone, it is a beautiful thing, and you can imagine the chamber being placed around it. The passage way into the chamber is really atmospheric, with markings on the entrance. When I last went there someone had left five pence pieces and flowers inside the chamber.
Outside there is a ditch around the chamber. The original incribed stone has been replaced by a copy, the original lies in a museum now, what a shame.
In the field to the side of the chamber a standing stone is on a small knoll, looking over the chamber. It’s a great place to visit, even though the grassy mound has been restored.

A walk through a managed pine forest took 4Ws and me to the now horribly jumbled mess of stones that make up Ballyedmonduff Wedge Tomb. Imposed upon by the encroaching trees and with no room to breathe, this huge place had two distinct chambers and apparently once had roof lintels. Now lost. Hard to tell what should have been where, this is an example of staggeringly careless excavation. FourWinds thought that it once looked out over to Howth, a promentary just a few miles away, but the trees obscured its reference point inthe landscape. Bloody foresters. My protest was made by urinating in the trees.

This broch was ‘reconstructed’ by the Victorians back in the 1850s’. I wasn’t too happy to learn this from the information board which you’ll find just before the entrance but as soon as I started to wander about I began to get a sense that this was an ancient site. It stands on a promontory of land which flows out into the loch that is so striking it is an obvious place for settlement and for defense. Bizarrely enough Lerwick has encroached upon this special place so much that as you gaze back along the path you see the main road into town, the garage, A Safeway Supermarket and as you turn your eyes out across the loch you see the new sports centre built with Shetlands new Oil wealth. Fortunately, if you gaze straight ahead across the loch to the distant hills you can see back into the past and get a sense of what it might have been like to arrive in this place perhaps after a long journey.

Visited 28th April 2003: This was one hell of a detour. We’d spent the weekend in the south east of England, and were supposed to be going home to mid-west Wales. Somehow I persuaded Louise that we should pop in and see St. Lythans and Tinkinswood on the way (adding about two hours to the journey). Armed with a crumby road atlas we eventually found our way to St. Lythans, and after a change of footwear and a stretch, we marched up the field to the chamber.

What a great site this is. From a distance the two largest uprights look flat like walls, meeting the capstone neatly. On closer inspection it’s clear that all the stones are peppered with little round holes, presumably caused by weathering. There’s a hole right through the smallest of the uprights, which William wanted to stick his hand through (I had to hold him up). The capstone is enormous, and I must admit (like Mr. Cope) I couldn’t resist a quick look at the top of it. The top of the stone is deeply rutted with valleys and holes, full of water. I felt no mystical bad vibes while I was perching up there (I think I’m numbed to that sort of thing) but I did feel a bit irresponsible, so I hopped down quick smart. The chamber is extremely photogenic, fitting nicely into the dolmen stereotype.

Whilst you are in the area there are more spectacular stones nearer the village. Park in the square, take the road to the west for about a mile and you will see very large stones on your right.
There are also beautifull carved Pictish stones in the church.
Another stone circle lies on top of the hill behind the village to the left of the road.

Steve du Cane

Sad to see some negative/unhappy memories of this site on here. Have just come back from a week in Cornwall and was totally blown over by this site. Maybe we were lucky – it was windy but bright on Bodmin, very few people around and just a lot of sheep, who didn’t seemed in the least bit worried by our intrusion.

What a fantastic landscape – I actually think the abandoned tin mines added to the bleak and desolate feel of the place. We headed over to the Cheesewring and felt like it was never going to get any nearer. Its worth a scrabble up the rocks though, for the views are spectacular and you see the landscape more clearly.

One of my favourite sites; the combination of the cirlces, the natural altar of the Cheeswring and the barrow just make it incredble.

