Latest Miscellany

Visited by accident 20 June 2024. I haven’t been able to find out anything about this stone, which is in the walled garden at National Trust Trengwainton, next to a pond. It’s a ringer for the Tregeseal holed stones near St Just, but I have no idea if it’s the real thing or a copy.

Supposing you should spot something other than cupmarks carved into the stone:

Long Tenure. – The following tenure on the Earl of Haddington’s estate in East Lothian may vie with that on any nobleman or gentleman’s property in the country.
Mr John Dudgeon, present tenant of Easter Broomhouse, near Dunbar, in the year 1769, carved his name on a monumental stone on that farm. Under the noble family of Haddington, Mr Dudgeon’s father and grandfather were successively tenants of Easter Broomhouse, neither of whom were short-lived. We know that Mr Dudgeon, who is now considerably upwards of eighty years of age, is in excellent health, and has a second time, in 1839, carved his name on the same stone as tenant of the farm. – Edinburgh Courant.

Reprinted in the Court Gazette, 26th October 1839.

In ancient times, the dead were buried in a cairn on this high vantage point. Islanders lit fires to send signals to passing vessels or kept lookout for friends or foes arriving by water. In 1615, on low ground to the south, the MacDonalds and Campbells of Calder clashed over ownership of the island, leaving behind a cannon ball and flints. Now the waters carry ferries to Islay and beyond.

From ‘Visit Gigha‘

Druidical Pilgrimage to Stanton Drew.
On Wednesday the brethren of the Mona Lodge, No. 10, and Royal Arch Chapter, No. 2, of Ancient Druids, paid a pilgrimage – the first, we believe, that has been paid for over thirty years – to the Druidical remains at Stanton Drew. [...] Upon an application being made to the owner of the property, P. Eaton Coates, Esq., for his permission, it was kindly and courteously conceded by that gentleman, who only attached one condition to the concession, that it should not be extended beyond Druids and their friends, and that no public announcement should be made in the newspapers. We believe that the promise was religiously kept by the brotherhood, but, as to carry out the necessary arrangements with perfect secrecy was a matter of impossibility, tidings of the contemplated ceremony got abroad in the villages, and the consequence was a very considerable gathering.

There’s a list of the procession, including various people in costumes with wands, and (curiously) a number of people bearing bibles on velvet cushions.

[...] Truth compels us to say that the procession did not appear to impress the rustic population in the way that had been probably anticipated. Their ignorance of the rites and solemnities of Druidism caused them to laugh at many of its mystic ceremonies, while they were perverse in assigning to some of the principal officers characters not at all pertinent to them. For instance, the ‘Guardian’ who wore a hairy cap of exceedingly antique mould, and a petticoat of curious plaid, and who bore a huge knotted club, was supposed by many of them to be an embodiment of Robinson Crusoe. The master of the ceremonies, with his dazzling crimson collars, cocked hat, and colossal silver badges, [was set down as] the Lord Mayor of London’s state footman.

There was a dinner afterwards in a decorated barn and also a band of blind musicians played for dancing: “the company tripped it on the light fantastic toe with a vigour that one would scarcely have expected, with the thermometer standing at 81 in the shade.” A fun day out reported in the Bristol Mercury, 26th July 1856.

© Tailte Éireann | National Monuments Services

LE025-093001- : Megalithic tomb – passage tomb : FENAGH BEG

Situated on a rise in an area of rock outcrop and pasture on the W side of a N-S ravine (Wth c. 100m) that is sometimes the SE end of a turlough extending from Lough Reane, which is c. 800m to the NW. This is a rectangular grass-covered cairn (dims of base 15.7m N-S; 11.9m E-W; dims of top 8.2m N-S; 5.4m E-W; H 0.45m at E to 1.7m at S) with kerbstones on the perimeter at N and a chamber (dims 0.8m x 1.1m) at the centre. Cremated bone, six bone pendants, the head of a bone pin, and one quartz and two chalk balls were recovered from the cairn in 1928 (Gogan 1930, 90). The passage tomb (LE025-093002-) lies c. 25m to the SE, the cairn (LE025-093003-) is c. 50m to the SW, and the portal tomb (LE025-092----) is c. 120m to the N. (de Valera and Ó Nualláin 1972, 142; Herity 1974, 277-8, Le 3)

The above description is derived from ‘The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim’ compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

References: de Valera, R. and Ó Nualláin, S. 1972 Survey of the megalithic tombs of Ireland, vol. 3, Counties Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath, Laoighis, Offaly, Kildare, Cavan. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Gogan, L.S. 1930 Irish stone pendants. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Series 2, 35, 90-95.

