Latest Fieldnotes

The middle stone of a group of 3 in this area is 44in high, with a breadth of 18in at base, tapering to 12in at its top. It has been worked to a four-sided shape and aligns to the cardinal points on the compass. Cup marks are all sub-1in in size and the E face has one, while the N face has four in a line. Views to the S and E are extensive and overlook the probable position of the river Almond several thousand years ago. The rivers present position is about a thousand yards to the south.

This is a beautiful concentric circle. I was inspired to come here by a lovely aerial photograph that Stubob sent me of the site. Photography on the ground is difficult due to the size of the circle (30 metres) and the flatness of the site. The inner ring is 5 metres across and is described by Burl as a paved ring cairn. This must have been something to see in it’s hayday.
You can see the factory chimneys of Shap quite clearly from this site which implies that the shap complexes would have been visible back in the day.
There is a stone between the outer and inner rings which forms an alignment with the cairn to the east, the circle and Shap. There are also three aligned boulders to the north of the circle.
In summary, an intriguing site, well worth a visit.

This lovely little cairn circle is just beside the entrance to the village of Oddendale. It is situted on a bridleway and close to the path to Shap. It has the feeling of a small shine possibly to protect the village. As I spent some time here a bloody great buzzard flew overhead and seemed to lazily check me out.
The circle is only 5 metres across with 12 outer stones and 3 inners.
Someone had scrawled a notice on a slate informing any passers-by of the fact that this is a ‘stone circle‘

This site is probably not prehistoric. See Misc post

I’ve been trying to get to this site for some time and have eventually got there. I must say I wasn’t disappointed. You can see the stones profiled on the horizon as you come up the road from the cattle grid. The footpath up the hill is walled on both sides and seems like an extension of the road. The first site you come to is the cairn which is bisected by a stone wall. The cairn is approximately 10 metres in diameter and only has stones on the southern side (10 of ‘em). It makes you wonder about the farmers attitudes to these sites. Why did the farmer of the northerly side remove the stones and the farmer on the southerly side leave them in situ?
Fifty metres south of the cairn along the low limestone scar is the second circle. This is a lovely intimate circle with twelve stones, nine of which are lovely Shap granite and the rest limestone (I think).
The view from the circle is over the massive Hardendale quarry. A truely rural/industrial landscape.
Fifty Metres east of the first cairn is a single large stone that stands at the entrance to another walled corridor between fields.
Weird boundaries they have up here!

I have been visiting this site since I was a bairn. My uncle used to take us camping to the lakes and his favouite stopping off place was the boozer at Eamont Bridge. Me and my cousins were given the obligatory glass of pop and a bag of crisps and left to our own devices for a couple of hours. The henge and the river were our playgrounds.
In recent years I discovered the Mayburgh Henge and neglected King Arthurs Round Table. I decided to make amends on my last visit and stayed away from Mayburgh and devoted myself soley to this henge.
It’s a beautiful place! How could I neglect it ? You can be just yards away from a busy road (A6) and yet emerse yourself to an extent that everything else just fades away.
This is what henges do to me, I’m sure that this is what they are supposed to do. I knew it as a kid and I’m re-learning it now.

The Goggleby Stone is beautiful. No matter how much you read about the Shap complexes, you need to visit the sites to appreciate the scale of the thing. It must have been some place back in it’s day and I was lucky enough to have the stone to myself. I walked from Skellaw Hill, which I would recommend, and saw the stone get larger and more impressive.
The concrete bed is a bit disappointiing but what can you do?
Check out the sheep with the shamanic face markings in the next field!

Mr Cope informs us that this humble bump was once a “splendid sepulchral heap”.
All that remains today is a slight rise in the south eastern corner of the field. The field wall to the south of the hill contains a couple of decent size stones, especially when viewed from the field side.
The Goggleby Stone is visible from the hill with another large, unnamed, stone in between. To get to the Goggleby Stone from Skellaw Hill just walk along the narrow marked corridor between two fields that starts at the crossroads. On this path you will also come a cross another couple of decent sized stones.

Just make for Pawton farm, go to the farm, turn round and go back about 400mtr to field gate,you can just pull in here. From the gate look left and you can see the Quoit at the top of the field. The Burrow over this must have been very large, the remains are around the Quoit.

You cannot miss this on the way to Men Gurta, I was here on a very cold Feb afternoon but couldn’t find a way into the field without ripping myself to pieces on barbed wire, will return on warmer times.

