Latest Fieldnotes

I visited this circle after Sunkenkirk so unfortunately it could only be an anticlimax for me and it didn’t help that it was late teatime and a cold wind was starting to get up. The outer stones are all fallen and scattered and the central setting just seems too perfect, as somebody else notes it almost feels like a fake and the steady stream of visitors somehow add to that feeling – you don’t get the sense of isolation you get at other sites. You do see some funny things at some stone circles though – while I was here a couple of blokes pulled up in a car, got out, and started putting on fencing gear including the masks. I though I was going to get to see some fancy sword-play in the circle but instead they changed back, got in the car and drove off again. Odd.

What an amazing place Sunkenkirk is, and the walk up to it just adds to the sense of pilgrimage to the site. I had stopped close to Cragg Hall and contemplated driving over the rough track to the circle but I spoke to a couple of families with small kids who were walking past to ask their advice. Luckily for me they knew the area well and as they were walking up to the circle themselves to take the children on an Easter Egg hunt they let me tag along, which was nice as the track is unfenced for the most part and wild untamed beasts are allowed to roam freely (ok, so they were placid cows who completely ignored us, but they were bigger than me and had more legs. To misquote Orwell – ‘two legs good, four legs faster’). The stones can be seen from a fair distance but it’s not until you get up to the gate that leads into their field that you really appreciate the circle, Burl calls it one of the finest stone circles in western Europe and of all the circles I’ve seen, I’m not going to argue with that. He also claims 55 stones remaining but I was so caught up with wandering round them that I forgot to count and to be honest I don’t think it really matters. The location, the layout, the size, the views and the walk up to the circle are everything – this was my first visit, I just know it will be the first of many. Absolutely fantastic.

These stone baffle me. Yes, they stand in the foreground of Black Combe which conjures up such terms as ‘ominous’ and ‘looming’, but I’m not sure they have anything to do with it. That mass of rock lurks to the north and the smaller hill that contain the Lacra circles is just to the east, and at first I thought the two stones may be pointing in that direction but now I’m not sure of that either. A report from the late 18th century suggests that they originally stood as part of a burial mound which has now gone but if they are in their original position and orientation then the axis of alignment is roughly southwest-northeast, either pointing out to sea or in the direction of the valley of Whitcham Beck – were they indicating a safe route between the hills or were they just grave markers? If the direction of the narrow edges of the stones is taken into consideration, then its northwest-southeast marking the lowland plain between the sea and the hills – another possible trackway or route? Then there’s the angled tops of the stones – are they meant to be looked along to some celestial phenomenon, or were they meant to channel something down to the tumulus?
As for the figures, the tallest stone to the NE is 3 metres tall while the other is about 2.5 metres high and they stand around 4.5 apart. There are said to be cup marks on the stones including Julian’s pubic triangle (!) but err… I forgot to look for them.

If your thinking of visiting this site just click on the map for directions because my best attempt at directions would be’ on the back road from Newburgh to nowhere’ !

CANMORE list this as a sandstone boulder with marks as a result of weathering...... Not a chance mate!

This is a lovely little standing stone with great examples of cupmarks on two side and the top. The stone stands on a little mound surrounded by stones added by the good folk of Newburgh in the 1850s. The field that the stone stands in also has a few little mounds dotted about.

Parking is for one car only in the farm road end just next to the site.

The local residents would like it if you don’t block the road so please leave enough room for a tractor/horse and cart.

Standing stumps would be a more appropriate description of this site, I must admit I was a bit let down. For some reason the name had got me going.....
3 barely visible stumps, one less so than the others.
I don’t know if the old O.S map I have has them in the wrong place, it just didn’t seem to fit..... A guy who lived in a house at the top of the drive had seen me hanging around, became suspicious and asked me what I was up to. He showed me the stumps, and assured me they were what I was looking for after seeing the look on my face.
Disappointed I left with....with not even a photo.

The bog at the bottom of the hill Elderford mentions is there just about the year round and on my visit to the stones this year, last years stepping stones had just about sunk in the mud.
An excellent site, it’s small size gets me everytime.
Try and catch a sunrise at the stones if you can, you won’t be disappointed.

Although Caer Leb is a bit eroded and silted up it’s still worth a look. A roughly square site with a lone stone stump just off centre.

I’ve read that Caer Leb was first thought to be a Medieval moated site but after excavations Roman coins were found so it was then attributed to them instead. Now after excavations at a similar site at Llansadwrn have shown it to be 2nd Century BC, Caer Leb is now thought to be originally Iron Age, and used at various times through the centuries.

