Latest Fieldnotes

The Bridestones are one of the few megalithic sites between Derbyshire and Wales and are well worth a visit if you can put up with incessant dog barking and the occasional Curious Cow. Two big flanking uprights infront of a roofless burial chamber, curious for its porthole stone: one of only five or so known from the UK. While you’re there go for a walk on the cutely named Cloud: fantastic views across the north Midlands and you can tell your mates you went for a walk in the Clouds....

If you’re on the Lleyn, looking at the burial chambers there, search for this standing stone. It’s in the graveyard of a (ruined) chapel and is over 2m high. It stands by the side of the path to the chapel and looks like a megalithic interloper, disguising its Pagan past amongst the gravestones.

The second largest stone circle in Britain, 8 miles from the City and yet no one goes there... A quiet spot by the river with three (count ‘em) circles, two avenues and outlying stones: a variation on Avebury, but nobody goes... The largest timber circle in the country and a Cove in a pub beer garden and nobody goes.... It IS lovely though.

This little monument is often overlooked but is one of the very few Midland Megaliths. Near the village of Mucklestone, two stones lie in a hedge: an upright about 2m high next to a holed stone about 2m across with a hole c.50cm in diameter cut into it. The stones appear to have been moved to the hedge from the nearby field and may have formed a stone setting similar to that at Men an Tol in Cornwall.

A beauty of a cairn in the style of Silbury Hill and the Marlborough Mound. Stunning views in all directions and the site is in the highest concentrations of round barrows in North Wales. In her new book “Prehistoric Wales”, Frances Lynch thinks there may be a large passage grave lurking beneath the mound.

Roughting Linn means “bellowing like a bull” and this site truely bellows at you but you must get there soon as it is fast dissappearing.
The site itself is a vast block of sandstone covered in carvings, if the weather is hot take some water to pour on the carvings, this will bring them out.
I have visited the site over a number of years and seen the not so gradual decay and erosion of the carvings. Don’t be put of by this though, there is still enough there to make this probably the most important rock art site in England.
If you do go , please do not walk on the rock, I have placed a hex on any vandals who desecrate the site with their daisy roots so be aware pilgrim !

Long Meg has the lot, hard to find unless you come from the right direction, still in the working landscape, (thankfully) no English Heritage here. A beautiful big circle with Long Meg watching over her daughters.

Long Meg bears the signature of her creators, a pair of concentric circles carved on her side, which she wears proudly. Go seek her out, she will not disappoint you.

Got to be one of the most evocative and beautiful areas of the world.
travel south down the devils causeway passing many sites within a small area and arrive at old bewick. Bewick means bee farm
and last time I was there i saw a wild bees nest just sitting on a tree,
touching the past or what ?
Climb the hill and step into prehistory.
The landscape is rich in the prehistoric landmarks, but Old Bewick is more than that, you can see the hands of the ancients in the living rocks.
Whats there ? A reinstated Bronze age burial, a ritual complex / hillfort
The mindblower though is the most beautiful set of carvings you could ever want to see, concentric circles cups, channels, the full bifta.
All set in the mostest abience, you’ll not want to leave.
Old Bewick, it’s a gasser.

Julian’s description of this site in the Modern Antiquarian intrigued me so while I was in the area over the Summer Solstice, I made a point to visit. This place has one of the most incredible views ever. Some people might not even realise that it is a long barrow, but that is not the point with this place. This is a place of position, and to make the climb and get to the top is a wonderful experience. Once you are there, it a place to stay for hours which is exactly what I did. I was by myself, family and friends staying back at Avebury and enjoying the Solstice atmosphere, and for the three hours I was there no one else came. A truly magical experience. Unfortunately, you can’t walk from Avebury (unless you have all day). I cycled, and it was challenging (lots of hills and stupid drivers not giving me enough space) but it was still worth it. It felt great not arriving by car.

This circle almost seems like a fake. Built on a gently falling moor with superb views over Morecambe bay, it seems too neat, compact and perfect, as though the local tourist board have erected it overnight. But stay here a while, and it starts to feel more, well, in tune with what’s around. The outer circle is pretty much destroyed and without knowing it was there you’d think it was just more of the stones that litter the moor. The inner is small, compact, and enchanting. It’s just too perfect!

