Latest Fieldnotes

These two rocks were found by a JCB levelling the school field, They are in a garden at the back of Ashover primary school(unsure about access, ask at the school office). Along with the the stone rows, standing stones and roundhouse erected by the school. Quite mad.

A real Beaut....you’ll not come across owt like it.
When following the Path from Barbrook one, look for the small cairns that sit by the path, there’s an excellent small, restored, kerb cairn on the right hand side of the path before you get to this stone circle.

John Barnatt reckoned the circle to have been designed so that it could accurately mark all the major solar and lunar events throughout the calendar.
He suggested the circle had 8 outliers and, using these stones and the cairn above the circle, each event aligned to a landscape feature that marked such an event
In a way, the sad thing is.... Barnatt changed his mind several years later....

A good attempt to present an opened barrow by EH, suprisingly untouched/unvandalised considering its accessibility. Has the earth bank been rebuilt? Visit this then go on to Hetty Peglers Tump for the real thing!

A planned detour on the way to Cornwall. I first stopped at the easily accessible Nymphsfield Long Barrow – a picnic place with an ice-cream van! Then on to HPT. This is a gem! Not so easily accessible as NLB to the casual visitor, but well, well worth seeking out. Some kind visitor even left a candle (no matches though). The interior is quite and comtemplative, sit for a while and enjoy the stillness. At time of visit (march 2002) the chambers were carpeted with dry leaves and shimmering with condensation. Great place!

This is a Yorkshire stone!
It’s big and brash and where it shouldn’t be.
How the hell this fella survived the building of the church and graveyard beats me.
This is a world class standing stone both for its height and its Yorkshire balls for surviving to tell the tale.
Like all big fellas, he’s got a little mate tucked away in the corner of the boneyard, just sat there squat and watching.
Go check him out, he will not fail to impress you.

The Howe sits over the village, it is big and dominating and doesn’t care who knows it. I don’t get any nice vibes here. We hang around for just long enough to take the place in and then move on.
This is not Willy Howe, I hear no music here.

The first stop on a sunday odessy for me and the bairn Timmo.
The sheep in these fields are nutters, they run at you! maybe it’s because they’re lambing or maybe its because they’re Yorkshire Fighting Sheep I dunno but it freaked me and the lad.
Just a short walk to the stones and the view is lovely, Robin Hood’s Bay is framed by the surrounding moors and big fat sky.
The ambience is built upon by the cries of a pair of curlew who judging by their noise must have a nest near-by.
The stones are lovely, all three of them, three different characters. There must have been more, there is a plentiful supply of local stone and some big fellas have been tucked into the local walls. For me, these three will do, a very happy trio.
There is possibly a number of cupmarks on the most westerly stone on the outer face.
Yeh a lovely place.

After Willy Howe I found Ba’l Hill a bit of a let-down. It was fairly small compared to Willy and Duggleby. We have mounds this size on the North York Moors.
I couldn’t really see it’s place in the landscape.
Coolest of names, but left me confused.

Me and Tim (my indentured dodman) visited Willy Howe on the way back from Rudston on a lovely sunday afternoon. Tim was greatly amused by the name.
You can’t miss it in the chalk, wold landscape, the thought crossed my mind that the landscape was very feminine with it’s broad rollings and undulations.
If this is the landscape of the goddess then she’s a big lass.
The trees on its flanks were just coming into bud and there was a lovely show of daffs on one side. Spring had sprung on Willy Howe, a very sexy place.

I passed this site totally by chance.

I just noticed it over a hedge as I approach the clapper bridge at Delford.

I took several photos with zoom lense from the road side.

Looking at the stone from different angles it looks to me like a fallen Quoit stone, other stones scattered around it would add weight to this theory.

Looking on the map I found that the neighbouring farms go by the names
Penquite, South Penquite, Best Penquite, Higher Penquite and Lower Penquite

“Pen” = Hill or Head “quite” could be a corruption of quoit

hence: Quoit on the hill
Anyone agree?

Phil

The cave is situated half way up a quarry wall in a small limestone quarry about 50 yards from the ford of the Hodge Beck. The muddy path proves the site is visited but this does not detract from the general ambience. The cave is about 18 foot up from the quarry floor but is an easy climb me and my five year old lad, Timmo managed it with ease. Once you have crawled into the cave (torch required) the roof rises gradually and the cave splits in two.
We were reluctant to go past this point, but the there appears to be lots of cave futher in.
The nearby Hodge Beck is worth exploring as is the most excellent St Gregors Minster which is probably the most perfect church I have ever seen and is only a five minute walk from the cave.
Kirkdale is beautiful and will not fail to impress you.

Nestled in a very private spot, Capel Garmon has a beautiful air of tranquility. The hum of farm equipment in the distance doesn’t detract from this place. The Gorsedd stone, as described in TMA, is just one part of a complex of hidden spots which must all have had there part within this sacred landscape.

A beautiful place. From the path below the circle isn’t at all visible. However from the entrance the view to the valley beyond is very clear, making this an excellent spot.

On our visit (24/3/2) as we approached the site, a couple were on their way down. Both looked a bit flushed and were just finishing their cigarettes. They giggled as we passed. If you’re reading this:

We know what you were doing! :-)

A tranquil little spot at the centre of the village. Worth a visit en route to or from Capel Garmon. The churchyard itself is worth further investigation – there are three huge, presumably very old, yew trees, two of which it is possible to climb inside, which is nice.

