A stone circle of uncertain status – perhaps just a cairn but it is 27m in diameter – with an outlying stone(s). Pen y Wern is the name of the hill. Pen means top or head, the wern part means ‘alder swamp’ apparently (a stream does run through the valley below).
Rhiannon
Apparently modern classical composer Andrew Downes has written some music partly inspired by the site: his ‘Symphony no 3 – Spirits of the Earth’ has its fourth movement titled ‘Belas Knap’.
Iron Man – the Pikestones are mentioned in the Northern Earth index for edition 54 – if anyone’s got a copy perhaps that could shed some light on the spiral?
The translation of the site’s name may be the evocative ‘Hill of the dark/black grove’. In common with many prehistoric sites, Bryn Celli Ddu stands near water – the Afon Braint (named after Brigantia?) and also near two Llwyn Onn s – (ash groves – how Welsh do you want! though apparently they’re not planted with ashes any longer).
Excavations at the site have shown that before the present structure there was a bank with a standing stone(stones?) in the middle. Archaeologists found a series of large stones and a filled in hole, which they think may be the remains of a monolith and its socket – the toppling and destruction could have been symbolic in some way. Ronald Hutton suggests that the original henge may have been destroyed to build the passage grave on top of it “to pool the ritual force of both sorts of structure”. He also describes (in ‘Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles’) how an ox sacrifice was deposited in a pit just in front of the entrance.
Browsing in the dustiest section of Bath library I was reading a book about Somerset that mentioned Bathampton Down. It mentioned an archaeological report about the excavation of a circle of stones – basically the stones of a hut of some sort. I think this might be where the rumours of a stone circle at the site have come from? as everything I’ve ever seen about it has been utterly vague – perhaps it’s just a case of chinese whispers?
Hemford is also known as Marsh Pool and Black Marsh – or the Hoarstones. It’s very close to Mitchell’s Fold, and apparently there used to be a third circle close by too called the Whetstones. I’ve been to Mitchell’s Fold on a number of occasions, but didn’t even realise these stones were nearby. The stones at Hemford said to be small and I hear often swamped by vegetation. There is a stone in the centre, though whether it’s original is debatable.
This is taken from ‘Notes on the Antiquities of Macclesfield’ by I Finney (1871). The complete text is at
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~finney/isaac/antiquities-of-macclesfield.htm
“In a field behind Clulow Cross there is to be seen a stone circle, about five yards in diameter, with a broad upright slab of gritstone placed in the centre of it. For some time past this has been an object of interest to the archæologist, and on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 1871, an excavation was made in the presence of our respected townsman, Mr. Sainter, a gentleman who takes great interest in exploring remains of this description,and who has collected a great many curiosities of antiquity, and, as he informs me, both he and his friends were highly gratified by the discovery, about three feet below the surface, of several pieces of charcoal, along with stones blackened by fire, and also a sepulchral urn, which contained the burnt bones of a young child, also a piece of curved flint that had been calcined. The urn, made of baked clay, proved to be in a crumbling condition, but several of the larger pieces were preserved, and as there was no ornamentation to be seen on the outer surfaces, the burial may be assigned to a very old date- probably prehistoric, or anterior to the period of the occupation of this country by the Romans.”
Then he mentions another stone:
” We may here notice also a very singular stone by the roadside in this neighbourhood, which is called by archæologists ” a Maen hir” – merestone, or longstone, which is also of ancient British origin, and tradition has it that this stone was made use of at the time of the plague in 1666 as a barrier or boundary stone to the country people bringing provisions to Macclesfield, where it seems all exchanges were to be made upon this stone by persons appointed to receive and pay the same – hence, since that time, it has been called ” The Plague Stone.”
A bronze age burial mound, 18 ft high, 150yds west of the hillfort on Robin Hood’s Hill called Oxton Camp.
The Rudston Monolith is the tallest example of a standing stone in Britain. It’s 25’ 9” high, though was probably 28’ before it lost its point. Now it sports a lead hat, supposedly to protect it from the elements. Perhaps there was a cross put on top of it at one time – it seems to have been very tolerated by the church! – and in fact Rudston might come from Rood/Cross and Stan/Stone in Old English. It’s also been known as the Grandmother of the Church. One theory about its origins has the devil throwing it here, but this 40ton giant could also have been dragged 10 miles from the nearest obvious source of gritstone. It stands right near the Gypsey Race.
Ah, the beautiful car park at Stonehenge. What a strange meeting point for all sorts of people.
The post holes were apparently only discovered because they wanted to build the car park. They didn’t find much in them – a piece of bone and a quantity of charcoal. But the thing was, the charcoal was dated to the Mesolithic – the post holes were made 10,000 years ago, 5000 years older than the beginnings of ‘stonehenge’ as we think of it. The charcoal was made from pine wood – and the whole area would still have been forest at that time, because it was only later that the clearances started. So three huge wooden posts were put up in a line, in a forest or a forest glade?
