Latest Fieldnotes

Well, 1 week and 2 hours after my first visit I was back again at the Badger Stone, it the same sunny spring weather but those couple of hours made a world of difference. What before was a grey featureless stone had been transformed by the sun sinking slowly in the West into a miniature Uluru/Ayers Rock, a beautiful golden brown mound with the carvings now throw into sharp relief by the near horizontal early evening sunlight. As I had rushed over the moor from Weary Hill I had worried that the sun was getting too low and I would miss the carvings for a second time – I needn’t have worried, the south-west face of the Badger Stone was lit up like a static firework display – cups, rings, gutters, strange grooves and the incomplete swastika were all clearly visible.
As I was making my way over from Weary Hill, a short distance from it I was checking the map to make sure I was heading in the right directing when I looked up and realised the Badger Stone was clearly visible on the horizon half a mile away, although it dipped in and out of view and was out of sight from as little as 100 metres away. It started me wondering about the intervisibility between the various carved stones on the moor – from the Badger stone I could see Willy Hall’s Wood and the positions of the Neb Stone and Weary Hill. Which other stones could be seen and if there might be any significance in these sightlines is something I’ll have to look into next time, it may help to explain why some non-descript stones seem to be profusely carved while others that would seem to be prime candidates for decoration have no carvings at all.

There are a number of Handstones on the moors. Although they are relatively modern I have posted this one because it is a lovely monolith. The stone stands 7 feet high and is a lovely thing to see. It is also in an area where many standing stones can be found so if your out mooching about check it out.

Beautiful day – 27/3/2003 – quick visit to two stones at the foot of the hill that I have long been interested in but had seen no comments on – see the images os ref SD717152 and SD714155.

The two are rough hewn (local stone gateposts are smooth hewn) and have the large hole at their top.

Both are to the West of the hill and stand at the side of footpaths. The first stands alone with no walling close to it, the other is part of the stone wall that separates the farmland from the moors and forms part of the entrance – at one time there must have been a gate hung from it.

Both have had metalwork inserted into them at some time using some form of hard filler. The one within the wall has had the top hole filled, partly with a small stone block and partly with filler.

Came across the Goldstone ‘circle’ having taken the wrong road out of Brighton heading back to Pompey. The stones are of a strange concretian re-erected in a modern circle and surrounded by a fence in a park rather similar to some stones in a park in St. Helens, Jersey which have had the park built around their natual situ (one of the ones with unfathomably long french names). The Goldstone plaque does explain their modern interpretation laying blame on the farmer who buried the stones as he was getting fed up with tourists. Should have built a hut and sold postcards, they didn’t embrace diversification even then. Despite being completely out of context some satisfaction can still be gleaned from being in their presence.

I’ve been up on Overton Tor looking for the Turning Stone on and off for a while now.
One of a pair of rocking stones, the other was known as ‘Robin Hoods Mark’, which was 26ft round and weighed 14 tons. I’ve never come across a size for the Turning St’.
If they are still rocking, they may be somewhere amongst the mass of Rhododendruns, that run along the edge of the tor. There’s just no way thru’ them.

The rock carvings at Ashover school are about 1mile away.

Under the bracken and trees are 2 arcs of low bank. Approx. 20x19m in diameter.

Marsden in 1977 reckoned it was a ring cairn with central cairn.
Barnatt in 1989 said it was upcast from robbing the SE side of a small cairn.
Marked as an Enclosure on O.S maps.

Visited 13th March 2003: I’ve regularly stopped to look at Pen-y-Castell Hillfort from the road, but you have to get a lot closer to see the standing stone (north east of the fort). The stone is local gritstone, small and squat, with an angular shape to it.

The people who erected it may well have chosen the site because of the distinctive hill nearby (later fortified) and the stream running to the south of it (Afon Stewi). The stone sits on flat ground, and is well positioned to be seen by anyone travelling along the valley between the sea and the Pumlumon area.

The two peaks of Disgwylfa Fâch and Disgwylfa Fawr to the east are very striking viewed from the coast, and may have had some significance as a symbolic gateway into the mountains. If this was the case then one of the routes towards this gateway would have taken people up the Stewi valley, past Pen-y-Castell, and the distinctive landmark of the hill. It makes sense for a stone to be erected here.

Back in the 21st Century, a public footpath runs between the stone and the hillfort, close enough for there to be no problem going right up to the stone. It’s also marked on the Landranger, which is handy.

Fair enough, this isn’t exactly megalithic. But especially for those of a romantic turn of mind this is an important site for those interested in prehistoric Dartmoor.

Dartmoor – like the rest of the country – used to be covered in forest, apart from the topmost tors which were moor as they are today. At the end of the Mesolithic and during the Neolithic, people opened up these forests: first for hunting, then for farming. A combination of the climate and grazing kept the area open and like the Dartmoor we know today.