Often referred to as the “first and last hill in Cornwall”, as, well, it is, this is a mighty place. Seeming like a smallish hillock from the bottom, when you are on top it seems so much higher as there is not much highland on the Land’s end peninsular. There is sea on 3 sides, St Buryan church stands proud on the flat plains to the south, and Carn Kenidjack lurks to the north with it’s circles and menhirs. The chapel in question was a hermitage, built on the site of a late neolithic or early bronze age entrance grave. Little remains of this, although some drystone walling and parts of the capstone can be seen. The reason for the destruction of the tomb was firstly the hermitage, built in the 1400’s and finally demolished in 1816, and then a WW2 radar beacon built right on top of the grave which pretty much ruined what was left. All of which doesn’t detract from it’s superb views and ambience – although when we visited the wind was doing it’s best to blow us off again. A local tale says that one of the hermits in C17th named Harry was accused of being a sorcerer by the Dean of St. Buryan on account of those who crossed him losing crops and livestock etc. The tale does not tell what the outcome was, but rumour has it that the early christian cross (which probably replaced a bronze age menhir) at nearby Crows-an-Wra, which means “Witch’s Cross”, is a memorial to the unfortunate Harry. On a clear day, this really is an awesome hangout with a few tales to tell.

I travelled to Lanyon on a horrible,
rainy day to take away the dullness
of staying in Camborne for a week.
When i got there the whole place was shrouded in mist and i couldn’t see the quoit at all. After stepping in some horrible puddles i finally arrived – what a place, the atmosphere was amazing! After that i tried to find Men-an-tol, but as
i carried on up the path i heard a wild animal or something so i shit myself and ran back to the car!

wahwah

It took me ages to find this one, but the description in The Modern Antiquarian intrigued me so I kept going, and I’m so glad I did. These stones are HUGE! It is extremely secluded and wildly atmospheric. Because it’s such a lonely spot it’s easy to sit down and imagine what it would have once been like. For anyone who goes in for meditating, this is a superb place to do it. The vibes are right, the atmosphere is right, and the stones still give off incredible energy. The Cornish quoits are all so incredible, and even though this one has fallen, it is no less incredible.

I visited Hully Hill monument, with Pip and the Antiquarian, after a day out in Edinburgh, on my 1999 summer hols.
We pulled off the M8 at J2, drove through the petrol station by the A89. In an industrialised area, by a housing estate, by the main road, is a small parkwith a walled mound in the centre – going around it a circular path with 3 standing stones, one at each corner of a triangle,
landscaped into the path by some townplanner. Better than being lost to us, but still bizarre.
By the largest of the 3 stones, a Renault car had been turned over on it’s roof and set on fire, presumably at the end of a joyride.
This burnt hulk lay about 5 or 6 feet from the stone.
It was nearing twilight, obviously urban and the most surreal standing stone moment I’ve had.
It reminded me that generally The Modern Antiquarian takes me to peaceful serene places, full of beauty, like Stanton Drew or Rollright. This wasn’t like that, but then many other stones must have been where cities now are.
If Hully Hill hadn’t been listed in the Antiquarian, I’d have seen it as a ‘piece of ‘60’s public park landscaping. As it was I knew it to be bronze age public park landscaping.
The only megalith/burnt motor combination of my young life.
A singular experience.

This is a wierd site. Concealed behind a garage in a patch of very gorsey scrubland that must have the prickliest gorse ever is this unusual monument, if that’s what it is. The Three Brothers is basicall a dolmen, with a superb shapely capstone sitting on 2 smaller stones. The whole thing is only about 4-5 feet high, but surrounded by tall, dense gorse that give it an in-yer-face, even oppressive air. It was first recorded in 1872, and when John Barnatt surveyed it he thought it natural. This may be so, but there are no similar structures for miles, the nearest being Catshole Tor on Bodmin and that was used by the Neolithic as a burial chamber. As far as I know no excavation has ever been attempted, but surely burials would be found. I just can’t believe that a site with such atmosphere, presence and downright strangeness could not be man-made or at least used as a sacred tomb. There are possible cupmarks on the top of the capstone, thought these could be weathering. Legends go that the stones return if removed, as so many other sites in the Lizard and Cornwall. Well worth a visit.

The Calderstones – Calderstones Park, Liverpool (particularly relevant to Julian, I suppose). These stones are now set up in a circle in a glasshouse in Calderstones Park, Liverpool. They are the remains of a neolithic passage grave which was destroyed around 150 years ago. The stones have many carvings, mostly of spirals and concentric circles, but particularly important are the carvings of human feet, which link the tomb to the Irish passage graves of the Boyne Valley (Newgrange etc) and a couple on Anglesey (Bryn Celli Ddu, Barclodiad Y Gawres)

The stones are not particularly impressive viewed from outside the glasshouse. However, if you get permission from the Head Ranger to enter (which is freely given, but must be in advance), close-up they are fascinating.

