Latest Fieldnotes

I’ll start this by telling you that I didn’t find the circle but I’m posting this so that you don’t make the same mistakes as me. I do know where the circle is, I spotted it half a mile away as I was returning home but the weather was coming down and the light was fading so it’s one for next time for me.
I parked up at the cattle grid on the Orton to Shap road at NY601091 and followed the bridlepath north. Check out the mighty Thunder Stone that has been built into the farm wall (look at both sides!). The path follows the course of a Roman Road. My tip to find this circle is to forget the cairns and look at the field boundary walls. Once you clear the first rise and can no longer see the road there should be high ground with cairns to your left, look right and keep an eye on the wall across the valley, this will lead you to the circle. The OS map has wicker street and white hag marked, these are limestone pavements and not as obvious as the map implies (they may be more prominent once the snow has cleared).
I stopped a couple of gamekeepers and asked them if they knew the whereabouts of the circle, their reply ..“what circle?” To their credit they did tell me about a local barrow and the Century Tree.
So in summary, keep you eyes on the field boundaries, take the multimap aerial photo, the rectangular plantation is not marked on the 2002 O/S OL19 map so don’t let that throw you, don’t bother asking the gamekeepers. Happy hunting pilgrims.

This was first stop on todays tour of the Howgill Fells.
I parked on the roadside and walked the few yards up the lane. As I was pulling my boots on the farmer, a very pleasant bloke who looked about 200 years old, pulled up for a chat. He asked me where I was walking to? I explained that I was just going to see the stones and he told me of some folk who had stopped him on the fell to find out where the stone were, “daft buggers were looking right at ‘em!.
The fells and the Lune Valley were looking spot-on with a covering of snow and the lovely sun shining upon them. The only thing to spoil the scene was the airforce putting itself on war footing by screaming around in their Tornado jets.
The field with the stones in was full of sheep so I walked to the next field along to use the gate, as I opened the gate, hundreds of black and white faced shep ran towards me “oh shit, cumbrian fighting sheep” they were obviously expecting me to ladle out a few bales of hay. Needless to say I beat a hasty retreat.
Maybe I should suggest to the generals that they forget the Tornados and just drop a few flocks of hungry Cumbrian fighting sheep on Saddam.
Summary – A lovely big Cumbrian Circle in a lovely setting.
Get yersel there!

Round Low is a bit tired looking and doesn’t really stand out amongst all the old lead workings it lies in. Be careful if you leave the path here or on Carsington Pastures some of the old shafts are only covered with wooden boards and grass.
The Hopton Works spoil the view to Harboro Rocks which, in itself, is well worth a sniff around.

This ring cairn is quite near to the road but is still tricky to find. A bit more visible(??) than the Birchen Edge South ring cairn, but also not very impressive.
At around 20x20m the 2m wide banking is just about covered by peat, grass and heather.
A cairn is built on to the NE corner of the bank (.....no really).
Excellent views across Ramsley and Big Moors. Nelson’s ships on Birchen Edge itself are visible quarter of a mile away across the moor, to the South(ish).

Castallack Carn Menhir – 23.12.2002

SW4474/2537 (8 digit reference taken from Ian McNeil Cooke’s book)

I couldn’t find this despite being in the right area. As you come into the hamlet of Castallack you can just about park just before the road turns sharply to the right. The bridleway up to Castallack Carn is poorly marked. I got the feeling that house next to it wants to ‘own’ it (or disown it!). Look for the modern wooden gate. This is the rather posh entrance to the bridleway (as if you’re going into someone’s back garden or driveway). I didn’t have the grid reference at the time and was merely following the map. It was hard to see exactly where it would be on the map and thus it was hard to know exact where to look. I looked in the fields I could, which was not always easy as the bridleway is often sandwiched between 2 fields with trees and brambles on each side. Once at the top there were many huge quartzy stones in some serious gorse and bracken but nothing to suggest it was a (the) menhir.

In Ian McNeil Cooke’s ‘Standing Stones of the Land’s End’ (1998 – Men-an-Tol Studio) he says that it’s 1.8m tall and “stands in an overgrown area close to the footpath West of the Iron Age round”.

With the exact grid ref and the dusk not falling so fast, maybe someone can find it (or me next time I’m down that way!).

Castle-an-Dinas (Restormel District) – 24.12.2002

SW945624 – Not to be confused with the Castle-an-Dinas in Penwith (Land’s End) this magnificent hill fort is well signposted from the road that runs past it, just West of Providence (Cornwall has some great hamlet names). From this road, a steep-ish rough lane takes you up to a rough car park. Then it’s a short walk up to the hill fort.

