Latest Fieldnotes

Small but perfect circle of 14 stones set in field overlooking Kirby Lonsdale and the Lune Valley. A delightful site.

Dragon Hill is the podium in the open air nightclub of Uffington – Imagine the horse/dragon under the moon-strobes

My first visit on a beautiful March day. Found through curiosity a good approach to the site – when coming down the Ridgeway from Uffington castle there are woods either side of the path, once you have crossed the final road before the Wayland’s site – jump over the ditch and go into the woods on your left – there is a great straight avenue of trees to follow and the site can be seen appearing to your right – go back over the ditch through the gate and to the tomb

I checked out the parallell sides “trick” mentioned below – subtle, interesting

I particularly liked the sympathetic arrangement of trees around the tomb especially the four corner trees – if you go to the front and walk backwards the two back-end trees are framed nicely between the two front megaliths.

At the foot of one of the back-corner trees daffodils (I think) were coming up;

the dead are dead, but spring’s begun
the old make way for blooded young

Sunday, March 16th 2003
What a beautiful day it was yesterday! As you may have noticed, the sun and the moon were both in a cloudless blue sky on an east-west axis. I was at the Hawk Stone with my OS map and I noticed that the Hawk Stone was in line with 2 tumuli, the Hoar Stone, and a further tumuli and Knollbury (an earthwork) on this east-west axis! Allowing for shift of alignment in the last few thousand years, they may have all been perfectly in line with these phenomenon.
Anybody got any ideas or information, as I am a novice in these matters!!

I stumbled on this site on the ‘Archi’ disc......

I  risked it and droved down a private road, and that’s when the problems started. Just as I started out walking, some geezer spotted me....and said there was no chance I was gonna be walking round the fields. Big bloke too, so I didn’t.
Looking closer at the map when I got back I realised I’d taken the wrong road anyhow.........

The ‘Archi’ disc reckons there’s an Iron Age hillfort with a number of defensive banks there.

I had an hour before it got dark, and I thought I know I’ll go to Duddo!

Parked south of the stones, from where you can’t actually see them but I’d sneaked a peak from up the road.
It’s a quick brisk walk up but the field immediately around the stones had just been churned so the going was a bit rough; but the soil was a nice reddy brown.

The other day I was in the local tourist info place and they had an interesting poster of Duddo with the fattest moon pasted above it. Didn’t buy it.

I kept the stones company for a bit, waiting for the sun to go down.
And whadayaknow, the moon was just coming up.

.o0O0o.

To reach this Hoar Stone, I parked on the A4260 next to a private road leading to Barton Lodge, then walked along the public footpath which follows the private road. Where the footpath turns north, I struck off in a WNWesterly direction through a plantation of young trees. After about 100yds I came across a small mound, only one yard high and about twelve yards in diameter. In a hollow in the middle of the mound lay the 11ft long Hoar Stone.

This site is no longer marked on the OS Landranger map. I reached it by scrambling over the barbed wired hedge running beside the A4260.

When I found it, I was a little confused....it looks like a cairn at the end of a ploughed-out long barrow. Most of the stones don`t look as if they`ve been lying there for thousands of years.

Back home, I did a little research. It seems that in 1843ad a tenant farmer broke up the Hoar Stone. When the landowner found out, he stopped him from doing any further damage.

This 5’ tall stone, with no significant markings, stands in a field just to the north of the B8079 between Blair Atholl and Killiecrankie.

I can’t believe I’ve never spotted this one before.... Situated right beside Bruar, just off the A9 – my wife and I often call in here as the wee food hall has a terrific selection of cheeses and other goodies! The stone sits proud on a little ridge just beside the Calvine road at the Bruar turning. It’s about 1.5m tall, a metre wide and less than half that deep, with no significant markings except one small area where a clown in the past has carved their initials on it. Not a very spectacular stone, but a pretty nice setting.

I couldn’t get access from the A303 – it seems to be on private land.

Sorry, but despite their size these seemed to me to be just an ‘attraction’ for the pub. No life, or sense of ‘place’ at all…

Such a large site, it’s difficult to get a proper perspective – at least at Avebury you can climb a bank and see much of the circle laid out in front of you.

What I got here was a feeling of a large circle for ‘proper’ ritual, accompanied by a ‘training’ circle for the neophytes. No idea if this is how it was actually used, just a strong feeling I got.

It seemed to me too that the stones were made of the same rock as at the Rollrights – all eaten away and crumbly.

I approached from Trehyllys Farm – follow the signs to Great Bosullow and Chun Castle from Bosullow Common (the Lanyon road). Were it not for the GPS, I’d have taken a wrong turn at the farm – turn right at the farm buildings then head for the top left corner of the field for the shortest route to the top via a very narrow track bordered by chest high gorse. I wouldn’t want to tackle this route in high summer!

Having reached the castle at the summit, the view was well worth the climb. I entered the castle via the gateway, and turning round, caught my first view of the quoit.
I don’t think I’ve ever fallen so completely in love with a site as I did with the quoit. It’s totally delightful, but try as I might, I couldn’t squeeze through the entrance to sit inside. The old guys were obviously much slimmer than me. Looking around, it’s difficult to imagine how harsh life must have been back then, as the site is so isolated. I couldn’t help wondering what else is waiting to be discovered under all the gorse and bracken up on the hill. I’ll definitely be back here soon.

