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Fieldnotes
| I've searched for this row a number of times, it's not too far from my home so whenever I've had a spare hour or two and the right motivation I've driven up to Old Castle Hill and mooched around the area. The moor up there is a managed grouse moor and is bisected by the road from the A171 to Commondale, comdle in local dialect. This morning I was browsing through the EH Pastscape website and came across a reference to the row. This is the only reference I've come across for the row apart from Elgee's, it gave no further details but it made me determined to get out and find this site. Before leaving I read up on Elgee's description, studied and sketched Elgee's photograph of the site noting the shape of the stones and the lay of the ground. I parked up on the Commondale road with views across to Freebrough Hill, the coast, the Black Howes and the barrows of Hob on the Hill beyond. Elgee had positioned the site of the row on the west side of the valley, what I hadn't noticed before was a second reference that gave an extra clue - the mention of a mound. I parked my car half way up the road and strode into the knee-high heather. After about half an hour I had found my mound and a careful search of the heather turned up two fallen stones. I carefully checked the profile of the stones against my sketch..they matched, I checked the profile of the horizon...it matched, I paced the distance..it almost matched ( Elgee gave an approximate distance. I scoured around the hill for the other stones but found nothing. The mound on which the stones are set is made of sand and gravel and is eroded at the eastern end, it is also covered in thick heather and deep peat. I suppose the other stones could still be there or have been carted off by the farmers and game keepers, as is the case on so many other sites. So it looks like I've found my row minus three stones....Deep Joy. This is my second North York Moors true stone row, my first was at Simon Howe I just hope I can turn up a few more. |
Posted by fitzcoraldo18th January 2004ce Edited 17th April 2005ce
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