Latest Fieldnotes

This is a lovely little site, it consists of a cairn that has been robbed of much of it’s stone fill leaving part of the cairn and a kerb consisting of large stones. There is also a stone row consisting of four large stones and a nearby Round barrow with a possible headstone.
I visited this site with Moggymiaow after checking out her ? ruined circle on Hunt House Crag.
There is a well defined track running from Hunt House road up to the Howe.
The situation of the Howe is unusual as it is on the top of the hill rather than the prefered brow ( the usual site here-abouts).
The site itself consists of a well defined kerb of large stones enclosing a cairn. The cairn appears to have been robbed of some of it’s stone filling, some of which has been used to build a windbreak* within the kerb.
The diameter of the circle is approx 12 metres. To the north of the circle is a row of four large stones aligned SE-NW.
Approximately 50 metres north of the circle is an un-named barrow & trig point, this barrow has what appears to be a marker or head stone on its southern flank.

*Fieldnotes amended to reflect the information from Hotaire regarding the recent structure within the kerb

I was told about this place by moggymiaow and duly arranged a joint expedition.
The road to this area (Hunt House Road)
has three lovely stones beside the road in just over a mile. None of these stones are over 3 feet high but they are worth mentioning due to the obvious antiquity of the area. This road is also along the route of and overlays Wade’s Causeway Roman Road. The road also parallels the Wheeldale Road and its own stones.
Down to business, I met Moggymiaow at Hunt House and we trecked up the well worn path the a site where Moggy has identified a possible circle.
The area is a right old mess but there are definite upright stones and with lots of squinting and tilting of heads you can tune into a circle ( a big bugger approx 40m diameter), in fact with a bit of imagination you can tune into a circle within a circle.
This is a megalithic bombsite but the hand of man does appear to have touched this landscape. there is a cairn on the margins of the circle and the trackway that skirts the site leads to a definite megalithic monument further uphill at Simon Howe.
If you were to make a specific journey to visit this site, you may leave a bit dissappointed, Burl would give it a minus one and define it as FUBAR in his classification but if your in the area, check it out and play spot the circle.

Whilst looking for the remains of Bosporthennis Quoit (in completely the wrong place, it turned out!), I came across the Beehive Hut, and some scattered remains which I took to be remnants of the courtyard houses which are distributed around the area, although I wouldn’t want to put money on this. It was a bright late November day, after several days of heavy rainfall, and I was running out of time, so a few digital pictures were just about all I could manage. Any light that can be cast on the pictures I took is most welcome; hopefully I’ll be able to add some more meaningful ones in the near future.

I was persuaded by Kammer to seek my first standing stone, and this is what I found. 24th November 2002 at about 2pm I set off, up to the small village(?) of Cwmsymlog. I’d passed (unknowingly) the standing stones many times before while out mountain biking.
These two stones, Cerrig yr Wyn, which probably means Stones of the Lambs, or possibly a bad translation to Welsh from White Stones.

I wonder if anybody will ever clarify that.

My favourite of these two stones is the western stone, because it has so many distinguishing features.

Go up a steep, winding lane from the village of Kealkil. We parked outside a bend where it reaches the top of the hill. you have to walk across a field and climb over a low fence but we encountered no problems.

Kealkil wasn’t very easy to find, the narrow lane zigzags up the hill. If you get to the top of the hill you’ve gone too far (though this is where the road is nearest to Breeny More). We parked on the side of the road, climbed the gate with the “Beware of the Bull” sign and made our way across a boggy field. The weather was superb and the views were hard to beat.

The Irish haven’t given in to the “brown sign” mentality (thank goodness) so many interesting locations are not widely publicised. However, there are a few books and leaflets and even a tea towel(!) showing many of the ancient sites around the country.

This fantastic site is right on the ancient Ridgeway path, along a section of its eastern end, and is part of the scarp slope of the Chilterns looking out over the Vale of Aylesbury and Didcot, Oxford etc. It (the Ridgeway) is full of power, an important route since at least Iron Age times. I love to stand up here looking out to the West and Northwest in the knowledge that the same path will lead past hundreds of other powerful ancient sites all the way to Avebury. This area is linked with other barrows, camps and sacred sites at for example Pulpit Hill and Ivinghoe Beacon. If you dig for a little background history this whole area comes alive, fitting in with the rest of prehistoric southern England like a jigsaw piece.

I’m just wondering if some of the people getting pissed were me or my friends, mentioned by the previous contributor – nothing wrong with a little ritual libation! What a place to meditate or mark a solstice (we’ve NEVER lit campfires though).

