Latest Fieldnotes

A Bronze Age Enclosure. The Bank and ditch, which are about 30 metres across and are well defined.

No public right of access but the site can be seen from the road through the gate which is only a few metres from the South West edge.

Don’t like to be fussy but it is pronounced row (as in argument).

To get to Roughtor drive to Camelford and head SE, a single track road takes you out to a car park(look out for the big dipper !!) and from ther it is a good walk up to the tor. On your way you will pass many hut circles, head for the left end of the tor as it is easier to ascend the top from there.

Don’t miss the Charlotte Drymond memorial stone to the right of the ford just below the carpark. A modern day menhir.

15 Dec 2001

It is one of those days on the moor when there is not a cloud in the sky but it is bitterly cold. Driving from south coast to north coast I decided to take a detour and ended up here. The stones are easy to find, walk up the track from the works gate and they are on your right. Shame about the clay works, they are supposed to be closing down but will no doubt be worked for waste products in near future. The circle is perfect, one can imagine what it was like years ago before the works was here, sitting in the shadow of roughtor (which is looking amazing today). I wonder why it was sited here? what was destroyed by the clay works? any thoughts.
A large flock of sheep decide they should check me out, one inparticuler with a black face and large twirly horns keeps a close eye on me all the time I am within the circle. She never goes more than 4ft away , but no closer....if i move she moves......
will post photos when I get film back

Fingal’s Stone (AKA Final’s Grave)
July 1995
This stone is to be found in the field just behind the school house in Killin. This small stone (less than 1 m high) looks like it has been pieced together from about three different stones! It’s a small triangular block and you can clearly see a join near the top where apparently a smaller stone was fixed to it- was it just too small originally?!

Glencorse Cup and Ring Marked Stone

Visited twice- first time in winter 1993. This red sandstone slab lies next to the church tower of Glencorse Parish Church. The boulder has about 26 cupmarks, 10 of which are cup and ring.

Directions
Take the A702 Biggar road south out of Edinburgh and pass both Boghall and Easet Howgate farms. Take the next road left just about opposite the track up to Castlelaw souterrain. Follow the winding (and steep) road down towards Milton Bridge, the church being round the corner at Milton Bank before the road joins the A701.

Crichton Mains Souterrain
Winter 1990
I first found out about this place after one of my mates had sold his camper van to a guy who was into battle re-enactments and who had a local historical knowledge. So- on one of our mad Sunday afternoon outings we all piled out here. We knew it was in a field somewhere east of Crichton village and under some pylons. Luckily, the time of the year we visited the field was kinda bare and the big grassy clump gave the spot away. We strode out across the field with much gusto and determination completely oblivious to actually owned it! The entrance is really small and low- but the chamber itself is about 15 m long in the form of an arc with the ceiling about 2 m high. This structure has a great number of Roman dressed blocks that were used in its constriction and one of the ceiling lintels still has a rough Pegasus carved on it (the emblem of Legio II Augusta). It’s though that the material possibly came from an adjacent military Roman road-post. Anyways- we all piled into the structure and were sitting in the quiet darkness soaking up the atmosphere when all of a sudden a thunderstorm broke overhead. We all took one look at each other and clambered out as fast as possible- I’ve never since seen half a dozen grown men move so fast!
PS- be sure to visit Crichton Castle at NT380612- a cracker!

Directions
From Edinburgh head south-east to Dalkeith. Take the A68 out of Dalkeith to Pathhead, then the B6367 on the right. Go through Crichton (blink and you’ll miss it!) and take the next road left. The souterrain is in the field on the right past the small woods and under the pylons. Be sure and ask permission at one of the farms-not sure which- woops!

Castlelaw Souterrain, fort and settlement

I’ve visited this site on about 6 or 7 occasions at various times of the year- from glorious summers days spent in the Pentland Hills to sheet ice and waist deep snow. I first visited this souterrain when I was still at school, catching a bus to Hillend and walking the rest of the way- it was another I was inspired to see after reading a description in ‘Scotland Before History’ by Stuart Piggot. The roof has been re-built with the not-so-nice concrete and thick glass tiles finish. The roof was thought to originally have been constructed partly from timber, which is kinda unusual for a souterrain. The main chamber is really quite big- over 20 m long and about 2 m high- being able to walk inside a souterrain as opposed to crawling or stooping- a rare treat! Halfway along the main passage is another small chamber big enough to crawl into and stand in. Finds here have included Roman glass and iron as well as a bronze buckle with Celtic ornamentation and the site has been dated to approx 2 CE.

