It’s nice to see these stones still exist – and 4W’s photo shows that they’re apparently still in use. It looks a bit overgrown nevertheless.
Rhiannon
‘The Excavation of the cairns at Blawearie, Old Bewick, Northumberland’ – article from the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society for 1996, by Ian Hewitt and Stan Beckensall.
The Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire for 1865 has an article by Professor J Y Simpson about the carvings (with drawings). I guess the feet hadn’t been spotted yet. Perhaps they come under the description of the stone which is “too much disfigured by modern apocryphal cuttings and chisellings to deserve archaeological notice.”
Lots of details of the finds – and a (sadly black and white) photo of the gold disc.
(The pictures seem to have disappeared, but there’s a photo of a replica here on the Bradford on Avon museum website.
From Archaeologia Aeliana, v19 third series. This article from 1921 has the most beautifully drawn maps to trace George RB Spain’s proposed line of the earthwork.
( ‘Keys to the Past‘ has given the grid reference near Sewingshields, so that’s the one I’ve given here too. It seemingly follows the line of the wall up to Kingscrag Gate and beyond.)
A photo of the Wor Barrow being excavated in the late 19th century. You can see the depth of the ditch nicely. And also some pyramids, for some reason?!
Map viewer for Ireland – there are historical maps too.
Canmore has the sorry story of these stones, which were moved gratuitously and repeatedly in the 1990s. Now only two of the original eight remain.
Tradition had it that a battle was fought here and the stones were to mark the place where the chieftains fell.
This stone’s been surrounded by modern houses (but at least it’s been spared). It’s almost 2m high. Photo by Mary and Angus Hogg.
Details about this barrow which is / would be in sight of Knocking Knoll.
Details from the Bedfordshire HER.
Details from the Bedfordshire HER.
Details from the Bedfordshire HER.
A report with some conclusions on the excavations at this complex site in 2005-7.
Lots of information on the excavations and conclusions of the research at Happisburgh. Includes some excellent photographs of the finds (including CT scans of the tools, and more amusingly, a hyena dropping).
Excavations at the site, which has been discovered to date from the 4-5th millennium BC.
Moss’s thoughtful North Stoke blog has Seamus Heaney’s poem which was inspired by a visit to Belderg in the 1970s.
The Prehistoric Society’s newsletter from April 2010 has a short article about the recent excavations in circle 1 (accompanied by aerial photo by Pete Glastonbury) and results of the carbon dating made. It seems that circle 1, at least, is Neolithic – because of the site’s distinct unusualness, even this had been disputed before. But there are still lots of questions about how the site developed and whether all the henges were made at the same time.
This guided walk mentions a rock carved with a grid pattern on the side of Simonside (near marker ‘B’ on the map).
‘The Beacon Solar Observatory’.
This holed boulder is shown in this month’s ‘Fortean Times’ and I see it’s been mentioned on this website before (I took the grid reference from Gavin Douglas’s post here.) The ‘observations’ page has some photos of the sun shining down the hole through the stone. Perhaps it really is aligned, perhaps some prehistoric people wriggled it round until it was facing the right way. Whatever, it’s a pretty curious object with that hole right through it. It surely deserves some weird folklore (Richard Cox in the FT makes a comparison with the Stone of Gronw in the Mabinogion). But being off the beaten track maybe it’s been lying low for a few tens of centuries, there on the flank of mysterious Simonside.
‘Prehistoric Axe Factory near Hyssington, in Powys: Archaeological Survey and Excavation 2007-8.’ There are also more details here.
Mmm Axe Factory.
And enthusiasts of prehistoric rock carvings may also like the photo of a stone criss-crossed with pecked lines.
Also it’s interesting to see how the freshly made axes would have been a bright blue-green, not the dull brown the picrite turns after weathering.
In addition to a nice photo, Dr Millington’s article mentions something that’s suggested in the Victoria County History – about various other holed stones being useful to pass your ill children through to perk them up. But maybe he’s got a lead – a local lane is called Ricket Lane... so maybe the hole was used to cure rickets? You never know.