Don’t you just hate it when you can’t get close up to something. I don’t mind a bit of trespass once in a while, but heavy duty barb wire fencing kept me out.
From a distance the stone looked to be over 7ft tall and quite impressive.

Oh.......
This can look so right.
So how can it look so wrong at the same time?

I was lacking a bit of time so I didn’t really get to have a proper look for this site. But on the same side of the A5 as this burial chamber a field or two closer to Bryngwran there is a small stone quite high in the fields.

A great site, although I’m a bit unsure of the restoration techniques on Anglesey, an overuse of bricks me thinks. But it’s one of the sites that they can be easily ignored.

There is a small stone further up the road from the chambers in the opposite direction to Ty Mawr approx.SH259801, it stands on a small mound with a few smaller loose stones around it. Not O.S marked, so it may be nothing.

Dunmallard Hill, shrouded in trees, hides a true hill-fort. It uses the steed slopes of the hill to good effect, adding to the defence with a deep ditch and rampart within.

The fort is quite small, parhaps 1.5 acres in internal area. Within the defences there are traces of low wide ditches, presumable dwellings and other related structures.

The rampart is extremely variable, in some places rising 10m above the base of the ditch, yet in others is almost not existent.

I didn’t know this was here, it’s (needless to say) not marked on the OS map... I spotted it whilst we were driving along Glen Lonan, and stopped for a closer look. The eastern stone is about 1.5m tall, and the western just under a metre, aligned approximately E-W.

The location of Maiden Castle could not have been strickly for its defensive position, as can be seen fron the photo, its position made it vulnerable on one side and also meant the occupants had limited views of the surrounding area. If anything it hides amongst the hills.

This poor defensive positioning is an aspect shared by several other Brigantian earthworks of presumed defensive capacity, including Maiden Castle (Reeth), Stanwick (North Yorkshire), Carl Wark (Derbyshire), Scoles Coppice (South Yorks), Castle Steads (North Yorkshire) and quite a few others. This has caused a fair degree of confusion in defining what their purpose actually was. There seem to be several schools of thought on the subject, each may be correct for particular earthworks. These vary from seeing these as tactical camps not intended to be held in difficult circumstances, to being seen more as symbolic or even religious in purpose.

“Maiden Castle is a defended settlement (probably home to a family group) of the 1st millennium BC. It would have been located within or near to arable fields. The enclosure is circular, has a diameter of about 65 metre and is defenced by an inner rampart, ditch and counterscarp bank. The ditchs and the banks, which may have been topped by wooden fences, would have been much more substantial to provide protection against attackers.

A few very low earthwork features are visible in the interior of the enclosure including two circular platforms of about eight meters diameter which may indicate the positions of circular huts, These are likely to have been of timber construction, with wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs.” From a sign by the earthwork.

We stopped here on the way home from Mull. Although rather dominated by Clach na Carraig, the huge standing stone just adjacent to it, the kerb cairn is in pretty reasonable shape, with 12 of the original 15 stones surviving.

I visited this on the way back from Mull. The farmer has provided a sort of wire step arrangement to allow those with long legs to get over the fence! This is a big stone – 3.8m tall.

Set in a group of trees around 100m NW of the stone circle, this rather ruinous kerb cairn still retains sufficient structure to make it worth a look. It is about 6.5m across, and has a ‘false’ entrance to the SE. The stones on the northern and southern arcs are still pretty much in situ.

This second outlier stands about 100m SW of the circle, in line with the first. It is over 2m in height but has been broken at some point in the past.

This is the nearer of the two large outliers, which stands around 40m SW of the circle. It is 3m in height, and fairly dramatic!

This circle originally consisted of 9 stones, one of which has disappeared and been replaced with a small boulder. It has a grand total of 3 outliers, the nearest of which lies just to the SE, less than a metre in height. The largest stone is 2m tall, and all the flat faces of the stones face inwards. Set in a natural amphitheatre formed by the surrounding hills, this is a magical place.

This stone stands on its own around 350m NNW of the stone circle here, and about 200m away from the kerb cairn. It is 2m tall, but the top of the stone appears to have been broken in the past.

Just under 2m in height and with a pronounced northerly lean, this stone has a stunning outlook over Loch Tuath and Ulva. Seems to be pretty popular with the sheep, too!

This area is known locally as “Druid’s Field”, and contains a good variety of neolithic remains. Set in a magnificent arena, this place has to be the ‘must-see’ of Mull!

Three stones, aligned approximately NNW-SSE, the most northern of which is now included in the dyke... and used to anchor some wire fencing. These stones are not being treated as well as their kin just up the hill at Cnoc Fada! They lie just a short distance from the new cemetery, on the brow of a ridge.