Latest Fieldnotes

When visiting this site it’s best to park in the village as there is nowhere to park on the track without blocking it. It’s only a short walk and the view make it worth the exercise.

Just along the drive from the cairn is this 5ft single stone. No markings to speak of but still worth a visit. The stone stands on the remains of a 70m causeway and leans to the NW.

Stands just inside the gate of Monzie castle near Crieff.

A nice wee site with plenty to interest the hardend Megarak. The eastern stone on the cairn has some nice rock art on the top as does the earthfast slab just outside the cairn, More cups and rings than you could shake a stick at!

Take a hard hat if your going to visit this one as your in real danger of having your skull split open by a golf ball!
Crieff golf club are rightly proud to has this collection of stones on the hole known as the doll.

Permission can be asked for at the pro-shop just inside the gate.

I approached the site from the Southern side, having skirted around the sprawling towns of Stoke-on-Trent being carried along by ‘The Curse of The Mekons’. The moorlands took over soon enough, and having left the car at a dead end, I walked along a cemented farm track and made my way over the ridge. Sign posts at this point reassured me that map reading skills were ok, because I had been doubtful. It isn’t the easiest place to find. The path through Back Forest Wood is well trodden, suggesting a different approach may have been easier. This site appears to get a lot of weekend visitors.
Your first indication of Lud’s Church is a warning sign, and a plea to stick to the designated footpath so as to avoid erosion of the site. Clearly this has not been heeded as a steep but well-worn pathway leads down the first cut, some ten yards before the steps which will lead you to the same place. The chasm just cuts into the ground, and from the wooded approach you wouldn’t know it’s there until you are upon it.
The gully leads you down and, at its deepest point, you are some 15 metres from the surface. It is absolutely still. No noise. Nothing. There is no-one here but me. The serenity of the place is awe inspiring.
Out the far end and onto a path which, upon exploration, led to Castle Cliff Rocks. This is a rocky outcrop on the valley side, giving plenty of opportunity to climb. I stood atop this and enjoyed the Spring sunshine while the occasional cock crow reminded me that I was still in the civilised world. It’s an excellent place to hang out and picnic.
Approaching Lud’s Chuch from this side, again no indication is to be had until you are upon the entrance; a cut into the hill-side. This leads you sharply down into the majesty of the gully. A cathedral like atmosphere pervades the whole place as I retread my steps, almost reverentially, towards the Southern entrance.
On returning to my car, I find it being investigated by some rare breed cattle, male, female and calf together. I come away hoping I have not been too obtrusive; to the cattle, to the chasm and to the countryside with which I have just enjoyed some holy communion.
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros accompany me back through the towns and cities. I feel at peace with the world.

Visited 12th October 2002: It’s taken me ages to post this because I’ve been trying figure out whether Banc Rhosgoch Fach is the remains of a burial chamber or a stone row. I’m still not sure, but if I had to put money on it I’d go for the former. This is based on all the records I’ve viewed at the NMRW. Apparently Burl’s Carnac to Callanish stone row book describes it as a stone row, but I have no idea where the evidence for this comes from.

There’s not much left to look at on the ground at Banc Rhosgoch Fach. There are two remaining stones, both looking like they’ve been dumped at some stage. They lie just north of a footpath, but they’re surrounded by crops, so not necessarily accessible.

We approached from the north east (starting at SN435545), and from early on in the walk you realise that the farmer isn’t keen to encourage walkers. The footpath isn’t marked, so you need a map. We passed through quite a few dilapidated gates (I think it was four), two of which were bound shut with barbed wire! The trickiest part was deciding which side of the boundary to walk on to get to the stones (you just can’t tell where the footpath goes). We struck lucky by staying to the north of the fence.

Only worth a visit if you’re pretty keen (and not pregnant).

Sharp(e) Howe itself is a nice barrow in a reasonably well preserved state despite its flanking of trees. When I visited in September 2002 there was a large piece of agricultural equipment left next to it, in Feb 2003 it had become the storage place for bails of straw – it seems to me the barrow is lucky to have survived at all. Canon Greenwell writing in 1890 says that the barrow originally had a ‘conical form’, the top 6 feet having been removed ‘many years ago, but within living memory’.
I’m not sure about the state of the other mounds in this group although one at TA 051770 is still stands around a foot tall.

