juamei

[visited 24/12/02] This is a weirdly shaped standing stone in the middle of a valley in the middle of purbeck. A word of caution, wear wellies to get to this site as in winter the path from the nearest carpark (just to the south), is very very muddy. To get to the stone, park in the car park, walk north along the road to the footpath and set off down the hill. Go through the exceedingly muddy, steep path to the field at the bottom and head east. The harpstone is on the other side of the field past the three trees.

I really enjoyed visiting this site and look back to coming here in summer with a picnic. The stone is unfortunately the other side of a barbed wire fence, which is bypassable but only with care. Its a very strange shape (hence the name) and has what seemed to be its broken off tip resting against its base.

This site is is one of Dorset’s finest Megalithic monuments and well worth a visit.

[Holme Beach 10/12/02] So I came up here with a friend to see if any of the other structures were visible. And in some words, not really. However reading through pages about the place inc. photos, I see we were about half a mile west of where it was found.. doh.

All was not lost as we did see some large chunks of timber, looking as weathered as the seahenge timbers. They were seemingly carved in a way that made them look like stones from a stonecircle, but I may just have been overly hoping.

A word of warning, its very very cold on this beach in December when the wind picks up.

[visited 9/12/02] One or Two longbarrows? Dyer says 2 but having seen what’s available I’d opt for just the one. There is, what Dyer calls an oval longbarrow next to the road, which I thought looked like a ploughed round barrow. It was however pegged out, so will be there when someone who knows visits.. The defn. LB is very overgrown and is quite short compared to the Wessex variety.

Not much else to see here, other than the mounds, but worth the visit to see ancient history. There is a large round barrow nearby in the wood to the south, but you can’t get to it without tresspassing...

-- Update --
Apparently the one I was dubious about produced Windmill Hill style pottery, so is presumably Neolithic and hence “Long”.

[visited 9/12/02] Possibly the dullest hillfort in the world, despite the fantastic roadname. Peering through the hedge from the road you can just see a bank & ditch circling away from you.

This fort has been so ploughed that it can’t be more than 3 metres top of bank to bottom of ditch & probbly more like 1.5 metres... Oh and you can’t walk on it cos it has crops all over it.

Unless you happen to be “passing”, don’t bother.

[visited 9/12/02] Probably the second most visibly impressive monument in Norfolk (after Grimes graves) and defn. the most impressive I visited on a long day out. It’s a fine Iron Age hillfort with large ramparts, 2 banks and a ditch mostly.

Probably best visited on a warm summers day as in December, its a mite bit chilly..

[visited 9/12/02] Brr, its fking freezing up here in the depths of a Norfolk winter. According to ma guidebook, there are at least 4 large barrows here plus lots of “mini-barrows” making this the largest barrow cemetary in Norfolk.

I managed just two of the barrows, Gallows Hill & Halfpenny Hill. Both very respectably sized bowl barrows, covered in bracken. Halfpenny Hill is defn. the most impressive though Gallows Hill is easier to find and has 360 degree views from the top including the sea.

HH is at TG077422 & GH is at TG080425. The mini-barrows are (I think) in Taylors wood at TG069421

Try and visit this site after the bracken dies for maximal satisfaction.

[visited 9/12/02] A perishingly cold december day couldn’t temper the joy I had visiting this site. Really not much to see on the ground, just a depression with a low bank around it. It also has the pleasure of a fck off huge pylon right next to it..

But it’s a henge, in Norfolk. And its even on the Norwich A-Z, Alan Partridge would be proud...

Unfortunately another London monument of dubious antiquity, but don’t let that spoil it for you.

It looks like a large, well preserved bronze age barrow which seems from a cursory look to have a ditch. Its located on a high point and gives lovely views down a valley to the Thames.

While you are here, take a walk up to Parliament Hill and get a fantastic view over the city.

This really was a brucey bonus for me. I picked up a friend in Plumstead en route to Chislehurst Caves and he mentioned a mound nearby, so off we tootled. What a nice surprise, a genuine intact round barrow, with views to the north and west of the Thames Valley.

An unexpected little treat in surprisingly good condition.

A particularly irritating mound this one, not least because of my stupidity at searching for it, for at least two hours, whilst it was right next to me.

I can be forgiven somewhat as it is a severely denuded mound, a maximum of a metre in height at its center, and about 30 metres across. On the top of it sits a small war memorial, my assumption that they wouldn’t do that to an ancient monument led me to lots of mud, thorns and a bizarrely shaped flint.

You can find this mound easily because it is at the northern foot of a large manmade mound, road spoil from when they built the A3.

Not much to see here, just a circle in the ground, seemingly fill of mud. It is however still wet on very hot summer days and has only gone dry once(?) in recent history.

