Summer morning at the Longstone of Minchinhampton. Saturday August 22nd, 2026ce.
Image credit: pce1975
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August 26, 2026
The sunlit Longstone of Minchinhampton. The morning of Saturday 15th August, 2026ce.
Image credit: pce1975
A late Bronze Age button has been discovered with a hoard of axe heads in a find that is exciting experts.
Visited 22.08.26
Cults Loch Settlement is located c. 1 mile NE of Castle Kennedy, a small village in Dumfries and Galloway. It lies c. 100m E of the E bank of Cults Loch in a flat arable field.
Cults Loch Settlement was found by analysis of aerial photographs taken in 1978. These images are viewable in trove.scot 61704. Cropmarks delineate a circular enclosure protected by a double palisade and outer ditch. trove.scot estimates the enclosed settlement to measure up to 40m in diameter.
Archaeological excavations carried out in 2009 and 2011 are detailed in trove.scot 61704. Unearthed artifacts date the settlement to the Iron Age. The archeologists stated that the “site comprised a single enclosure ditch and double palisade, within which were two successive ring-groove houses, a souterrain and a range of other pits and pothole features.”
On my visit to the grass field I failed to observe obvious traces of the palisades and ditch: I found a flat featureless rough grass surface except for a possible low discoloured bank measuring c. 5m E-W and 2m N-S. This may correspond to the proposed souterrain in the N half of the enclosure.
Cults Loch Settlement viewed from N. (22.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Cults Loch Settlement viewed from E. (22.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Cults Loch Settlement viewed from S. (22.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Cults Loch Settlement viewed from W. (22.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Possible Souterrain in N half of Cults Loch Settlement viewed from E. (22.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone
August 25, 2026
My Great Grandfather John Richard Fisher, aged 57, his Niece Gertie Fisher, Daughter Rosie Fisher, aged 3, and half a horse at the southern edge of the Southern Inner Circle at Avebury in 1906.
And his great grandson (me), aged 59, on August 10th 2026.
120 years later
I believe John and I are standing next to Stone 103, which the rest of the horse is behind, while Gertie and Rosie are sitting on the yet-to-be re-erected Stone 102, which is standing in the 2026 picture.
Image credit: The Reverend Sydney Smith (Gertie's fiancée) and my wife Angela Fisher.
My wife had an old memory of climbing a small hill in the rain in 1974, aged 14, with her older brother.
On a recent visit to Avebury we identified what that hill was.
Her Modern Antiquarian husband has duly adminished her as she returned to the scene of the crime 🙂
Looking south-west. Much field clearance has been dumped on the remains of the tomb.
Image credit: ryaner
The remaining portal with the standing stone over its left shoulder.
Image credit: ryaner
Looking roughly south-east. The stone in the foreground here may, according to the survey, have been the roofstone.
Image credit: ryaner
Looking roughly north-east. There are 2 stones still standing here, a sidestone towards the foreground and a two metre tall portal stone.
Image credit: ryaner
Visited 19.08.26
On a recent visit to Cults Loch, located c. 1 mile NE of Castle Kennedy, I observed that the omnipresent Beef Cattle occupying the field on the W bank of Cults Loch had been moved elsewhere. I took the opportunity to get a better view of Cults Loch Central Crannog from the W bank. I also explored the remains of an Iron Age Fort on a grassy mound on the W margin of Cults Loch. It is sited on a natural grassy mound wedged between a marsh and Cults Loch.
Cults Loch Promontory Fort was first identified by analysis of aerial photographs taken in 1978. There are viewable on trove.scot 61697. Cropmarks clearly show a ditch on the S edge of the promontory. trove.scot gives a full description of the fort and its defences. it also includes details of archaeological digs in 2009 and 2010 which found evidence of an inner ditch c. 5m wide and 3m deep supplemented by an outer ditch measuring c. 5.5 m wide and 2m deep. Excavation of the interior of the fort, which measures c. 85m N-S and 65m E-W, revealed “pits, postholes and linear gullies.” The only surface feature that I could find was a subcircular hollow on the N flank measuring c. 2m in diameter and 0.5m deep.
Cults Loch Fort viewed from N. (19.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Cults Loch Fort viewed from E. (19.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Cults Loch Fort viewed from S. (19.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Cults Loch Fort viewed from W. (19.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Hollow in N Flank of Cults Loch Fort viewed from S. (19.08.26)
Image credit: Mark Johnstone