Latest Fieldnotes

I too am (fairly) local and have been visiting the coldrum for many years. I love the place dearly and can not stop myself from going back time after time. The best time of day is dawn as the view of the sunrise across the valley in front (from behind the collapsed chamber stones) is breathtaking. Sunrise around March 21st is almost in line with the chamber.

I experienced my first Summer Solstice here and find it the best place to go for this – always well attended but not rowdy – although the occasional appearance of the local bobby does nothing to enhance the experience.

See you all there in June then!

On a final note – if anyone knows who the pricks are that have spray painted KEV and other shite all over the stones, kindly stove their heads in for me – IDIOTS.

I too grew up locally (in Addington) and have spent great chunks of my life at Coldrum. It is one of my fave places anywhere in the world. There have always been ribbons in the trees there, and having spent Summer Solstices there and many nights camping too, I seriously cannot recommend it highly enough.
Sheer magic.

Only a five/ten minute walk from the three circles of Brat’s Hill, these two are in a worse condition than those. DON’T let that put you off. On reaching these circles I turned to face the Brat’s Hill circles and nearly fell over with the impact of this view – in fact a full 360° of perfect views. I felt dizzy with the sheer ancientness of it all. The next port of call would be the settlement at Boat Howe. I’ll be back here in summer, on a very clear day, with perfect blue skies. I can’t wait.

On the approach to the Brat’s Hill complex the first circle you will probably see is one of the White Moss circles. We did just that, only to turn round and notice we’d completely missed the Brat’s Hill circle itself. Of the two, the one nearest the path is in the best condition, and in terms of setting, you couldn’t ask for more.

The low circle of Brat’s Hill is complimented by the two circles of White Moss which lie only a minute away. The circle is dominated by five internal burial cairns, inserted at a later date.

Boat Howe is the summit of a low fell surrounded by true giants. The Scafells loom ominously above – the highest ground in England. We felt a tremendous sense of loss as we took in the beauty of the setting, looking back on the five stone circles which lay nearby. The view from the top is great, in good weather this place would be such a great place to live! The ten minute walk from the summit down to Burnmoor tarn led us to a small lodge house. It’s grey walls gave off a gloomy atmosphere from afar. On approach we were confronted with Christian propaganda in the form of a plaque on the wall. It’s strange to think what separates these two settlements. Below the house, in it’s garden, were the remains of two dead sheep, there bleached bones lying prostrate on the lawn. I don’t know what this building was (is?) used for but it certainly gave me the creeps.

Situated on the edge of the great Malham limestone plateau, this site is a strange one. This ‘four-poster’ is probably best left to the purist. If you are bringing a vehicle, the best thing to do is leave it at the bottom of the steep bit on the single track lane, then walk the mile or so up to the site (it’s not the easiest road in the world!) On the way, one of the highlights is the cave above the farm buildings on the left, looking like an imposing skull shaped castle it fair gets the mythical juices flowing. The stones themselves are initially disappointing. Persevere, there is a lot of character in these stones, from one angle they really do grab you (they did me anyhow!) As with the other sites around this area the views are fantastic.

A lovely little site. This site hardly gets mentioned, but don’t let that put you off. The stones and setting are gorgeous, I led here for 3/4 hour, on this solo trek, without worrying once about the bitter cold. These stones have great character. The view to the west is fantastic, on this day the tops were covered in snow, and stormy clouds gathered on the high ground over Malham. I’d been feeling depressed all week, pressures of work and other niggly little problems, this place just sorted me right out. I got the feeling that this site doesn’t get much attention, I’d love to know how long it is since the last person visited before me.

If you do intend to come here make sure you look at the images on TMA! I came with a map, and no idea what the site looked like. I think I must have found about six other suspect stones and sites before arriving at the correct one! Don’t get distracted by the hundreds of boulders lying temptingly all over the area, carry on, this isn’t a completely ruined circle, it is a recognisable one. The circle is on the brow of the hill – remember that!

One of the bigger stones is covered in cup marks, and if you check around the area a few of the stray stones have similar markings.

I spent the walk from Gleneagles railway station moaning about golfers, golf courses, enormous houses, the lack of pavements, the unfair distribution of wealth, blah blah blah.....and the kids rightly had other things to think about and enjoyed the walk.

The monument sits right on the junction of Easthill Road and Tullibardine Road on the outskirts of Auchterarder. There are three standing stones, one in the middle of the junction and two on an embankment opposite.