Julian is right when he says there is nothing left to be seen of the Folkton barrow – it was only just over 2 feet tall when Canon Greenwell excavated it in the 1880’s. He is also right when he says the site is worth a visit though, not just because of the chalk drums but for the position of the barrow. As you follow the public right of way from the roadside eastwards, the landscape opens out in front of you as a huge natural crossroads between the hills. The barrow would have overlooked what could have been an important junction of 2 trading routes and it left me speculating on the possibility that there could have been some kind of stone marker at the bottom of the valley, although there is no record of one ever standing here.
A word of warning – a sign on a gate warns of a bull in the field – luckily he wasn’t there on the day I visited.

Visited 14th February 2003: This stone is not in its original location, but I don’t know the exact circumstances of the move. I suspect that it was something to do with the creation of the housing estate that now surrounds it. The sign next to the stone says it was re-erected in 1981, but it doesn’t say much else.

Maen Llwyd stands near its original location in a cul-de-sac called Cae Maenllwyd, just off another residential road called Craig Fryn in Machynlleth. It’s situated on a triangular island of grass, with a park bench next to it, and road running around it. You really can’t miss it. Parking is no problem, because the area is extremely quiet.

Didn’t make it to the cist itself, but I did visit the slab in its new home at the museum. IronMan’s photo really captures the lighting where it’s displayed, which highlights the surface texture of the slab and its carvings rather well. I couldn’t help surreptitiously dabbing at the stone with my hand (I felt quite guilty but if it was in a field rather than a museum you’d feel quite differently – must be years of museums instilling Do Not Touch).

The accompanying label states that the slab formed the south side of the cist, and that the cremated bones of an adult and a child were found by the large and small foot carvings near its base. There is something quite affecting about the strange long-toed/fingered carvings.

It also mentioned that parallels are known mainly from Scandinavia, although The Calderstones and a roundbarrow near Alwinton in Northumberland apparently have similar carvings.

We visited this stone back in oct 02 as part of a Scottish megarak sunday jaunt. It’s reached via a path from the village that leads to an old railway bridge. The stone stands 7ft tall in the field on the other side of the bridge. On this visit we opted to stay at the bridge for two good reasons.

1. A couple of locals looking less that friendly at the fact we were ’ Stangers round these parts‘
and
2.More scarey looking than the locals was the possible radio active offspring of dolly the sheep in the next field.

Next time we visit will be under cover of darkness and clad in a radiation suit. A good reason for a return visit would be the eight cup marks at the base of the stone.

From the A932 from Forfar head east, turning right (south) towards Letham at Chapelton. The road cuts back towards Forfar then there is a side-road on the left (south again) towards Letham. The Girdlestane lies on a bend about 100m south of this, in a small enclosed area just off the road. The stone is labelled “The Girdlestane. Early Bronze Age Cup and Ring Carving 3200 – 1500 BC.”

Only my second visit here – last time I came it was in a big group (8 of us in total), and was a nightmare visit from start to finish. The site itself seemed gloomy at the time, and after reading all the horror stories, I thought I’d seen enough of the place. This time we had been staying with friends in Sheffield on Saturday night, and so the four of us visited here after seeing the Andle Stone and Doll Tor. My mind is now totally changed – the site seemed so much bigger. The sky was clear above and so we took the opportunity to sit by the site and take it all in. It was quite peaceful with the distant rumble of traffic barely audible. I’m now definitely a Nine Ladies convert!

This is a truly amazing site – from the moment I entered the site I felt transported. Each turn around the huge boulders offers something new – at times it’s like being on one of the original Star Trek sets. The subtle movement between the natural and the artificial is the most incredible thing here – cave entrances turn out to be man-made, passageways to higher and lower levels of the rocks open up before you. The actual prehistoric rock art on display (what little we could find of it) is just a small part of the attraction here – these rocks seems to have been drawing human attention forever. An incredibly magickal place.

A beautiful place, shame about the barbed wire fencing that criss crosses across the hill...covered with the remains of neolithic minings and 19ct mining evidence. Follow the sheep trails (I always use animal tracks) for the best walk. Many interesting *natural* features make this hill worthy of your time!

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If you’re in Brecon, Powys, well worth a visit. Great example of what you’d expect a hillfort to be.

Commanding the top of a hill, several concentric rings of banks and ditches, a single entrance and to the north a steep drop of over 100 metres.

It is easy to imagine defending the site and watching attackers having to deal which a succession of rising banks before reaching the scrap which in some places is still 5 metres.

Bracken abounds, but now (in February) it has died back but the wind is a bit cutting on the summit of the Crug.

To reach it: B 4520 north out of Brecon. This road rises all the way and as you approach the northern end of Brecon, take a left. As you continue to climb, on your left is a housing estate (Bron Y Crug and Maes Y Fynon), to your right trees followed by open countryside.