The Cornwall Heritage Trust took over the site in 1988 and have recently put up info boards at the car park and up towards the fort. They also unveiled a brand new panoramic plate in the interior of the fort in June 2002, which amongst other local landmarks, points out the Nine Maidens Stone Row three miles to the North.

This massive Iron Age hill fort (thought to be occupied circa 400BC to 150 AD) has stunning views all around, excellent multiple ramparts, and stands at 700 feet above sea level. Two Bronze Age barrows are which the interior, the North one of which (near to the panoramic plate) is now a hollow with a stone lying in it.

The Fiddler Menhir – 24.12.2002

Called the Fiddler on the OS map (ref SW939682) but also know as ‘The Blind Fiddler’, ‘The Old Man’ or ‘Magi Stone’. This menhir is 500m to the North East of the Nine Maidens, in alignment. The menhir was broken up some years ago, with part of it lying here.

Call me a conspiracy theorist but I get the feeling that something is up with the public access to this area. A public footpath should lead to the stone but there is no stile from the main road into the first field. If you go over the field gate you are then on the wrong side of a fence and in order to get into the field with the Fiddler in it (which does actually have a stile into it) you have to cross this fence the best you can. Very rum! The field gate also has a sign close-by saying “CASC Clay Shoot. Mondays” which I found less than welcoming. I think what I photographed is the remains of the stone, which is a pretty sad and messed up affair. The field also has several piles of rock in it, along with numerous sheep.

Nine Maidens Stone Row – 24.12.2002

Before the relatively recent discovery of 8 stone rows on Bodmin Moor and one at Lezant, this superb and intriguing stone row was believed to be the only one in Cornwall. Unlike other stone rows these stones are very large, and are aligned on a menhir 500m to the North East known as the Fiddler / Magi Stone (see separate entry for that).

The travel instruction already on this site are excellent, although I would add that t is a small SOS phone, so don’t look for a big public phone box. It is a public footpath to the stones, from the stile, which is an interesting up and down affair, rather like mini ramparts of a hill fort. The field was very very sodden when I visited and full of sheep.

The northern most stone has amazing streaking of quartz across it.

This is a probable ring cairn, it is very irregular in shape and it becomes hard to follow the line of the bank in the South. It lies next to a cairn field and old field systems.
The site is tricky to find as the overgrown bank is very low and narrow.

Visited 20th July 2002: Having approached from the Chirbury direction we headed towards Mitchell’s Fold from the north west. There’s a footpath onto the common that follows a farmer’s track from this direction. In our ignorance we drove up this track to the edge of the common without realising that we would land up almost right next to the circle.

I wouldn’t drive this route again, armed with the knowledge that once you’ve started it you can’t easily park up or turn around until you’re there. Also anything less than a 4x4 would have trouble with it, and it’s embarrassing enough having a 4x4 without parking it next to a stone circle like some sort of klutz. Next time I think I’ll try approaching from another direction on foot!

Mitchell’s Fold is a very calm circle, and the views are spectacular. While we were there it threatened to rain really hard, and we had the pleasure of watching an enormous rain storm gentle roll towards us from Wales.

This is a pretty unremarkable round barrow. It is however significant that it was one of very few barrow that have been found in the vale of Cleveland. The hills and moors around the area are dotted with barrows but the lowlands contain very few. This could be due to the ploughing- out of sites. There is evidence in local place names that barrows did exist elsewhere in the Tees valley e.g., Ingleby Greenhow, Sexhow.

I parked up at the Lord Stones cafe and followed the bridal way up onto Bilsdale West Moor.
Today I thought I’d go and hunt out the Three Thumb Stone and the Raven Stone. When I got onto the moor it became obvious that today was not the best day to search for stones basically it was a beautiful day with clear skies and very little wind. The problem was a foot of snow covering everything, the moors are especially beautiful following snow, the subtlties of the landscape are revealed but many other features become hidden, such as the stones I was seeking.
Stone Rook is a loose collection of large boulders set around a mound and topped by a cairn, a Tor in minature. I will need to return after the snow has melted to collect further details.
I then crossed the shallow valley and headed north west towards the OS marker, on looking back I noticed a fairly well defined rectangular ditched enclosure on the hillside just below Stone Rook, adjacent to this was another area that appeared to be a field system.
The enclosure looks very similar to the Ayton Moor enclosure.