I’ve been here a couple of times now, and it is situated in a nice peaceful place and once you’ve tuned out the hum of the A3, its a nice place to spend a couple of hours watching South London walk past.

[visited 15/11/02] This is a great place to visit so long as you arn’t claustrophobic. I would recommend trying to find a quiet time to visit the caves as then you could be lucky enough (like us) to get a guide to yourself.

Whilst no definate evidence has been found, due presumably to continual reuse of the caves, it is likely that these caves had prehistoric use. Ignoring the very dubious stories of blood sacrifices that the guides like to tell, there are several dene holes (surface shafts) similar to those at Grimes Graves. These have radiating shafts but are unfortunately unvisitable. You can also see lumps of flint poking from the walls and in an area where prehistory is at a premium, I’ll take what I can get.

The caves are very quiet and rather spooky (as the guides like to emphasise) and well worth a visit.

Flying visit to this for the umpteenth time it seems, though the first in many years, this time to take a few alternate photos for TMA.
Its bigger than I remember and slightly more intimidating as well. I could picture the baying hordes sat on the banks in Roman times urging the gladiators on; the enlargements they made to the bank seemed to be to the fore in my mind.

Its a shame (as ever) that the standing stone from the entrance was removed as I feel that would help to make the site more respected. Currently its mostly used as a hangout for local kids...

Like views? Like hillforts? You’ll love Eggardon Hill. After a very wet & very foggy w/e in Askerswell, the weather cleared just in time for me to drag the missus up here on the sunday morning. Amazing views to the North, South and West, its one of the few places in Dorset where you really feel “up high”.

As a fort it is highly impressive, not quite so as Maiden Castle but almost certainly the second best in this area, and defn. worth a visit for the ramparts alone. A fence runs straight through the middle of this fort which kinda spoils the effect but you can access the entirity, once you find that elusive gate to the second side.

On your way in (or out) have a quick look at what I took to be a guard post to the east of the fort, next to what we used as a carpark...

(visited 13/9/02)
This was my second visit to these two sites, but my first at night. Parking & walking safely remains a challenge, though I think I solved it to Kit’s Coty. Heading away from Aylesford go past the strange dual carriageway & park in a weird layby type thing just up the hill.
Now go though the hedge into the field behind, walk round the edge of the field clockwise (it has a crop so be careful) , to the third side you reach and then find a gap in the hedge onto the public footpath. On the other side of the footpath is the field the dolmen is in.

Anyhow, at night this site is very peaceful. Town lights are visible on the horizon in two directions and light up the scene by reflecting off the low cloud that unfortunately decided to move in as I got there. I walked round the fence twice before locating the ‘gate’ and got up close to this amazing dolmen.
Unfortunately others had taken this opportunity to chalk graffiti on most of the stones, in a curious similarity to the victorian carved graffiti on what was presumably the inside of the longbarrow.
Other than that, its now a home to huge spiders; I counted at least 3 different varieties living in the holes in the rocks. Best not get too close at night if you don’t like them...

And so onto the Countless Stones. Its walkable from Kits Coty but I drove back down the hill and parked in the layby on the road/track that goes past the field the stones are in. Leaving my car with trepidation, nestled next to the burnt out remains of someone elses car, I set off across the field (the crop had been harvested). The huge pylons that run next to the stones made my hair stand on end and my teeth feel slightly funny, which was nice.
The stones are ungraffitied, which struck my as ironic given the ease of access to them. They lie in a no real order but were presumably like Coldrum originally facing to the east, now marked by a line of traffic lights along a ridge...
I stayed with the stones for 20 minutes, the incessant traffic & humming of electricity, eventually driving me home.

After 3 years of working nearby I finally tracked down the well at Clerkenwell and popped along one lunchtime.

The experience itself was as rewarding as the London Stone. I got to stand on a busy street and peer through a large window at the covered hole in the ground that is the well. One or two people walking past gave me some very strange stares.

There is a fair bit of history to read next to the well, but unless you either have the key to the room beyond the window or very good eyesight, you may have a few problems reading it.

Worth visiting if you are in the immediate viscinity but I wouldn’t bother making a day of it...

What a delight to find this so close to Bath, Tourist Central and yet have no-one else appear in the 2 hours we were at the site. On a fairly pleasant saturday afternoon too.
I couldn’t help but compare Stony Littleton to West Kennet, both are fairly large chambered long barrows after all. WK is quite a bit larger than SL; its side chambers are bigger, you can stand up in it and I was assured WK is longer. I wouldn’t be too keen on spending a solstice night with 30-40 stoners in SL...
However the peace of SL is amazing when compared to WK. I’ve never had longer than 20 minutes alone at WK, whereas SL was completely empty. A gem hidden very thoroughly in the modern world. Signposts do now point it out from the nearby village, but you’d need to know it was there and be determined to actually find it.