Herity, M. 1974 Irish Passage Graves. Dublin. Irish University Press.

Operation on the Heart.
Gerard Francis Buncombe, nineteen, an undergraduate of Cambridge University, has been impaled on a fence surrounding the Druidical remains near Maidstone while mounting the ancient cromlech. He was removed to West Kent Hospital, where Dr Travers performed a wonderful operation. Two pieces of bone had been driven into the heart, causing a wound 1 1/2in. long. The wound was sewn up, there being nineteen stitches, and the patient bore the operation extremely well.

And I thought you had to be intelligent to go to Cambridge. Do be careful and try to contain yourself around the annoying railings.
Spotted in the Carmarthen Weekly Reporter, 29th June 1906 (and a million other papers).

This is rather a bizarre thing to post, but I saw one of the photos on this page is a sign saying ‘Ancient Monuments Can Be Dangerous’. Well, turns out that they are. So stop messing about (like Postman’s son in another photo), and make sure you drink your milk:

Capel Garmon. Accident.
A nasty accident befel the little daughter of Mr Roberts, the roadman, on Friday last, whilst some of the school children were out with the mistress inspecting the cromlech at Ty’nycoed Farm. It appears that the little girl fell into the cromlech and broke her thigh. She is under the care of Dr Prichard, and is progressing favourably.

And that was the last time that school went on a field trip (I expect). In the Weekly News and Visitors’ Chronicle for Colwyn Bay, 29th June 1906.

Great Orme Cromlech.
“Bartering the rights of the public.”
At a meeting of the Llandudno Urban District Council on Wednesday, attention was called by Councillor William Thomas to the fact that it was intended to make a charge of twopence for access to the Cromlech on the Great Orme, one penny of which was to be paid to the attendant for showing visitors the stone, while for the other penny each visitor was to receive a pictorial postcard of the Cromlech with information bearing on the subject as a momento.

Mr Thomas said he would move that, having regard to the fact that it could not be regarded as a satisfactory solution, the matter should be referred back to the Works Committee for further consideration. Mr McMaster stated that he had great pleasure in seconding, because since 1857 he had had unrestricted right to the field where the Cromlech was without charge or difficulty at all. In his opinion the arrangement was a very insidious and a crafty one. There was to be no charge as such for seeing the Cromlech, but one penny was to be charged for access to it and for the services of the person who would show it to the visitors, while the other penny would be charged for the postcard. In 20 years, perhaps, it would be said that the right of access and of restricting it had been acknowledged by the Council. He favoured further and fuller inquiry being made into the rights of the public to the field in question.

(...) Eventually it was decided by nine votes to two that the Council disapprove of the arrangement arrived at, and referred the matter back to committee for reconsideration.

In the Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald, 21st August 1908.

Located a little south of the substantial Gaer Fawr enclosure, this is shown upon OS mapping and, despite Coflein’s reticence to assign a prehistoric providence (possibly due to the surmounting apparent field clearance), I reckon the footprint is pretty conclusive.

Despite there being no reference to this ‘long cairn’ upon Coflein, I must admit this ticked every consideration ‘box’ I look for nowadays. It’s therefore of interest to note that the good people at Dyfed Archaeological Trust feel the same way – PRN 11430 states:

“A well preserved trapezoidal long cairn, orientated SW-NE, with the broadest end looking NE. The tail end of the monument faces SW and looks out to the sea, whilst tapering to a width of 5m. At the end of the tomb which increases to a width of 8m, there appears to be a shallow forecourt area, 3.5m wide and 3.5m deep, which is delimited on either side by two distinct horns. In other similar monument traditions (e.g the Cotswold-Severn tombs) this forecourt area is generally considered to be the spatial focus of the ceremonial and ritual activities which took place at these sites during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The forecourt also looks towards the edge of the limestone escarpment immediately below which, Tomb D (3825) is located, which makes use of the natural outcrop for part of its form. A central spine runs along the length of the cairn and there are indications of the tumble of some of the cairn material on both sides. Although there is no immediately apparent evidence for an orthostatic chamber or passage within the monument, it is possible that there may be one or more cist chambers within the body of the cairn material instead, a feature familiar at other Neolithic long cairns known from a Welsh context. There is some damage at the SW end of the cairn where the cairn appears to have been dug into on both sides, 2 metres in from the tail. All the evidence points to this site as being a genuine Neolithic long cairn rather than a more modern clearance cairn. Bestley PFRS 2001”