I came here on a very cold February afternoon, the stone looks very striking and is covered in Quartz bands. The field has young winter wheat in it and the gate is barbed wired so I did not attempt to get nearer to get a close pic.

I was here on the 16th Feb. Beautiful day but very cold. I took a couple of pics but will come here again, in warmer times, to have a better look and maybe find more stones.

A bit of a surprise to me this one. While on our way back from walking in the Snowdon area we decided to visit Maen-y-Bardd, and to take advantage of the good weather to get a few black and white shots. While there I remembered Frances Lynch mentioning this other chamber nearby, and decided to hunt it down. This didn’t take long as the two are intervisible. The site itself is definitely worth seeking out when doing the Tal-y-Fan sites, and was much more impressive than I had been led to believe.

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Directions: From Maen-y-Bardd head roughly ENE for 100 metres, crossing one of the many ancient drystone walls – a distinctive fallen tree and huge boulder can be used for orientation.

Carn Galva-where the giant ‘choone’ once lived!!, in my opinion a very evocative and powerful place!!...remains of ancient walls on the western peak suggest a settlement was here many moons ago!!..excavations from a ‘barrow’ that lies somewhere about the peaks revealed artifacts.Stand on the eastern peak and you can see for miles!!.’Men an Tol’ and the ‘Nine stones of Boskednan’, oh and ‘Men Scryfa’ stone are all but 10 mins walk!!...Truly amazing landscape!.

It was utterly freezing this weekend but at this lovely circle you feel enclosed and sheltered by the wall and gorse bushes around it. I was really pleased that it’s not advertised on the road. It’s so close to the tourist Mecca of Land’s End, but so unspoilt. I was truly amazed and pleased by the fact that I saw not one little bit of litter at the whole site, from the layby with the triangular stone, right down the green lane to the circle. Ah. It does restore some of your faith in people.

I really enjoyed the anticipation of walking along the overgrown path, not knowing what to expect from the site. My other half is getting so sympathetic to the cause and even seems to enjoy these muddy expeditions now. Once we’d sat down on a prone stone at the edge of the circle we were able to enjoy the peace despite the cold. Although it’s nice to just drink in the atmosphere sometimes it’s quite nice to visit sites with people full of questions because it really makes you think twice about your motivation for visiting, and your ideas about what really happened here. The stones are twinkly with quartz, and covered with all colours and forms of lichen – amazing. I thought it was excellent.

Very depressing place in my opinion, probably lots to do with the cemetery it sits beside. I mean, I quite like some graveyards, but this is a depressing place. Not much beauty.
Maybe it’s nicer in summer.

.o0O0o.

Isn’t it strange. You can live somewhere for a while and then discover something magical just around the corner! As you head out of Ilfracombe towards Lee Bay (a must for anyone who wants a beach that provides peace, seclusion and fascinating rock pools,) you will pass White stone farm. Park up and follow the public footpath and there it is. About 10ft of solid quartz. A fairly remarkable stone. It is only possible to view it from the fence as I believe the farmer owns the land and uses it for grazing. Leave your dog in the car as the farmer owns a rather formidable and terriotorial ankle biter as our wolf hound discovered.
The stone is visible from the road in winter when the leaves provide no cover.

If you should be in the vicinity of Ilfracombe or Morthoe (inbetween Ilfracombe and Woolacombe) then a walk over the headlands towards Bull Point will be no dissapointment.
There are two stones (that I have stumbled across so far) each measuring about 4 ft. The first sits on the headland overlooking Lundy Island, the second is situated in a nearby field as you approach the farmhouse. The field is marked by a footpath and a well worn avenue that crosses the stone. At the end of this field, the path leads to “Bennet’s Mouth” a small, private and hidden cove, well worth a visit.
The stones are marked on the OS map but the ref. I’m not too sure at the moment.

Always nice to see a rock with hole in it, makes a break from the norm.....

walking in a south westerly direction away from the site the land sweeps gently down to lake and river with a small number of copse woods islands surrounded by heavily ploughed farmland. after closer inspection the copse cointained a fair amount of good sized stones, some it seems could have been placed here and are possibly in there original position while the majority prosumably dragged into the edge of the field (if indeed that was the case). The nearest copse to the Ring and Finger had the greatest density of what appeared to be standing stones within it and a possible small circle with evidence of more stones running off south south westerly(ish) visible now only in the isolated (fenced off) patches of scrub and copse. A couple of hundered yards away down towards the lake, almost underneath the main house there is a huge mound just away from the shoreline, on the top is a worked stone of a different composite lying on its side. I must also include here 1 (or2) stone(s) lying midway between the mound and the ring and finger (which I have posted in the image section) . There are also a few humps and tumps about on both sides of the river.

