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Fieldnotes by Howburn Digger

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Bizzyberry Hill (Hillfort)

Bizzyberry is one of those rather surprising hills, Not very high (363 metres) but commands extraordinary views over to the Tweedsmuir Hills, the Broughton Heights and in all directions. The views North on a clear summer night are breathtaking and you somehow feel that you should get such vbiews from a comparatively low elevation. To the far West you can see Ben Arthur (The Cobbler) in Argyll and panning acroos to the East there's Ben Lomond, The Trossachs peaks, Ben A'an, The Lomond Hills of Fife. And of course it looks over its shoulder forever at the might bulk of Tinto Hill with its massive cairn on the summit.
Bizzyberry Hill actually has two forts. The fort at the summit has a spectacular steep rock cut ditch on one side. Now under turf it is great for rolling chocolate eggs and children down. Some remnants of the defence wall can be discerned around the edge of the fort's footprint.
Further down the hill at its Northern end sits another fort, This has circular stone footings for houses and is protected by three deep ditches which are also useful for rolling children down.
The spring ("Wallace's Well") just below the summit fort is still there, though little more than a trickle from a crack in the rock into a boggy puddle.
The hill also holds a probable cremation cemetery on the saddle between the forts. There are also at least three cairns. I have located two of them. One yielded a bronze axe (now on display at the NMS in Chambers Street, Embra) and a jet bead in the 19th century.
I have climbed the hill many times and it is best done in sunshine with a picnic. My kid has been climbing it since he was three so its not very difficult. The "Ewe Hill Hillfort at the North End of Bizzyberry is the best preserved and the ditches and house footing are in very good nick.
Parking? Park at the layby a mile or so North of Biggar on the A702 signposted for Gladstone's Cottage Ruin, the hill sits across the road. Or park in Biggar and walk out past Loaningdales Outdoor centre to ascend the hill.

Lightshaw (Standing Stone / Menhir)

I visited this site today in a misty drizzle as the light was falling. Huge coal lorries flew past. Yet this mighty stone exudes a real timeless peaceful authority over all the passing traffic. The site stands in a landscape shaped by grassed over pit bings and slag heaps, old mine workings and deserted railway lines. The mining hasn't completely left and there are huge opencasts in the vicinity (one a few hundred yards behind the stone).
There are two massive stones on the skyline a few hundred yards above the Lightshaw stone which may just be there as a result of field clearance or the opencast. I'll check them out on my next visit. Forgot my camera today!

Crichton Souterrain

3pm Sunday 8 November 2009

The hedges along the tiny single lane B road were full of rusty orange beech leaves and crimson hawthorn berries. Myself and Samspade parked at the gate at the bottom of the field. A low winter sun strafed the stubble in the fields. The souterrain field has a crop of winter greens this year. This meant a longer walk along the field to the left side then up until we were level with the fenced in overgrown patch in the middle of the field. The souterrain's in there. We made our way across the crops along a tractor wheel rut to avoid trampling the crop.
Samspade had never been before and was looking forward to seeing this site. I'd been many times and had brought waterproof trousers, wellies, a torch and my wee camera. This souterrain can be very wet and the crawl/ crouch on the way in can leave you caked in Midlothian glaur. True to form, the floor was a sea of muddy water and squelching clay. Despite the damp and the hanging "bead curtains" of dripping wet grass roots Samspade was gobsmacked at the place and we walked around taking pictures and soaking in the quiet still calm of this unique place. Samspade picked up a beautiful flint scraper from the edge of a puddle.
The first lintel upon entering the souterrain is covered with many cup marks (one is huge). We wondered if it had previously been a standing stone nearby which had been re-used. The other huge lintel stones could well have been standing stones too, for although there is evidence of working/ shaping on some of them, their shapes seem in marked contrast to the neatly squared and dressed roman blocks in the walls. Perhaps originally the "Pegasus" was a bit of roman graffitti on a standing stone?
When we finally crawled out blinking in the last rays of the afternoon, the view out over the Firth of Forth was spectacular. The twin peaks of Fife's Lomond Hills sat high above the trail of smoke from Kirkcaldy. The strange hillock two fields below was illuminated by the dying rays of the sun making it look even more unnatural.
We rounded the day off with a trip to a garden centre to pick up bark chips for Samspade's garden. The centre was full of Christmas tack. We bought a bag of bark and left as quickly as we could, trying not to let the tacky tinsel and glitter outshine the quiet gloom of the souterrain.
Previous 20 | Showing 41-43 of 43 fieldnotes. Most recent first
I live in Scotland with my other half and my twelve year old son.
I grew up looking across the Firth of Clyde to Arran. I first visited the island in 1980. I've gone back a few times every year since.

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