Entirely speculative; the summit of Foel Goch is marked with an OS trig pillar, a post-medieval boundary stone and a small pile of stones. However, all three things sit on top of a circular mound, covered in turf and low vegetation. The mound itself is not recorded on the HER or Coflein, but it is clearly artificial. The summit to the west, Garnedd Goch, boasts a definite Bronze Age cairn. To me, the mound on top of Foel Goch is a strong candidate for archaeological evaluation as a possible cairn or round barrow.

It has been my experience that a six figure OS Grid Reference is inadequate for locating Cup & Ring Marked stones: It defines a square measuring 100m by 100m. It can be frustrating to find one stone amongst many. Canmore ID 62758 gives a ten figure OS Grid Reference, NX 37193 41422 for Blairbuy 1 Carved Panel. This locates the site to a 1m by 1m square. In my opinion, all Cup & Ring Marked stones should have ten figure OS Grid References.

Canmore entry – canmore.org.uk/site/17919/oakenknowes

This should count as folklore really, as I’m not sure how ‘some antiquary’ knew about Druidical traditions, but there we are. Plus I’m not sure how the sun could have reflected off it with 300 people crowding around. Sometimes I think it might be fun to go to Stonehenge on the solstice and then I remember it’s always full of Other People :)

In The Presence Of The Sun.
Congregations at Stonehenge have of late no longer been rare. Last week some Wiltshire antiquary called public attention to the Druidical tradition respecting the altar stone, and its peculiar reflection of the sun at daybreak on the longest day. In consequence of this some 300 people proceeded to Salisbury Plain to witness the spectacle. At 3.44 a.m. the sun rose beautifully, and its resplendence upon the altar stone, sacred to ancient fire-worship, was grand in the extreme. Since this success, numbers of visitors have assembled at the Circle daily before daybreak. – Mayfair

Quoted in the Northern British Daily Mail, 12th July 1878.

I hope you will bear with me, as this is rather random, but it struck me as being the 1847 equivalent of The Modern Antiquarian website, with its encouragements to visit and share experiences of an ancient site, and also some instructions on how to get there. I particularly like that the efforts will “secure a day’s gratification”. I’m sure ladies would have also been welcome assuming they’d finished making the dinner, etc.

To the Editors of the Archaeologia Cambrensis.
Gentlemen, – Will you be kind enough to permit me through your medium to request some of the antiquaries of Swansea and its neighbourhood, to forward you a description, and whatever account may be procurable, of Carn Llechart. It will be found on the hill side, near the top ridge, indeed, of Mynydd Marn Coch, in the parish of Llangyfelach. From Swansea, the way to it is up the vale to Pontardawe, and then a lane on the left may be safely followed for a mile or so; a question addressed to the first cottager will then put the tourist right in the way of the circle, which he will find in a state of almost perfect preservation. If my friend Geo. Grant Francis, Esq. would give a day to this good work, he would at once secure to himself a day’s gratification and serve the cause for the promotion of which you so devotedly and successfully labour.
I am, Gentlemen, yours truly, D. Rhys Stephen. Grove Place, Manchester, 21 Sept. 1847

Archaeologia Cambrensis, v2 (1847).

(This is the English translation of a poem by Waldo Williams in which he eulogises the moorland around Puncheston – Cas’ Mael. His descriptions of skylarks and stones are pretty spot on)

On Weun Cas’ Mael

I’ll walk once more on Weun Cas’ Mael -
And bushes of gorse tell the tale,
Sick withered winter without fail
Is losing the day.
‘Our kindly sky will be blue in a while,‘
Flaming, they say.

Even today, over the drear
Dank moorland, when a moment’s clear
A skylark gives it’s confident cheer,
Zestful and strong,
Inspiring hope in the country near,
Unlocks bright song.

Oh, blossom on the roughest tree,
Oh, song on the steep, wild and free -
One sweet from the one strength, to be
The brave delight
Of bare acres the world can’t see
Or value right

Wales of dark moorland and stone,
Nurse of the mind that stands alone,
From age to age your strength’s been shown
And still it stays.
Bring us to share in, O make known
Your life, your ways!

