Latest Fieldnotes

Appalled at the metal cover to the site – a necessity I suppose following bad excavation, but why make the roof a white eyesore that can be seen from mainland Orkney?
Still a wonderful site and well worth a visit particularly last week when we had it to ourselves in glorious weather and crystal blue seas.

I was a lovely clear day brought about by extremely strong winds, which came apparent when I walked up the golf course to the site! The clouds were racing so a dull spell soon turned into a spotlight for the rockart on the top of the hill.

Very clear views in all directions: from various parts of the Moor you can see: north to Broomridge and Goatscrag close to Routin Linn; the hillforts of Humbleton and Yeavering; the Cheviot itself; Weetwood Moor ; Kettley Crags and Chatton; and over to the sea. Fantastic.

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Most of the marks here are cup-marks.

The major slab of flat rock to the west end of this site feels like it should have markings, but the sandsone is quite soft and it is very exposed : I couldn’t see any definate marks apar from ones which looked natural and are 2 feet across.

The site is pinpointed from afar by a pair of windswept trees... I can see these trees from my back door :-)

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Just east of the triangulation pillar, it’s hard to make out the enclosure while you are in situ.
The rock art is found at the centre of a small cairn. The markings are really faint, didn’t come out on my first picture so had to resort to marking the main points with water.
Extremely windy up there but it provided a clear view to the sea one way and the Cheviots on the other. Lovely open skies.
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It’s hard work this one – struggled through knee-deep heather to get here, felt like I’d waded through a mile of thick treacle.
Hard to find too: and I was a bit disappoined to find that the beautifully clear stone I’d seen pictured in a book had turned into a monster of a lichen colony!!
One for the determined.
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The outcrop of Buttony is now covered by trees, inhabited by deer (I heard one but couldn’t see it).
To find it from the southerly part of Gled Law look to the east, you can see a Pill Box on a hill. The Wooded area behind it contains the Rock Art. My OS map shows it as open countryside but the trees are quite mature.
To the southern edge of the wood is a gate, the rock art is up towards the north-west of the area.
The largest slab is open to the sky so is “spotlit” on a bright day; the two intertwined carvings are towards the top end of the outcrop.
Well worth stooping through the trees :-)

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This place is quite an astonishing curiosity. It lies underneath a house called, unsurprisingly, “The Caves” and was open to the paying public until about 1840. As you walk down the steps into the main chamber you are presented with the sight of thousands of bones stacked neatly from floor to roof, bones of bear, ox, wolf & deer. Apparently loads more of the more interesting ones were taken away(where to ?). Later the cave belonged to a Bishop Law who reckoned that the bones were proof of the Biblical Flood and put several monuments/ grottos in the garden above to put across his point! Worth a visit although the garden was a bit overgrown when I went there. Access is only granted a couple of times a year, generally on those days when all sorts of other, usually private, places are open. Local newspaper would have the dates.

What a wonderful site. Majestically ancient and mysterious, with a couple of resident horses who didn’t pay me any attention whatsoever.

I guess we’re lucky that the Victorians didn’t take all the stone. It’s still possible to make out a couple of the chambers from the stone peeking through the earth, although they’re covered in moss and I would guess will be impossible to see in high summer.

I loved this site, and will treasure the memory of it for a long time to come.

Like Rhiannon, it was raining when we arrived here, but luckily it was only another brief (though heavy) shower. We’d parked right by the gate to the field, by the footpath sign and I donned my waterproofs for the first time this year for the short trip across the field to the stones which were easily visible from the car.

I’ve never seen so many dandelions in one field before. I also have to say I’ve never seen so much dung in one field before either. And so varied in colour, texture and consistency! Keeping my head down to check my path, essential in these conditions, I progressed carefully to the stones.

The wind must have been in the right direction, as although the M4 was clearly visible, there was no traffic noise to be heard, even when the rain finally stopped.

There’s not much left of the original mound now – it’s probably less than a foot or so high from the rest of the field, but easily discernable. The landowner had stacked up a lot of brushwood at one end, and the stones themselves had quite a bit of undergrowth on and around them.

What we have here are two uprights, and what looks like a collapsed capstone leaning against them. There is indeed a ‘bite’ out of the lower end of the capstone – see the photos. It reminded me very much of the hole in the capstone of somewhere like Trevethy Quoit, but cut out to the edge of the stone.. a sad and dilapidated site holding only memories of it’s previous splendour.

...and I couldn’t find the wheelbarrow....

This would originally have been a very impressive burial chamber but, sadly, the B3315 goes straight through the middle of it! Before the damage it would have been 12 metres in diameter.

The cup marked stone at the entrance is a cast replica of the original, which is now in the County Museum in Truro.

This excellent little four-poster requires a bit of effort, as it’s up the top of a wooded hill. Surprisingly, the OS map tracks turned out to be relatively accurate this time, which is a bit of a first...

The stones form the corners of a 3m square, graded to the SW, where the largest (1.2m tall) stands.

It was a bit misty today, as you will see from the photographs, and I could only make the stones out when I got within around 30m. Pity, as the views are supposed to be pretty spectacular from here. I’ll have to wander back on a good day!

This magnificent little circle stands on the spur of Airlich hill just above the farm of Meikle Findowie. It consists of two circles, the larger outer one being around 8.5m in diameter, with 6 of the 9 stones still upright. The 3 largest (on the SW arc) are now recumbent. There is a smaller ring of stones inside these, all of which are very low, and only 5 remaining.

These are the sad remains of what was once a four-poster, which enclosed a cairn. Only two stones now remain, though excavation of the site in 1954 found the sockets for the other two. It was dated to approximately 1600 bc.