This isn’t a relaxing place – it’s a bit like the Leys of Marlee in the sense that you’re always on the look out for the next Range Rover to come flying round the corner. I took the photos quickly and we didn’t hang around as the kids wanted to go to the pub in Auchterarder.

There was snow on the hills at the other side of Strathearn to the distant North.

The roads dont look new and there were roadworks present at the junction when we visited – here’s hoping that the stones are treated with more sympathy than they have been in the past.

Located behind Staden industrial estate.
Often suggested to be the remains of a henge, the slight earthworks visible however were more than likely constructed in the Iron Age/Romano-British period. There is a large settlement site from the latter of the two periods only 100m or so away.

The ‘henges’ near circular banks can just be made out in the grass, a smaller more angular enclosure abutting this can also be seen (top left corner of the field in the photograph).

Located in the middle of Doveholes village, The Bull Ring Henge is very similar in design and size with Arbor Low, though not as well preserved, all the stones have been removed from the site.

Said to be the highest megalithic tomb in Britain.
Excellent place.. but catch the landfill site blowing the wrong way and it.....Certainly stinks to high heaven....

Does anyone know what these are about?
I think they mark the way of an ancient track (how ancient?), they appear in little groups stretching for 75yds or so. The path is linked to St Helens Church, Churchtown Darley Dale. The original Church was meant to have been built on an earthwork mound on the banks of the Derwent, the churchyard contains a 2000yr old Yew.
Any ideas?

Harland Edge in the East and views over much of the Peak District including Stanton Moor. Only 6 or 7 of the stones remain standing, the others lean severely. WNW of the circle are two stones, they seem too small to be useful outliers but are set vertically. The remains of a large cairn within the circle can be seen.

The tallest stone (now leaning inwards) was thought to have a cup mark near the top on one side...this has now been found to be a bullet hole from the moors Army training days.

Derbyshire’s biggest embanked circle and so tricky to find, well off the paths and well hidden in the heather. Keep a look out for sign planted in the stones of Eyam Moor Barrow, the circle is right behind it.

Burl mentions old reports of a supposed stone avenue in the SW, nothing has ever been found.

The circle has one of the best alignments in Derbyshire when the midsummer sun rises above Higgar Tor. The chair shaped stone mirrors the shape of the Tor on the horizon.

Just up the road from the Fox House Inn (1/2m), are 2 ring cairns.
Follow the wall by the ruined house on the heathered side half way up the wall, theres a stone on the floor with a ‘I’ painted on it, this lies on the Northern circles bank, unsure whether it belongs to the ring cairn.The large Northern ring can be made out in the heather.
A smaller circle is found just before the larger North circle, although very badly damaged by the wall and a sunken track that runs through it. No remaining stones.

The larger northern ring although covered in heather is very easy to make out.

Probably the most visible section of the smaller South circle, is just over the wall in the grassy field.

The day started beautifully, and we climbed up to the nearby waterfalls behind the pub. How picturesque (but rather clinical with all the beautifully laid steps). Then it started raining. To begin with quite half-heartedly, so we thought ‘We WILL see the axe factory’ as it was something I’d really looked forward to. It’s a beautiful closed valley, you just keep walking and walking and soon you’ve left the road behind, and it’s just you and these towering peaks. You can keep going over the top, out across the lake district. We did not. I have never seen so much rain in my life. We were so inadequately dressed, with a couple of light anoraks and two woefully battered umbrellas. People in scuba equipment would have stared at us as though we were mad. We battled on. The rain ran down our faces. I felt like a prune. We were determined to see it. Was this it? Was that it? Would we ever know? But when you get there, you know. The stones just look Right. We picked one up, it looked like a blank for an axe*. We practically swam back to the pub. But it was worth it. Later at the bizarre and unmissable Keswick museum we saw a finished axe – same stone. Fantastic. These axes were traded for hundreds of miles. Go on a nice day.

*It probably wasn’t. We weren’t high enough up the slope. And I know you’re not allowed to go nicking such things. But it was nice to have a bit of the same stone.

Regarding the rain, I’ve since read the following in a book of Lake District folklore: “How can you stand all this rain?” – “No sa weel. but we’re thinking on getting a lid for t’dale.”
Hence the phrase “We’ll have to borrow Langden lid.” Apparently.

Just over the road from the Andle Stone, metal handles as well.
A 1789 document recorded that the Cork Stone had four other stones surrounding it, at a diameter of about 25ft, no longer there.

