Latest Fieldnotes

Despite this being the land of my fathers and this area in particular the scene of happy childhood memories February 2000 was my first visit to an RSC.

We grumbled our way through the surrounding stands of stultifying conifers (farming telegraph poles is the finest way possible to wreck local flora and fauna while providing tax dodge fat profits for absentee investors ), we glanced at the notice board, looked around and were stunned by this place.

Its in wonderful condition, not just in the physical restoration but also in a strong sense of a continuity of use.

Neither a desolate ruin nor a sterile reconstruction, but a vibrant place. The other half summed it up by saying that in some places the old ways die hard, and come back brighter. That seemed right.

The alien (to my eyes) appearance of flankers, recumbent, inner cairn stones and small central cleared circle left a deep impression. Standing in that inner circle was a dizzying experience.

The notion of a priest caste using its knowledge of lunar cycles to advise a crop dependent culture hit home loud and clear, I could almost see the old buggers at it. I was interested to read the earlier entry by Merrick who also found the site conducive to producing strong mental pictures.
Something else came whistling back over the years to me. A little anti establishment rant, Scottish style.

See the smoking bowl before us,
Mark our jovial ragged ring,
Round and round take up the chorus,
And in rapture loudly sing.

What is title what is treasure ?
What is reputations care ?
If we lead a life of pleasure,
It is no matter how or where.

A fig for those by laws protected,
Liberty is a glorious feast.
Courts for cowards were erected,
Churches built to please the priests.

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

It wasn’t just the sheep that were flocking around these – there were plenty of folk who’d made it a stop-off as they toured the area.

I was keeping an eye out for the ice cream van as we tip-toed over the boggy marsh with the help of the trouser-saving wooden walkways to inspect the mounds.

They’ve been lovingly restored which to my mind takes away little of their mystery. It allows you to clamber inside and get a real feel for them – even my Mum couldn’t resist it.

We ventured into the one with the tallest passage – it being wet underfoot and lacking in swimwear. The narrow passageway led into a wider chamber where it was actually possible to stand. Light filtered through the clear ceiling making it possible to see exactly what was inside.

It was like a stone igloo with a large, flat stone leaning backwards on the outer wall. I felt like we could have sat and leant against it for a time looking out through the tunnell.

However, sense got the better of us and we crawled back out to the warmth of the car. Who says modern life is rubbish!

Driving round the north east coast of Scotland feels like nearing the end of the world. Devoid of the gigantic scenery that makes its opposite highland coast so popular, it has a less obvious appeal – its charms much subtler.

However, I was eager to reach the target but have to admit to being a tad disappointed. Lured by visions of 200 stones standing proud on a hilltop I pounded up the path to reach the spot.

Instead of great monoliths (I’ll do my homework next time) I was confronted with what resembled a low-rise rockery of higgledy-piggledy stones no more than a foot high at best sloping down towards the coast.

What is intriguing is that its purpose remains unearthed. Once thought to be a collection three times the size, the most likely guesses put the site down as a tool for the agricultural calender.

It’s a lonely spot and not one in which I lingered (more to do with the arrival of a couple who looked close to divorce than anything else) but its very clear in my mind’s eye as I write and well worth a visit and a ponder whatever the weather.

When I first read about the Callanish stones in The Modern Antiquarian I was fascinated but, living on the south coast, I didnÍt ever think I would see them first hand. Then a friend e-mailed me and said “Callanish, do you wanna go?” And that was that. Thanks to the internet we got loads of info and literally in one day we had made all the necessary arrangements.

We flew from Gatwick to Inverness, drove to Ullapool in a hire car, caught the ferry, drove from Stornaway and finally arrived at the Doune Braes Hotel.

We had arranged to meet Margaret Curtis the next morning, but couldn’t resist having a sneaky peek first. Nothing can describe the feeling, driving up the road, with the stones on the horizon. Then to get out and walk around was simply amazing. The best was yet to come.

