George Nash talks about the ‘Pegasus Stone’, found in 2008 near the currently beleaguered fort. It’s a raised carving of a horse and could be from the Iron Age / Romano-British era...
(tipped off from the Heritage Journal’s mention of a seminar in Oswestry on the 22nd February)
Mr Graham standing with the stone on its rocky mound.
35,000 year old Neanderthal hand axes found in the cave.
“Journeys and Juxtapositions: Marden Henge and the View from the Vale,” by Jim Leary and David Field (2012).
“This short paper sets out a summary of a project to investigate the henge at Marden and its surroundings in the Vale of Pewsey, which includes an excavation carried out in 2010 across the footprint of the now demolished Neolithic mound known as the Hatfield Barrow and the discovery of a well-preserved Neolithic building surface and midden. It argues that whilst archaeologists have traditionally focussed on the Wessex chalk upland, the real action happened in the river valleys, with rivers and springs being of particular significance to communities during the Neolithic period.”
Rod has a nice photo of the stone in its new roadside spot.
Gaer Fawr Hillfort: An Analysis of the Earthworks. A report from 2009 about the ‘Great Fort’.
A little hollow bronze boar was found at (or at least, near) the hillfort, and has been interpreted as an ornament for an Iron Age helmet. It’s also known as the Guilsfield boar. It gets a mention in ‘An inventory of the ancient monuments of Montgomeryshire‘ here:
The following extract from a letter of the 1st February, 1833, from Mr. P.G.Mytton, Garth Cottage, Llanfyllin, to the Rev. Walter Davies, is of importance:--
“If you can give me any information respecting a piece of antiquity found on Varchoel Demesne, the property of my uncle, you will very much help him and myself. It is of solid gold in the shape of a wild boar; its weight two ounces, length about two inches, and height about one; it is grooved under the belly longitudinally, the groove about 1/8th inch wide ... I have stated the size from conjecture, not having measured it; but the weight is correct.”
The hillfort itself was part of the Garth estate until the mid-twentieth century (as you can read about on the other link). Garth Hall was a rather striking building but now demolished. Calling the boar ‘solid gold’ was a bit ambitious if it’s bronze and hollow, so you can only hope he was more accurate about the animal’s origins. By 1871 Archaeologia Cambrensis seemed certain it was found ‘within [the] ancient work’ of the fort, but ‘under what circumstances it was first discovered, and whether associated with any other remains, has not been handed down.’ Ah but luckily that sort of thing doesn’t happen these days does it? Oh.
The truly amazing Iron Age Capel Garmon firedog was found not far from here. You can visit it in person at the museum in Cardiff (or perhaps at St Fagans at the moment).
In Archaeologia Cambrensis (1863) it says:
The relic [...] was discovered in May, 1852, by a man cutting a ditch through a turbary on the farm of Carreg Goedog, near Capel Garmon, Llanrwst. It lay on the clay subsoil, flat upon its side, with a large stone at each end, and at a considerable depth. The spot is quite unfrequented, nor are there any remains of ancient buildings. It is all of iron, and the execution indicates considerable taste and skill. It is in some parts much corroded, and exposure to the air decomposed the metal considerably [...]
Although the journal suggests the firedog was found “at the foot of” Dinas Mawr, at the confluence of the Conway and Machno rivers (which would be Romantically Celtic), the farm of Carreg-coediog isn’t actually at its foot at all. But it’s not far away.
The banks and ditches of the fort look so crisp in this aerial photo.
‘Description of the Parc Cwm Tumulus’ by J. Lubbock – the tale of how the mound was excavated in 1869. In ‘Archaeologia Cambrensis’ v4 (1887).
Sir Mortimer and Magnus: the Festival Dig.
Jolly good wot. I won’t spoil this topping story which Sir Malcolm Wheeler expertly (and meanderingly) spins for you and ‘Mag’* about some rare and gruesome finds at Stanwick. He’s raconteur and archaeologist combined, and a character from a totally different era. This is confirmed with a shock when he describes how he looked out of a window to see troops passing at the outbreak of the first world war. He’s a sprightly 84 in this 15 minute film from 1974.
(* I defy anyone not to cringe at this point.)
William Cunnington’s notes about the opening of the Boles Barrow in 1801, in volume 111 of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History magazine (June 1924).
There are also photographs of the mysterious bluestone.
A photo of the barrow, by Pauline Rook. Plus there are great photos of its excavation on this page:
archaeologyathinkleypoint.wordpress.com/wick-barrow/
including a photo of one its inhabitants. A skull that is, not a pixie. I think the pixies must have moved out for the excavation – the stones are laid bare.
Guy Wareham’s photo of a super triple rock basin at Hucken Tor.
Frances Scott’s photo shows you that the split stone is pretty big.
Shape-shifting: the changing outline of the long man of Wilmington.
An article by Rodney Castleden, in the Sussex Archaeological Collections 140.
The figure was bricked in 1873, and there was some argument about what the proper outline should be. It had long been grassed over but could still be seen albeit indistinctly – in 1800 it was called ‘The Green Man’. The earliest known drawing comes from 1710.
The very lean-to stone mentioned in Halliwell-Phillipps’s book, taken by ‘Trepolpen’, plus other photos of the carn – the ones without people in shot belie the size of the stones.