Getting here can be tricky without an O.S. map. There are no signs posts.
When you arrive into Norton in Hale from mucklestone drive past the pub and as the road bends right turn left into Forge lane/St/road , find somewhere to park and get onto the footpath (on the left where the houses finish) which eventually leads upto the site (about 5/10 mins walk). All we had was a road atlas which got us within locality of the nearest pub – Once inside asking for Local Knowledge, (where I resisted the question “does norton inhale?“) the guy behind the bar repeatedly told us, “In all my 27 years I have never found the need to go up there myself” – “Its just a rock in a field” (which answered my question – obviously he didn’t).
But don’t be put off by my tale of Norman the barman – in – the only pub – of the prettiest – best looked after – village in Shropshire..

NB* The farmer told us of a Roman road which ran near by and of the stately homes 18th century owners/ground keepers fondness of landscape gardening. That coupled with the many years of heavy farming (in my opinion) its little wonder that what is left here is probably a very tiny fragment of its former self.

I like this site.
Although it was only excavated in 1977 there is continuity here. Not only has the henge been restored but it is also once again the focus for a community. A well kept estate has been built around the henge and manages not to encroach upon it. The space is here, which is surely what a henge is meant to do.....create a space that is different from it’s surrounding. The sacred landscape is long gone but the sacred space remains. The people of Glenrothes are fortunate enough to have two beautiful sacred sites, Balfag and Balbirnie.
Check the lovely modern megalithic roundabout on the way in from the A92.

A great shining white sugar cube of a lump of quartz with an entirely square footprint! Christ, if it wasn’t disrespectful to the lichen which had made there home upon it, I would be tempted to scrub it back to its Persilwhiteness to see it glow, glow, glow. An iceberg in a field.

It reminded me of the solitary and proud beauty of the Hawkstone in Oxfordshire. Gorgeous.

The gloriously incongruous Ballybrack portal tomb has survived against all the odds, and somehow now found itself on a piece of wasteland in a ghastly, grey council estate... the sort of wasteland where small boys play football and girls go to gossip and bitch. I guess the tomb makes a change from a bus shelter. Tiny, almost cute, the underside of the capstone was worked so as to be completely flat. Astonishing. From one angle it resembled an upturned grandpiano. Amidst the dogshit, I sat and made a quick sketch.

Remarkable place.

I thought I’d just pop along and see what was here, there was a path nearby, I thought, should be easy. Wrong!

It was over boggy ground (thankfully mostly frozen), up a hill, fighting over a fence, all the time with some rather menacing-looking sheep watching! In the end, got where I wanted but inside the tree plantation the ground was, as you would expect, littered with needles to quite a depth. I tried a few exposed rocks, but they were loose and bare. I think any carved outcrop here would be well-and-truly hidden, and worst-case may be even damaged by the planting.

I didn’t find anything anyway :-( and I won’t be coming back unless the trees go!!

.o0O0o.

Recommend that anyone coming here pick up a leaflet from the tourist information, it gives a wonderful aerial shot and diagrams etc.

.o0O0o.

On a very bright clear February Saturday afternoon, lots of people had the same idea as me to come here (including moey! PS I was first :-) )

The car-park was very busy (approx 15 cars+), but surprisingly it still had a feeling of isolation, and the site is large enough to take lots of separate wanderers. If you come in the summer, come early or late, you’ll get parked and the light will be better!

There is definately more rock art than I found today, another great excuse for a return visit.

.o0O0o.

Deceptively small as you approach, you catch a glimpse of it through the trees at the top of the hill. As you scamble down the slope into the intimacy of the tiny valley below you become aware of the sound of the babbling of a brook just behind it, and the dolmen seems to enlarge in front of your very eyes!

And suddenly it becomes massive, significant and overwhelming. The capstone is vast and completely flat on its underside and front aspect. Some of the support stones have been stepped in order for the angle of the capstone to be just-so. And its deep too. the chamber at least two feet below the level of the ground surrounding. We sat, and looked and looked. I drew, and despite the cold and I couldn’t resist painting the beast directly. It took ages for the paint to dry, but the result was worth it.

Feelings? You know that little tingle of excitement...

Ah! This really is the dolmen of my dreams – and HUGE thanks to the delightful Four Winds for taking me there.