In 2008, something extraordinary was excavated here: the remains of an amber necklace from the early Bronze Age. It’s unusual enough to find one bead, let alone the 80 found here, and they’re more associated with places like Wessex and Orkney. But its design was unusual, more like the jet necklaces found in the north of England. So it’s a rather special thing. The webpage has links to many more photos.
‘Report on Stone Circles in Perthshire, Principally Strathearn; with measured plans and drawings..’ by Fred R Coles.
This article in the 1910/11 volume of PSAS has sixty-three illustrations and a lot of description.
A photo of the hemmed in stone.
“Mayburgh and King Arthur’s Round Table” by C W Dymond (1890).
The text might not have anything new for you, but the carefully scanned in illustrations are superb and well worth a look.
Many old maps of Scotland, all searchable and zoom-inable, including 25 inch to the mile OS maps from 1855-1882. Luvly.
(As kindly tipped off by Branwen).
“On some cup-incised stones, found in an ancient British burial-mound at Pitland Hills, near Birtley, North Tynedale.” A paper by the Rev. G. Rome Hall, in Archaeologia Aeliana v12 (1887).
The previous article is on similar lines: “Recent explorations in ancient British barrows, containing cup-marked stones, near Birtley, North Tynedale.”
Volume 2 of the Folklore Society’s printing of the Denham Tracts – the Hazelrigg Dunnie features between p157 and 163.
Lots of folklore (including the Arthurian) connected with Sewingshields, as collected by Michael Denham in his ‘Tracts’.
Another large boulder to the east of the kirk is called the “Piper’s Stane,” from its having been, as story avers, the spot where bagpipers waited for marriage parties on their return from church, when their services were required to convoy them home, and to play at “penny bridals.”
From v2 of Andrew Jervices’s ‘Epitaphs and inscriptions from burial grounds and old buildings in the North East of Scotland’ (1879).
Striderv has this 1950s postcard of the stone on their Flickr page. Does it not look rather like a sturdy Welsh cromlech? Or perhaps rather, do sturdy Welsh cromlechs not look like this?
An article from ‘The Pembrokeshire historian’ of 1966 called ‘The standing-stones of Pembrokeshire’. Lots of stoney information and a list with grid references for all you obsessive stone-trackers.
Ten Days’ Tour Through the Isle of Anglesey.
A super record of the Reverend Skinner’s journey in 1802, with many illustrations of stoney places and much druid-related speculation.
An aerial photo of the fort from 1931.
A romantic pen and wash drawing of the cave from the valley below, from the early 19th century. The website also has a photo of the site from 1909, here.
Some archive photos of the stones, including keen visitors.
A photo of the stone looking smartly whitewashed in 1915.
It certainly doesn’t look like the hilliest sort of hill fort from this photograph.
A drawing of the holed stone at Tobernaveen, in ‘Wakeman’s Handbook of Irish Antiquities’, by John Cooke (1903).
Moytura, or Magh Tuiread, apparently means ‘Plain of Pillars’, according to this webpage. They were apparently thrown by the Tuatha De Danann when they were waiting for the their battle to start with the Fomorians. One of the stones spotted by Ryaner has its own name – The Eglone Stone, and has at least two associated folklore stories.
Geological / caving descriptions of caves in the area: the Cateran Hole, one at Routin Lynn (NT982368), and another on Dod Law (NU 004310).
This volume of the Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland has a sketch of the carvings at Staigue Bridge, along with drawings of others in the area...
A little article about recentish surveying of the many earthworks, illustrated by photos and maps. It’s no wonder it seems confusing up there.
A Fyfield Down NNR leaflet explaining how the sarsens came to be here.
The Clifton Antiquarian Club surveyed the stones in 2006 and found 13 cupmarks on one of the supporting uprights. The SSPA link is a pdf of the CAC article, and includes a plan of the cupmarks.
This article from the 1888 Proceedings has a detailed plan of the stones, and marks where there are “two holes in the upright stones on either side of the chamber, which are very remarkable.”
This article from the Club’s proceedings in 1896 has a lovely sepia photo of the stones.
Eugene Byrne and Simon Gurr tell a modern version of the landscape and legends of the area in graphic novel style.
There’s also a page that explains how Vincent – perhaps the name of the giant here at St Vincent’s Rock – dug out the Avon gorge.