thelonious

25/08/2019 – First full day in Sligo. What to do, what to do? We are on public transport all week so a bit restricted. Buses don’t get going until late morning on Sunday but there’s an early-ish train so we decided to go for that. Looking for a combination of hills and prehistory we picked for our first day a trip to Slieve Daeane.

Short train ride (09:05 from Sligo) to Collooney. We headed along the Sligo Way north east through Union Wood (nice area) to Ballydawley then using the forest tracks past the stone row we climbed to the high point of the Sligo Way just south of the top. Leaving the track we made the short but steepish climb to the top of Slieve Daeane. There’s a decent sized cairn at the summit with a trigpoint on top. I bet the views from here are great on a good day. It wasn’t that day today. The cloud base was low. We sat next to the cairn, eating our butties, looking into not much of nothing. Good vibe to the place though.

Next we made our way west to the cairn on top of Slieve Dargan about 800 metres away. The straight line distance is short but the cloud made things a bit tricky plus there’s a good down and up between the two tops, very steep, grassy slopes. The cairn on Slieve Dargan has a good sized footprint but it’s pretty trashed. It’s listed as a passage tomb but I couldn’t see any internal structure.

Downhill and another 300 metres to the west is Cailleach a Vera’s House, a passage tomb on the last of the rises. The cloud had lifted by now so the view past the cairn to the landscape beyond was impressive as we made the approach. This is the pick of the three cairns we visited today. Visible passage and chamber which you can look down into. Really taken with this one and the location is excellent. Well worth a walk up.

From here it’s only about 350 metres back to the Sligo Way path. The terrain is rough and a bit wet but nothing really to put you off.

Meeting up again with the path, it was back west to Collooney to catch the train back to Sligo. A really nice day out.

25/05/2019 – Tricky site this one. Not to get to though. It’s next to the road and parking is easy. The gorse and stuff has been cut right back so the site is looking pretty good nowadays.

Why tricky? Well, because I don’t really know what it is. After reading Canmore I’m still not sure. I’ve added it as a stone circle (looks like one to me) but if anyone thinks different please say and I’ll change it. Other contenders are cairn, cairn circle or even a henge.

There’s a cist in the middle of a grassed over cairn with good size boulders surrounding this (only the north side remains of the circle) and there seems to be a bank and ditch outside this as well. A lot going on.

To the SW is the big standing stone Clach Biorach. Was this an outlier to the circle? It is a very different stone to the ones used in the circle.

Interesting place and our last site of a great trip up north. A good way to finish.

25/05/2019 – We’ve driven past this one a few times. Never really felt the right time to visit. We had got moving early as the rain was due. Coming through Lairg we decided to stop and have a look. Good parking in the layby to the north on A836. Just a short walk along the road to the gate leading to the rough pasture where the circle is. I liked the little climb up to the stones. Only half the circle left and a few small stones hinting at an inner circle. I liked this one.

24/05/2019 – This one is not far from the road. Easy parking. This cairn is right in the middle of a cleared township. Makes you wonder what they thought about it as they went about their daily lives. The cairn is pretty ruined but it’s still worth a look if you are passing. We walked on a bit further to have a look at the hut circles to the north and then on to Pole Hill. This area is full of hut circles. If you have time Carn Gruama Beag is worth a walk up. The views down Loch Naver are excellent.

23/05/2019 – On the way back from visiting the stone rows to the south east we finally reached Clach an Righ. What a welcome sight. It’s a lovely looking circle. Not that big but the stones are a good size. Each upright stone’s axis is radial to the centre. Reminded me of The Great U of Stemster in that regard. I can’t think of others like this. I’m sure there are lots though. We plonked down on a nearby log to finished off our brews. Just taking in the scene.

With a nod to Gladman, it was finally time to head off again. His photos and fieldnotes had put an idea in our heads to seek out this place. He’s good at doing that.

23/05/2019 – Lets start this by saying one thing – Multiple stone rows are brilliant. Look where these are on the map! Right bang in the centre of the middle of nowhere. I just had to visit. 14 or so miles in the rain there and back. Maybe we are all a little odd for going to sites like this. It’s good to be odd a little I think. Hello to my fellow oddities :-)

We were going to start at Rosal but there was logging going on so we parked a little SE at the start of the track off the B871 near the corner of the forest marked on the OS map (NC 7021 4141). From there it was up over Beinn Rosail to the kerb cairn on Meall a’ Choire Bhuidhe. Raining and a bit rubbish underfoot. To visit the kerb cairn there’s a deer fence and trees to contend with (I’ve grumped about this elsewhere). From here we made for the track to the south at NC 6943 3778. I was really tired today and the damp wasn’t helping my mood. The stone rows still looked a long way off on the map but from now on it was track most of the way so after a couple of Jammie Dodgers for power we headed SE.

It’s a pretty straight forward enough walk from here. Just keep on the track until you hit the ride heading SW at NC 7189 3516. Straight up along that and it takes you to the big clearing which has the rows in it.

42 stones in 4 rows counted in 1975. The ground is slowly eating them up. We could only find 9 or 10. The big 4 terminal stones are still showing well. I use the word big in relation to the other stones. They are all pretty small. I’d say none over 0.5m. Such a great site though. Prehistory mini mysteries.

There’s a probable standing stone to NW too.

We sat and had our butties and a brew. Tired, wet but very happy. It was now just a matter of a trigpoint and another hill top to find and then it was back to the track and the start via the excellent Clach an Righ stone circle.

One big lovely walk in rainy Sutherland.

23/05/2019 – Cairn with kerb stones on west side.

I was proper in a grump on the way to this one.

Rubbish weather and tough walking to get there. Once there a high deer fence to contend with. Last 50 metres was a thick forest of trees and a quagmire underfoot. No views and the cairn is pretty hidden.

I’ve been, you don’t have to.

20/05/2019 – Iron Age Aisled Roundhouse or Wheelhouse or Wag? You take your pick. All I know is that it is brilliant.

It made for a good sandwich spot on our walk over the hills from Laid to Durness.

Worth a visit for its lovely location. Some of the lintels look like they have been put back up. They look proper dangerous! No way would I sleep under them.