To travel all that way and not meet Margaret would be foolish. She is the icing on the cake. To see the stones is one thing. Some of the things that she showed us literally, blew our minds. The alignments, the stories, the history. Those lumps of rock stuck in the ground suddenly became alive through the extent of her knowledge and her enthusiasm. We spent three hours with her and came away feeling like we’d read three books.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the stones. Staining them indelibly on our psyche. The next day we had to get the afternoon ferry back. We went back to the stones in the morning for a last look, then went to say goodbye to Margaret and Ron. As I left I got a feeling, a feeling that although I was leaving, spiritually I was still there. A feeling that told me that I would have to one day go back. For what it cost to get there I could have gone abroad for a week. I would have come home with a suntan that would be long gone by now. But I went to Callanish and came back with a feeling that will stay with me forever.

This is a quick post to bring into your consciousness a much neglected and oft passed monolith.

Hangman’s Stone is situated on the main road from Axminster to Exeter in Devon. Just past the turning to Seaton, it is situated on a grassy verge bank of the Hangman’s Stone Crossroads.

Thousands of cars pass this lonely stone each day without even realising it is there (much of the year the grass is too high to make it out properly).

The hoary old Stone seems isolated on its crossroads with little sign of any associations in the modern landscape. However, a little research has discovered a long bank and ditch structure that has almost entirely been ploughed away.

Old maps show that the structure moved away from the stone in a northerly direction, and that the combination of bank, ditch and stone was called ‘Norman’s Grave’.

I could find no mention of any of this in the local library!

So next time you are driving in that area, keep a look out for this lonely old stone and make it feel like its not forgotten.

We drove to motorway land – Kent is more the carpark of England than the garden of England. We did visit Addington, and the Chestnuts. This was a lovely, peaceful diversion. The remains of the long barrow are in a private garden. For 50p a head a personal tour was given by the owner.
The barrow has been ploughed out and no soil remains, the chamber is still there, a little dilapidated, but partly restored. The stones are large, it must have been a big barrow. The owner then produced dowsing rods and gave us a lesson. I’ve been sceptical, but something made the rods twitch and turn and cross over. Pip and I were told that a line of earth energy passed through the site.

Very near, on either side of the road is another barrow, ploughed over and shrunken and totally cut up by the road.
An eye opening site – see a Longbarrow without it’s clothes on!
And an amazing, enthusiastic, interesting woman to meet.

I drove from Southampton to Knowlton with Charlieboy – it’s the nearest of the Antiquarian sites to Southampton and it was a sunny day.

Knowlton is easy to find from a road atlas and is right at the side of the lane. It’s spectacular to look at – a ruined church inside a henge, one religion following another and in the end all gone and just the countryside left ongoing. The knarled old Yew trees at the far end of the henge give a traditional spiritual feel.

There are apparently a whole complex of henges, enclosures etc all around, possibly making one of the most important sites in Wessex, but most of it is just vaguely discernable, ploughed out.

This was Charlieboy’s first experience – a Megalithic virgin! He was well broken in by Knowlton Henge.

There is a very good site that forms part of the Stone Circle Webring – can’t remember URL or name! – which gives good detailed information about this site. What you see is a lovely little henge, a big barrow and a tiny church. Visited it by accident when at Bournemouth Uni a few years back. The site on the Web-ring reveals a much larger ritual area that points to a very complex and important site in antiquity. Well worth a visit, I found it most relaxing.

I cycled there with a friend a few weeks ago, (from Bournemouth where I live its only anbout 10 miles). A glorious sunny day, I feel this place is very unique. Of all the sites I have visited, there’s something intimate and homely about Knowlton.
We had a small picnick and a smoke (ran out of matched and had to ask two gentile mature artists painting watercolours on easels, for a light).
Two ancient Ewe trees that grow at a gap in the Henge, like living guardians either side an entrance. At the base of each, in little alcoves amongst the roots and undergrowth, were symetrical offerings of a fresh Strawberry, a Clover flower and a pretty stone.

We left with warm hearts!

