Latest Fieldnotes

Our last site visit of this trip and not a bit disappointing. This really is a treat – every bit as good as I’d hoped for, and then some. The views from here are tremendous, and the decision to come here last worked out brilliantly, as by now I felt familiar with the surrounding landscape. We arrived in glorious sunshine and lay soaking up the warmth for a good while, before lazily strolling back to civilisation.

On our way back from staying in Mousehole, we decided to make one last trip round the coastal road and stop off at Cape Cornwall to see this monument and the cliffs, before heading to Chûn Quoit, and then back up to Bristol.

The size of this place is impressive, and the view even more so – taking in Land’s End at a distance where the horrible theme park is almost invisible. The waves below these here cliffs are quite something, and must have had quite an impact on the minds of the ancients.

Another site which I’ve been wanting to visit for quite some time, and I’m not in the least bit disappointed by it. We had the place to ourselves, and once we were sat down within the circle, surrounded by the thick gorse, felt completely away from civilisation. Perfect!

This place really is tiny! I rather ignorantly decided to consult my copy of The Modern Antiquarian after arriving at the site, and so only realised then that I was actually in danger of being chased off the land, so I hurriedly took a few snaps then beat a retreat. I will do my research more thoroughly in future.

After visiting Boleigh Fogou we decided to come here next, in order to compare the experience. This didn’t have quite the same impact, but did have one or two surprises in store for us – the phosphorescent moss on the walls of the corbelled chamber impressed us most. We decided that Boleigh’s magic must have a lot to do with it’s ‘living’ nature – this felt much more like the sites I’m used to, and so much less alive. A tour group arrived after 20 minutes or so, thus signalling our departure. On the way back we wandered a few metres down the track marked ‘pottery’ to visit the little well there.

We’d arrived at the site unannounced, not remembering (must do my research properly) it was necessary to make an appointment before hand. Jo May’s daughter was just on her way out as we drove down the track leading to the house, and so she asked if she could help us. We told her we intended to visit the fogou, and she let us know (in the nicest possible way) that we should really have booked in advance. She said it’d be okay this time though, as there was no activity taking place in the Caer centre, and proceeded to lead us to the fog

Sat before the entrance, I fixed my gaze on it’s depths and struggled to see far into the passage at all – the darkness has to be seen to be believed. Life teemed all around the mouth of this ‘cave’, bees and butterflies fluttered round the bluebells growing on it’s banks. Up above in the trees was the noisiest display of ravens I’ve ever heard. It was pretty easy to start to imagine this was all part of the magick of this site.

This is a real class site, and has made me totally reassess not only fogous, but my entire psychological relationship with all sacred sites. Fantastic.

It’s a real shame that this site is partially submerged beneath the road, as I reckon it would have been another ‘perfect’ site had it not been (see the Merry Maidens for a definition of ‘perfect’). Like Holy says, not a great place for meditation, though on a very busy day, from within the chamber perhaps the traffic noise above could give the same feeling as listening to Sunn O))), who knows? Traffic meditation, now there’s a new idea! :-)

The word ‘perfect’ gets used a lot for this circle, so it was no surprise that Ursula and myself both uttered the word in unison as we approached. An incredible place, which from certain angles achieves total symmetry. I took a few shots trying to frame this perfect symmetry, then we sat on a wall nearby gazing at this wonderful place, before moving on to Tregiffian.

As we approached this site, on our way walking to Land’s End, we were greeted with the site of heavy industrial equipment, hauling salvage from a ship run aground below the cliffs. I took a few shots and had a quick look at the site, before getting away from this ugly scene!

We walked here from Men-An-Tol and were immediately impressed by the small barrow just above the main circle. Both sites are so obviously in reverence to Carn Galver, it just dominates the landscape.

We approached this site with eager anticipation having seen and read so much about it before. Ironically, this exposure meant that once we arrived at the site we were a little disappointed. Needless to say, it is a great site, and the surrounding landscape wonderful, but it didn’t really have any surprises left to offer us. It was exactly as I’d expected it to be, nothing more, nothing less. We hung around for a while, and took the obligatory shots, then left as a dogwalker approached the site.

A wonderful site, worthy of the attention it gets. The re-positioning of the stones is quite obvious, but doesn’t in any way spoil it. We sat here for a while as the midday sun burnt away what was left of the cloud cover, and the day took a lighter turn.

This was our first site on our Cornish trip, and was an excellent start. The size of this monument is quite something – I’d certainly not imagined it to be so big. Luckily I had re-read the fieldnotes for this site and didn’t mistake the posts for anything significant, and so was able to impress Ursula with my knowledge. She was a bit taken aback in fact, as she had also thought the semi-constructed cowshed was part of this ancient monument ;-)

Esso is now Texaco.

This didn’t feel old. It seemed out of place, like those stones that are used as garden ornaments in council estates to give them some ‘character’. Lifeless and lost.

As Ironman says, easy to find, and there’s a huge layby less than 100 yards away. Just follow the signpost(s).

The only good thing about this site now is that it’s a bit of a haven for wild flowers, being covered in the same specieis that I saw at Hetty Peglers Tump the other week. No idea what they are – I’m crap at botanical identification.

I agree with Treaclechops – let’s bury Gloucester Cathedral in case it gets vandalised!

10th May.

I get the feeling this is a site you need to visit alone in order to get the real sense of why it’s here as opposed to somewhere else. Boy, did I pick the wrong day! It was like Picadilly Circus up there (and living in London, I should know!)