I have posted photographs of the stones at: members.aol.com/mjkaux2/calderstones.html

The eternal power of these henges is emphasised by the fact that they are right next to the M6. Not even that atrocious proximity can destroy the vibe. After the beauty and peace of nearby Long Meg and Castlerigg, I almost gave these sites a miss but was so glad I didn’t. Recently, Mayburgh nearly fell victim to a Christian “millennium” monument that they were planning to erect right within the henge. Short-sighted infants.

This site may or may not be a genuine longstone, but all the evidence points to it being ok. Apparently this fine 11 foot stone was found buried in a Cornish hedge by landscape contractors who were widening the driveway to the farm. They erected it in the hedge, and it forms a really impressive sight, visible from a long way off and now being colonised by rampant ivy. No-one cal really say if it was once standing, but it looks and feels the part, and lots of ex-longstones still lie in hedges just waiting to be set up again. Judge for yourself !

The Blind Fiddler is one of the most impressive stones in Cornwall, mostly for it’s sheer size (11.5 feet) and bulk and graceful triangular tapering shape. It stands just inside a field next to the main road to Land’s End and there’s a parking space very close by. Apparently it has never been officially excavated, but a trasure seeker in the 19th century dug up bones and ashes by the stone. Well worth a visit.

Drumtroddan is superb and at the same time frustrating. After overshooting the farm track (there is only a sign one way, and not the way I was going), I was prepared for a large irate farmer “get orf moi laaarnd etc” but the parking was ok and no sign of any irate pro-fox hunting people. Anyway, following the rather intermitent signs I found the carved rocks – Julian is right about using the fences to navigate, but the promised rancid puddles were noteably not present. The carved rocks are so complex, I spent ages looking at them and finding new patterns and facets to them. Even after the farmer’s best attempts to hide the ones in the copse, I eventually worked out how to get in and more of the same swirls and cupmarks were there. Then for the stones. I don’t know if you are meant to get to them, but mr Farmer sure makes it difficult. No signs, and no obvious route. So, across a field of grass, over a well dodgy gate and across another field and eventually I was there. It is definitely worth it, the stones are huge and imposing and even better now a fence shields you from the cows. Yes, cows – well, bullocks to be precise and a right crowd of narky bullocks they are too. They are not impressed with people wandering over their field and actually acted quite menacing when I tried to follow what looked like the “proper” path back to the carved rocks. So, back over the fields and gate for another gaze at the intricate swirls. Definitely go here, but beware of bullocks and the dodgy signs – and Julian’s puddles. Never did get to see them !

There is certainly remnants of a barrow on this site, though it is in a poor state of decay. There has been a debate whether this is actually the remnants of a standing stone or a barrow, but having visited the site recently am quite sure this was once a covered burial chamber, similar to many in the Conway valley area. All that remains are three large stones, probably way too heavy to remove, as must have been done to the rest of the mound. The floor is littered with fist sized rocks, way too small to be of any use, so is a small enbankment on one side of the mound. the site is in poor condition, and located near a farm track, right at the edge of a field, it is not sign posted, but clearly marked on the outdoor leisure map as a long barrow.
Visit and judge for yourself.

lovely sunny day when i visited west kennet, which probably explained why a lot of people were lying aroud sleeping on top. excellent view from the top towards silbury hill, shame that some idiots had decided to leave a burning candle in one of the adjoining chambers(take a torch-it wont blacken the stone!)
i’m short and it was a great thing that this was one barrow i did not have to crouch down to get in. it is a must to go see this especially if your visiting avebury henge or silbury hill.

great site to visit, take the time to take it all in. shame they had to build the village right in the bloody centre.
take a stroll down the avenue, its only a shame that a great majority of the stones are missing. i understand that a majority of the stones have been used to construct most of the village, and the others were just burned because of superstition by locals a few hundred years ago. must be more impressive than stonehenge itself in terms of area and the mysticism surrounding it.

was i supposed to get some enlightenment at reaching the top? well i didnt, was more amazed at the feat it took to carry all the materials up there to build the thing.
i found solice in an exhibition in the nearby tribunal building, a lake village exhibit with many artifacts, even a canoe, much more interesting than the tor itself for me.

Just 1 mile south of Capel Garmon, a chambered long barrow lies in the most breathtaking scenery.
a few hundred metres from Ty’n-y-Coed Farm lies a 90 foot chambered long barrow, sadly open to the harsh elements this area experiences.

A massive 14 foot capstone is the only reminants of the roof that remains, and this covers a false entrance, where in recent times it was used as a stable. A smaller and probably the original entrance lies to the southerly point of the barrow, a number of large stones line the walls of the main burial chamber, with a small chamber, formed by three smaller upright stones, strutting out into the main chamber.

Although not as impressive as Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesea, this chamber is still well worth a visit.
Map reference SH818543