The hidden gem in a city wood. I d o love this stone..it knows what I think. The moss is growing back. Please let it. I wish I could put do not disturb signs on the footpaths nearby, but that would only encourage the oppsite. A quiet treasure. And a photograph of it would make a lovely front cover for a book....but no image details within. Please, only go if you need, not want, OK?
Ecclesall Wood 1. My first sight of it. February 3rd, 2017.
Sunset over Carl Wark, seen from Burbage Moor.
The interactive website of SHARP, Scotland’s Coastal Heritage At Risk Register. News, events, interactive map of the 940+ sites at highest risk. Report via it any deterioration. A useful and worthy resource. Some of those sites may undoubtedly be yet to added to TMA too.
What it says...there is already a link for Orkneyjar, tucked right down at the bottom of the page, dated from 2001. That covers a different part of the website, the ‘history’ bit. Sixteen years on the archaeology section has grown into an invaluable resource, and deserves to be at the top of the links and the first port of call for those visiting TMA interested in Orcadian archaeology. I therefore hope that this ‘sort of relink’ will be allowed to stand.
I hope TMA Eds will forgive me adding a site I may never visit, but from what I have read so far it is a very intriguing place, little known, which may prove to be of considerable importance, and would appear to be in part contemporary with Ness of Brodgar. A tomb of unusual size. See also the separate eponymous entry for the nearby Iron Age part of this complex, and the link within it.
A very interesting piece on Iron Age Orcadian burial practice, based on excavation of this structure.
This lies due north of the of the earlier and unusually large sized chambered tomb for which there is an eponymous but separate site entry. An underpublicised complex of importance. See link below for excavation details, and read the Canmore entry linked to the chambered tomb.
The Canmore entry for a most intriguing complex of Bronze and Iron Age structures which are under threat of coastal erosion and where excavation has taken place for several years.
Sunset above Carl Wark, seen from Burbage. They’ve gone, so have a fair few of the stones..but the sky remains. They saw sights like this, and now do we.
Five minutes before taking this photograph while returning to the road after finishing my site visit I was charged by a herd of about twenty cows. Unknowingly I did the right thing, stood for a minute afterwards, then walked to the gate, but then turned and returned to the stones as I wanted to show the cows that they had not won, laid down in the grass, took out my old mobile phone instead of my usual one and pointed it. This was the result. I do not need to go back.
The archaeological section of the new website of the Ardnamurchan History and Heritage Association, listing all known sites, which will be added to as and when their members fieldwalking discovers them. Much to visit already that is officially notified but not as yet on TMA or elsewhere.
My conviction that these stones have been a waypoint and place of congregation for millennia on the ridge that leads to Stanage is absolute. From this angle the right hand stone becomes ravenlike. Look: it even has an eye...
An article with fine photographs of and information about Greadal Fhinn which also contains a link within it to more of both..as well as a photographic description of what you will see if you visit this site and then keep walking and climbing westward in this most majestical and starkly beautiful hidden corner of Scotland.
A fine collection of Scottish archaeological websites, many with prehistoric-related contents
...and the larks were singing... burial chamber L, round barrow R
A return a year after my first visit, and I found that the replacement of the power line and the poles that carry it has caused fresh damage to the cliff to cliff earthwork that encloses the dun, which is believed may be an earlier structure. See photo. When the light was replaced a few years ago there was a watching brief on the work. Sadly, times seem to have changed..
2016: fresh damage to what is supposed to be a protected ancient monument
N side. At bottom left partial removal of cairn material for field boundary clearance is visible. The cairn remains substantially intact, though
The top of the cairn, stone, some moss covered, visible amongst fallen leaves. Depression at right of image may indicate at least an attempt at robbing, or perhaps the site of a fallen tree.. Canmore uncertain
Seen – sort of – from farm track through the wood
This site is no longer an island due to a fall in the level of the loch. It is unmarked on OS 82, but delineated by a cairn symbol on Explorer 310 on account of the spread of stone atop it. Access is from the fisherman’s car park at NX 235 549, from whence paths radiate, then beating your way through the brush. Canmore ID 62149
East cairn, SW side, with Knock Fell with its hillfort atop, in distance. Yup, I know photos are poor, it was late evening, but folk should get the gist.
East cairn, south side. Cairn appears intact, and is a good 8’+ high.
East cairn, NW side, seen from the road
West cairn, north side, seen from road
The reflection of the SE side of the crannog in the loch, the setting Sun shining through the trees that enfold, conceal but demarcate it (ATTN EDS pse remove my other ‘artistic’ image, mistakenly uploaded : ) )
Team leader Julian Thomas’s account of the Manchester University Dunragit excavations, published in 2015. Contains a chapter on the archaeology of Luce Bay. A hugely important area, much work still to be done.
A summary of the Manchester University excavations at Dunragit in 1999-2002. Top photograph shows the excavation of Droughduil’s W side. Another photo shows the excavations of the wooden Dunragit circle and triple concentric cursus, with the interlinked Droughduil, believed a viewing platform, in the background.
The view looking NNW from the top, which is an early Bronze Age cairn built on top of the late Neolithic remainder. The pale green field top right contains unexcavated features ID’ by aerial photography inc a wooden posthole avenue. Beyond the field – the L-R hedgeline is the railway to Stranraer – is the site of the wooden henge and 300’ m dia tri-concentric wooden cursus excavated in 1999-2002. Droughduil itself was excavated in ‘02, and was shown to be a probable contemporary viewing platform for the 2500 BC cursus.
N side. Path to the top visible. Fence posts at the bottom give an idea of its size.. yes, it IS that big. And 4500+ yrs old.
Kenmuir Graves seen from the ramparts of Dove Cave Head fort on the other side of Little Float Bay. Access is via an easy climb -I’ve seen pics of elderly ramblers doing it – from the bothy near the shore.
Yes, I know I’ve wrongly uploaded a Cairnholy pic ..can’t remove. (Eds?) Nor, he neatly sidestepped, the memories of visits to Drumtroddan. One of my ‘evening’ sites that suit that time of day. Night comes in, sun fades in the west. The stillness, the manicured grass island wherein they stand and lie, the horizon, the lichen. The two that lie.... perchance they sleepeth. One is on guard, slender but imutable, in profile in mourning for the fallen. Barsalloch mid October for the late afternoon bask, then here. Turn back and look when you get to the gate at the road. That head will still be visible against the fading light, still bowing, this time to you. Reciprocate. Try to return.
Drumtroddan Standing Stones, 5pm, 13th October 2016
Yes, tweaked rather, but, on some autumn evenings there w i l l be a blazing sunset behind those stones. Try to experience that here, as well as Torhouskie. To get the best photographs of this place lie down.
2016: Dunman, the Hall of the Gables, still unattainable... a fence and a cliff requiring new route, plus cattle and health...but is there a finer positioned Iron Age fort in all Scotland? Just look at it. Totally, utterly magnificent.
The W side...plenty of undisturbed courses under that turf, probably
