Latest Fieldnotes

A very very popular site with tourists, and locals, yet many actually miss the original well which lies half a mile from the baptistry, lying in very boggy ground, until recently imposible to reach.The local ‘Earth Mysteries’ group have now though made it more accessible if taken with care!!!.A stone surround now marks the location of the well, also uncovered recently at the site is a green mound, marking the location of ‘St Madderns’ bed, on which pilgrims used to sleep on as part of the ‘healing’ cure.

Called in at these wonderful stones after a ‘cleaning up ’ trip to boscawen un(messy bastards left allsorts of crap, torn t-shirt, masses of paper, uprooted bluebells!!) THERE IS NO NEED FOR ANY OF THIS!!!..anyway back to the stones.It was dark as i jumped over the gate, the wind blowing through the almost ‘knee high’ grass, alike a gateway these stones stand proud, the sparks coming off the stones as i touched them were warm to touch, as were the stones as a whole, i would of savoured the moment a while longer, yet the thought of cold lager overtook my thoughts!, ill come back here and really lose myself to these beauties...

This is said by some to be where Bedwyr (Bedevere) returned Excalibur to the Ladies of the Lake after the death of King Arthur at the battle of Camlann.

One of my favourite memories of it is when I tried to drive a Fiat Panda right down to the waterside and got it stuck.

In my defence I must say that this was a very long time ago

The first time I tried to visit this site I got within about 200 metres then got hit by Dartmoor snow storm and had to shelter in the lee of a stone wall for 30 minutes.

The Grey Wethers is a double stone circle with the two circles side by side instead of concentric.

The path doesn’t strictly go to the stone circle, so it’s best to keep to the wall side.
I reckon the SW stone has around 5 cup marks on it 3 on the outward face and 2 on the inward. The ones on the inward are very worn but one is easy enough to find. The most prominent ones on the outward facing, one slightly worn.

You’ve gotta be a hardcore hillfort fan to visit Markland Grips as what’s visible on the ground is a bit of a let down.

Kinda tongue shaped the fort is protected on two sides by ravines; Hollinhill Grips and Markland Grips the west side by ramparts and ditches. The whole place is overgrown a hedge grows along the top of the banking, and the ditch is near impossible to find.
The entrance in the centre is thought to belong to the fort.
The clearest part of the earthworks is on the otherside of the railway banking, where the ending of three ramparts can be seen.

Access is easy down a dismantled railway....

The smaller circle by the rocky outcrop is used for ‘occult’ purposes ie witchcraft. Eight quartz stones with a cist at the north point, under one of the stones is a bag with drugs in, looking at it closely it looks like speed, its been there a while,its gotten wet and probably of no use, I intend to remove it on my next visit at the end of this week. Maybe somebody thought leaving it there would give it extra power!???, odd people indeed. The rocky outcrop and the circle sit on the path of a wonderful energy line which runs from ‘boscawen un up to bartiney castle. There was at one point some jewellery left in the cist, and more recently lots of colored stones left on top of the cist, these have been removed along with all the crap that is left at ‘Boscawen’. Also close by is a triangular shaped rock which could be what is known as a ‘propped stone’. I’ve yet to confirm with locals.

Visited 14th April 2003: There’s a public footpath to Tre Wallter Llwyd, but don’t be surprised if you have trouble following it. Approaching from the A487, there’s a track leading north to Tre Wallter Farm which is easy enough to find. You need to follow this track to the farm, then pass to the east of the farm house so that you’re continuing between it and the dilapidated corrugated iron barn (you can’t miss it, it groans in the wind).

Just past the barn is where things get tricky, because the footpath isn’t marked. It should branch off to the east between two hedge banks, but the nice farmer has fenced it off with barbed wire. Even if the barbed wire wasn’t there, you’d be hard pressed to walk between the hedge banks because they’re so overgrown. When we reached this point I went and knocked on the door of the farmhouse to find out how we were expected to get to the burial chamber, but sadly there was nobody in.

We decided to keep going, travelling along a parallel route to the footpath in the field to the south of it. This involved carefully moving a single strand of temporary electric fence, then re-erecting it once we were over it (not easy with a baby on your back). We passed through this field until we reached the end of the overgrown part of the public footpath, and guess what, the nice farmer had put another barbed wire fence across this end of the path! Luckily we had already deviated from it, otherwise we’d have been mightily pissed off.

From here we got a glimpse of the burial chamber in the hedge bank to the south east, on the opposite side of the field. When we got close up, we found that the chamber has been fenced of with stock fencing, as if it was just an inconvenient bump in the hedge bank. The fencing looked quite new, and it was pressed right up against the chamber to minimise the amount of grazing that the land owner would loose. It would be impossible to ram a fence post into the ground, as it rested against the stone, without doing some damage. Anything sensitive under the soil would have been skewered by the fence posts.

The chamber should be a delight to visit. It looks out towards the coast, and you can just make out Carreg Samson to the north west. It’s one of those sites where you wonder why they put it there, right up until you’re standing next to it. Then it hits you just how amazing it is.

Despite the setting, I was quietly seething by the end of our visit, and I’ve since contacted Pembrokeshire County Council and Cadw about the footpath and the fencing. If I get anything back from them, I’ll post it up.

I decided to walk out here from Bath, and since it was raining (I couldn’t stand to stay indoors any more) I had all the footpaths to myself. It was quite a trek, so I expect most visitors would rather park their car in Stanton Prior, the hamlet south-east of the hill, and walk up from there.