Perhaps the wood got into the pits later somehow. Maybe when the pits were dug in the Bronze Age perhaps. Perhaps they once held totem-pole type markers? The pits are pretty massive – 3ft across. More unanswered and unanswerable questions then.
Ronald Hutton (in ‘Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles’ 1991) mentions that neither Stonehenge nor Mesolithic experts took much interest in the discovery.. maybe because it didn’t fit into their ideas of how things had been in the area. “There is no evidence anywhere in Europe for the erection of such huge wooden structures in the Mesolithic.” No flint scatters have been found in the vicinity of Stonehenge, as they have been in other areas of Mesolithic activity. Even if the pits aren’t Mesolithic, they must date from the Bronze Age, say, and their role in the Stonehenge landscape ought to be considered?
You can see this stone outside the Guildhall near Kingston market. It was used as the coronation stone from Edward the Elder in 900AD to Edmund Ironside in 1016 – they were crowned sat on it.
But surely they didn’t just pick some random stone from the ground in 900AD? surely it had some ‘provenance’? Perhaps someone knows some more about this – or perhaps it’s impossible to know now.
‘Gwern’ means marsh, and Einion is a man’s name. This site is a rectangular burial chamber, which has been built into a drystone wall. Five stones hold up a steeply sloping capstone 2.7m long.
Behind the font is a slab of stone with a 7-turn spiral pecked into it. The spiral is about 30cm across. Perhaps the stone was brought from a tomb on the hillside above the village? though this seems slightly strange.
Alton Priors church is built on a mound above the level of the field. If you go inside, there are wooden panels on the floor – and if you lift them up there are sarsen stones under the panels. Pretty cool eh.
In the churchyard there is a yew tree, said to be 1700 years old. If this is true the yew is older than the church – a church in a tree yard, not a tree in a church yard. But then again, maybe yews grow at different speeds during their life. It’s a contentious issue! – look at the forum discussion (link at the top of the page).
Nearby there is a ‘laughing well’ – the Broad Well (SU108623) – this apparently means you can see the bubbles coming up off the bottom of the spring. (mentioned by Katy Jordan in her excellent book on Wiltshire ‘The Haunted Landscape’)
Could ‘Broad Well’ be a corruption of Bridewell (or is that just new age speculation?). It is named in an AngloSaxon charter as ‘BradeWyll’. (mentioned in the imaginative ‘Legendary Landscapes’ by J D Wakefield (1999).
Only fourteen stones – 7 standing and 7 fallen – remain of this circle, which probably had more than 20 stones originally. The site was probably damaged by military training in the war. There may be the remains of a round barrow by the wall. The stones are sandstone.
Marked as a ‘stone setting’ on the OS map, the 13 stones remaining here don’t seem to be enough to tell what arrangement they were originally part of. One theory suggests three concentric ovals. There is at least one outlying stone. Excavations in the 30s suggested stone rows at the site.
A stone circle is unusual for Somerset – but it’s very inconspicuous! The circle is almost 37 metres in diameter, with thirty stones, but most are only 10cm high (the tallest being 60cm). A plan of the site was drawn in 1898 showing 37 stones, but it’s possible there were 100 originally.
Right on top of Withypool Hill is a round barrow.
S Toulson* describes how John Knight (someone who was determined to turn Exmoor into useful agricultural land and metalled lots of roads in the early 19th century) used the Woodbarrow to mark the end of his estate. It’s actually on the boundary between Devon and Somerset.
*Moors of the Southwest v1, 1983.
The Longstone marks the source of the River Bray. It’s a 9ft high, thin but wide piece of slate.
Nearby is the Longstone barrow, 3 stones in a line, and a rectangular structure made up of two standing and two recumbent stones.
Nearby also is the Quincunx, made up of 5 stones: one each at N, S, E and W, and one in the middle.
In the 1830s two skulls were found under the stone – so perhaps it is the remains of a tomb, and so part of the Medway group of Neolithic barrows where the Pilgrim’s way crosses the river.
Judging by the link below, it seems the farmer saw fit to pile another stone on top of it quite recently.
The stone, called by Stukeley, “The Coffin,” and now frequently and more appropriately “The Table Stone,” lies close to Great Tottington Farm, in an open field on the opposite side of the lane to Lower Kit’s Cotty. A hedge formerly concealed more than one-half of the stone, and in this condition it is depicted in Thorpe’s Custumale Roffense, the east side alone being exposed. In 1836, this hedge was cleared away, so that the entire stone is now visible. From the same field in which the Coffin Stone lies, many stones have been removed, and others have been sunk in the ground in order to get them below the reach of the plough.