The lovely severity you show
Woke favour of man with man, to grow
A company all one, and so
By you empowered,
Knowing no slavery, their slow
Order flowered.

From steel captivity, low hurt
Crosses Cas’ Mael. O save us yet!
Men serve the false power in the pit
Of dark Tre Cwn.
To the pure breezes, raise us our
Of the cave’s tomb!

As the Lark gives from your ground
Point and zest in his circling round,
Your praise let each gift teach to sound,
Nurture and grow it,
And grant me, Wales, that I be found,
For your sake, poet.

Mr Coles records the details of these stones so carefully, and I love his bold drawings, which he must have enjoyed making. I think he’d be very sad to see two of the stones lying on the floor, and I do hope someone has put them back up again by now.

Upper Port, Castle Grant. – The Stones here stand on a level field nearly midway between Upper Port steadings and the Mill of Castle Grant, and about 1 1/2 miles distant on the N.E. from Grantown.

There are four Stones in all. I show them in a sketch-plan with their relative positions correctly given, but the interspaces are not to scale (See fig. 1.).

(a) The two South Stones. The East Stone stands 4 feet 3 inches in height, measured at the smooth, vertical, north side; but a long “foot” runs down at its S.E. angle, and if this represents the true base of the Stone, its height would be fully 5 feet. The basal girth is 9 feet 7 inches; the top is narrow and ridgy, and it appears to be composed of rough whinstone largely mixed with white quartz.
The companion Stone, standing nearly vertical 7 feet to the west, is of the same mineralogical composition, 4 feet 8 inches in height, with a rather flat top and a basal girth of only 4 feet 2 inches. In the view (fig. 2) these Stones are shown as seen from the west. This Stone is 117 yards Mag. S.20 degrees E from

(b) the Stone which stands next in order on the sketch-plan. It is of whinstone, with a pointed top, broadish sides, and a basal girth of 5 feet 7 inches. It is quite vertically set up.

(c) The last Stone of the group is of whinstone, somewhat tapering up from a base measuring 7 feet 7 inches to a “bevelled” top which is 5 feet 3 1/2 inches above the ground. Its broadest face is distant, nearly due west, 79 yards from Stone b.

It is impossible to even conjecture the meaning of the disposition of these four Stones at Upper Port, and there is no local information obtainable now regarding them.

The last two, so widely separated, are shown in the drawing (figs. 3 and 4) as seen from the south.

From ‘Report on Stone Circles Surveyed in the North-East of Scotland (Banffshire and Moray)..’ by Fred R Coles, in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (February 11th 1907).

This Clava passage grave appears to be built on a platform but this is perhaps illusory, formed by ploughing round the site combined with the spread of cairn material from the internal mound.
The latter has a contiguous kerb of 13.0x13.5m diameter. This is graded towards the entrance to the south, where the stones are up to 1.05m high. The two end stones to the passage protrude slightly beyond the kerb.
This passage is c5.0m long and leads to a central circular chamber of c3.5m diameter. Much of both these features is buried, the chamber roof has collapsed but much of the passage may still retain its capstones. Two of the latter are visible. The stone circle is 2.0-3.0m outside the kerb with the space increasing to the south. The stones are also graded in this direction and their spacing becomes wider here.

Quoting from p60 of The Design and Distribution of stone Circles in Britain; a Reflection of Variation in Social Organization in the Second and Third
Millennia BC. – A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the Department of Archaeology and Prehistory. University of Sheffield. December 1987. by John Barnatt.

I found this article while looking for fort-related folklore, and it made my blood feel a bit fizzy so I thought I’d share. Fortunately the Powers That Be protected the site – Mr Adkins literally couldn’t give less of a monkeys about it. Presumably he also owned Bomere Pool (scene of much folklore including a sword-wearing fish... maybe the reason why this place doesn’t need any). Not that he’d be remotely interested in that either.

No interest in hill fort site, farmer says.

A pre-Roman conquest hill fort, scheduled as an ancient monument, would be substantially destroyed by a farmer’s plan to build about 30 expensive houses on the site, it was said at a Ministry of Housing and Local Government inquiry at Shrewsbury yesterday.