This stone stands around 50m to the SE of the chambered cairn, visible in the background in one of the photos. It is around 1.4m in height, and about 0.7m in width at the base.

A large chambered cairn, but very ruinous now. Enough remains that the general shape and size can be made out. It was excavated in 1954, when it was measured at 190 feet in length, with width varying from 38 feet at the SE to 20 feet at the NW – it is oriented along a SE-NW axis. Four lateral chambers were noted from the SW side. Even in its present condition it is quite impressive, although walkers in the Glen have started a small cairn near the SE end, visible in the photographs.

This little group of sites lies within a small area of Glen Almond, up a private track. Permission must be sought to use this road. The group comprises a single standing stone, a very ruinous chambered cairn, and two remaining stones of a four-poster. It was quite misty the day I visited, and very peaceful in the glen.

[visited 19/4/3] Yet another hacked apart site with only sporadic clues left as to what on earth was actually here. It’s easy enough to find due to the large stone standing defiantly by the side of the road. I found further stones in the hedgerow & field to the North, where the OS map marks a few stones. My notes say 6 or 7 in hedge & 5 in the field, the OS map has 7 in the field.

As to what I think was here, well... 3 in the field seem to be in an arc, giving the other two as outliers or even a row. Presumably the howevermany in the hedge were dragged there from the field. And the one by the road?

One final note, I _think_ you could see Avebury from the one by the road.

[visited 19/4/3] So first of all I went to the church in Alton Barnes, St Marys, which a pleasant enough Saxon church but not what I was looking for. A bit of intelligence took me to All Saints, the church in question located surprisingly in Alton Priors.

I can happily confirm it is indeed on a mound, there is a 1700 year old yew tree in the churchyard (according to the certificate inside the church) and there are indeed sarsens under the floor boards. The church is no longer used but is still consecrated and is maintained by The Churches Conservation Trust.

I was pondering on how I was gonna find the sarsens, but one is located to the right as you enter the church, under a handy trapdoor. I presume one is located under another trapdoor near the altar, but someone seems to have built a plywood stage over it...

This is well worth a visit if you are in the area and (I think) is open everyday in the summer. There is a note on the door telling you where to get the key from if its locked.

[visited 19/4/3] An interesting and bracing walk from Avebury, especially with a fierce cold wind straight into your face for the majority of the walk. But cross the ridgeway and head down over the gallops into the fields of stone and the heart lifts.

I walked to the south of the copse, then round the back with the density of stones ever increasing. It was a cold day but I spent about an hour here, searching for the elusive Polisher. I had to give up in the end, if only cos my Avebury carpark ticket was in danger of running out. However I didn’t go home entirely empty handed, I found two stones with holes in and a nice sense of well being.

[visited 19/4/3] Another ruined circle with Sarsens in hedge rows nearby and lonely survivors standing proud. Bizarre to find it so close to Avebury however, WK avenue is clearly visible, yet somehow seems to ignore this circle.

No purpose is apparent given the location, but who said anything had to make sense.

[visited 19/4/3] Whilst in the area I thought I had better take a look at a genuine archaeological fiddle at The Cove, as these things are getting increasingly rare. I was disappointed to see no info board & no activity but the complex metal work around the stones was fairly entertaining. Lots of other intrigued looking people as well.

23-4-03. I had just been up to Kettley crag and decided to investigate the Kettley Stone marked on the OS map; this rock is the only feature in the immediate vecinity so I presume this is it.
It’s in a very sheltered little valley, with a fort, settlements and rockart nearby. Only the rabbits here now.

Does anyone know anything about it please ?
Can’t find it in my book.

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I visited this circle about eight years ago.
When we eventually found it after a long cold walk, I remember I got what can only be described as an electric shock when I touched one of the stones.

Very strange. Anyone offer an explanation for that?

I like Kingston more and more and everytime I go I find more historic places. None as old at the Coronation Stone (lthough the nearby bridge dates from 1180 and is said to be the oldest bridge in Surrey), but still interesting, and a welcome relief from the shoppers. The coronation stone isn’t necessarily of any significance pre-900 AD, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that it was a local landmark or important stone before it was used to crown saxon kings (it would nice to think that kings wouldn’t be crowned on any old thing). I deliberatly haven’t used the phrase ‘Kings of England’ because although this era is hardly part of my historical expertise I’m not sure any kings could honestly be said to control ‘England’ as a whole at this time and I’m sure there is a plaque on Bath Abbey (I lived in Bath for 20 years) saying something about King Edgar being crowned the first ‘King of England’ there in the 10th Century; which may well be a controversial statement in itself anyway? The stone is greywether sandstone / sarsen....so I wonder if that has any significance?

PS – Historical note – the wonder of the internet tells me that Edgar became King of Mercia and Northumbria from 957 and King of Wessex from October 959 making him ruler of the three most important areas of Britain. Edgar was formally crowned in 973 in Bath Abbey.

Strange timing – I was wondering what to do / say about a stone I visited near Trefignath almost 10 years ago – it’s the stone that stubob has just posted a photo of (I think). I visited Anglesey around August 1993. In those days I didn’t buy maps, but even from a road atlas I could work out the way to Trefignath and Penrhos Feilw. Whilst walking from Holyhead train station to Trefignath, on the minor road to Trefignath, I was surprised to see a stone standing in the field to the right (i.e. west of the road – I was coming south from the town). All I can remember was that it was close to Trefignath and there was very little else around. It was only about 30/40 metres into the field I think. It seems like the same stone in stubob’s photo – my photo is almost the same but I angled mine to have the Holyhead hills in the background.