Directions
Take the A702 Biggar road south out of Edinburgh as it hugs the countours of the Pentlands. Pass Boghall and Easter Howgate farms, the track to the site is just after the latter on the right hand side of the road. Follow the track uphill- there’s parking at the top.

So we drive straight past it the first time, missing it entirely for the frankly rather feeble (but much better signposted) Nymphsfield Long Barrow, long since ploughed over and destroyed. A hint: park at the small gap where the sign (for “Uley Long Barrow”) is. It’s then a short trek over the fields to get there.

And wow, this rivals West Kennet anyday. It’s much more intimate, yet almost more majestic. Maybe because it’s on less of a grand scale. Crawling in over the gravel, it’s a marvel to be able to almost stand. Suddenly the world is quiet and dark. Sit in one of the central chambers (bring a torch) and just soak it all up. It’s perched just on the edge of a Cotswolds escarpment, and it’s nice to be able to think that it would be able to be viewed from the valley floor even now if the trees were cut back a little. And the shape of it is so distinctly feminine.

A sad sign of progress, though: “Hi Julian” scraped onto the British Heritage plate on the gate. .

Wright’s Houses (AKA Borthwick Mains) Standing Stone
Sunday 9/12/01 3:30pm
On an amazing and glorious Winters afternoon myself and Fiona set off from the nearby town of Gorebridge in search of this stone. We parked at the crossroads just past Wright’s Houses and set off along the road looking for the stone. We walked for a fair bit before I checked the map and realised that we must have gone right past it! We retraced our steps, climbing up the embankment at the roadside to check the field for any signs of megaliths. Then, tucked away and nestled in the prickly hedge we found it! The top of the stone looks like it has some deep hollows on it, but hard to tell due to the thick blanket of moss and the thorns in the hedge stopping me getting a closer look ;) I stood and looked round n round at the land- this site is near the souterrain at Crichton, but not within visibility of each other. Then Fiona pointed out the setting sun- ha- this wee stone was facing the sun going down in a ridge between the distant hills- lovely! We watched the sun dip down out of view, then chatted to a woman on horseback who’d just come along the country road. She passed this site regularly and thought it was maybe a mile stone and was pleasantly surprised to hear it was rather a bit older. On the way back to Gorebridge we stopped at the side of the road to admire the most fantastic view of the Pentlands and all of Edinburgh laid out before us in splendid Winter light.

This intriguing site sits in a large grassed field, between the A985 on the north and a freight railway to the south. The Tuilyies stone is visible from the main road, just west of the Torryburn roundabout.
From the site, the Firth of Forth is visible through the trees near the railway to the south.
The site consists of the main standing stone, (an 8ft., stunning, worn and cup marked thing, which sits in the field like an old flipper, or praying hands), and three smaller and less weathered boulders which sit in the field nearby.
Myself and a freind visited this site in late 1999 and hung about for a while. I took a walk around the large field to see if there were any other surprises. There is what looks like an old WW2 defensive brick built thing nearby and funny, but recent looking earthworks. There were a couple of faint undulations in the field which made me wonder.
Probably the River Forth estuary (which is about a mile away) and possibly Cairnpapple (about 10 miles to the south, on the other side of the river) were important to this place. I forgot to check the Cairnpapple thing out – I’ll make a poiint of this the next time I’m passing.

This SC is in a field behind a cottage on the main road. Some of the stones are built into the adjacent hedge, but the total is still less than nine! The photos were taken in February 1996.

Feb.2000
We almost made it.
We parked the car near the gate to the field. We squelched our way through the mud and then stopped!
There was 3 or 4 big black bulls surrounding the cairn in the middle of the field and they were staring at us.
And being townies we turned back quickstyle.
Another day?