But the farmer, Mr John Ivor Adkins, of Bomere Farm, Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury, said that in the ten years he had been farming there, not one person has displayed an archaeological interest in the hill fort site on his land. “There is not even a notice indicating its existence,” he said.

Mr Adkin was appealing against the refusal of Shrewsbury County Council to allow him to develop a seven-acre site on his 200-acre farm for house building. The county council’s reasons for refusal were that the site was remote from the main village of Bayston Hill and was outside the area appropriate for development; an unclassified road which would serve the proposed development would create a traffic hazard at its junction with the A49; and the development site was an Iron Age hill fort dating from 300BC – AD 30, and scheduled as an ancient monument of national importance.

Mr Stephen Brown, Q.C., for Mr Adkins, said the site was on poor agricultural land and there was no objection to the building proposals by the Ministry of Agriculture. Dr Michael Thompson, inspector of ancient monuments in the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, said the proposed development would leave only a third of the hill fort site unmolested. Cross-examined by Mr Brown, Dr Thompson agreed it might be possible to excavate the site at the developers’ expense when building operations were being carried out. But his Ministry’s main object was to preserve the fort as a memorial rather than as a site for archeological and scientific investigation.

The inquiry was closed.

In the Birmingham Daily Post, 4th May 1966.

Directions to Auchmantle Fell (The Wee Cairn): Take the left turn to Stranraer at the N end of Main St in New Luce. Follow the road for c. 2 miles to reach the track to Auchmantle Farm at NX 1539 6259. I decided to park at the abandoned Auchmantle Farm due to the lack of parking spaces on the road.

The route starts at Auchmantle Farm. Follow the track N then NW for c. 0.5 mile to the end of the track. Head W across the field for c. 200 yards to a gateway. Go through the gate then head NW across the field for c. 250 yards to a standing stone in front of a gateway. Go through the gate into rough pasture. Head N for c. 50 yards then NW for c. 50 yards following a rough path. Head W from here to a large modern cairn on Auchenmantle Fell (The Muckle Cairn) at NX 1454 6365. Head S from here for c. 135 yards to reach Auchenmantle Fell (The Wee Cairn) at NX 1452 6353. This cairn is hidden in boggy moorland. Look for a green patch in brown moorland with a prominent NW earth bank and a shallow central grassy rectangular cist beside a clump of moor grass. My walking route is available as Auchmantle Fell Cairns on OS Mapping.

Directions to Auchmantle Fell (The Muckle Cairn): Take the left turn to Stranraer at the N end of Main St in New Luce. Follow the road for c. 2 miles to reach the track to Auchmantle Farm at NX 1539 6259. I decided to park at the abandoned Auchmantle Farm due to the lack of parking spaces on the road.

The route starts at Auchmantle Farm. Follow the track N then NW for c. 0.5 mile to the end of the track. Head W across the field for c. 200 yards to a gateway. Go through the gate then head NW across the field for c. 250 yards to a standing stone in front of a gateway. Go through the gate into rough pasture. Head N for c. 50 yards then NW for c. 50 yards following a rough path. Head W from here to a large modern cairn on Auchenmantle Fell (The Muckle Cairn) at NX 1454 6365. Head S from here for c. 135 yards to reach Auchenmantle Fell (The Wee Cairn) at NX 1452 6353. This cairn is hidden in boggy moorland. Look for a green patch in brown moorland with a prominent NW earth bank and a shallow central grassy rectangular cist beside a clump of moor grass. My walking route is available as Auchmantle Fell Cairns on OS Mapping.

Auchensoul Hill is located c. 0.8 mile WNW of Barr. You can park in the centre of the village then walk W to cross the Stinchar Bridge. Follow the road N to reach a signed footpath on the left. The vague path heads W uphill through moorland grass. Trees have been recently planted on the E slopes of Auchensoul Hill, surrounded by a deer fence. Continue W along the line of the deer fence until you reach a gate in the deer fence. Go through the gate into rough green pasture. Head NW up a steep slope towards the summit of Auchensoul Hill. It is a rocky knoll surmounted by an OS Trig Point at NX 26391 94548.
The vague path up to Auchensoul Hill is steep through boggy moorland ground, requiring sturdy boots and GPS navigation ideally.

I have been around Culbokie for nearly 30 years and it is the most curious place. There are sets of stones all over the place, some obvious ancient places of prayer and reflection. Without a doubt the place is magic. Walk through the forest on your own one day, well you can at least try.