Yes it was a great day out on Danby Rigg, there is just so much to see. As well as the cemetery, the nut circles and the dykes, there are also old embanked trackways and miriads of standing stones dotted all over the place. A great place to see an entire settlement in one place.

I was guided to the quoit by the “drums”... the beating of the ancients... I’d been out looking for Tregeseal circle, without any luck, it was raining hard, muddy and bloody windy! Coming to an intersection of trackways i heard the drums... calling me, to follow the track to the hilltop, I did so and came across an old friend, Chun Quoit. I’d been here several months earlier, walking from Men-an-Tol though that time, this time it was different, the area had a wonderful energy to it, it was truly alive... the sun was losing height but I didn’t care as I felt at home here... I filled with emotion, tears came from my eyes... I could feel the “old ones ” around me... my feelings were of that I’d come home at last! I’m sure you know that feeling. I didnt climb inside, last time I did and got wedged in the gap... standing outside was enough... such a wonderful vibrant energy... I stayed there for a good half hour... deep in thought, visions of the ancients flooding through and into me.

A visit by night seems a worthy cause.

Don’t dismiss this as a purely Roman experience (though that’s fascinating in itself – heretic) – it really gets your imagination fired up and you can conjure up something of the place before the Romans arrived.

The ‘Sacred Spring’ bubbles away in its blue-green pool, and mist floats eerily over the surface. How amazing this place would have been without the stone round it, probably surrounded by dark alder trees, the odd willow the wisp? The Romans knew it was already revered, and although they built a huge temple and bath complex around it, they at least took on board the beliefs of the native peoples by calling it Sulis Minerva – combining the resident goddess’s name with a similar deity of their own.

So many tourists come through here, but the place is remarkably quiet – everyone has a hand-held guide and they’re listening to that, so if you just sit by the main baths it’s really very peaceful and relaxing. You’re not supposed to touch the water but you really must to appreciate how hot it is. When you lean over the drain (in one of the photos above) it’s quite a sauna! and the bright orange of the iron is dazzling.

On a recent visit, the eagle-eyed Moggymiaow spotted what could possibly be another circle, (she has a talent for this sort of thing) there are a couple of large-ish stones and a hint of a possible embankment.
The circle is amongst the cairn graveyard to the east of the cairn circle/standing stone and is best seen in winter with the heather burned back.
It’s subtle, so keep your mind opened pilgrim.

Culsh Souterrain (22.8.2002)

Culsh Souterrain is VERY close to the main road (the B9119), just West of Tarland, but because it’s not at all visible you could easily go past it. It’s right on the bend in the road and is marked on some Road Atlases. I came from the west, because it’s not far from the Tomenaverie Circle. This souterrain is given a whole page in Janet and Colin Bord’s excellent 1978 book, ‘A Guide to Ancient Sites In Britain’, but only a brief mention in TMA (pg 93). The Bord book says you can borrow a torch at Culsh Farm if you need but I’d suggest bringing your own because the house next to the Souterrain now looks distinctly unfriendly with its ‘No Parking’ sign and chunky big gate. You can just about park off the road near this house’s driveway and not get in anyone’s way. The entrance to the souterrain is literally 7 metres down from the edge of the road – I somehow expected more of a trek! There is an info board on the grass just a few metres above entrance to the souterrain and you can’t see the entrance until you walk a few metres closer – weirdly shocking.

I wasn’t prepared, and hadn’t brought a torch (doh!). My lighter was fine for a while as I walked further into the underground but became red hot by the time I was in the central part. So on the way out I edged out slowly in pitch blackness. Things like this amaze me. It seemed so long that surely it was underneath the road?! What the hell is going on here? I’m walking (you can almost stand up in the tunnel, and can easily stand up in the main circular bit) into an underground building in the middle of no where on a rainy afternoon in summertime. Moments like this make life great.

I’ve just found a link to this site and it says it is over 14m long?! Is that right? Wow, no wonder it seemed to go on for ages. The picture on the link is fantastic.

Visited 24th November 2002: We drove to Carreg y Big from Waen Bant, and spotted it from the gate (one of many that cross the roads around here). The stone is very close to the road, positioned at the bottom of a small elongated lump of hill on the south west shore of the southerly of the two lakes. The only nearby parking space has a sign next to it saying “Parking for Fishermen Only”. We ignored this and parked.

Carreg y Big is just over two metres high (I’m basing this on the photo of Lou standing next to it), so definitely larger than Waen Bant. We both liked it more than Waun Bant, but not just because it’s larger. The surrounding countryside is spectacular, and while we were there the sun made a last attempt at shining, so the whole scene was something special.