Feb. 2000
It had been raining heavily earlier in the day and slipped on the mud and I dropped my camera into a deep pool in the rocks.
Darn that Ver.
To be honest I love the rain.
Bill Clinton said at Wimbledon that it was what makes our islands so green. And how often do we moan about it.
Bill was probably reconnecting with his ancestral roots when he talked of the pishing rain – he doesn’t live here now of course, and he doesn’t need encouragment in root connection.
JC’s theory of sacred water collection on these horizontal sheets, is so simple, and makes sense in these damp islands. Of course, the neolithic folk of Britain knew well that the rain was a lifegiver and surely the culture celebrated this big style.
What better way.
That day reminded me of the sanctity of the holy water fonts of my RC upbringing. But that’s another story.

The road seems to seperate this place from the rest of the Kilmartin sites – and all the little stones in the middle seem to seperate it from the usual stone circle thing.
I should have been paying more attention I suspect, because in retrospect, this is one of the most unusual sites I’ve been to.

Feb. 2000
This is a strong place. Could it be a compact and artistic, tribute to the linear nature of the (older??) Nether Largie cairns?
We just walked about for ages, trying to savour this place.

Feb. 2000.
We walked up the valley and visited all the cairns.
When I was posting the photos, I couldn’t remember which cairn was what.
I do remember lying in a cist on the valley floor and thinking that this was the most comfy, warm place in the world, and that I could have stayed there all day.
I sense that it bothers some folk that the alignment is not precise. This non precise alignment suggests that it is not a lunar or solar monument.
It would have been too easy to set these places in a precise straight line in the neolithic and the valley is in pretty much a straightish line anyway.
Maybe the decisions were made to have the line slightly out of kilter, as a compromise, or a deliberate quirk of the precise – cos that is sometimes what does work.

17/12/01 -I was just thinking about the rough SSW-NNE alignment of the cairns, the river, the valley and the Dunaad footprint (Iwas just reading the Dunaad entry from Gyrus).
The geology and subsequently the rivers and lochs of the whole of the Dalriadic Kingdom and indeed the whole of North Western Scotland follows this alignment. The most important journeys would have been in this direction, by foot and boat along the great sea lochs, glens and freshwater lochs. Look at any map of Scotland and it’s there. These journeys in peace and war, would have been physical and spiritual journeys at the time they were made, and would have become the stuff of legend and ritual.
Everything would have been in that alignment, such is the almost inpenetrable and fjord like nature of the sides of these great valleys. Even the Gulf Stream, which today brings much of West Scotlands weather (and I assume has for thousands of years) would have roughly followed this alignment.
Most of the storms, thoughts, dreams, fears, plans and total conciousness, would have all been in this direction, here and in much of the North West highlands.

just a thought?!

We visited this place in Feb. 2000.
I dont know what this is.
And I dont have theories that set me on fire.
But one thing is for sure – this is a very amazing place and I’m glad we came here.

We visited this site 2 years ago. It occurred to me that this may have been a very important place, given it’s situation in the Earn Valley.
Dundurn, just up the valley, was an important place 2000 years ago, certainly, and probably was for a long time before. This place was apparently at the border of the pictish and celtic kingdoms and has no doubt marked a boundary between the rugged highland westlands, and the fertile farmlands on the east since the neolithic.
This site is marked on the map as a former circle and now just the 2 stones remain.

I know nothing of this place.
We visited this stunning site 2 years ago, and I’ve bored people since with my pure enthusiasm since.
I’ve not seen this place as an entry in any gazzeteer or anything, but it deserves to be mentioned and not for the the usual compact aesthetics and feelings that other places have.
This whole hillside has the feel of one monument – and a powerful one at that! It is a must when visiting Perthshire!
Visit the stone on the green valley floor as a pre cursor and make your way up the hill to the first stone (a powerful thing that belies it’s 5 foot presence). Off up to the left and there is a MF of a thing which dominates the valley from all directions. This 12ft monster is surrounded by what looks likes untampered cists.
Sitting in a hollow in the hillside is a vicious stone at a terrible angle and then further south is a 6 footer with nearby untampered cists, marking the end of this special monument.
Every stone is visible from at least on other in the hillside and that seems to be important.
I can’t say enough about this whole place and what it did to me, and it was not all love and peace !
Next time I come here, I intent to visit the stones at Dalchirla, just down the valley.

