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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.
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.
Not as impressive as the Holyhead Mountain Hut Group, but getting to see them isn’t a problem, as they are visible from the roadside.
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.
01/06. The cist alongside a natural outcrop.
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.
04/04. The easrtern rim of the barrow, the familiar outline of Minninglow’s beech trees beyond.
04/04. The disturbed cist with remaining stone, the ridge in the background is home to the Rockhurst Long Barrow.
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.
A small square cairn standing on the opposite end (SE) of Harland Edge to Hob Hurst’s House square barrow and to the south of the similarly shaped Rod Knoll.
Situated on a local high spot the isolated cairn, 3x3m, stands on stoney ground in an area where there are remains of medieval lead boles, and so can be tricky to find.
A slab bearing 24 cup marks was found in a stile nearby and was speculated to have been broken off a larger panel.
Another sandstone boulder with a single cup mark was found in one of the surrounding walls.
Both in Stoke-on-Trent’s museum.
The barrows central pit postman mentions is the result of stone robbing which is also responsible for the hollows on the southern side. Although not fully excavated the finds from the barrow included a rock cut grave, which contained the remains of human bones. More human bones were found elsewhere within the mound along with flint tools, horse bones and teeth and a number of antler tines.
Info: J.Barnatt, B.Marsden.
The Murder Stone: a standing stone 150m north west of Cornfield Farm.
“...stone erected on a ridge above the brook at Handley Fold. The stone is a triangular natural slab of local gritstone. It is earthfast and stands on the crest of the ridge affording good visibility in all directions except the north east where the view is obscured by higher ground. The stone measures 1.22m at its widest point and 0.44m deep. It stands 1.14m high.
NMR(1995).
09/05. Stones of the cist, the field boundary it is built into isn’t visible in the pic, not much better on the ground with all the heather.
04/04. Stones of the cist, the field boundary it is built into isn’t visible in the pic, not much better on the ground with all the heather.
” A monstrous parcel of gigantic rocks, seemingly pil’d one a top of another as in the wars of the gods”
William Stukeley.
Gardners plan of the burial chambers at Minning Low.
Image credit: Sir Gardner Wilkinson, 1786.
Bateman’s mistake.....this is the Cork Stone
Image credit: Thomas Bateman 1848
The Rowtor Rocks, eastern edge above the pub, c1839.
Image credit: Thomas Allom
Further to Rhiannon’s notes below the name Gib Hill refers to the local story of the barrow once being a gibbet site, although the name ‘gib’ is an olde english word for mound.
On the other hand the name Bunkers Hill, a name given to a number of features here in the Peak that includes hills, a plantation and a rock shelter, comes from the famous victory or is it defeat never too sure which and we did loose in the end, for the British in the American war of independence at Bunkers Hill.
A Neolithic cursus monument visible as the cropmark traces of two parallel ditches circa 40 metres apart and running roughly south-south-west to east-north-east.
The site was first trenched in 1967, and further survey and excavation has occurred since the late 1980s. The cursus has been traced for a distance of at least 1560 metres, lying near the edge of the flood-plain of the Trent. Excavations in 1994-5 in advance of work on a bypass recovered Peterborough Ware sherds close to the bottom of the southern cursus ditch.
Charred organic remains were also present, from which radiocarbon dates are to be sought. The excavations also uncovered a causeway between 10.5 and 19 metres in length through the northern ditch. Within this casueway were a cluster of short linear features and a post hole, all presumably evidence for controlling access into the monument.
Another break in the northern ditch was shown to have been created to accommodate the course of a stream, which still runs through it. The 1994-5 excavations also confirmed that the 1969 excavations had in fact found a series of natural features which were mistakenly interpreted as representing the cursus ditches.
Information from: www.pastscape.org.uk
03/06. Single cup mark above, and to the north of, the large cup and ring marked boulder.
06/06. Rowtor’s largest rocking stone, now sadly toppled, mentioned in Rhiannons ‘misc notes’ below. (Robin Hoods Stride to the centre of the photo on the horizon).
Named after St Peter’s in Rome; the domed top of the outcrop similar in shape to that of the church there.
A handaxe was discovered in the scree close-by and was perhaps associated with a barrow that is speculated to have been located in this area.
It was also the location of the Peak’s last gibbeting in 1815.
06/04. The stones visible in the heather are the stones of a ring cairn or hut circle according to the NMR.
Standing a little over 1m in height this stone isn’t as impressive as the majority of others found on Anglesey, but is easy to find standing by the A5 near the showground.
08/06. Bedd Brawen’s disturbed remains, no signs of the stone mentioned in last years fieldnotes and no way through the thick hedge or cornfield to get a closer look.