It’s an imposing hill really, dominating the local landscape. Next to it is a smaller rounder hill, Winsbury Hill. I tried without much success to see some ‘sleeping figure’ significance to the two hills. Looking back, a ridge forms the skyline on the opposite side of the valley, and I could just imagine a lookout visually scouring it for sneaky attackers (just a flight of fancy). Speaking of defence, I was amazed on the way here by the extreme steepness and depth of the combe? containing the little stream between Stanton Prior and Newton St Loe. Wansdyke doesn’t seem to be fazed by it, but frankly for quite a while I wondered how I was going to cross the gap and felt like I was being funnelled further along than I wanted to be – I could see the hillfort but was basically walking parallel to it.

As I climbed the stile into the wood I was struck by the swathes of bluebells – their vivid blue a shock to the eye after the miles of green I’d walked through. Also there was lovely yellow-flowered archangel – both plants are indicators of ancient woodland. The wood is mostly oak trees. I hastened up to the flat top hoping to get a view of the surrounding countryside – maybe up to Kelston Round Hill and the fort near there. But with it raining, and the not particularly treeless hilltop, I can’t really say what is/was visible and what wasn’t.

I haven’t yet been able to find out much about the prehistory of the site. 7Spring appears to know a lot about the Wansdyke aspect of course. The other side of the hill seems to be a recent spot for crop circle art – ooh and this faces a main road, what a surprise. If you were just passing through this part of the world you’d doubtless want to spend your valuable time at the nearby Stanton Drew or Stoney Littleton: but this place had a special ‘vegetationy’ calm, as I found as I strolled/slipped down the path between the bluebells on the far side.

23.08.06
It’s been raining all afternoon, the sun was really low in the sky and everything was as full of colour as a Jane Tomlinson original, and all contrasty – it looked almost surreal. I’ve discovered the best way to arrive at Stantonbury – from the Keynsham road. It heads straight for the hill and you see it broadside – much better than sneaking up on it from one end because you appreciate its true size. Er, just a recommendation. None of the photos so far do it justice; it’s just smothered with trees and looks rounded and fat.

I didn’t check for alignments when I was there, but I suspect there may be a possibility of a line up with a ‘sleeping figure’ in the hill to the south. I took a picture at the time, I’ll have to dig it out and check.

Has anyone else noticed or mentioned this?

Visited 13th April 2003: By the time we reached the Carn Llidi Tomb(s) the weather was really poor. The rain let up for a bit, and I rattled off some photos. By now William knew the drill, so he just hid behind the concrete bunker to shelter from the wind and rain.

The tombs are slightly overgrown and have a neglected feel to them. I don’t suppose many people visit them, as they’re not on the direct path to St David’s Head. The views were pretty good despite the weather, so this is another site I want to go back to when it’s sunny.

These two tombs are a bit of a climb from the main footpath from the direction of Coetan Arthur. We later realised there’s a very good alternative path leading up to the tombs from the farm to the south (it’s marked on the Landranger as a track). If you wanted to go straight to the Carn Llidi Tombs from the Whitesands car park (the only place you can park around here) then approaching from this direction would be quickest way in.

On our way back to the car we got chatting to the farmer, and he was extremely affable. If I lived in such a touristy area, I reckon I’d be a bit more crabby than that (come to think of it, I already am).

On a recent visit to the Castlehowe Scar Stone Circle, I looked in the next field and was astonished to see what appears to be a stone row! I presume that if this is `really` a stone alignment then we would have known about it by now. If anyone has any thoughts or information about this then please share it with us.

Visited 13th April 2003: I made a very cursory visit to St Davids’s Head Camp as a diversion on our way to Coetan Arthur. William needed a rest from the wind, so Lou hid with him and Alfie behind a big boulder.

I nipped down and had a look at the ramparts of the fort, which are thankfully very easy to spot. They’re ruinous, but still relatively well defined. It’s difficult to judge the scale of them from a distance, but fortuitously a couple of walkers provided scale for my photos. I was tempted to go further down the promontory and explore, but the weather was appalling so in the end I didn’t stop for long.

Visited 13th April 2003: It was a howler of a day when we headed out to Coetan Arthur, and the sand from the footpath kept blowing in Williams’ eyes. By the time we arrived, nerves were frayed. William wanted to go under the capstone, but this just kicked up more sand, so it wasn’t long before he was in tears.

Lou hid round the corner with the boys while I took a close look at the tomb and tried to get some photos despite the wind. Coetan Arthur is in a fantastically exposed situation on the back of the ridge that forms St David’s Head. Probably a good site to visit when the weather is a bit better. This was only my second ‘earth fast’ tomb, and it’s certainly a corker.

We found this on our OS map marked as “Stone Circle”, and had no idea what it was for about a year after! Thought it was too beautiful to be un-named! We drove up and down the A30 (we were new to map-reading at the time and didn’t have a clue where we were!) and decided to pull up in a layby to have a little explore... Over a style, through a field, and down a small path, past enormous rocks that seem to be like islands in the undergrowth! We found the circle easily (although it wasn’t until we were upon it that we knew we were in the right place!) It is a truly wonderful circle. Very peaceful. Perfect. When we were there (September 2001) it was a bright sunny day, and it wasn’t very overgrown at all... On the way, back, we had a little clamber over the rocky outcrops, and discovered a smaller circle that could easily have been cobbled together quite recently – or does someone know differently? I will go back, I think, and explore further, now I understand maps and footpaths, and that..!

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.