But in some places, very very few places, there is still oak woodland on Dartmoor. Wistman’s Wood is one of these. It clings on to the bottom of the valley side and looks most peculiar as you approach it (it’s a walk of a few miles, there’s no road). When you arrive you see the wood is made up of tiny twisted oak trees, literally dripping in lichens and mosses. In between the trees is a muddle of boulders, also covered in mosses. You can go in if you like, but we didn’t – it’s a very important nature reserve and there are some lichens in here that are found in maybe one or two other places in Dartmoor and literally nowhere else. The place is weird and fantastic and like nothing else. I’m not promising it’s actually a remnant from the primal forest, but if it isn’t it certainly does a good impression. It’s been saved from exploitation and grazing by the boulders (originally from the tor above), but such a place is so easily damaged that it’s frightening. It makes you feel a bit guilty to be there breathing on it at all but to know such a place exists does your head the world of good.

Back at Merrivale, and in glorious sunshine. It’s funny how when you revisit sites something totally different can catch your eye. This time I was just so taken by the outlines of the roundhouses (there are some as you climb up from the car park). There’s quite a cluster of them, a little settlement. It felt very human. It suddenly struck me that the amount of space inside the roundhouse I was stood in seemed about the same as our little flat at home. Instead of the familiar feeling of disenchantment about our compact living arrangements I suddenly felt cheered up. If it was enough space for a Bronze Age family it was good enough for me.

Wandering further up to the stone rows it felt like they were almost in the back garden. They’re certainly very close by. I wonder if this sheds any light on their use or the way they were perceived by their constructors. In my mind, perhaps it tells us how integral to their lives whatever the rows represent was. Perhaps you don’t put something you only use and think about occasionally out the back of your house where you have to step over it all the time!

I still thought the stone rows were fantastic, and had a power in their landscape – they’re very sculptural. But arriving at the stone circle and standing stone – they left me a bit flat. The stones in the circle are tiny, the menhir tall but somehow too man-made looking.

When the Bronze Age village was here, the climate on Dartmoor was much warmer, and the people would have grown crops and farmed livestock. It was only when it became wetter and more miserable that the villages were probably abandoned. As you can sympathise with if you’ve ever been out on Dartmoor in the rain.

This site is easy to get to being between the path and the ring at Beeley Central.

There have been several suggestions as to what it could be....A cairn with a surrounding bank. A ring cairn that had a cairn built into its centre. Or a well robbed round barrow.

The cairn is around 1m high about 15m in diameter. Surrounding the cairn is a low bank, visible really only in the SW.

Indeed, blink and you WILL miss it! Theres a nice wee carpark south of the bump at the southern edge of the virtually absent stone circle, only reeally noticeable by virtue of the levelled platform on which it is built and a large wheelie-bin. From the carpark there is a nature trail into what is currently treeless forestry land in which is the long cairn of Carinish complete with practically prehistoric information sign. Not in the best state with lots of temporary shelters built into it and peat encroaching its tail. Forty odd metres to north of site is peat cuttings where neolithic settlement was found. What more could you ask for – a cairn (a heavily mucked about pile of stones), a stone circle (or whats left of it) and a settlement site (well, some peat cuttings).
Beware – the cairn is off the trail and if you’re walking out to it, as with most sites in the region, weat suitable footwear as its a bit wet even in summer.

J.Barnatt has this down to be a robbed cairn rather than a ring cairn.

It’s quite large still even tho’ it’s been damaged in the NE. By the side of the path and marked ‘enclosure’ on some O.S maps.

Sorting out all the ring cairns is a confusing business on Beeley Moor with it’s NE & NW Warrens, the Souths, the Centrals and more Warrens.

This rubble ring could be a robbed or ring cairn or maybe even a house.
It’s around 8m in diameter and about 20ft from the more visible Beeley North (South 2).
Still tricky to spot as it’s now only a slight raise in the heather.

SE13706,39619
To find this stone take the track that leads south from Dobrudden Farm towards a wall in the distance. When you reach it walk down its right hand side and past an entrance. From here head out diagonally, the stone is fairly visible, but when I was there about a quarter of it was covered with invading undergrowth.
The triangular stone is covered with a complex series of cups (about 50), rings and grooves. One of the most striking things about the stone is the views – down past Shipley Glen and over to Bingley and Saltaire

SE13736,40227 I had difficulty finding this stone even though it is close to a track and a bell pit, as it is fairly small and lower than the surrounding grass. It has around a dozen cups on its top surface, and also has a line of cups along it’s edge

It took me a while to find this one, which lays at SE13768,39899 near a bell pit south-east of the park and fairly close to a track. It has around 25 cups scattered over it with carvings on the west and north side. The first consists of 3 linked cups with an oval groove running around them – it reminded me of ET’s face! The second is a complex and confusing pattern that includes 6 cups, some with rings, some joined, and with a deep groove around it. There is also a deep groove on the southern side of the stone.

This stone is easy to find as it is propped up against the north wall of Dobrudden Farm at SE13720,40098 although exactly where it originally lay is uncertain. The top part of the stone has 8 cups, 2 of which have rings which intersect each other. The bottom half has about 16 cups, the top 3 are in a row with intersecting rings around them. 4 cups on the left have a groove running round them, and there seems to be a groove that continues around the bottom and up the right hand side of the stone. Three sets of cups are also linked.
A couple of metres to the northeast of a small flat stone which has 2 cup and rings and a pair of groves which could be natural.