I camped beside Achnabreck with my friend Ant in 96. There’s a convenient tent-sized break in the tree stumps next to the higher of the two stone outcrops. Kilmartin Valley is an amazing place. You can spend a week inwhat is a relatively small area and still not have enough time to take it all in. The landscape changes with the light and the weather and the whole vicinity is capable of sucking you in and making you feel an existence that is somehow detached from modern living. We spent many nights just watching the sea mist gradually encroaching on the valley plain below, leaving just the twinkling lights of Lochgilphead as a reminder that it was the twentieth century we were escaping from.
The carvings themselves exert a powerful pull and you would find yourself wandering back to inspect them on your own, whenever the chance arose. Taking a spray bottle filled with water is highly reccomended as this makes them stand out from the rock face itself. The only way to really see them is to climb into the fenced off areas and sit above them. It’s one of the most evocative places I’ve ever spent any time in, and one that I was afraid to revisit for two or three years in case the magic had dissipated. I needn’t have worried. It’s a very special site and all the more unspoiled for not being overrun with visitors. If you do get the chance to go there, be silent and enjoy one of the most magical sacred places in our ancient isle.

Must admit, I really enjoy every visit to Little Meg. Not sure why, it’s just so ... peaceful there. Mind you, bet it’s a bit noisy when Mr Farmer’s tearing up the soil next to meg. I’m surprised She’s still there at all.

Little Meg is such a contrast to Long Meg, just half a mile up the road, a wrecked little circle, the worse for wear on the edge of a cereal field.

She’s obviously the focus for some activity, her swirls and rings having been chalked in by someone.

A diversion, but not the whole show, thats back at Long Meg.

Travelling back fro northeast Scotland to Wessex in mid august, I stopped off to see Long Meg and her Daughters.

I had wanted to visit for ages and it doesn’t disappoint. The site is obviously set in working farmland and is so uncelebrated locally that you’d think it wasn’t worth the visit, just a few signs from the village and no mention of it locally in the tourist information. This may mean that Meg is left alone but it’s a striking contrast to Aberdeenshire where the monuments are celebrated and I was left wondering if this wonder is appreciated.

I was amazed at the size of the stone circle, it’s probably the biggest but it has a huge presence; the stones are much bigger than I imagined and there is just a feeling of bulk. Unlike Avebury you can take the whole thing in in one visual image and it makes sense as a panorama, maybe that’s where the impression of size comes from.
I visited evening and morning, drizzly and sunny. Somehow it seemed to wear the damp evening better.

Walking through the double stoned entrance away fro the circle you come quickly to Long Meg, apart and aloof, slightly to the side of what would be an avenue – it’s hard not to imagine a ‘sister on the other side of this hypothetical avenue. Otherwize, where’s the symmetry?

Visiting Long Meg is a huge experience, it was so less celebrated than I thought it could be and yet so much bigger and grander than I expected.

The mettled farm road cutting right through it seems so bizarre, who would build a road through something so impressive? At least the stones weren’t used as hardcore. They have obviously been seen as important enough to leave well alone, to graze around and to build around, but to basically leave well alone.

Broad Down Necropolis – South-East Devon

Broad Down Necropolis is a three-mile long linear barrow cemetry set in the South East Devon countryside. Largely neglected in modern times it’s fame is reduced to a series of ‘tumuli’ marked in the Ordnance Survey map (192).

In its orginal entirety this extensive site would have looked very different, as the number of barrows still identifiable are very few in comparison. There is also the possibility that a number of these barrows may well have had stone circles associated with them (Fox, 1948; see also Burl, 1974).

Also in the area are a number of sites identified as Flint Circles (Farway, and White Cross) although I have not had chance to visit these sites to verify if there are any remains.

The OS co-ordinates for the current extent of the cemetry are:

N – 192.148.974
S – 192.173.933
E – 192.177.946
W – 192.143.962

other sites in the area are:
Blackbury Castle
Hangman’s Stone (I will endeavour to post a separate entry)
Hembury Fort
Woodbury Fort
Site of Seven Stone Circle (Sidmouth)
Sidbury Fort

Older maps show the extent of the destruction of the site as barrows have been ploughed under, and a mysterious stone that is marked on the map and surrounded by barrows (1979 edition of Pathfinder series – SY09/19) seems to have either been moved or destroyed. I have found no mention of this stone elsewhere.