Boscawen-Ros Stones(s) – 23.12.2002

SW428239

Interesting. 2 stones marked on the OS map, but only one remains. Approach from Boskenna Cross at SW426243, where there is a lay-by at the junction of the B3315 and the side road to St.Buryan. A well signposted public footpath leads from here towards the field with the stone in it; which was very very boggy. The remaining stone measures 230cm (H) x 45 (W) x 55 (D) and when I visited had been vandalised by several Christian crosses burnt into the lichen on the stone. This site is not mentioned in Craig Weatherhill’s excellent 1981 book ‘Belerion: Ancient Sites of Land’s End’ (Cornwall Books).

So where is the other stone? In Ian McNeil Cooke’s ‘Standing Stones of the Land’s End’ (1998 – Men-an-Tol Studio) he says that today’s stone was “re-erected in the centre of the field….a second stone (2m) stands uprooted in the hedge to the West”. I couldn’t spot this, but both fields you walk in seem to be littered with large stones in the field walls! So the jury was out for me. I took photos of suspicious stones and have posted above. The one labelled ‘suspicious stones 1’ is of the stones in the hedge on the East side of the field (approx SW429239). The one labelled ‘suspicious stones 2’ is of suspicious stones now part of the West hedge in the first field (approx SW427242) L stone = 225 (W) x 160 (H) – R stone = 205 (H) x 125 (W). The one labelled ‘suspicious stones 3’ is of stones in the hedge right by the entrance from the road layby.

Kerris Menhir – 23.12.2002

SW444274

Follow the long dead end road to Kerris from the BB315. Just before you get to the village there is a small lay-by to your left. 20 metres on there is a small gate into a field on your right hand side (next to a farm field gate). Go through this field (it is a public footpath), over the stile, and into the second field. The triangular shaped Kerris menhir will be visible in the field, which was had the aftermath of a wheat crop in it when I was there.

Ian McNeil Cooke in his ‘Standing Stones of the Land’s End’ (1998 – Men-an-Tol Studios) says that it was “excavated by W.C.Borlase, when only a flint and pebble were found. In Medieval times a cross was supposedly erected close to this stone – it’s base was destroyed in 1864 long after the cross had disappeared”.

Merry Maidens SC – 23.12.2002

After visiting so many lone stones and obscure sites it was weird to visit this ‘perfect’ circle and see so many stones at regular intervals and organised heights. To be honest it felt fake because I just wasn’t used to it!

The field boundary is interesting and quite stunning, heavily made up of stones especially on one side.

A small signpost points to the circle from the North side of the B3315, next to a lay-by for car parking, literally a stone’s throw from the circle.

Gun Rith Menhir – 23.12.2002

This sexy stone is clearly visible from the Merry Maidens and Tregiffian and is probably an outlier for the stone circle. Also know as ‘The Fiddler’ it’s found lurking in a hedge, just off a public footpath that leads from opposite the lay-by for the Merry Maidens. This strangely phallic and leaning monster measures 285cm (H) x 55 (W) x 55 (D).

W.C.Borlase excavated the foot of the stone in 1871 but found only a beach pebble. Craig Weatherhill suggests that Gun Rith (Gun Ruth) means ‘Red Downs’.

Tregiffian Burial Chamber – 23.12.2002

This really shocked me because it really is ON the B3315 road! It’s such a beautiful burial chamber as well and would be even more well known if it hadn’t been partially devastated by the road.

Considering how close it is to the Merry Maidens it’s wise to park at the Merry Maidens and explore the stone circle, Tregiffian, and Gun Rith menhir all in one cracking visit.

There is a steel girder towards the back of the chamber, presumably to help hold up the stone from the pressures of modern life. The amazing cup-marked stone at the front right of the outside is actually an exact copy of the original, which is now in the County Museum in Truro.

Visited 4th January 2003: Llech Bron is on private land, but you can see it clearly from the road. William and I bumped into the woman who owns the land while I was gawping at the stone, and we chatted by the roadside for a while. She was very friendly, but wasn’t keen for us to go up to the stone because there were rams in the field (and it was muddy – not sure why she thought this was problem though). She invited us to come back in the summer to take a closer look.

From our conversation I learned an found out a variation on the legend that Rhiannon has posted (below). Apparently while he was making Devil’s Bridge the Devil threw the stone from “that hill over there” (presumably Trichrug).

Another story she told me is that a local farmer tried digging down the side of the stone with his tractor. Apparently he got 30 feet down, and still didn’t find the bottom of the stone.

I’m a bit suspicious about the tractor story, but the Devil story sounds about right. I was also told that the name Garreg y Big is used affectionately by the locals to describe the stone.

Visited 2nd January 2003: Pen y Wern sits at the top of the hill (the one it takes it’s name from), at the top of a cultivated field. The area immediately around the site has been left unploughed and there are a couple of sorry looking Scots Pines standing on the south west edge of the site. The view across the valley towards the small town of Knighton (aka Tref-y-Clawdd) is presumably quite impressive on a good day, but unfortunately it wasn’t a good day when we visited. Unless you enjoy climbing hills, I’d recommend approaching from the north because it’s a relatively gentle slope up to the site itself.

