The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Iron Hill

Cairn circle

Fieldnotes

I've been trying to get to this site for some time and have eventually got there. I must say I wasn't disappointed. You can see the stones profiled on the horizon as you come up the road from the cattle grid. The footpath up the hill is walled on both sides and seems like an extension of the road. The first site you come to is the cairn which is bisected by a stone wall. The cairn is approximately 10 metres in diameter and only has stones on the southern side (10 of 'em). It makes you wonder about the farmers attitudes to these sites. Why did the farmer of the northerly side remove the stones and the farmer on the southerly side leave them in situ?
Fifty metres south of the cairn along the low limestone scar is the second circle. This is a lovely intimate circle with twelve stones, nine of which are lovely Shap granite and the rest limestone (I think).
The view from the circle is over the massive Hardendale quarry. A truely rural/industrial landscape.
Fifty Metres east of the first cairn is a single large stone that stands at the entrance to another walled corridor between fields.
Weird boundaries they have up here!
fitzcoraldo Posted by fitzcoraldo
21st February 2003ce

Comments (1)

I visited this site today, and on my way back to my car, happened to glance over the stone wall. I was on the side of the wall where the cairn stones remained; on the other side it would appear that there are a couple of shake-holes in the field surface. These shake holes contain an assortment of boulders, mostly of pink shap granite. I can only assume that having lost a lamb or two down the holes the farmer decided to bung them up with whatever came handy and was big enough to do the job and remain in place; the kerb-stones of this cairn just happened to be handy, and having no regard for archaeology the farmer just rolled the stones down into the shake holes. Posted by Doc1701
23rd March 2011ce
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