This long barrow is orientated East-West and is approx. 42x17m.
On the whole it’s not very impressive suffering from stone pits and ploughing.
It was dug in the 1770’s where the only recorded finds were bones, of an unspecified type.
There’s places to park in Sparrowpit and the barrow is half a mile across the fields.
Another Dartmoor oddity here! Yellowmead consists of 4, not quite concentric, circles and a short row. The tallest stones lie just South of East with the row slightly West of South.
The stones of the innermost circle form a near continuous wall.
Inner circle with 12 stones, outer circle with 15, surrounded by ditches and numerous stone alignments. There is also evidence of ancient quarrying nearby, and near the summit, some possible hut sites. Most stones of the circle remain standing.
The view across the Leven estuary out into Morecambe Bay and up-river past Ulverston to the Lakeland hills is sensational. A site chosen not only for its remarkable beauty, however; on the eastern side of this peninsula, it combines the virtue of an elevated position with that of being reasonable sheltered from the worst of the weather.
The various alignments (both of stones within the circles and some key stones outside) are intriguing, and I would love to learn more about these.
This is the nearest standing stone to where I live, and I didn’t know of its existence until a week ago, when fellow Scottish Megarak George Currie asked if I knew about it....
The stone stands around 1.2m tall, oriented E-W and has no significant markings on it. It is situated near the west gate of Camperdown Park, just west of the first green on Camperdown Golf Course (which is named Druid, funnily enough). I have noted that golfers have little or no imagination – almost every golf course with a standing stone on it names the hole either ‘Druid’ or ‘Witch’ whatever....
This site is fairly straightforward to get to, although not necessarily easy. There is plenty of parking space at White Wells carpark – walk to the old pump house and then head due south uphill keeping the white building of the old bathhouse to your left and head towards the waterfall. Once you get there is a very steep climb up beside the small falls (there may well be easier routes round the side) that leads to the outcrop of land the forms the north end of Willy Hall’s Wood. This is the place that Gyrus mentions on the main Rombald’s Moor page – it is indeed a wonderful place and has an air of ‘sacred grove’ about it. Continue south through the trees and just before they end you will find the large tilted stone with carvings across its southern face, these consist of about 17 cups, some of which have rings and some with interconnecting grooves. Just beyond the carved rock is another boulder that has three large saucer shaped indentations – I thought they may have been man-made but found out later from a knowledgeable local that he believed they were natural.
When I looked at my photo’s, the sunlight had caused the carvings to be almost invisible, but I noticed that the trees, stone and landscape seemed to be at chaotic angles – it wasn’t just my poor photography, this place is really like that.
It is easy to see how this rock got it’s name. A medium size stone with the top part covered in cups – nearly 50 of them, that does indeed resemble a pepperpot. On a lower part of the rock there are a further 17 cups.
I can’t give exact directions as I had cut across the hillside from Willy Hall’s Wood, but it is about 20 paces to the right of a well used track that leads uphill southeast from close to White Wells towards a small wood. There is another stone on the other side of the track that has about half a dozen faint cups.
Worth noting that if you face roughly west and look along the two flat faces of the stone, they line up with two dips in the horizon – including the one through which the modern-day road passes towards the coast. This may add credence to the idea that the stone was some kind of way marker on the ancient trackway from Tywyn.
The mound the stone stands on is pretty impressive too – rises out of nowhere as you walk towards it from Cregennen. It’s most likely a natural deposit of moraine, but the shape of it tempted me to wonder if it had been altered by human hands. Certainly gives a great view of Cader, as Kammer’s photos show.
Visited 2nd March 2003: Meini Gwyr is the only site in the Glandy Cross Complex that’s set up for visitors. There’s enough space for parking, and a slightly mouldy notice board by the gate.
Out of an original seventeen stones, there are only two remaining at Meini Gwyr. The site is thought to be an embanked stone circle, originally about 18 meters in diameter. In the 17th Century Edward Lhuyd recorded that there were still fifteen stones in the circle, and he was aware that some stones had already been ‘carried away’. This suggests to me that these stones weren’t long gone at the time.
The site was excavated in 1938 by Prof W.F. Grimes, but most of the paperwork relating to his findings was destroyed in a bombing raid on Bristol in 1940 (this site has had some bad luck). Grimes found out that the circle had an entrance on its north west side, cutting through the earthen bank and flanked by upright stones. He also found fragments of Bronze Age pottery in a hearth set in to the south east bank.