I’m afraid that there’s not much to see at Pen y Wern, and I’m pretty convinced it’s a cairn rather than a stone circle. There are some stones on the ground, but they are relatively small. I’d hesitate to suggest that they are anything but cairn material, but I may be wrong. The edges of the cairn are difficult to discern, but the stones that can be seen don’t appear to correspond with the contours of the site, so probably not a kerb cairn. There is a large hollow within the site that may relate to an illicit excavation at some time.

Unless you’re already in the area I wouldn’t recommend making a trip just to see this site.

Horseyeatt Stone Row – 28.12.2002

I don’t know if this row has a name, and considering that there is little around to call it after I’ve temporarily called it the Horseyeatt Stone Row, as that is the closest house on the map.

This row is shown on the map from SX549707 to 551708. An easy starting point are the lay-bys for the Sharpitor stone rows. The ‘path’ marked on the map (i.e. from the lay-bys towards Horseyeatt), isn’t an obvious path and doesn’t take you that close to the row anyway so if you want to get to the stone row without any embarrassing meanderings, try my directions below.

Again, this may be too much info for some of you but I’m just trying to make it easier to find for people with as bad compass reading as me, or people caught in the infamous Dartmoor fog. This proved quite hard to find, but I have a foolproof way to find it...he says. Presuming that you’re in the right area (i.e. just West of the Sharpitor lay-bys), head for the telephone poles that streak across the land down towards the West. One pole has bigger electrical bits than the others – this pole is labelled YP42 on a yellow marker. Go to the next pole down (i.e. to the West), which is labelled YP41. Walk 40 metres North East of this pole and you should be at a cairn that seems to be the Northern end of the row. The row then runs South West down the moor, towards and just across a stream (and through a gorse bush or two by the stream). If you approach from the South, use the shapes of the field walls and the stream to guide you up to what is presumably the South West terminus, a relatively huge twisty stone, standing 110cm tall. I counted 54 stones in the row, some barely visible and some up 70cm tall, including one in a gorse bush, some recumbent (but most standing) and a couple a bit off line near the North Eastern cairn. There are also probably a few hidden in the stream and its banks. The average height of the stones is about 30 cm tall.

I found this a real challenge and felt really chuffed that I had managed (I think) to adequately map this and to see this beautiful row flying down the hill, past sheep and stream.

Sharpitor Cairn and Cist – 28.12.2002

60 metres from the North East end of the stone rows lies a lovely little cairn and cist. And it seems to be in perfect line with the stone rows.

Sharpitor Stone Rows – 28.12.2002

I don’t know if these rows have a name so I’ve temporarily called them Sharpitor Stone Rows, because of their proximity to Sharpitor.

They are situated next to a small lake and lay-by just to the South of the main B3212 road, between Yelverton and Princetown, near the edge of the Dartmoor National Park. I found the lake and lay-by difficult to spot whilst driving; don’t concentrate on looking for the lake, it’s small and not that easy to spot (well not for me, in a low Coupe and no companion to help); just follow your instinct and wait for the lay-bys to come into view as you approach the brow of the hill. There are two small lay-bys either side of the lake.

Just as I think I have sussed out the North East end of the rows 2 people come bounding across from the cairn and cist, waving their arms about profusely and making themselves look important. They stride up the row, jumping on mounds (doh!) to see if there are stones
underneath. More arm waving occurs around the end of the row and after quite some time they depart.

The two parallel Stone Rows at Sharpitor run across the Southern edge of the lake but it’s hard to tell what is what, and it’s not aided by it being eroded around the lake and by a constant stream of people going up to Sharpitor, barely 400m to the South East. I think the South West
end is relatively easy to work out, with what looks like a overgrown rock cairn, but the North East end had me confused. There is quite a large stone, as if an end stone (or blocking stone, like found at merrivale which is only a 4 kms away as the crow flies), but after that there are a few more stones leading down towards the cairn and cist, often looking like they are in the right place and size to be continuing the row. From this possible end stone, across the edge of the lake to the probable finish on the South West side, I counted 66 stones (some barely poking through the grass).

The Merrivale complex – 28.12.2002

Merrivale was another site not so easy to spot in the Dartmoor fog. Coming from the West it should be relatively easy to find. As you pass through the hamlet of Merrivale (recognisable by it’s pub and it’s quarry), you start to go up hill and a lay-by is placed on your right hand side (south). Walk up over the lay-by and you can’t really fail to bump into at least one of the stone rows, a few hundred metres away. If coming from the East it is similar, but this time the lay-by is not long after the TV mast, as you go down hill.

