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The fogou taken in April 1981.
I think the fogou has now been closed for being to dangerous
Image credit: Denis Ellery
One of the best known neolithic sites in S.Wales
3 good photos of Arthur’s Stone (Maen Ceti) on this page.
The site also has gazetteer of Ancient Monuments and sites in the UK with special attention being paid to S.Wales
good photos
At midnight, when the moon was full, young maidens would test the fidelity of the men they loved by offering the stone a cake baked from Barley meal and honey wetted with milk. They would then circle the stone three times on their hands and knees, knowing that if their man appeared before they finished their final circuit he would make a faithful husband.
The following story was reported at..
unison.ie/corkman/stories.php3?ca=40&si=673169&issue_id=6727
A KILNAMARTYRA farmer got a little more than he bargained for when he discovered two underground tunnels last week whilst making a gallop to train his greyhounds.
The tunnels situated directly beside a ditch are over a meter in height and particularly well preserved.
“I was told the tunnels were over 1,500 years old. I plan to make the tunnels safe and leave them there for future generations.
“I have marked the tunnels into a map and the Archeologists are sending me out a plaque to erect near the tunnels,” said John.
Ursula Egan, of the Cork Archeological Survey group, which is based in University College Cork, visited the site.
Ms Egan described the tunnels as ‘souterrains‚, the French word for an underground chamber.
“They are in a remarkable condition and probably date back to the time of Saint Patrick making them about 1,500 years old.
This mother Stone Row is 3.4km long!
Must be the longest Stone Row in the Country.
The southern end terminates at Stall moor Circle.
themodernantiquarian.com/browse.php?site_id=1420
Two stone circles and two stone rows at this Dartmoor site. The small circle is probably a cairn circle.
Four colour photos and links to other Dartmoor circles. Here’s a snip from site...
Brisworthy is a very attractive site and a pleasant place to sit especially as there was a short burst of sunshine when we reached it making a break from a misty and overcast day. The circle is over 80ft (24.8m) diameter and made up of 27 stones from an original 42. They are grey granite, some with quartz veins running through them and large quartz crystals in them. There are several loose stones that have been added to the circle.
The site includes a group of small stone circles around cairns, long rows, standing stones, cists, cairns, hut circles and pounds.
Another Stone circle and row on Dartmoor.
Actually, its a ring cairn with 31 granite stones 11m diameter with a 350m stone row stretching away from it
3 photos here of this Dartmoor circle
This is a cairn circle around 8.5m diameter consisting of 22 stones. In the centre is a cist with the stones forming the box.
A pair of circles on Dartmoor.
4 photos of this site
Stone circle and stone row on Dartmoor
3 photos and guide to site
Where else can you find a Stone circle a stone row and a standing stone in the same location?
Seven pictures and guide.
Great pics and more
Hawkesdown hillfort is haunted by a warrior and a fire-breathing dog!
Steven Shipp, ‘East Devon hillforts’, Wisht Maen 4: 17-18 (1995)
This feature is cool, you can actually lie inside it like a granite coffin.
I visited this site a few years back. I was maning a check point for an orienteering event.
Spent about 3 hours here. Even had a snooze in it!
Easily reached from Roughtor carpark.
Head towards the left most peak.
This strange weathered granite formation is like a mini Cheesewring.
themodernantiquarian.com/browse.php?site_id=298
The site is natural but is completely surrounded by an ancient ring cairn of granite stones. There is also evidence of hut circles and ancient field enclosures all over the place. Nice views too
Rock formation at the top of Showery. The small rocks around it are said to be a ring cairn
Helsbury Castle or Beacon is a fine circular earthwork. Looks like it could be Iron Age.
It has a square ruin in the centre said to be the remains of a medieval chapel.
The site is 684 feet above the sea and is sometimes called St. Syth’s beacon.
The chapel must be pretty old as it was in already in ruins when William of Worcester visited it in1478.
It reminds me very much of Knowlton Henge in Dorset which also has a religious building plonked in the middle.
themodernantiquarian.com/browse.php?site_id=44#post-2117
Great views of Roughtor to the north-east.