Sorting through old photos, I’ve been reminded that in June 1996 me and my wife had a memorable day in Avebury. Went round all the Avebury sites for the first time in glorious weather. Felt sad for the party of little schoolkids who were all wearing Foreign Legion style hats to protect their skin because the ozone layer is fucked. Saw what seemed to be a gang of people in the distance making a crop circle in a field overlooking the long barrow. Had a laugh at an American bloke and his family in the main circle, because within 1 minute of giving them a reverent pep talk about the age, mystery of the stones etc, he then stood by while his additive-addled kids raised merry hell by fighting round, climbing on, and kicking the shit out of the stones.

Then back at Avebury caff, met Julian, his partner and little girl. My wife didn’t recognise him but I did, but I wasn’t going to let on or tell her – since I thought he probably didn’t want to be pointed at. He spoke about his research for the Modern Antiquarian, and was bloody hilarious about the gerroff-my-land farmers and their scabby dogs he’d had to cope with when doing the research (he showed us the bitten leg...).

My wife took a photo of his little girl playing in the garden, because she was very cute. I think I clocked Julian’s partner looking disapproving at this, although in her defence, she didn’t know who they were. In fact, it’s finding the photo that’s reminded me of all this – if Julian (but NO-ONE else) wants a scan of it for the album, he’s welcome to it.

I read a report in the paper next day about how someone had painted squiggles all over the stones in the avenue, and how it was must have been done just after we were there, and wondered if it was anyone I’d seen, maybe the crop circle people...

Having parked the car on the verge (my rookie boyfriend: ‘Isn’t there a car park or something’ hoho but he is keen and in training) and negotiated the mud in my unhelpfully flared trousers, turned the corner at the barn to spy the dolmen perching in a lively manner in its field. Seems strange to be in the valley – but what a top spot. Just as we approached the farmer drove between us and it with his tractor spraying christknows what over the wheat(?). I didn’t feel that paranoid about the prospect of skipping over his crops in full view, but what I didn’t fancy was the thought of the vile stuff he’d just sprayed wafting all over me in the process. As boyfriend remarked between coughs, it smelt like scampi fries. Could have been merely fertiliser I suppose but whether liquid fish or organophosphate it certainly set us to thinking about the state of our food and how although an organic loaf doesn’t look so different it probably contains quite different chemicals. But anyway. The devil’s den was fantastically quiet (a world away from Avebury) and I am determined to come back to experience it properly very soon. The setting is perfect; it must have looked fantastic surrounded by flax.

There are two barrows – one low and spread out and another more impressive hillock in the adjacent field. The barrows lie very close to a confluence of rivers – the Ribble, the Calder and the Hodder. This is surely the reason for these mounds location. The Ribble is associated with the river goddess Belisma and Calderstones, the name of an ex-mental hospital about a mile away, suggests that there was may have been more sites in this area.

What a site.
Different from any other!

If you want come by car, we managed to park near the end of the road at Casehill or if you want to come from the south you should be able to pull over on the road that crosses Emblance downs leading towards the water works.

The route from all directions is quite dry under foot.
(Mind you, the footpath from Lower Candra looked a bit sticky)

Tricky one to get to due to fences, stone hedges and cattle.

I was visiting Arthurs hall and it was too close to miss out.

Much more impressive than the ruined circle on Arthurs downs.

footnote
I’m not sure on the rights of access but I didn’t cause any damage or frighten any animals. There is gate to the field from the west, (which I found on the way out).

No ones sure wether this is a ruined or uncompleted henge, or the result of stone quarrying. The Ditches lay just West of Gib Hill.

Armed with our map we went in search of this site in the fog,again, does the fog just follow us or are we been paranoid?, then bang, the four stones appeared in front of us, inviting us to greater things, were they some kind of entrance originally?, who knows.They felt like it to us. The fog isolated us from the world around us, but by no means spoilt the thrill of this place, of a matter of fact it enhanced our visit, this surely would have been how our ancestors saw this place on a regular basis, and this made me feel closer to the past than I have ever felt, it even made me want to get really native, but it was to cold!!!!!!!!!!, dispite some active encouragemment from my girlfriend. We strolled inside the circle with glee in our hearts, this felt really real. Well worth it.

A wonderfull little circle, after a couple of misty days hunting for other sites finally on 22/03/02 we were blessed with a warm clear day. This place is pretty easy to locate and when we did we were rewarded. After walking past the run down house we came to the gate and there she was, even at a distance you could almost hear it welcoming you. This circle radiated a warm welcoming that no beast could refuse, so on we went. In the middle I got my usual feeling of peace and serenity that I always do in these great monuments, where as my girlfriend descibed it as “A cuddley circle”,and who am I to argue?, shes closer to these things than MAN can be. This place is not as daunting as its larger relatives, and its size should not put anybody off from visiting it, good things come in small packages.

Oh, this place of extreme weather,it seems that Rough Tor does not want to be visited on this day,21/03/02, as we approached from the car park the moor was clear.We started to climb then the mist decended with avengance, but with compass and O/S map this was not a problem, but I would`nt recommend it, my girlfriend has complete faith in me but she got a little scared. Finally we got to the top and could`nt see for more than 20 feet in front of us but it was worth it, we clapped our eyes on the rocking stone and all we could do was stand in ore, its a monster. We spent only 10 minutes in its company(due to to mist getting thicker)before heading back to the car. This is one place that has to be visited if you do no other. But we highly recommend the chessewring as well, happy hunting all.

Hard to find, after a wade thru’ the heather along Bamford Edge. The circle has no remaing stones, a well preserved bank but averaging only 1ft in height, helping to hide it in the heather.