On Midsummer’s Day, whilst Avebury heaved, Treaclechops and I walked up here to Fyfield Down and had this landscape to ourselves. (Apart from hares, weasels, buzzards, kestrels, a small deer, a stonechat, some wagtails and countless other feathered friends.)
Stones litter the landscape. Sit a while and take it in. There’s so much to enjoy.
Welcome to the highest point in Oxfordshire at 801 feet above sea level – what an image to have carved on the roof of the county!
Being a local site for me, I have visited here often. But I visited here in early June with a bunch of friends who had NOT seen it before, (two of whom I was trying to ‘introduce’ to each other :-) By some simple twist of fate, although we had come up to see the King’s Men, there was a private handfasting going on in the circle, so we drifted down to the Whispering knights to check it out. The corn was high and rain threatened but to see the wedding going on in the distance made the Whispering Knights seem like an acceptable distance to stand without intruding.
This must have been a mighty, mighty place at one time – if this ever had a capstone, I can hardly begin to imagine how big it must have been.
By the way, the two who were ‘introduced’ are now seeing each other.... a magic place indeed.
7.7.02
This is my first cromlech. What a cutie. I love this place, despite its setting next to bungelows, this place feels special like something out of a fairie story, im waiting for the little people to pop out. It is small and looks like it could topple over at any point. This is the sort of place were you could sleep and dream and be inspired. Love it.
07.7.02
Amazing site! This is one special place, the setting with views over cardigan bay and an acient oak forest is something else.
This Cromlech seems to change radically from which ever angle it is viewed from, you could take photos from all directions and you would not think it was the same place. I would love to come here at different times of the year/seasons. Very atmosptheric.
I visited this fantastic site a couple of summers ago – it’s beautiful with all the chalk downland flowers. The views are pretty much 360 degrees. It’s a pretty steep climb to the top and once we were up there we almost thought we’d get blown away by the wind. Hid in one of the flower-lined ditches while it rained, and then sat overlooking a field being rippled in all directions by the wind, very strange to watch.
A belated visit, but thought that after ‘Discover Avebury’ I should pay it a trip myself, to make sure that they weren’t telling us lies. Yes it was there.
An epic Trip, left home in Essex with the kids at 10am expecting to arrive at midday, however M4 was closed so spent 8 hours in the car with the kids, isn’t Reading one-way sytem wonderful ! Eventually abandoned the trip and crashed out at my Sisters in Stroud (but managed to sneak in Minchinhampton), finally arrived in Avebury Midday Sunday. A nice way to spend an afternoon strolling round with the crowds !
Next time I’ll go mid week – mid winter
I read the posts about this stone, consulted my maps, thought whats the problem.
Minchinhampton is indeed a maze, the kids in the back questioning every U turn and stating the obvious ’ Didn’t we just go here ?‘
Anyway got my act together, and its easy to find, Take the road across the common, follow the lane down the side of the pub ‘The Ragged Cot’ about 3/4mile down this road the stone stands in a field, but its hard to spot as its at right angles to you and only abouut 20cm thick. Anyway take the right fork signed ’ Minchinhampton Only’ and there is a small wood on the junction and then after about 50m the stone is easy to spot through the gate.
Spent a good half hour in the sun , poking our arms and faces through the holes.
This standing stone is at the tip of South Uist, by the Pollachar Inn, and looks across to the islands or Barra and Eriksay.
Just south of the village of Carinish (Cairinis) in the south of North Uist, this ruinous circle has the main road (A865) running almost through it, and you could easily miss it.
Also known as Callanish V, this site is found across the road from Callanish IV. Take the track up past the sheep pens and the row is visible to the south east across the usual peat bog field. Wear your wellies!
A fallen stone circle opposite the “Halfway Garage” on the A859 south of Stornoway. It was discovered by Margaret Curtis, who spotted it from a bus window, apparently!
On South Uist. If you’re going south on the A865, take the minor road uphill to the left after the right turn to Stoneybridge. At the top of the hill there’s a space to park by a strange white building and it’s only a hop and skip down to this amazing phallic stone.
This cairn is about 12 miles north of Newton Stewart, and a pleasant walk through forestry land from the village of Glentrool. Park on the road above the playing field and follow the white marked posts direct to it.
When I last visited this, my ‘local’ circle, back in January, I decided to leave my next visit until a good sunny summers day, and reassess. I did just that this weekend and I’m glad I did. Last time I agreed with everything that had been said – dismal, dreary, lifeless – not lacking in atmosphere, but then again not exactly an exceptional site. With this visit, I’ve changed my mind completely. The location is perfect and best seen on a clear day.