Now there’s a thing – I never knew what this was called! Didn’t really know where it was! We were just driving around trying to find stones and things on a really lame map of ours! On the way back from a really soggy day at Goonhilly – nearly drove past it, actually! It is (as I recall – it was nearly 2 years ago now...) just past the corner on the road from Tregathenan to Releath pretty much embedded in a hedge, but by ‘eck – what a corker! Looking at the picture again, I realise that it was not embedded in a hedge at all. Silly boy.

Visited 16th March 2003: A bit more impressive than Nant-y-Fedwen, this round cairn is really obvious from the road. It’s quite large for the area, given it’s altitude and the relative fertility of the surrounding land (I mean relative to the mountain peaks rather than the lowlands).

This cairn would once have shared the valley with a number of other sites, some of which (like the Aber Camddwr Ring Cairn) were destroyed with the creation of the Nant-y-Moch Reservoir. The peaks of all the surrounding mountains still have Bronze Age cairns on them, and there are still a number of sites along the valley. This area must have been humming with ritual significance a few thousand years ago!

Visited 16th March 2003: William and I went on a megalithic mission into the mountains, and on the way we stopped to look for Nant-y-Fedwen. All I found that looked vaguely likely were these scattered boulders and a slight lump. Looking at the photos I’m still not convinced that I’ve identified the site correctly. Perhaps a second visit is in order to make sure I’m not missing something.

When the Clachan an Diridh stone circle was built, it would have had magnificent views to the NE across the River Tummel to Ben Vrackie and the Grampians beyond, and to the SW down the River Tay. It was these views that prompted the antiquarian Daniel Wilson to write in the mid-nineteenth century: “Amid this wild Highland landscape the huge standing stones, grey with the moss of ages, produce a grand and imposing effect; and from the idea of lofty height the distant mountains suggest, they convey a stronger impression of gigantic proportions than is produced even by the first sight of the giant monoliths of Salisbury Plain.”

Despite continual planting since the 1920s, the site is still magnificent. The stones stand at the centre of a large clearing, and while the views are no longer visible, the thickly-planted pines surrounding the circle, with the sun streaming through their branches, creates a magical atmosphere. The trees also contribute to the silence, even though the circle is only a couple of kilometres from the busy A9.

A four-poster circle, 3 of the stones are probably in their original positions, while the fourth is broken and has obviously been disturbed over the years. When Coles visited in 1908, he described three stones standing, and the fragments of the fourth scattered across the ground. The fourth stone, or a piece of it, has been re-erected at some time, as it now stands in it’s probable original position.

Local tradition has it that the stones were visited on the first day of May, when a procession was made around them in a deiseil (clockwise) direction. And in 1925, John Dixon wrote: “Another theory about the

“Clacnah an Diridh” is that the stones marked the scene of some periodical religious meeting or ceremonial of which nothing is now known.”

The back wall of Pewsey church sits on what appear to be worked, megalithic, stones.

There is a local story of a destroyed stone circle at Pewsey and it may be that these stones, along with the standing stones by the riverside, may be its remains.

On the bank of the river in Pewsey you’ll find these standing stones.

There is a local story of a destroyed stone circle at Pewsey and it may be that these stones, along with the ones built into the church wall, may be its remains.

Whilst it is easy to be tempted to expore the rings from the car park I would strongly recommend completing the OS walk around the perimeter of Badbury and Kingston Lacy Park. Firstly it is a beautiful walk through fantastic Dorset country (with a few scattered barrows along the way). But secondly and more importantly your approach to Badbury from the rear is far more dramatic and rewarding. The final approach after a three hours walk is beautiful.

Turn off of the A5 onto the A5114. Turn right after 1/4 mile down a farm track to Lledwigan farm. The stone lies in the middle of a field behind the farm just after the track bears right. Access to the field is by climbing over a large iron gate. With a dodgy knee, an anxious looking bull, and no farmer to ask, I unfortunately couldn’t get close enough to take a decent photo. Difficult to get depressed about this when Bryn Celli Ddu is the next location on my list!!

Looking rather overgrown (and there is some evidence that the farmer has maybe interfered with the stones?).