Separated by the Umberley Sick from Gibbet Moor this cairn stands on Brampton East Moor proper, although it is directly related to the Gibbet Moor settlement and lies several hundred metres from Gibbet Moor North.
The cairn is enormous (close in size to Wet Withens' barrow) even though it was robbed in medieval times to build an adjoining animal pen.
The NMR reckons that there is at least 2 cairns possibly 3 with some visible kerbstones but so interfered with is it, it's difficult to work out any of it out.
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SK17230 65405.
Cales Dale as with Calling Low Dale is a tributary valley to Lathkil Dale with stunning limestone scenery where the two meet.
Cales Dale Upper Cave is well hidden on a high shelf on the western side of the valley and requires a steep tricky climb up from the path.
The cave was used in the Iron Age and later Romano period.
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This rock shelter is located just over half a mile away from Bee Low in the secluded Calling Low Dale (previously Callenge Dale). Access is pretty straight forward once you have permission; although once at the entrance to the dale itself the going is rough with no path and plenty of ankle twisters.
The wall across the face of the shelter, built by a 1980's visitor, lets you know you've found the right place.
In the Neolithic it was used as a burial site and two cists were constructed within it, one containing human bones, arrowheads and a Peterborough ware bowl. Colonel Harris who excavated here in 1936-39 also found other burials placed outside the cists.
At the shelter amongst the crags and trees the place has a 'lost world' feel to it, some what aided by the fact that no one comes here anymore. Although the dale is a tributary to one of the most popular walking dales, Lathkil, in the Peak.
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The rock shelter/cave is located in a low (3m) broken limestone scarp, some 300m in length, overlooking Bonsall Moor and the hill of Blake Low to the south.
Known by CAPRA as DS01 the scarp and shelter are overgrown and difficult to spot from any distance and other smaller shelters can be misleading.
In Rodney Castleden's 'Neolithic Britain: New Stone Age Sites of England, Scotland and Wales' he mentions that large rocks in front of the shelter were placed there to form an enclosed platform in front of the opening...not sure whether I got this bit or not...it's rocky ground and looked natural to me.
A number of flint tools have been recovered from the area in and around the shelter. Being such a small hole I'm guessing the place was used as a hunting shelter, rather than for habitation, somewhere to make tools outta the wind and rain
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Gratton Moor lies between Minninglow and Arbor Low above the dry valleys of Long and Gratton Dale.
What first drew me to this place was its position in relation to the Neolithic monuments around here and a ploughed field and mole hills on the eastern side of the moor. I wasn't here to see the two Bronze Age barrows... I was here for flint. And when I got to the fields that's what I got...there were waste flakes of chert and flint along with scrapers, blades and the odd arrowhead lying on the surface.
Checking the NMR and SMR I found that the moor had been walked years before by a local bloke from Elton, who had filled boxes with his finds, and that a number of Neolithic occupation sites were noted on the moor at SK199599, SK202603 and SK191605
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There's plenty historical to see on the way to Carder Low from Hartington village; medieval earthworks at Moat Hall, a Norman Motte at Bank Top Farm and Romano field systems on the slopes of Carder Low itself.
The barrow/cairn, about 19m across and 1m high, is however a bit of a disappointment although the views across the upper Dove valley into Staffordshire are excellent.
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This is a top spot accessible from Wetton Mill (around a mile away) and the northern Manifold caves.Located on Ecton Hill which was mined for copper in the Bronze Age, several green stained bone and stone tools having been recovered from the area.
Mining took off in the 1700's and the hill is full of reminders from this busy period in its history.
Although there are no paths to the cave, it is pretty easy to find below a limestone crag
Excellent views out across Archford Moor and to the hills of Wetton and Narrowdale in the east.
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Access is only possible after mid to late summer when the Manifold River dries up and runs underground. Always wondered what the folk back in the day made of this....unless they had it figured already.
Follow river-bed round to the back of Beeston Tor Farm and there are two entrances, 10ft, above the river bed....one is very obvious, about 6ft up in the cliff wall (a blind tube of around 100ft) to the right of this (about 30ft) is a fissure looking opening into St Bertrams itself.