I last visited the site in Spring 1997. It’s depressing to see such a remote, innaccessible site like this being the victim of litter. Bottles, bags, the remains of several campsites, nylon rope and plastic barrels presumably from the fishing boats are scattered all over the area. The site itself is quite small, the roof has partially collapsed, but it is worth the visit. The long walk down from Glenbrittle is fantastic, and the return journey is made even more rewarding by the view of the Cuillin. The area is well worth exploring further for other remains including a cave used by neolithic flint knappers and Iron Age smiths, old hut circles and the ruined Dun that gave the point its name.

15.2.02
This is the second time i have tried to visit this site, success at last. It is much damaged but worth visiting in my opinion.
Their is a spiral carved in to the stone which is really cool.
This site is very open and the wind is blowing me about.
Although it has an information board up, it is not sighnposted from the road and not really known in the area.
Good views over Chorley and Preston.The field it is in are well boggy, so wear wellies or good boots. The area has a good atmosphere. I am going to try and find out a bit more about any Folklore about the area.

16/02/02

I visited this site with no real idea of the scale of the place. Auchenlaich is the longest megalithic burial cairn in Britain.

Today, Auchenlaich Cairn consists of a ridge of grassed over stones which stretches for over 350 metres in a perfectly straight line, from a field adjacent to the Auchenlaich camping site and well into another field to the north. A farm track cuts right across the middle of the cairn. Auchenlaich runs in a NNW to SSE direction and sits in the flat valley of the Keltie Water, less than a mile east of the town of Callander.
The highlands rise from the central lowlands immediately to the north and west , with the mighty presence of Ben Ledi just a few miles to the west.

There is one burial chamber opened in the south section of the monument and there are also small piles of what looks like recently excavated stones along the south section.
It’s hard to take in the sheer size of this place and almost as hard to get a good photo – the place is crying out to be photographed from the air.

There must have been so many burials and possibly cremations here, that a walk along this 350 metres must have been a linear journey of legend, pain and joy of life – a life shared with the spirits.

On North Dartmoor, just off the A30 you will find the village of South Zeal.

Its quaint and its quiet and the village pub has a little secret.

The back room of the Oxenham Arms has a fine menhir built into one wall.

The inn is thought to have been built in the latter part of the 12th Century by lay monks, possibly as a type of wayside hospital for pilgrims or people wandering in the wool trade.

As mentioned in one of the essays in Mr Cope’s book the early Christian Church often incorporated the old sacred sites into the fabric of their buildings, attempting to steal their thunder, as it were.

The limited archaeological work that has been performed at the Oxenham Arms shows that this is probably what happened here, that is to say the monks built around the stone.

A locally produced leaflet says the stone was “shaped by man 5 thousand years ago.” That is the only reference to an age for the stone I have been able to find.

The stone reaches up into the ceiling of the room and according to the leaflet ” Not withstanding deep digging its foundations have never been reached.”

So he (its a Boy this one) is a big chap. Its a bit weird finding this marvelous thing stuck in a wall, wedged between a radiator and a television. Its hard to explain but he seemed quite ok there, or maybe it was just me, wankered on cider and whooping along to some local accordion players (ye gods, the madness that is in apple juice).

In the restaurant area is a smaller menhir , a little over six feet. The owner told me that this was added as a Victorian novelty. He couldn’t say whether the stone had been carved specifically for the joke or if it was a genuine menhir pulled off the moors and re erected here. I got the feeling that it probably had been recovered from a ransacked site and taken to the pub. There is no shortage to pick from.

South Zeal sits at the foot of the whopping Cosdon Hill, the hill is packed with Neolithic monuments, burial mounds, a cracking circle (Nine Stones) and a triple stone, row which was one of my main reasons for being in the area in the first place.

The Oxenham arms makes a good base to explore this part of the Moor which was clearly of great importance to our ancestors. Please note this is deepest Devon, their definition of a vegetarian breakfast is offering you brown bread with your bacon.

The most popular bit of folklore surrounding Bowerman’s nose goes as follows. In the times of William the Conqueror a great Norman warrior (a Bow-man ) settled in the area. He was out hunting with his hounds one day when he he gave chase to a hare. The chase led the huntsman and his hounds crashing through a coven of witches who were about their work. The Huntsman scattered the coven and lost the hare.