Back at the castle, I found the cup-marked stones and what looked like a carved stone chair. I’m not certain I’d want to drink from the well though…

Yay! I get to write the first notes for this site! Coming from the East, the stones are easy to find. Having passed the Jamaica Inn, continue west on the A30 to the end of the dual carriageway. Opposite a left hand turn to Temple, turn right (signposted St Brewards). Pass over the cattle grid and continue along the single-track road for about half a mile. At the crossroads (signposted Treswigga), turn right onto a farm track. The stones are on the left about a quarter of a mile along.

The earlier rain having stopped, the wind was blowing a gale, and the telephone wires which run close to the stones were really singing, giving an eerie feel to the site. Each of the stones was in its own small pool of water, like so many islands, having obviously been used as rubbing stones by the local ponies.

The circle consists of 7 uprights with a few recumbent/fallen stones, and a small centre stone. A cist lies just outside the circle to the southwest.

To be honest, there isn’t much left to see!

I go hiking in the area quite often and use it to get my bearings.
Does any one know if this has ever been excavated?
If not, I think it should be!

Chatton Hill has become a DEFRA conservation area, so if you park at the black shed there is a new small information board and directions.
I recommend sticking to the path where possible – the surrounding area has been quarried and the going is a bit extreme on the ankles, and there’s a few deep holes so don’t walk and look at the map at the same time :-)

The first panel is on your left as you go up, with the “TV” panel not far away. Another large outcrop is situated right inside the “settlement” earthworks, and more to the east (which I missed this time, gives me an excuse to go back!)
Keep going over the hill & down to the right to find Kettley Crag, you won’t regret it.

Back at the car I spoke to some visitors checking out the new board – probably due to a mention in the local rag.

.o0O0o.

Walked down from Chatton Hill, and after the inevitable scrabble to find it (It’s about 2/3rds the way down the slope towards the east) this was a breathtaking find. I think this may be my favourite (until the next one!). It’s the most gorgeous fleshy design and with the overhang to protect it, hopefully won’t get too much weathering. It’s as if every inch of the slab has been carved.

I thought I’d sit until the light was right across the whole panel but after a little while, as it faces roughly north, decided I’d be waiting a long time! I suppose it might happen in the summer. Take care as you try to get that perfect shot – one step back too many and you’ll be down the cliff.

Also beware of fupping great holes – I thought they were the largest rabbit holes I’d ever seen but apparently it’s badgers! Check out the picture showing human and badger paw prints… who’s was the zigzag sole there before me? Step forward RockArtUK :-)

.o0O0o.

Walking through Wychwood forest (part of the Cornbury estate, some game keepers with big smokin’ rifles cocked who were shooting squirrels approached us, and said ‘you’re going the wrong way’. I said: ‘no I’m not’. They wanted to know if we had permission to be there, which we did. They turned out to be really friendly and interested in the long barrow.

A big Roe Deer galloped through the trees in front of us away from the gunfire.

Churchill Copse long barrow is virtually an unrecognisable ruin and had it not been sited in the forest would’ve been lost to ploughing years ago. As it is, the only way to spot it is that it’s an overgrown earthen lump about 60 ft long, maybe more, at the track side which swings round slightly to get past it. There’s no stones, no naffink. Just another ancient monument being reclaimed by its environment. Very sad.

...things looked no brighter at Lyneham long barrow. Just metres from the busy A361, this once mighty construction is reduced to a vast mound of thickly be-mossed rubble with thorny trees growing in a tangle out of the top if it. Wrecked, ruinous and depressing to see it. The one bright spot is the beautiful square outlying stone, standing proud, 6 foot tall, made of the same Oolitic rock as the Hawk stone and the Rollrights. Weather beaten, lichened and yet glowing in the spring sunshine, I grasped it as a pinprick of hope that the longbarrow might not be lost. Not yet, anyway.

The tree dressing at Coldrum and other Sacred Sites is quite common and has been going on for years. Tree Dressing and such are not specifically a Wiccan idea, as similar Well Dressing was very much a Christian practice (though possibly of Pagan origin). Many Pagan visitors to Coldrum continue this practice and as long as no plastics or metals are used then I don’t find it a problem.

The more serious vandalism such as the severe spray painting of the chamber a few years ago and the cracking of one of the outer stones by fire (which also caused a large chunk to fall off which subsequently dissappeared) is a far greater problem. This beautiful place our Ancestors made thousands of years ago is now being destroyed by idiots and if they continue it will all be gone, with nothing left for our decendants to see.

...talking of ancient monuments being reclaimed by their environment... this long barrow is practically indistinguishable from an edge-of-farm-dumping-ground, the big tump standing hopelessly neglected surrounded by rusting tractors, discarded agricultural detritus and is hidden beneath a thick growth of scrubby trees. Climbing over the fence to trespass, I took my machete* and hacked my way through the brambles to climb it and walk round it. It rises about 12 feet from ground level and is badly pockmarked in its south side by badgers’ holes.

Very sad to see a once important structure reduced to weeping in the corner of a forgotten field.

*I lied about the machete

The solitary stone is surrounded by a pile of field clearance boulders, which were not part of the original siting – none are earth-fast. The pair in the adjacent field are slightly mis-matched size-wise! The smaller of the two has a couple of cup-marks low down on the side facing the larger stone.

There are a total of six stones in this group, quite widely scattered but worth the effort. There’s more of a description of them in my weblog entry.