The landscape is the key to understanding this place. The site is placed on a plateau of high ground. Three quarters of this high ground is surrounded by nearby hills – starting from the south-west (roughly) the view is made up of Smithills, Counting Hill, Winter Hill, Turton Moor (the top of Darwen Tower can just be seen rising above), Cranberry Moss, Entwistle, Edgworth Moor and finally Holcombe Moor and the victorian folly of Peel Tower. This makes up a huge horseshoe in the landscape, with the circle sat roughly in the centre. To the south the land is a flat plain for many miles – the modern towns of Bury and Bolton can be seen in the foreground with the tower blocks and grey office buildings of Manchester beyond. On the hazy horizon lies a fringe of high ground making up the Peak district. To the distant south-west, peeking out behind the bulk of Winter Hill and Smithills lie the mountains of North Wales.
This place is far from ‘bleak’ as described by Burl. It would be fair to say that in terms of a megalithic site there isn’t really anything to see, but that would be missing the point – it’s the position that’s important, and today I discovered that my local site is truly wonderful. I’ll definitely be making this journey more often.
Very beautiful, even if the light was a white out with bugger all contrast and the circle was full of picknickers. Fortunately the bracken was high enough to pee in, so I could wait until they’d moved on to have the place to ourselves.
What a view! Whichever wise person decided to erect the stones here also understood the beauty in front of her eyes. Bet they didn’t have to put up with a bunch of squawking peacocks though....
My advice? Strangled the peacocks, lie back in the grass, let the vibe of stones speak to your soul and watch the everchanging Morecambe Bay entertain you.
Signposted off the B9152 at the north end of Aviemore, this ring cairn is right in the middle of a housing estate – and somewhat lacking in atmosphere.
About 2 miles south east of Insch, turn left just before crossing the railway line; follow the raod uphill for about ½ mile to the track to Hatton of Ardoyne. The farm at the top of the hill isn’t lived in; we asked a very friendly man from the cottage at the bottom of the lane if it was OK to visit. Follow the track uphill through the ruined farm buildings and go straight on. If you walk on the right of the dry stone wall, you’ll come to a gate to climb. Keep going round the right of the mound with heather etc on it, and the circle will appear.
Ruinous, with only one of the flankers standing and a fence through the middle, but an amazing place with views to Mither Tap and Dunnideer.
This recumbent stone circle is about ½ mile south of Esslie the Lesser, south of Banchory. It’s also known as Garrol Wood.
Set just off the road down a forestry track, this beautiful site looks as though it’s a local party place with a fire having been made in the central pit.
This recumbent circle is about ½ mile south west of Esslie the Lesser, again easily visible from the road and with a gate to access it. (South of Banchory, on minor road connecting the A957 and B974).
This recumbent circle is ruinous. It’s about 3 miles south(ish) of Banchory, easily visible from the road but over a barbed wire fence.
The stone with the cross on is, apparently, locally known as the Mire Stone. It is an outlier to the main circle (can confirm Iron Man’s comments on what remains!) and has the cross to mark a ‘modern’ administrative boundary.
Well, well, how this place haunts the soul.
A trip down to the Marlborough Downs in May with the sprogs was specifically to visit some of the stuff outlying Avebury. After a significant detour (which had my 8 year old son whinging for England) my 12 year daughter spotted it way off in the distance in the hidden valley below the ridge which we were straining to climb. Retracing our steps, we finally reached it and were surprised at how big it was. WE stayed for some time, the little lad enjoying making ‘mini-Devil’s Dens’ from rocks lying around.
Less than 5 weeks later, on 21 June, me and the very talented Treaclechops bowl up at the place and chill out there for a while. After the hurly burly of a midsummer day’s Avebury, we had the place COMPLETELY to ourselves. Which was nice.
These caves are formed in the sandstone cliffs to the north east of East Wemyss. They have been of interest since 1865 when they were catalogued by Professor James Young Simpson for Dr John Stuarts second volume of “The Sculptured Stones of Scotland” published in 1867. The Court cave has a main cavern with a narrow cave at its entrance, in the narrow cave there is a incised figure holding a spear with an animal beside him. Some claim this could be a viking carving of the god Thor with his sacred hammer. In the main cave there is a Pictish double disc with z rod symbol and on a higher ledge a double disc symbol. The Doo caves roof has now collapsed, but was apparently a well marked cave containing a double disc and z rod symbol with a beasts head touching it, the same symbols can also be seen on the silver plaques which were excavated from Norrie’s Law. Jonathan’s cave contains many distinctive symbols of Pictish origin such as double discs, an upright fish and several animals. It also contains a carving of an oared ship. The sliding /sloping cave should only be visited with great care and has upon it rectangular markings and a double disc symbol. These caves have been used by our ancestors for thousands of years, but are now in danger from coastal erosion, great care should be taken when visiting them
Archeological items of interest on the island of Great Bernera (Bearnaraigh) are the standing stones at Cleitir beside the bridge, the remains of the broch on Loch Bharabhat and the remains of iron age houses at Bostadh. The last on was uncovered by erosion of the sand dunes exposing the site. A reconstructed house is nearby and is well worth looking at.