I had driven all day from Leeds to a business appointment in Swindon. After my meeting, I took my chances to make my pilgimmage to Avebury before dark. I made it. It was November, cold, wet and dusk – and perfect for the first ever visit to Avebury. I was totally blown away as I wandered through the stones in the half light cutting a bizarre figure in my black suit. I could smell woodsmoke and the church bells rang out four times. The stones were wet, their presence awesome and I  explored this ancient place alone. I left in the dark, with the painfully long drive ahead far from my mind. I’ll be back.

It took us ages to find this place. It’s one of those places which requires orienteering skills to get there – a real quest.
According to the map there were 2 stones – we could only find 1, but according to the Ancient Scotland website, the other stone was under a fallen tree right beside us.
We visited on a cold January afternoon in 2000.
The stones are in the middle of a clear row in a Forestry commision forest. The place is totally sound insulated due to the trees, and this adds an eerieness.
Before the trees, this site would have had great views, as it sits on top of a gentle hill. A young River Carron rushes a few hundred metres to the North.
I want to go back and see the other stone.

I think this might have been the first neolithic site I went to, when I was about ten. My mum was showing the local sites to an American friend of the family, Kate Ascher. I remember this so well, because Kate’s visits were a highlight for us – she seemed uninhibited and free, more so than anyone else we’d met in our fairly restrictive council estate and R.C. upbringing. I also remember her as a humble and benevolent person. She later told us that she thought we were all referring to the ‘local hills’ when we talked about the Ochil Hills. Anyway I think me and my little brother were wearing the NY Yankees t-shirts that Kate had brought over, and we went for lunch at the Sheriffmuir Inn. I remember I was intrigued and a bit worried about the [one remaining] standing stone and there was talk of witchcraft and rituals.

I didn’t know, until a few years ago when I was looking at the OS Landranger, that this place was actually a stone row of five stones, of which only one remains upright.
On closer inspection, this site turns out to be very unusual.
The stones are almost perfectly aligned, roughly SW-NE. The most northerly stone looks as though it would have been the tallest, standing at about 10 feet tall. The second one is still standing at 6 foot, and is called the Wallace Stone (see folklore). The middle stone would have been around five feet tall. The fourth stone has split into two and would have been about seven feet tall. The south stone has cup markings.
The stones are all almost evenly spaced, being about a hundred metres apart.
When I last visited with a friend last year, we found animal bones and an animal skull around the stone.
The site is on rough, exposed, heathered moorland on the western shoulder of the Ochil Hills.

We drove past this circle in the summer of 2000. It sits on a steady steep slope, high above the NW side of Loch Tay. I recall taking my eye off the road and seeing a strange, small, boulder like circle.
I’ll have a proper look when I visit Kinnell in Killin hopefully soon.

8/6/02
We parked down at the horn-carvers shop just down the hill at Lawers.
This strange little circle is in beautiful place high up above the loch, with views of the water stretching up to the north-east and down the the south-west. The mighty Ben Lawers was only partially visible behind the circle on the day we visited.

The circle sits on what looks like a levelled platform which has been built up on one side of the slope. Inside the circle there are many small stones just below the undergrowth which might be broken parts of this partially destroyed monument or might be a kind of cairn – it’s hard to tell- these small stones and indeed the whole monument are more visible in Martin’s photo taken in 1986.

I went to cuween in may 2000 and was completey blown away. This seems to be the most genuine and untouched of the orkney sites (that isn’t to detract from the enourmous awe inspiring nature of the whole orkney landscape).

Whilst in the chamber, I was crawling on my knees, feeling around and my hand came across what felt like small twig wedged between the lower slabs of stone and the floor. Without thought, I picked it up and continued to experience the mood.

Once outside, I looked at the twig and saw that it was a thin small bone with a sharpened end opposite a knuckle end- “probably from somebody’s piece of cold chicken” I thought and chucked it away feeling annoyed that someone could have left litter in such an amazing place.

the next day I was in the Skara Brae visitors centre and saw the bone awls found there – thin bones with one sharp end opposite a knuckle end probably used to make holes in hides and leather ................... doh.

Barely visable it seems to have virtually sunk in the peat!