Just past a mini-roundabout there is some parking, infact all along this road there are no yellow lines.

I mention this approach because the walk begins at Maen-du Well, an ancient well, the site is now rundown and vandalised, but the spring is still there housed in an 18th century building of local stone. This is the nearest source of fresh water to the hillfort.

Behind the building is a stile, and it is simply a matter of walking up through the middle of the fields heading for the each stile in turn (about 6).

The Cadw guide for the region gives the total defended area as 182m by 134m. Nearby Slwch Tump is easy to spot, just look for the TV Antenae.

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An iron age hillfort that is close to the centre of Brecon, Powys.

It isn’t a sensible idea to try and drive up to it as it is along a mud trackway. The site is pasture, so there shouldn’t be a problem with bracken, but if wet the track to it will be muddy.

A public footpath circles the site, I met a landowner/worker when I was off the path and he was friendly. From the B4602 it is a 15 minute walk to the site (all uphill).

B 4602, just to the north of the hospital is a public footpath on the right.
Take it, and when prompted by a sign for a Youth Hostel, follow that until you pass a TV Relay Station on your left.

Shortly afterwards you will come to a gate and stile, up and across the field is Slwch Tump.

It has a single scarp which the Cadw guide for the region states is between 3 and 4.6 metres high. there is no ditch or counterscrap. It is possible to walk completely around the site on the bank. More recent field boundaries divide the enclosed area of the hillfort.

Cadw guide gives the defended area as 242m by 187m.

The area inside the bank gently rises, there are signs of quarrying. Field entrances give the impression that it has two entrances, but the Cadw guide believes the original one to be the most northerly one.

“...the hill was formerly known as Penginger or Pen Cefn y Gaer, the hilltop ridge with the hillfort“.

23-2-2003.

Lovely feel to this one, in a small wood, which also houses the steep ramparts of a fort.

After here walked to Goatscrags and then on the way back visited the waterfall, in a wonderful dingly-dell. To get to the waterfall, follow the track towards the farm for approx 100m, and there is a well-worn path down beside a stream, follow this down (but watch your footing!) to caves and falls.

There was a yellow VW van parked up and signs of camping in the woods…with a microphone on he dashboard. What’s JC driving these days? :-)

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23-2-2003.
Followed the track up through Routin Linn farm, and it’s on the hill to the west of the crags. The paths are well-used by horse riders so access is relatively easy. There are two outcrops marked on the map, NT973372 and NT971371.

They are worth the trip up, I loved this site!

To the Goatscrags end of the hill, there is a sheltered quarry-type area, which I am sure has a hollow next to it as if it’s been a burial mound there. Lots of geographical reasons why this could be the case?

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I parked at Gefrin and walked back down the hill. The stone is a good seven feet high, and a granitey beast!

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This stone is situated on the entrance road to the Pitreavie Business Park in Dunfermline. It has been set into the boundary of the Bank of Scotland offices and has a bench seat mounted beneath it. The stone has been carved with it’s name.
There are a number of possible large cups across the southern face although these could be natural features, hard to tell.
All in all bit of a sorry sight but at least it survives.

I was going to Boskednan but did’nt have my waders so chickened out and popped over to photo Men Scryfa instead, still very muddy though.

This is easy to find,it’s by the side of the road in the grass.About 13ft tall with quartz lines running through it.Access no problem.There is a descriptive plaque as can be seen in Phil’s photo.

This little group of stones is sublimely placed, as they stand at the end of a tongue of raised land which is surrounded by low lying ground on three sides, and to its north by an ox-bow lake; which is the remnants of the ancient position of the Almond river. It must have been a commanding and secure site in the past. Alignment here is NE-SW for the upright stone, and with the recumbent stone and smaller outlier 50 yds away at edge of present field. Length of upright 51 in, breadth 16in and depth 14in. No cup marks seen. The recumbent stone next to it is very interesting in that it has an X mark on it which appears to be natural white quartz. I would name it the Saltire stone, and who knows what inspiration it has had over the millennia... L 51in, W 28in, H 11in.

I love these stones. The vandalism confounds and disturbs me certainly. I also don’t fuly understand the tree dressing – which is completely anachronistic. Tree dressing comes from wicca, which arrived in the UK Long after the Coldrum Stones were built (Plus you do it around wells not high places). I saw the odd black pentacle hanging aswell, but – whatever.
I now live in the US but make a ‘pilgrimage’ here every time I visit the UK.
PS Has anyone noticed how the church you can see if you face east and look through the ‘doorway’ lines up with the sunrise ? The church must be built on an ancient site.