And Merrivale has a lot. Plan to spend some serious time here. The stone rows, the stone circle, a standing stone, barrows, cairns, lots of rocks, and even a less old boundary stone designed to confuse a little.

Apart from all the more well know stuff in most of the books I thought it was also of interest to wonder about the lesser known scatterings of ancient remnants like the barrow about half way along the South row, the barely perceivable stone row leading from the South row towards an outlier, and the stones around the standing stone to the South of the stone circle. The centre of the barrow mentioned above contained the fag end of a Marlboro Light (naturally). I’m no smoking fascist, but if you do smoke please at least take it home with you. The small stone row starts from a barrow towards the West end of the South row. I counted 13 stones (some barely tiny specks sticking out of the ground) in this row, starting from a barrow and moving towards the larger outlier. It looks like there is a barrow just a few steps to the east of the standing stone, plus 3 small stones behind it (to the south) as if part of a row. 2 other similar sized stones stand close to the standing stone, looking suspicious. A recumbent stone (210cm long)
lies just to the East of the standing stone. It wasn’t until I later read Aubrey Burls ‘Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany’ (1995) that my suspicions made sense. He says it was once erect and it was a pair of standing stones.

At the other end of the complex, I found it difficult to make out all of the 5 cairns marked on the map amid the boundary work, but it’s worth a wander.

Wonderful!!

Spinsters’ Rock – 22.12.2002

I approached this from the main rd, the A382. The junction with the side road towards the Spinsters’ Rock is tiny and like me you may overshoot it. It is signposted from this junction. The junction is almost a cross roads, and the road up to the Spinsters’ Rock looks (at the
junction) like you are driving into someone’s front garden! Half way up the road you will find a small lay-by on the South side of the road opposite the biggest farm buildings along this road, with a small wooden signpost to the burial chamber. The lay-by says that it is specifically for people visiting the burial chamber.

At the end of the lay-by is a gate that takes you into the field where the Spinster’s Rock stands. A wooden plague on the gate reads “A Neolithic burial chamber erected around 3500-2500 BC. This chamber probably contained many burials and would originally have been covered by a long earthen mound. The stones fell down in 1862 and were re-erected in the same year. Traditionally this monument was erected by 3 spinsters one morning before breakfast”

Again, a great setting for a lovely burial chamber. Real peace and beauty. A small plea though, please don’t leave dodgy ‘gifts’ around the burial chamber. Someone had left mistletoe here, which for the lovely (if slightly territorial) grey horse sharing this field is not a good meal. Please think before you do things like that. Mistletoe is a parasite, the berries have poisonous properties and should be kept away from (especially) children and animals.

Grimspound – 22.12.2002

These notes may seem overly detailed, but in the Dartmoor fog, you may need them!!

Grimspound is shockingly not at all signposted from the North (the B3312), or at the nearest place on the minor road that runs past the site (Grid ref – SX697809). And before anyone says ‘well...that’s good because it keeps the crowds away and keeps the site to people clever
enough to find it’, I say this. This is one of the most important settlements in Britain and is a national treasure, not something to keep to the select few. And, anyway, even with a large scale map you may struggle to find it (as I did, in fog and without a map reader in the car!).

From the North (i.e. from the B3212) I can only advise that you take the turning that you think it should be, if you’ve been closely following the OS map. The junction does have a general signpost at its north side (pointing to Tavistock, and Moretonhampstead) but nothing towards Grimspound. If you successfully get this road then on a clear day you may spot Grimspound up on the hill on your left hand side, between Hookney and Hameldown Tors, exactly 2 km south of
the junction. On a less clear day look for the only place along that road where there is quite a substantial tarmaced lay-by (enough for about 4 cars) on the right hand side of the road, very close to the kink in the road where it crosses the stream that comes does from Grimspound. If you reach the road on your right for Headland Warren Farm, you’ve gone too far.

Opposite the lay-by there are 4 stone steps; that’s the way towards Grimspound. If you find the partly paved route to the main West entrance of Grimspound, well done. If not, don’t worry; the other route will take you to the edge of the outer wall anyway.

Grimspound is magical. Amazing. I love settlement sites. At these places my imagination is far more rampant than at other sites. We know people lived here – slept, ate, drank, talked, loved, argued, planned, died; just like we do today. And the big drystone outer wall reminds me in essence (although not in purpose) of Gaho and Gersale, small villages where I used to work in the very dry and dusty Southern Ethiopian badlands where local feuds have led to circular protective walls being built by the villagers.