The witches cooked up a scheme to revenge their dignity. Some time later Bowerman the bowman was hunting in the area once again when he spotted a pure white hare, a witch in disguise of course.

The witch led the hunter a merry chase until at the top of a hill on Hayne Down the witches sprang their ambush turning Bowerman into a pile of stones and his dogs into the rocks and clitter that surround him.

Now for a bit of amateur etymology. There are other places called “nose” on Dartmoor and it is clear that “nose” is being used as a generic term to describe an outcrop of rock. This meaning has become twisted in the case of Bowerman because in profile he looks very much like a face with a distinct nose. So Bowerman’s outcrop has become firmly fixed in modern imagination as Bowerman’s nose, wrongly drawing attention to one aspect of the rock pile rather than the whole site itself. So lets discount the nose and concentrate on Bowerman.

If there was a Norman noble Bowerman or Bowman living in the area he did not leave any traces of his name in the Doomesday book in 1086.

A more tempting theory is to be found if you look into the remnants of the celtic language where here in the far South West anything with Man, Men or Maen translates as “Stone” (in that way Cornwall’s famous Men an Tol becomes “Stone with Hole”). Given the word Vawr means “Great” then it is an easy step to see how Vawr Maen “Great Stone” becomes Bowerman.

I liked this theory right up to the point I was told that the Celtic/Cornish tongue would have put the words the other way round ie Maen Vawr.... “Stone Great” because the adjective comes after the noun. To prove the point there is a geological feature in Cornwall called Maen Vawr which over the years has transmogrified into “Man-O-War”. But how hard and fast is this adjective/noun rule ? Surely over millennia it could change... or is this just bending facts to fit a favourite theory?

Everyone is agreed that Bowerman/Bowman/Vawr Maen/ is a geological feature, but is it a sacred site ? At the foot of the rise on which Bowerman stands a prehistoric settlement has been found. Standing there at Blissmore you can appreciate Bowerman in all his glory, there has to be a link between Bowerman and those early settlers. Some people (including Mr Cope ) speculate that the ancients toppled similar rock piles nearby in order to leave Bowerman standing proud. The problem with that theory is when you consider the amount of effort put into toppling the other stacks, why did the architects then leave all the rubble lying around their new sacred site ?

Of course it is a lot of work to clear paths through the jumble of rocks, but that is exactly what has happened about 400 meters South of Bowerman where a 2 meter wide bronze age road picks its way through the granite slabs for about 200 meters. If they did it there, why not around the Idol?

My feeling is that Bowerman is a completely natural “found” holy place and landmark. The fact that the earliest oral traditions associate Bowerman with both witchcraft and a great Hunter figure also binds him closely in with the old religion. On a personal note, for me, Bowerman still has his mojo working. He dominates a fine a landscape and as you approach you know this is a sacred site. Just as some stone circles are said to defy attempts to count the number of stones in them so Bowerman has confused many visitors about his height. I have seen it recorded separately by well respected Dartmoor experts as 26 , 40 50 and even 55 feet. Go have a look for yourself !

Bit of a flying visit here, missed the Pipers because of time. I was surprised as to how busy the site was, Drudes hanging out and tourists grinning inanely on the way past.

The ladies didnt shake me the way TC Lethbridge described, but due to the large size of the site and the completeness of the circle, you get a feeling of wild motion, almost as if you are standing on a Merrygoround and the other riders are still, but the world flashes by around you.

Photo-ops were limited due to the Piccadily Circus theme, but with a low sun and a morning mist rising, the effect could be glorious!
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The carved boulder at Copt Howe lies just outside Chapel Stile, on the road from Ambleside to Dungeon Ghyll. Approach slowly when leaving the village, a clearing with boulders and ferns lies to the right hand side of the road – continue down until the road runs between two walls. You will see a small lay-by, room for one car only, on the opposite side of the road is a gate. Look over the gate and if you’re at the right place you’ll see a drystone wall intersecting two huge boulders. The far boulder is carved.

This is a beautiful site. The carvings are into hard rock and are very gentle. I had been to Rombald’s Moor on the previous day, with its weather worn deep recesses, Copt Howe’s carving are much gentler and therefore much more elusive. In places the lines disappear and merge with the natural features. The suggestion that these carvings could in fact be a map holds ground here (see my annotated image).

A couple of climbers were bouldering on the adjacent large boulder and chatted with me about the shitty weather. This is a very peaceful contemplative place, and is well worth the visit if en route to the far end of Langdale valley, site of the axe factory.