It's worth taking a torch as the tunnel at the back of the cave leads into quite accessible tubes and chambers if you don't mind crawling now and again.
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Cheshire Wood Cave is located on a high crag at the top of the woods, about 15ft below the ridge line. Access is pretty tricky from below although if you have a head for heights approaching the cave from above is easier and was possibly the original way of entry.
The mouth of the cave is large and impressive with a further crawl in the back of chamber.
Getting a good photo of the cave was almost impossible such is the steepness of the slope below the cave mouth.
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Kinda deep down I was hoping to find another Raven Tor Triple Cairn, the mention of these cairns on Stanton Moor as being a triple cairn was too good to resist. I knew they were gonna be covered in heather but was hopeful non the less.
On the ground the cairns are a mish mash of decent sized kerbstones and small sections of well preserved walling but in all it's a very confusing and overgrown site.
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The barrow is a pretty prominent feature above a rocky outcrop. Up close however the barrow stands in rough ground is disturbed by a lime kiln, hence the name, and all its debris.
Situated on a local high spot the barrow has good views all round...well not quite...the insanely massive Ballidon quarry interferes a little with the southern horizon.
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This ruined barrow with its equally ruined cist lies about 100m from the Roystone Grange Trail. Although the NMR reckons the barrow is largely undisturbed apart from in the NW.
Named after the stone shed that stands nearby which was once used as an explosives store the barrow has good views out over the Roystone Valley.
Battered but possibly the most interesting of the half dozen or so barrows along the valleys eastern edge.
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This is a nice spot...on a steep sided hillside south of Ashbourne overlooking the river Henmoor. Fine views out over Ashbourne to the hills of Bunster and Thorpe Cloud at the mouth of Dove Dale.
The O.S map marks the mound as a tumulus, although John Barnatt notes it as only a possible example in his 'Barrow Corpus'. There are no recorded excavations.
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I've dropped one of my remaining three bollocks....and so in all probability this stone should maybe removed from the website...As it is more than likely a rubbing post.
The Dodds, A.E & E.M, even mention it as such in their book "Peakland Roads and Tracks".
So even though the entry for the larger Bradstone on Pastscape.org did mention two stones (one smaller than the other) at roughly this location, it would seem they referred instead to the, 'known missing', standing stone further to the east.
Sorry.
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Standing 60m north of the Bank Top oval barrow is a Bronze Age round barrow, again, like its older neighbour the mound is not that impressive. Some 12m in diameter and below 1m in height a drystone wall cuts across this barrow too.
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The Bank Top Neolithic oval barrow is located below the crest of a local high point and orientated east-west. A little over 13m in length and maybe 5m wide the barrow is very low although gains in height towards its western end, which is helped by the fact that its eastern end is down slope.
Just over Haven Hill from Wigber Low which lies to the west.
No recorded excavations and with a drystone wall built over it not very photogenic.
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John Barnatt and others have never been able to decide, without excavation, whether this ditched square mound is a barrow, a modified barrow or as its name suggests a gallows site.
Square barrows are not unknown in the Peak several examples are to be found on Harland Edge in the Beeley Moor area and also on Stanton Moor.
Visible from the roadside on Manystones Lane.
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Around 20x19m in diameter this barrow has been robbed of most of its stone, leaving only the rim and a central hollow with a surviving stone of a cist. (One of half a dozen barrows in the area with an exposed cist).
Gallows Low Lane access is pretty straightforward, the track to the Roystone Grange Trail passes right by the barrow; and it is worth a look when in the Minninglow area.
No recorded excavations.
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Situated on a shelf of land just below, and to the south of Harland Edge proper, this slightly ovoid/ovid? cairn enjoys far reaching views to the south down the Wye Valley. Completely covered in heather the mound stands to a little over 1.5m, kerbstones detectable under foot in the NW and SE sectors of the cairn's rim.
On the whole disappointing and perhaps not worth the effort of crossing the very wet moorland.
No known records of any excavations.
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Dolphin trainer for the MoD.
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