A description of the Round (’called the Cryglas’) when it was more intact, in J O Halliwell-Phillipps’s ‘Rambles in Western Cornwall’ (1861).
Pitt-Rivers himself dug into the settlement here, as he describes in his Wiltshire Arch. + Nat. Hist. Magazine article of 1894. A modern summary of the site is on Pastscape.
A photo taken by George Love Dafnis in 1925.
Information plus videos of work at the site.
A particularly superb thing about this archive is the ‘Query’ section, via which you can bring up photographs of many wonderful things.
Carl Weaver’s photo of the stone.
Christopher Tilley and Wayne Bennett’s article “An Archaeology of Supernatural Places: The Case of West Penwith” suggests that there are two ‘solution basins’ on the west side of the granite.
J of the Royal Anthr. Inst., v7, no.2 (Jun 2001).
Glass beads from between the fourth and first centuries BC, which were probably made at the Meare Lake Village site in Somerset.
A Middle Iron Age brooch from Moel Hiraddug.
Photos and information about the Wizard’s Stone.
I rather like how this website also takes the ‘show sites’ and gives them their own map for each region.
Discoveries in a Barrow in Derbyshire. In a Letter from Hayman Rooke, Esq. to Mr. Gough.
An article from Archaeologia v12 (1796).
The barrow was on the summit of Fin Cop.
Some neat little drawings of the stones, in an article by W Wynn Williams called ‘Early Remains at Penrhos Lligwy, Anglesey’ – in Archaeologia Cambrensis v13, s3 (1867).
William Borlase’s descriptions of his excavations at the fogou between 1863 and 1867, in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London (series 2, volume 4).
From the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, v3 (1856) – strange sounding barrow-like and subterranean excavations up on Therfield Heath. In all likelihood not as old as the barrows? – although flint tools were found in one, interestingly. But maybe inspired by them and their location?
The Sites and Monuments Records for Denmark.
Click ‘Kort’ to search by map, or ‘Tekst’ to type in a place name or choose a period of (pre)history. Think of the usefulness in planning your megalithically themed Danish holiday :)
For the folklore obsessive, the most exciting section is here. Yes it’s in Danish. But many hours of translationy fun could await.
‘Preliminary report on the exploration of ‘Dog Holes’ cave, Warton Crag, near Carnforth, Lancashire’ by J Wilfrid Jackson. In the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society for 1909, v27. You can also read his third report here.
From the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society for 1905 (v23): “Recent Archaeological Discoveries at Alderley Edge” by C Roeder and F S Graves.
Interesting article on the facts vs speculation and folklore surrounding the London Stone, by John Clark, formerly Senior Curator (Medieval) at the Museum of London.
A photo of the (really quite large) stone.
There’s a dramatic photo of the rock on Al Glenton’s photostream.
An outing to the caves recorded in the Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club (1874-6), along with discussion of the animal remains found there.
There’s trouble with both the upper classes and the riff raff:
The author had previously told “a British lady that we had found the remains of [a lion], with the remains of elephants and rhinoceroses. She smiled contemptuously, and said, “Well, Mr. Symonds, you may believe it, but I don’t; not a word of it.”
A number of daytrippers went to the lower caves, “and some even looked into that which is occupied by a notorious person known as “Jem, the Slipper,” whose boast it is that he has lived in the cave for thirty years, and has not washed himself for that period. Most of the company, however, preferred to return to Whitchurch by other routes.” I love that understated Victorian humour :)
A little further, on page 28 there is a somewhat tall story about a huge human skeleton allegedly found in the cave c. 1700. Gibson supposedly mentioned the giant in his 3rd edition of Camden’s Britannia.
There is also mention of a tradition current in 1799 that ‘King Arthur’s Hall extends underground from thence to New Wear, a distance of more than a mile’. But Mr Edmunds, the article’s author, remains unconvinced.
Map showing the permissive path to the stones and how it links up with the public footpath.
‘The Prehistoric Rock Sculptures of Ilkley” by J Romilly Allen – in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association v35 (1879).
The RCAHMS record concedes that some of the walling could be Iron Age, though the dun’s essentially medieval. The landscape does cry out for something to be on top of these strange features (Dun Ara looks rather like the neighbouring lump in the photo – a flat area raised up suddenly). The dun was covered in bluebells and other flowers when I visited in spring.
From ‘Decies’, a journal of the Old Waterford Society, Spring 1988 – an article about the cliff-top fort. They discover that the landowner had no knowledge of its existence. But curiously they themselves seem to overlook the standing stone.
Lots of folklore, plus if you click on the photo of the caves, you can conduct yourself on a little virtual reality style tour, including up to the cairn.
The photo in Edward O’Toole’s article matches Pip Powell’s modern photo of the beautifully sinuous grooves.
Details from the Cornwall and Scilly HER.
Another early description of the caves (variously Okey Hole, Ochie Hole, or Wockey) in ‘The Natural History of England’ by Martin Benjamin (1759).
A photograph by Colin Grice of the boulder by the roadside.
Mike Burgess’s site has some other versions of the story and even a photo. He says the stone has now been moved into the conservatory at Oxfootstone House.
