Images

Image of Black Darren (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Highlighting the actually rather impressive footprint of the cairn..... filling more-or-less all the viewfinder.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Black Darren (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Hatterrall Hill rises beyond at the southern end of the Offa’s Dyke ridge, occupied by a promontory fort. Further cairns lie along the route.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Black Darren (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

The cairn is much larger than I supposed.... the substantial muppet shelter on top relatively insubstantial in comparison.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Black Darren (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The possible cup-marked stone has been moved back into the shelter’s wall since I was last here. Any opinions on whether it is a man-made cup?

Image credit: A. Brookes (14.7.2012)
Image of Black Darren (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

One of the larger blocks has what appears to be a cup-mark. It’s probably natural, but cup-marked stones are not unknown in this area.

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.11.2011)
Image of Black Darren (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The original footprint of the cairn is much larger than the stone shelter suggests. Looking towards Black Hill and the Cat’s Back ridge.

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.11.2011)
Image of Black Darren (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

There are a number of small upright slabs within the mound, but nothing I could hand on heart say was the cist referred to on Coflein. Apologies for the rubbish blurry photo, it was raining and very windy!

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.11.2011)
Image of Black Darren (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Looking towards Black Darren (peaking out from behind Red Daren) across the fertile farmland of the Olchon Valley, from Black Hill.

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.11.2011)

Articles

Black Darren

Although sited only about a third of a mile to the approx north-east of the Loxidge Tump cairn, fractionally ‘England-side’ of the border, I approach the Black Darren monument from the north-west this April Fool’s Day 2013, this the result of having abandoned an attempt to re-visit the summit of Red Daren due to lack of time, my crampon-less boots having succumbed to the arctic conditions prevalent underfoot like they were supporting a prize muppet not used to such wintry weather. Well, if the balaclava – and sundry other items of headgear – fit... To be honest I would actually recommend approaching from this direction above others, the climb up from the Little Daren Farm picnic area [SO296299] to the north-west of Longtown much quieter and vibey than the Llanthony Priory route in normal circumstances. Equally sublime views, too. [Incidentally castle-heads might be interested to know that Longtown (it’s true, it really is a long town) possesses a nice South Walian Norman round keep ... despite being in Herefordshire].

My approach, needless to say, proves somewhat problematic, not to mention extremely tiring, owing to the inclement conditions having rendered the escarpment edge with a glistening, angled carapace of ice frustratingly not quite able to bear my weight. Yeah, it is certainly no easy skate. Cue a number of undignified stumbles, alternating with passable – well, I thought so.... the allegorical Russian judge perhaps knew better – impersonations of the waterfowl attempting to land upon my local lake when frozen. Luckily there is no-one else around to see my enforced gymnastics, although no doubt any embarrassed blushing was frozen at source. Which, considering that the Black Darren cairn is located just north of the ugly scar that is the Offa’s Dyke long distance path, is an utterly wondrous, in my experience unparalleled state of affairs. The final slither is duly executed... and there it is. The cairn, but one of a linear series of such monuments placed upon this ridge, is not shown on my 1993 issue 1:25K OS map and should not be confused with a ‘Pile of Stones’ a little to the south-east.

The most obvious feature is a large ‘storm shelter’ erected on top of the monument, in retrospect what the Mam C and I clocked prior to being summarily chased from the mountain by a violent electrical storm a few years back. Coflein actually mentions ‘two parasitic sheep shelters’, so my guess is these have subsequently been ‘knocked through’ to make just the one. This traveller wonders whether this particular incidence of DIY was undertaken by the sheep themselves? If so let us hope that someone was on hand, camera at the ready, in order to capture the moment for prosperity. I wait for the upload to YouTube with breath bated in anticipation. Coflein also mentions the remains of a cist still in situ, although again I’m afraid I can’t confirm that, not with the interior packed out with snow. Let’s just say there didn’t seem to be one as I raked about with gloved hands. What can be affirmed without any ambiguity, however, is the sheer extent of the underlying footprint, a feature actually accentuated by the mantle of snow. Suffice to say that this is clearly a substantial monument indeed.

It also proves to be a wonderfully haunting, evocative location today, the whereabouts of the aforementioned Offa’s Dyke ‘motorway’ betrayed by nothing more than a few footsteps in the snow. Yeah, all is silent. In fact I never thought it could be so silent up here. Granted, the scene is not that of a shining Alpine wonderland, as experienced upon Pen-y-Gadair-Fawr the day before, but rather a bleak ‘midwinter’ landscape of the kind Wenceslas was said to have gone a’ wandering about in. Albeit not in Wales.... Herefordshire even. Actually both, it gets so confusing up here on the border. Whatever, the snow is most certainly ‘deep, crisp and even’, according the landscape a hostile, brutal, almost surreal majesty that is a privilege to share with whatever creatures lie dormant beneath waiting for the thaw. In the absence of any other humans, that is.

The leaving comes too soon.

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