Incidentally, in the garden of the house next door to Meini Gwyr is a modern stone circle with a central stone. Don’t be fooled! Meini Gwyr may be a shadow of its former self, but it still has a bit of that zing that modern stone circles completely lack.
I went here today, 20/3/03, nearly drove past it! It’s a polygonal chamber, looking like it has been restored some time ago, perhaps 200 years, and concrete posts indicate where outher parts where found. It is unbelievably close to the A40, with the road literally carving its way through a part of the cairn. Not a place for kids, or the faint-hearted! It is hard to feel any ambience at all here, the road dominating the area, be careful not to fall on the road in an attempt to get good photos!!
Over the years there has been some confusion over the rock art location ‘Whitsun Bank’ probably caused by the fact that the two locations are situated about 500m apart. Whitsun Bank 2 is on outcrop rock (former quarry) in a field along the road, 280 deg. from the gate opposite the entrance to Fowberry Farm. Whitsun Bank 1 is 500m West of Whitsun Bank 2 and consists of lesser and smaller motifs. A very nice area so take your time!
We saw these small carvings for the first time in 1999. They are set on outcrop rock in the heather on the right site of a track from Coldmartin Loughs Main to the triangulation pilar, just before the wire fence.
If you’re about 20 feet tall you can see my house from here :-)
Lovely warm day, spring has sprung, the larks are singing...the ants nest was too near... eugh!
.o0O0o.
Found myself in Aberdeen today, quick visit to the stones for lunch.
On a beautiful clear day, lots of other people had the same idea, some walking, some jogging. None driving... except me. One woman said she had a fourwheel drive and she wouldn’t have brought it up this track...
NOTE for future drivers DO NOT DRIVE UP!!!!
I did – and felt like my tyres had been well and truly bagged.
.o0O0o.
Strawberry Lea is an arc of four stones varying in height from 1m to 30cm. There may be the ruins of a cist in the centre.
If this is the remains of a ring cairn, it’s position seems a bit odd, being at the bottom of the slopes Wimble Holme Hill. In J Barnatt’s barrow corpus he suggests the site may be similar to that of Moscar Moor and that both were originally stone circles and later had their interiors filled.
(Although Barnatt doesn’t mention Crook Hill in his books, this too may be a similar site)
A tricky one to spot, even though it’s close to the path... probably no chance of finding it in the summer, when the bracken is high.
[actually written & added 27/11/02] This is another hillfort covered in trees & especially at night, there isn’t that much to see. Apparently the east side of the fort is precipitous but we didn’t make it that far, preferring instead to stop at the west embankments and wonder what the sounds were emanating from the trees.
Probably a better place to visit during the day, unless you know where you are going and (possibly) have a torch...
Back in the 1920’s my father was the village policeman at Mundford. One day he was told that a motor cycle and sidecar had been seen standing at Grimes Graves for some time. In those days the site was on “common” ground. He cycled over and ultimately decided that the owner must have gone down into the mine. With the help of some locals and a ball of string to act as a life line, he went down into the pit and eventually found a young couple in one of the tunnels. Apparently they had got disoriented, their light had failed, and they were unable to find a way out. They were cold and hungry but otherwise none the worse for their adventure.
Large oval overgrown mound (110m NW-SE; 70m NE-SW), immediately SW of graveyard. This may be a motte.
Visited 13th March 2000: After one aborted attempt last year, I finally got round to visiting Pen-y-Castell Hillfort on a lunch hour last week. The sharp winter sunlight was beautiful, but it was still very cold and windy once I got to the top.
There’s loads to see up there, especially considering how insignificant the fort is compared to some of its local rivals. The ramparts and ditches are still relatively well defined, especially around the entrance to the east. Modern erosion to the ramparts gives a cut-away view of the stones that make them up, and there are a number of large boulders within the boundaries of the fort that must have served some purpose when it was in use (it’s unlikely that they’ve been lugged up there since).
The most interesting stone that appears to be part of the original fort stand on the north side of the main entrance, where there is a break in the defensive ditch. I found myself wondering whether it represents the remains of a defensive wall, or possibly the Iron Age equivalent of a kerb stone protecting wooden defensive walls from wear and tear.
As I descended the hill and made my way back to the car there were two F15 fighter planes circling overhead, presumably practising for the real thing in Iraq. I pondered the stupidity of it all, and how far mankind (I use this term intentionally) has come since the simple Iron Age defences of Pen-y-Castell. It took the edge off of an otherwise beautiful visit.
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.
