thelonious

23/12/2017 – Proper rubbish weather visit to Warton Crag. Low mist and fine rain. Didn’t really find too much of the hillfort and it was just too wet for me to be bothered looking about much. Just a quick up and down to the trigpoint really.

We started and finished our walk at Carnforth train station (lovely tea room). Quiteish roads to Warton and then a lovely climb up through a wood to the top. Nice rocky bits as well. I guess on a hot summer’s day this would be a lovely place to be.

Overall I did enjoy my visit even if my time spent at the fort was just a brief encounter :-)

24/10/17 – Some places really grab me when I’m having a look on the OS maps. From the first time I noticed these two hillforts on Dun Dearduil I’ve been wanting to visit. When Drew mentioned them a few months back on here it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Dun Dearduil isn’t the easiest of places to visit though and that’s to put it mildly. Very cliffy on the west side and a big river to cross. The only access we could see from the map was from the east. Starting point was the track just south of Balnagaeline (NH5536625781). Nice walk along this track past Dirichurachan where after that the track turns right towards the trees and Dun Dearduil beyond. From this point onwards the walk took a more adventurous turn. No path, wet rocks, bracken, rotting trees to clamber over – it had it all! We climbed the small top, east of the forts first. The view from here of Dun Dearduil, with Loch Ness and the hills behind – just wow. Sunshine as well. From here we had to drop steeply 50m or so to then climb up to the forts. Very tricky terrain but we made it up the NE ridge to the top. Happy us to finally make it :-)

The north fort is fantastic, like a grassed over mini Tap o’Noth. The second fort, a short distance to the south is nice as well. The location of the forts is as good as it gets. When the sun came out, it felt like there could be no better place to be. We had our sandwiches sitting on the steep east side of the hill, looking out over the wonderful landscape. This really is a lovely area to visit.

From here it was again a tough bash back to the track. Never fallen over so many times in my life!

Drew, Mrs T and me all made it back to the car in one piece (a minor miracle given the terrain). Top day out that had a little bit of everything I love when visiting sites even though my legs were still feeling it two days after.

A proper adventure :-)

25/09/2017 – We had popped down to Scarborough for a long weekend just for a bit of walking really. A few days before we came I noticed that we weren’t too far from Rudston so we crammed 3 days of walking into 2, leaving our last day free for a visit to this mega monolith.

Easy enough to get to by car but we were on the bus, which still wasn’t too tricky. Morning 121 bus from Scarborough to Burton Agnes and then a 3 mile or so walk down quietish country roads to Rudston.

We arrived at the south side of the church and had a little debate as to which way round the church we wanted to go for our first sight of the stone. These things are important I think, it’s not every day you get to see the tallest standing stone in Britain for the first time. We chose clockwise.

Rounding the corner of the building and there it stood in all its glory. It really is impressive and as wonderful as I hoped it would be. It seemed to grow and grow as we edged closer. It was hard not to just keep staring at it. So solid and timeless. I know the church and graveyard setting isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I quite liked it and loved the difference in height between the monolith and the similar shaped gravestones round it.

After having a look at the small stone and cist in the corner (it looked a little sad hidden away and dark with the overhead leaves at this time of year) we sat across the road on a bench and had our butties.

The inside of the church is worth a look and has a small display about the history of the area.

After one last look at the stone we started the slow walk back to the bus stop. We kept an eye out for any sign of the cursus that crosses the road to the south of Rudston but no luck. Did manage to find a coffee shop in Burton Agnes which helped with the wait for the bus.

Top day out and the Rudston monolith is a must see site.

Happy us on the bus back to Scarborough for an evening of chips and gravy and two penny falls.

24/09/2017 – I liked this one. Not really much to see but the walk up from Scarborough is nice and the top very green with a good clump of trees hiding the beacon. Worth going for a little leg stretch. Nice views and the access is fine.

If you are in the area it’s worth popping by the Rotunda Museum near the sea front. Nice display of objects from Star Carr and Bronze age Gristhorpe Man with his fantastic tree trunk burial.

23/09/2017 – X93 bus out from Scarborough to the Falcon Inn on the A171 to start a nice loop of three hills – Brow Moor, Stony Leas & Barns Cliff End. Long day and it was dark by the time we caught the bus back.

Good track to start through the trees and then out to the moor to make the small climb to the trig on Brow Moor. Even though it was still early in the day I knew already we just didn’t have the time to look round this area for cup marked rocks which was a bit sad. We pushed on and headed west.

The walk between Brow Moor trigpoint and Louven Howe on the top of Stony Leas was easy going but felt long. The crossing of Jugger Howe Beck was nice and Burn Howe was worth a look. It did feel good to finally make it to Louven Howe for a sit and a brew.

There’s plenty of round barrows around here and from the ones we saw, they all looked pretty much of a muchness. If you want to visit one or two, this and Lilla Howe make for a nice walk from a few directions. I don’t think this would be the best place to visit in rubbish weather though.

Louven Howe has a large hole in it, I couldn’t make my mind up about it. Bit odd.

After a stop to rest and take in the views, which are good, we headed south to enter the trees and make the long walk back to the A171 via Barns Cliff End.

Nice day out but couldn’t quite fit in everything we wanted to see.

10/08/2017 – A linear walk today along the west coast near the top of Barra. Starting from Eoligarry, we visited Dun Scurrival first. After a quick bob up Beinn Eolaigearraidh Mhor we walked south along the beach at Traigh Eais. A rocky coastline led past Dun Chlif to Ben Cliad cairn. From here we climbed Beinn Chliad and then headed back to the beach near Cleat. Started getting tired by this point in the day and it had been a long week but I really wanted to see Dun Cuier broch so we pushed on up the road and then along the A888 to the cemetery just NW of the broch. There’s a gate here on the other side of the road and an old waymarked path leading to the site. I think it probably carries on to Dun Bharpa cairn.

If you only have time to visit one galleried dun / broch on Barra and Vatersay this is probably the one to go for. Easy access as well.

Located on a small rocky top, it has good views all round. Nice bits of wall still there and you can make out where the galley is. Section of scarcement on the inner wall also.

The various thoughts of what is a fort, dun, broch etc I find interesting and the discussion on Canmore about this site is worth a read (link below).

canmore.org.uk/event/587363

This was the last dun we visited on a great week on Barra and Vatersay. If you like a dun or two it’s well worth coming for a trip to these islands. Lots to see and the scenery is lovely.

10/08/2017 – Canmore has two entries for cairns close to each other near this location. After visiting this cairn and reading the descriptions on both I think they could be one and the same, could be wrong.

I really liked this one. A little tricky to be sure quite what I was looking at though (like a lot of stone settings on Barra I came across). Smallish structure with a kerb of stones. Two larger upright stones on the south side which felt like an entrance into the centre to me.

The location had a quiet feel and was a little lonely (in a good way). A place to come and gaze out to sea with only your thoughts and the cairn for company.

10/08/2017 – Nice feeling of away from it all with this one. It’s pretty easy to get to though from either way along the coast. This possible galleried dun is situated on a small tidal islet along a rugged coastline. It was by chance that we reached here at low tide so were able to cross to have a look around the dun. It’s worth a visit just for the location but why anyone would have built the dun here is a mystery to me. Must have been very different times.