Another old map (thanks to Morfe for URL!) shows a mysterious feature called ‘Ring-in-the-Mire’ (est. 192.154.958) which appears where barrows appear on present maps. This is in a different location to the Stone Circles of Fox (1948), again, I 
have not had the chance to do a bit of field walking to check this out further.

From my very limited investigation into this area, it is clear to me that this was once a very important area of the country.

It seems it has suffered from a lack of recorded history and fame compared to the sites at Winterbourne to the east, Salisbury plain to the north-east and Dartmoor to the west. This little post is my attempt to get it back into the nation’s consciousness (at least to some extent).

It is possible to view many of the existing barrows by using the small roads in the area (there are two goods barrows in a triangular field at Roncombe Gate). It is worth noting that all the current sites are on farm-land and fall within the grounds of a number of different farms.

This is an area I am hoping to look at more closely, and so there may a future post with updated information.

Johan 2000

I stayed in the Fortingall Hotel and was well recieved by Dave a hotelier with a curiosity for ancient sites. Opposite the Hotel, just up the lane, in a field is a group of 3 small circles made of dumpy squat stones, close to one another in a triangle. They’re on the level, in a flat field and give a cute and friendly feel. We also visited the stones at the Appin of Dull but they were just visable in a Tatty field from the road. There is a wonderful range of different sites and monuments all around this area, different ages and states of repair and a lot of local knowledge of them.

Buy a ticket, go to Loch Tay in Perthshire, travel to the south of the lake to Acharn, walk up the signposted circular walk to the Falls of Acharn. At the top end of the walk carry on up the farm track for an hour and you will sit looking at a small, ruined stone circle, straddling a dilapilated old farm wall, high on a hill, overlooking the fabulous Loch Tay and Ben Lawers. You won’t regret it.
We did this walk, wondered if we were ever going to find the circle, had we gone the wrong way, and were about to give up when Pip spotted an upright above us on the hill. It’s totally worth it. The location is so clearly worthy of reverence and worship of whatever, that it seems no real surprise that there is a monument here and it felt a real privalage to sit there in the sun, the world at our feet.

Staying near the beautiful Loch Tay in August, I was struck by how much more aware Scots are generally about Stone Circles and Henges than my fellow Angles. Everyone i met in Perthshire seemed to tell me to go to Croft Moraig, so I went.
Excellant choice. You get used to reading about places like Stonehenge having various phases, 1 superceding the other. The excellant thing at Croft Moraig is that the phases still coexist so you have a cup marked stone and 2 concentric stone circles, mostly standing.
It’s in a small field right by the road, on a slight rise. The farm houses are very near but this doesn’t stop it being an absolute belter.

On my august tour of Aberdeen I visited a number of sites including Cullerlie. Maybe at home, on it’s own as the sole circle of a days driving, I may have loved it, on this day it was a bit of a flop, I didn’t get any real feeling from this place. It was flat and closed in by farm yards
and just lifeless.
This was the most overly restored site, large stones visibly concreted in
to the grounds and 8 little stone cairns concreted in to the centre like
Bronze age B&Q patio decorations.

I visited Loanhead of Daviot on a oneday tour including East Aquhorthies, Cullerie, Midmar Kirk and Whitehills, so I was comparing and contrasting in my head.
There is so much to see here, the large recumbant, the reerected stones, the small centre stones,the clear space inside the rubble in the middle. Then there’s the later cremation circle next to the RSC.
Walking to the site from the carpark you walk under heavy trees, quite shaded, out into the sun and a very green, lush site with all this history, just sat there.
I had a strong sense that Scotland takes it’s prehistory a lot more seriously than England/Wessex does, the signposting, preservation (maybe occasionally overpreservation) and general upkeep puts, certainly the South of England to shame on this score.
Over the past weekend I’ve visited a low profile site in Dorset and was heard to scream ‘in scotland this would be a show site,’ looked after and properly marked. Maybe both approaches have thier benefits.