Next to Carreg y Big is a much smaller stone which I have yet to find any reference to. It reminded me of a little stone called Castell Coch near the Buwch a’r Llo standing stones in Ceredigion. I was tempted to name this little stone Carreg y Small, but that would be a horrible thing to do with the Welsh language. I’ll have to come up with something better.

Castlerigg (23.8.2002)

Castlerigg seems to be signposted from every direction and every country road, which is a first. It’s obviously a bit of a show site and why not. It is like being at the top of the world. The place was absolutely heaving with all sorts of people and school parties, but heh, quality attracts people. Sure I would loved to have been able to take some nice photos but it just wasn’t possible and I’m not that fussed because there are lots of good photos of it around and I still have my memory.

Long Meg and her Daughters (21.8.2002)

Long Meg and her Daughters was a very pleasant place for me. I hadn’t quite appreciated that it was so big. I had gotten used to going to all these weird and messed up barrows, cairns, lone stones and circles in all sorts of places that I had temporarily forgotten that there are also some mighty impressive double barrelled, full fat, high caffeine big mutha circles out there.

I found this site not quite so simple to find as people say, especially spotting the very sharp left turn (if travelling from the village of Little Salkend) to get onto the final road towards the site. Parking is limited and can be very muddy (on the edge of the field just after cattle grid).

Arbor Low (July 1997)

Us three ex-Uni friends, and Harry, had met up in Nottingham for Martyn’s ‘stag-night’. The next day, on the way to Stockport I noticed that we were planning to go on the A515, right past Arbor Low. So I started lobbying for us to stop and have a look. None knew much about ancient sites and Mike and Harry seemed OK about it. But Martyn was very worried and nervy about time. I felt guilty at asking them to indulge my odd habit just before Martyn’s ‘big day’. But it may be the only chance we get to be so close to this fine site and it might chill us all out. Reluctantly Martyn agreed to stop.

It was very wet but we clambered out of the cars, dressed ourselves up in any jackets we could find and trudged up to the henge. It was a great experience and the cows were very territorial and kept on coming to sniff around us. Martyn had spent a year in New Zealand analysing the effects of cow’s piss on soil, so he should have felt right at home here. What a great place!

I had never met Harry before and never met him again, but I do have a photo of him standing with an umbrella, in the middle of the circle contemplating life. Over the years I have taken ten relatively un-interested people out to see various ancient sites and all have said they really enjoyed it. 3 more converts for the wagon!

Tomenaverie (22.8.2002)

I’m not saying that it’s good that the quarry has eaten into and messed up this site, but it didn’t seem it was as bad as I had expected. Maybe I had just set myself up for the worst, in order to feel good. But it was yet another ancient site that was fascinatingly different to the others. After King Arthur’s Round Table all chopped up by roads, Mayburgh aloofly overlooking the aforementioned site, Long Meg and her Daughters showing what big site looks like, and The Cairns of Clava complex in a sexy woodland glade, this is on the top of a hill with fantastic (if rain soddened) views all around.

Aubrey Burl in his 1995 book, ‘A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany’ calls the circle ‘a wreck’, and says that Tomenaverie means ‘the hill of worship’.

PS – Some sort of restoration project was still going on.......i.e over a year since the fieldnote below......

The Grey Mare and her Colts (5.9.2002)

Again, the wonderment at this site is partly trying to imagine what it would have looked like in all it’s ancient glory. I know that Julian is a tall man but how did he manage to see ‘the view down to the sea’ from the barrow?

Visited 24th November 2002: Waen Bant is easy to find, but if you want to park nearby you’ll have to risk putting at least two wheels on the grass (something I thought twice about because I didn’t fancy getting stuck).

There’s no public footpath to Waen Bant, but it’s not far from the road, and there are no fences between the road and the stone. We approached from the bottom of the field, and got a good view of the stone sitting on it’s little lump of land in front of us as we walked.

The stone isn’t as big as it looks in photos (I’m warning you now so that you don’t expect something enormous). At a guess (based on William’s height) I’d say it’s about 1.75 metres high. There’s a distinctive undercut on it’s eastern side which is about half the stone’s height in length. I’m not sure that this is artificial, but I’m certain it was significant to whoever erected the stone.

The views out towards Cadair Idris are spectacular, as are the views north towards the mountains on the other side of the Mawddach Estuary. The stone seems to be orientated towards Cadair Idris (specifically the peak called Craig-las). Apparently there’s another standing stone to the south east of Waun Bant called the Afon Arthog Stone, but this isn’t marked on the OS map, so in the failing light we decided not to try and find it.