The remains of St. Syth’s chapel. You can still make out some of the worked stones but most are irregular boulders.
Known locally as the fogou, this narrow cave is situated about a mile inland from Porthcothan beach
The low entrance to the cave is halfway up the valley side on the right. It’s very well hidden in bracken and gorse in the summer. I’m not totally sure that public access is permitted as it is on farmland. (Find a friendly local who may know the way)
The site has been used in the past for smuggling and also as a hide-out during the Civil war.
There are notches near the mouth, into which smugglers lodged a beam of timber; they then heaped earth against the beam and covered the pile with furze to hide the entrance. The tunnel supposedly led to a farm half a mile away
Although some may say it is cave, on the 1888 map of Cornwall it is marked “fogou”
see the 1888 map online at old-maps.co.uk/
In the Co-ordinate box type:- 186461,71394
and click – search
The hill-top at Eggardon is crowned with the impressive ramparts and ditches of one of Dorset’s best preserved hill-forts.
Dating from the Iron Age over 2,000 years ago, this fort has not been excavated in modern times and much of its archaeology remains hidden.
The fort covers nearly 40 acres of the hill-top, its defences following the hill-slope on three sides and dramatically cutting off the fourth.
Half of the interior seems never to have been ploughed.
To reach this site follow the lane running south from Week St. Mary to Poundstock road. 1 mile NW of week St. Mary.
Oval in shape with diameters of 150m by 210m.
The ramparts are about 3 metres high.
The works.
pics, sketches, description and more
A complete Iron Age village!
I first visited this site on a school trip in the late 1970’s
It can be described as a classic site, the largest of the courtyard house villages, and one of the finest prehistoric villages to be found anywhere in Britain.
This site is well signposted and reached by the back road to New Mill which leaves the B3311 at Badgers Cross.
Sometimes known as the Giant’s Quoit.
Same type as the Trevethey Quoit but not as tall.
The capstone is a giant stone 15 feet long and 2 and a half feet thick.
It is estimated that thestone weighs about 14 tons making it the heavist of any standing Quoit in Cornwall.
There are at least forty-four barrows in this Bronze Age cemetery.
The barrows of many types, sizes and date, straddle the A35, Bridport to Dorchester road.
Highdown Hill is a small hill 226 feet high that stands just north of Ferring on the West Sussex coast and is seperated from the main bulk of the South Downs to the north.
It has had much use in Prehistoric times with a settlement in the Bronze age, fortification in the Iron age, a Roman bath house and a Saxon cemetary, allegedly the burial place of the Saxon King Ælla after the battle at Mount Badon with King Arthur in 516AD
Cissbury Ring is one of the greatest of Britain’s prehistoric hill forts.
The banks and ditches which you see are are the remains of a vast defensive wall enclosing an area of 65 acres. The inner band is over a mile around!
Roly Smith explores two Iron Age forts that offered little protection against Roman legionnaires and Cromwell’s dragoons
Iron Age fortifications over-run by the Romans in 44AD. Hod Hill is the largest Iron Age fort in Dorset, running to 54 acres and accommodating up to 250 roundhouses.
It also offers a rare example of a Roman fort inside an Iron Age one. The Romans’ garrison housed 600 foot soldiers and over 200 cavalry, safe within palisade and ditch defences.
An Iron Age hillfort which it is thought to have been abandoned after the Roman conquest like other hill-forts in Dorset.
Excavations have been carried out in the early ‘60s and from 1964 to 1971
Bronze Age barrows on the down are known as the music barrows, and are traditionally thought to be home of the fairy folk. According to folklore it was possible to hear the fairy revelry if you placed your ear to the barrows at midday.
The area is said to be haunted by phantom Roman soldiers seen several times over the years. Traditionally they are said to appear at times of national crisis. They have also been seen at Bindon Hill and Knowle hill.
Situated just outside Dorchester, on the western side, Poundbury Hillfort overlooks the River Frome on the north side. Originally it had two ramparts and ditches on all sides.