I visited East Aquhorthies in August and accept that it’s tidied and spruce, but I didn’t feel that it detracted from it being a good accessable RSC that gave me a very clear view of how an upstanding RSC would look like.
Being a Wessex lad I was intrigued by the obvious difference in form between stone circles as i know them and the RSC’s. It seems hard to believe that they didn’t also have different functions from each other. I did fall in love with the RSC’s while sat here in the sun, with my back to Mithy Tap. Mithy Tap was clearly there and visable, but didn’t seem to be on any obvious alignment to the Recumbant, so I had no impression of the circle and the hill being linked in this way.
RSC’s for beginners, perfect for me and very pretty, when i later went to Whitehills, the 2 experiences complimented each other well.

I spent my august hols in Scotland and visited a number of the Aberdeenshire sites and have fallen in love with the recumbant stone circles. I did East Aquhorthies and Loanhead of Davioy and Midmar Kirk but my absolute favourite was one I came across by following the signs on the way back from visiting Midmar – Whitehills stone circle. It is on Forestry commission land, Pitfichie Forest, signposted from the road and marked on the OS map. Parking at the little public carpark at the edge of the forestry commission bit it’s a 1 mile walk, uphill along a forest road, round the bend and there she is.
I had seen the manicured show sites and this was a breath of fresh air.
Faced by trees on 2 sides, open on the other 2, logged land, it’s a wonderful location and in a fine state of disrepair. It has a 8 – 9 ft long recumbant with 1 upright flanker and one now fallen. Behind the standing flanker is a strange mini flanker, looking like a canine tooth.
Only 1 other stone stands, the others lying in heather and scrub.
There was an inner circle of small stones inside of which the centre of the circle is entirely stone, rubble, slightly heaped – slightly overgrown. There was a slightly overgrown feel to the whole place and a sense that this is what the show sites probably looked like before they were manicured and mown.
On my first visit it had the signs on the roads and i green stake marking the site. ! week later when i returned (too good not to visit twice) other signs appeared, so I hope it’s not to be over prettified, one of it’s big attractions is the fact that the vegatation is slightly wild and this does look a bit more free range than some others.
I’d love to know if this site has ever been dug/investigated.
I visited a dozen or so circles in Aberdeenshire and around about, but visiting this site stuck out as the absolute highlight.

Well would you Adam and Eve it (v. poor), we’re in spitting distance of Avebury and we’ve got the stones all to our selves. Easy access and and well worth stopping off post Avebury.

This is a marvellous site, didn’t have long enough to work out the overall layout and ‘what was what’ but definately got a village feel. The passage way and domed ‘room’ were awsome. Some nesting birds cacked Deb who momentarilty thought they were bats. Two possible routes are given, one long one short, both are easily accessible compared to most (ie no hill or bracken).

Notes from the stones, 31 Aug 00

Harold’s Stones or The Three Stones stand just south of the village of Trellech. While it’s common for towns in Wales to have two spellings (or two different names) to relflect the two common languages used there, on the six mile road from Monmouth to Trellech we saw the roadsigns spelling the town’s name four different ways! Local historians say there are eighteen spellings. The Modern Antiquarian says the name means ‘three stones’, but ‘tre/tri’ means ‘place of’ as well as ‘three’ (as in Treherbert, etc). Either way, the village is clearly named after the standing stones.

The stones are in ascending order of height and stand in a line about 5 metres apart, very close together for an alignment. The small one is a ‘normal’ standing stone – it stands perpendicular to the ground and has a wide edge and a narrow edge. The narrow edge faces the other two.

The other two are squared, having no obvious edge-face and flat-face. As I stand here with my back against the smallest one, the middle one is leaning out to the right at an angle of about 75 or 80 degrees, and the far one leans to the left at about 60 degrees. It doesn’t feel like especially boggy ground or a field that gets waterlogged much (it stands above the adjacent road), so it seems doubtful that the stones have tipped, and quite possible that they were placed at these crazy angles.