Baildon Moor is Ilkley Moor’s little sister, a few miles to the south it is both smaller and flatter which certainly makes it easier on the legs. For some reason it seems particularly popular with weekenders out for a stroll and folk walking dogs, but there are around 40 or so marked rocks here, with two third of them north/north-east of Dobrudden Farm caravan park although two of the best examples are to the east and the south of the park.
There are also said to be the remains at least 2 stone circles – one at Windy Hill and one north of the road at Pennythorne Hill but don’t expect to see much, if anything. There are also several badly damaged cairns, a destroyed Bronze Age field system, and quite a few recent bell pits.
Parking is easy at a free carpark north of Bingley Road where there are the remains of ‘Coll’s Burial Mound’ ring cairn, from here walk a short distance west to a track that leads uphill and south to Dobrudden Farm. Many of the stones lie close to this track. In Dyers ‘Discovering Prehistoric England’ he mentions 4 prominent stones and I’ve added these as separate sites and used his numbering system as an aid for those who have the book.

Minehowe is truly one of the gems in Orkney’s archaeological crown. This is a very strange place and, whatever else you do, don’t miss it when you’re on Orkney.

The site was first discovered in 1946 but was quickly closed off to stop farm stock falling into it. Unfortunately, the ‘many stone tools’ discovered have disappeared along with any skeletal remains. It would be nice to think that these might turn up at some stage so that the site could be put into a firmer context.

I live at Fivewells Farm and know how bad the tip smells! The good news is it’s closing soon, possibily by Easter 2003. There will be no more refuse tips in the Peak Park. On quarries, as much as you may not like them, they provide employment for myself and at least 3 generations of my family. Quarrying has existed here since at least Roman times. The quarry in the picture is actually Tunstead Quarry, the largest limestone quarry in Europe. Many others in view have actually closed. These provide valuable wildlife sites which include peregrine falcons.
Five Wells chambered tomb is the highest Megalithic tomb, at 1440ft above sea level. There’s a reconstruction of it in Buxton Museum.

This is a lovely site and very accessible.
The only reference to the place that I can find is by Stanhope White, who places it in the Iron Age but the vibe I get is of a henge albeit an angular henge.
What you’ve got is a square-ish enclosure with rounded corners surrounded by a rounded ditch the a bank with one possibly two entrances.
The dimensions are roughly 55 metres from corner to corner of the enclosure, an 8 metre wide ditch and an 8 metre wide bank with no external ditch.
The setting is a faily flat plain of fertile farmland, the are barrows in the vacinity and a set of double dykes.
I would love to know more about this site.
Conclusion – Well worth a visit, whatever it is.
Check out the multimap aerial view.

23-3-03. Walked up using the recommended route in the Tourist Info leaflet :-) Passed some wild mountain goats & kids (aw!!) and plenty of grouse, none of them famous. Got to the top and met 20 ramblers from Newcastle, which was nice.

After they’d gone, had the place to myself, tried to imagine a community up here. Felt a bit freaked out so instead tried to make out the outlines of the huts which had been here. The ground is so uneven with heather and tuffets of grass they are hard to see now. But it’s easy to see why they chose this place to live.
The local geology is evident: pink granite against black peat soil. No point trying to carve Rock Art here; better going to Doddington / Weetwood / Old Bewick / Routin Linn...all within walking distance of here and made of much softer sandstone...

.o0O0o.

It’s taken me ages to find this scrubby looking Ring Cairn.

It’s roughly 9x8m in diameter and the bank is built of turf and stones, roughly 30-40cm in height.

If your in the area it’s not far from the road, but I wouldn’t make a special journey to see it.

If you’re using the Wraggs Quarry route to get to the Raven Tor Triple Cairn. This cairn is worth finding, just on the edge of the workings.

The disturbed cairn has a visible cist, made up of 5(?) vertical slabs, rectangular in shape. There looks to be a capstone south of the cist.

Not a bad site despite it closeness to the quarrying, and probably one of the better preserved cists of the 12 or so that are visible in the Peak.

Visited 2nd March 2003: We got the farmer’s permission to take a look at Coynant Maenhir and Maen Hir. Coynant Maenhir is easier to get to than it’s neighbour, but although it’s right next to the road, you can’t see it from the road beause of the hedgerow. You need to walk a couple of meters up the footpath towards the farm to see the stone.

Coynant Maenhir is very close to the hedge, so you can’t really get a clear view of it from the south west. From the most other angles the stone looks relatively slender, but from the northeast it suddenly becomes quite fat. I realise this probably sounds strange, but the width of the stone was surprising.

When I visited there were tracks in the mud from tractor tyres, right next to the stone. This is a bit worrying given the damage that the weight of the tractor could do to the packing stones. The farmer is a really nice bloke with an interest in the stones on his land, so I’m surprised he’s driving this close (or letting other people).