Obviously a popular site, there was a large group of walkers enjoying their lunch when I arrived. The sudden rain shower didn’t seem to put them off, they just carried on munching on their sandwiches. Obvioulsy a British group :-)

Consequently it was difficult for me to gauge the site. I took a look in each of the chambers, and was upset by the detritus left there by previous visitors (see photo). Interesting to note the plastic meshing peeking through the mound, there’s obviously been a lot of restoration work done here. Also interesting was the possibility of a hidden cavity, spotted on the SW side – it may just have been slippage of the mound, but some brickwork was seen under the grass, and there was a gap in the brickwork – difficult to discern whether this was original or part of the restoration work.

With no sign of the walkers moving on, and Mikki waiting patiently in the car below I took my leave, not really satisfied that I’d ‘met’ this site properly yet.

10-5-03
Passed this site on my way home, the sun was just going down after a beautiful clear day. Hadrian’s wall is situated to the north of this site; the whole of this area is fantasically open-skied and remote [not far from where the bit in Prince of Thieves was filmed, movie fans ;-) ].

I didn’t read the previous information posted here before my visit so I couldn’t possibly comment on it’s origins as a circle: but I took it as a pair of stones and the setting was lovely: Just on top of high ground within a valley which is naturally sheltered, with views to the west to the Solway Firth.
There seemed to be “earthwork” trenches immediately beside the site; anyone know anything about these?

.o0O0o.

Visited 10th May 2003: Taken here with Kammer, this is a blink and you’ll miss it spot from the road. There is a little layby to the right of the road here where you need to stop, turn to your left and see the hedgerow that you will need to follow to get here.

As you walk along the hedgerow, you can see the remnants of a wall made from a reddish-brown stone. Bare this in mind as you get there. You come across the little wooden sign and stone. It is at an angle to the hedgerow, and you get a feeling for the idea of the curve of the stone circle. It does seem embedded in the ground to a similar degree as the older placed stones at Avebury, so you can feel it is what is left there may be where it was originally. It is in parts the same colour as a lot of the stones from the aforementioned wall.

If you are taking in the wider surroundings of Avebury, it would be a shame to miss this stone.

Visited 10th May 2003: Armed only with a brand spanking new Explorer map, we drove right up to the mound and took some photos. Time didn’t allow a more prolonged visit.

We didn’t ask permission, but instead opted for the ‘driving right up to it’ approach. This seemed to work quite well, but maybe we were lucky.

Marked on the OS map, we spotted this as we were passing.

Sadly, there’s not much to see here now at all. There’s a slight mound above the level of the field (6 or so inches), but unless you were specifically looking you’d never know it.

A piece of antler was found during the 1979-82 excavation of the North Barrow.

(Added to save other people time and bother looking...)

Looking for the Goose Stone, I found this fort at the same map reference, so I’ve added it as a separate entry.

The ‘fort’ consists of a round bank, 7-8 feet high with two entrances (roughly NW & SE), and is currently being used as a paddock, but a public footpath passes through the fort, so access is no problem.

(I didn’t find the Goose Stone).

Visited 15th April 2003: On our way back from Bedd Arthur I left Lou and Will on the main path, and took Alfie off in the backpack to find this site. At the time I knew very little about it, as I’d only spotted it on the map quite late on.

To my surprise the site isn’t just a crumby old cairn, but quite a large old pile with an equally large chamber in the middle. The chamber is very low, so I wasn’t going to try and get inside. The position of the cairn is spectacular, standing at the foot of Carn Meini (the natural outcrop) and at the head of the Stone River. It’s the latter that’s really special, because from the cairn you can see the band of stone arching it’s way down the hill.

A detour well worth making, and had I done my research properly I could have gone to see it when we visited Carn Meini rather than as an after thought. I don’t think baby Alfie was especially moved by it all though.

At last!........
After what must be double figure attempts, both singily and combined. The mighty Neil and I finally found this ring cairn. To say we’ve missed it so many times.... it’s quite an impressive site.

The stones that make up the cairn are alot bigger than any of the other Derbys’ ring cairns, some of the stones looked as if at one time they may have stood (thats only going on the shape of ‘em).
Right on the banks of a stream. Stone free interior and with a definite South facing entrance.

On a clear day the Beech trees at Minninglow are easy to spot on the distant Southerly horizon.

A bit of a strange one. The smaller stones that could be part of a circle are mainly buried in clumps of heather, but they could form a circle....I guess.
J.Barnatt has the circle down to a fortuitous arrangement of stones.

Sadly the rocking stone marked on the late 1800’s O.S maps is no longer rocking. A familiar tale in Derbyshire.

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09/05.
I had a feeling for sometime that the stone features mentioned by Flopsypete to the south of the circle were associated with a medieval farm/settlement.
Remembering to check them out last time I was up there.....I’m pretty certain that they relate this settlement. The structures, marked in places by upright stones, are in fact the remains of a long house, a smaller building and an enclosure wall.
Not prehistoric but an interesting spot all the same.
There are similar but more ruinous structures over the road in the Sheffield Plantation on the Longshaw Estate.

Harboro’ Rocks are an impressive outcrop of dolomitic limestone.

At the top of the rocks between the trig point and the rock ‘chair’ there used to be a chambered cairn, now sadly destroyed. Altho’ inspecting the ground shows what maybe traces of a rim. The cairn was thought to date to the Neolithic, and several crouched skeletons were found in the chamber.

In the early Iron age the site was used, and some bumps in the terraces on the eastern side are thought to be housing platforms.

Access is easy, there’s room to park near the Hopton Works.
The views from the top have got to be seen, and there’s a few strange shaped natural menhirs dotted around the place. And caves to explore on the lower terraces.
Top place.