The base of the almost laughably phallic tall stone doesn’t lean at the same angle as the rest of the stone; even if this first metre and a half were at 90 degrees, the main part of the stone ould still be leaning at 70 degrees or so. This one has clearly been designed to be leaning, which suggests that the middle one was too.

The puddingstone they’re made of is pebbles held together with a natural cement. The amount of pebbles in each stone varies; The small one looks like sandstone with the occasional pebble, there are far more in the middle stone. The tall one has so many that it looks like a 1970s council pebbledashing job.

It’s been suggested that the stones are aligned with the winter solstice on the holy mountain of The Skirrid.

The church in Trellech is also a curious place. There’s a sundial at the back by the vestry (an indoor sundial?!) whose base is a lot older than the sundial part on top. Three sides of the base are carved. One side has the three stones and the legend ‘Maior Saxis hic fuit victor Harald’. A second side is carved with a circular dip representing The Virtuous Well, an ancient holy well just east of the village. On a third side is carved a rounded lump and ‘magna mole’, representing Tump Terret, 300 metres south of the church along the ancient trackway that is still a public footpath. Coming from the stones, it’s just over the road and behind the cattleshed of the farm. The Modern Antiquarian says it is a ‘likely prehistoric mound’, but given its dimensions, I’m inclined to agree with local historians that it is a Norman motte.

Even the embroidered prayer cushions in the church are interesting – featured designs include a Celtic cross, and on another the Three Stones.

The red stone cross in the churchyard is also extraordinary. The church itself dates from the 13th (or possibly early 14th) century, but there was a wooden church on the site since at least the 7th century. Church historians confidently speculate that the stone cross predates even the oldest church building here, and write, ‘romantics may picture priests of the Celtic church (continuous in this area right from Roman times) ringing their handbells to summon the faithful to open-air worship inside the holy enclosure’. Beside the base of the cross is an ancient altar carved with Celtic crosses.

The base of the cross is five concentric layers of stone blocks ascending in a pyramid. The cross and the base stones contain white rocks, like the standing stones. Clearly this place was still of great religious significance, because the Christians made it such a constant focal point.

Notes from the stone, 30 Aug 00

The rocking stone does indeed still rock, although you have to stand on top and bob up and down to make it happen. The stone is heavily carved with initials and names. The bench I’m sat on has a plaque in front of it quoting from the Book of Psalms saying how great the Christian God is.
The ‘fine rushing stream’ of the Modern Antiquarian’s gazeteer is now some slightly damp rock, but the poetic power and pagan significance of the presence of a stream next to such a remarkable stone that looks out over a place where two rivers meet and valleys run off in four directions is great. It is not difficult to mentally erase the dual carriageway whoosing below and the town and see the tremendous natural magificence of this place.

And there’s more to this place than the Rocking Stone. Pontypridd Common, which the stone is on, has numerous stones the same kind of size, shape and colour as the rocking stone, huge table/altar-like boulders that really draw the eye and grab the imagination.

Some 200 metres away, following the path northwards along the edge of the hillside towards an obelisk monument, you come to a football pitch sized area of mown grass. Just at the start of this on your right is a stone circle about 15 metres across. When this dates from I’ve no idea; circles are still being built in Wales, and indeed there’s a recent one around the rocking stone. But the stones at this circle feel somewhat older; there are stones missing, and lichens growing on those that remain. They stand only half way up my shin at the largest, and several look broken off.

In the centre is an open cist about a metre deep and two metres long. It’s slightly tapered to the south, with a rounded boulder at the north end of pinkish grey granite-type stone.

This doesn’t feel like a recent thing to me; recent stone circles are in good condition, and wouldn’t be made with missing stones, damaged stones and an opened cist. In fact although I know of many modern stone circles, I’ve never heard of anyone making a small simple cist. This place doesn’t have enough posing to it to be really modern. Anyone know any facts about this circle?