Unfortunately another London monument of dubious antiquity, but don’t let that spoil it for you.

It looks like a large, well preserved bronze age barrow which seems from a cursory look to have a ditch. Its located on a high point and gives lovely views down a valley to the Thames.

While you are here, take a walk up to Parliament Hill and get a fantastic view over the city.

I’ve been waiting so long to get out here. I felt desperate to get a huge dose of air and view and space (you must surely know what I mean especially in these horrible dark wet days) and we were going whether it poured with rain or not. Which in the event it did, of course. As we were driving along the bottom of the Pewsey Downs there was a fantastic bright rainbow reaching down to it, and then we rounded the corner and saw the white horse. It’s quite new (1930s), a replacement for an older one that was close by. It’s a funny looking animal, could be anything with four legs really – maybe the maker wanted to be a bit ambiguous?

We drove onto the downs and I was horrified to see that the little car park was full of cars – what could all these people be doing out on such a dingy afternoon? and I really didn’t want to share the place with them. But when we started walking we didn’t see anyone. I guess there’s room for a lot of people up here.

Climbing up towards Adam’s Grave you are suddenly surprised by the view stretching out in front of you, it suddenly appears all at once. It was quite misty but we could see for miles. You seem to be on the edge of a huge shallow basin – the lip seems to go all around the horizon. I could pick out where the Westbury white horse is (by the thoughtfully positioned cement works chimney plume) and realised that I’d glimpsed the Pewsey horse from the hill fort there. It starts you realising how the landscape fits together, and how different groups of people lived in proximity to one another. We climbed up onto the longbarrow and stared out at the dark clouds relentlessly coming towards us. Then it started pouring with rain. You feel on top of everything – I would have felt very exposed in a thunderstorm. We stood there in the rain a little while but even with umbrellas it was very cold so we reluctantly trudged through the mud back to the car.

The other half had been in a terrible mood with nicotine withdrawal, but admitted he felt a bit better. Anyone would feel relaxed visiting this fantastic place. I felt a weight off my shoulders. I just have to have peace and quiet sometimes – this place is peaceful. I would love to come back in the sun and stay a long while but will it be full of children and picnics?

It should be even more fantastic in the summer because the Pewsey Downs are a nationally important nature reserve – the rare chalk grassland has been grazed for countless generations and is full of rare plant species, and the butterflies they attract.

The Cairns of Clava (22.8.2002)

I bought a short leaflet on The Cairns of Clava at the National Trust shop at Culloden Battlefield. This was written by Edward Meldrum in 1983 and is described as ‘a delightful leaflet’ by Aubrey Burl in his 1995 book, ‘A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany’. If you can find it it’s well worth a read, and describes not only the main ‘show site’ at Clava but also briefly mentions some of the other clava-style cairns in the area.

The short drive from Culloden wasn’t as well sign-posted as expected (both sites are in the care of the National Trust of Scotland), but rest assured, once you reach the little single track ‘Clava Bridge’ over the River Nairn you are getting very close.

The site was full of tourists jumping around on the cairns, but it was still an amazing place in a sexy woodland glade.

Loanhead of Davoit (23.8.2002)

This stite is very well signposted from both of the roads that lead into the South of the village of Davoit from the main road (the B9001). The circle is to the North of the village, and has loads of parking space. A bit too much of a show site, but again, it’s easy to get to and well looked after, which suggests that our next, next, next, generations should also be able to enjoy it.

East Aquhorties Stone circle (23.8.2002)

This site is now very well signposted from the main A96.
There is a car park at the bottom of the track that leads to the circle. The car park even now has a litterbin and info board. It’s about 200m from the car park to the circle.

What still never fails to (happily) surprise me is the amount of people who visit ancient sites. At 9.30 am there was already a couple just returning from the circle – a slightly unlikely couple, dressed very smartly and driving a huge new 4x4. And then a horse rider was passing next to the circle, breaking in a young horse.

East Aquhorties is yet another fantastic place set in a marvellous surrounding. The ‘modernisation’ of the circle (the stone wall) isn’t that bad and I really felt at home here.

Stoney Littleton (circa summer of 1993)

I know what the other field notes mean about getting lost! Despite living in and around Bath for much of my life, all three times I tried to go I seemed to struggle to find Stoney Littleton, and once even gave up when approaching from the south. Don’t get me wrong – with a map and a better sense of direction than me, it shouldn’t be that hard to find; it’s just that it’s not quite as easy as the normal Road Atlases suggest. When I was last there (circa 1993) it still had a locked grill across the barrow entrance (see photo above) but I believe the barrow is currently open. I can’t wait to go again!