The length of the Coffin Stone is about 14 ft. 6 in., breadth at its north-east end, 8 ft. 6 in.; at south-west end, 5 ft. 5 in., while its depth or thickness averages about 2 ft. Measured diagonally, north and south, its length is 15 ft., and similarly from east to west, 13 ft. 10 in. This stone was, probably, at one time upright, and formed a sepulchral memorial or menhir of some ancient British chieftain.
In confirmation of its once upright position, it lies on the surface of the ground, a stick being easily thrust several feet underneath without meeting with any obstruction. Another still more conclusive fact is, that when the hedge was removed in 1836, from around the Coffin Stone, two human skulls were met with, besides other human bones. Some charcoal, a frequent accompaniment of early burials, was also found while grubbing in the same hedgerow. Fragments of Roman pottery have also been brought to light within a short distance.
There is a saying in the neighbourhood that this stone is the largest in Kent. Some of those in Addington Park, are, however, nearly of equal dimensions.
On the megalithic remains in mid-Kent, by EHW Dunkin, in The Reliquary for Oct 1871.
Visible from Cow Down, there were at least 29 early Bronze Age barrows in a rough semicircle. Now they’ve got VEHICLE TRACKS across the top of them.
This is now in a fairly poor state. There were originally 13 bowl barrows and 1 disc barrow in two parallel lines.
A defended Iron Age farming settlement, probably begun in the late Bronze Age, and a stone’s throw from the Icknield Way.
There are about 7 barrows in this area, but these three sit on the gravel plain. They are disc barrows – two overlapping and one separate.
A staggering 20+ bronze age barrows on this heath, and plenty of flint evidence for Mesolithic occupation too.
The 700 year old Taro fair takes place on the heath every October.
A fantastic name for an overgrown long barrow – it’s also known as ‘Duke’s Rest’ locally. Sited conspicuously on an eminence of Rockbourne Down, it’s intervisible with Grans Barrow, Knap Barrow, and a longbarrow on Little Toyd Down. There is also a group of round barrows half a mile to the north. To the northwest there are traces of an Iron Age settlement and ‘Celtic’ fields – an area full of interest!
This hillfort lies on the outskirts of Lymington, but it’s pretty well preserved. A smaller fort (Ampress) 1/2mile to the east has got partly swallowed up by Industry – that was on the confluence of the two rivers here. Buckland Rings has three banks and two ditches as defence (except on the East side, where a farmer flattened them to gain access to the interior).
Another smaller fortified area, just to the west.
This Bronze Age stone is nearly 3m high.
Carn Goch (red cairn) is one of the largest stone-built hillforts in south Wales, and the finest example of one with stone ramparts, which are a little worse for wear now. There are two forts Y Gaer Fach (the small fort) and Y Gaer Fawr (the large fort!). The views over this remote part of the Brecon Beacons sound fantastic.
A Neolithic causewayed camp underlies the single bank and ditch Iron Age hillfort here. There’s been quarrying and ploughing here – it sounds like it’s getting pretty trashed. The original inhabitants didn’t have much luck either – excavations found a lot of skeletons and sling shots, remains of a nasty skirmish.
Dyer’s ‘Southern England’ remarks that Neolithic pottery and an antler comb have been obtained from the site.
Ravensburgh Castle lies on the county boundary. It’s supposed to be the largest Iron Age hillfort in the east of England. It was built around 400bce with timber defences in addition to the banks/ditches.
This is a single bowl barrow with trees growing on it, but it’s really the southern end of the Brightwell Heath bronze age barrow cemetery, which has now been largely ploughed out. It used to include the enigmatically titled ‘Devil’s Saucer’ which was a saucer barrow. If you look at the OS map there are still quite a few barrows in the area though.
This is probably Iron Age – it was originally on a spur of land overlooking impassable marshes. Now it’s rather encroached on by housing and the outer bank and ditch are largely destroyed. You can still see the inner bank and ditch. It used to be known as Erbury (’earth fortification’) and may have been used by the Danes.
Lots of barrows survive in Norfolk’s forestry commission woodlands where they’re protected from ploughing. This round barrow lurks amongst the pine trees – in fact it’s got a twisted scots pine growing out of it.
The castle was Norman, but the earthworks are from a previous Iron Age hillfort. The mound is 80ft high, so is one of the largest man-made mounds in the country. It uses the river as defence as well as a double rampart, and possibly controlled the ford of the Icknield Way where it crosses that river.
Originally Iron Age? used by the Romans and maybe the Vikings later. It’s right on the saltmarsh at Holkham, and used to be accessible by a creek, so is protected by the sea as well as a single rampart.
This overgrown bell barrow in a wood is still 7ft high, and 72ft in diameter.
3 Bronze Age bell barrows on the common, and an Iron Age hillfort to the NW.
~Ok this is a slight lie. This major centre of Neolithic ritual / settlement activity isn’t here any more. It had two concentric rings about 20m apart and was 180m in diameter. I include it because of its current guise – Junction 13 on the M25 at Staines, a curious circular echo of its former self. Kind of depressing but strangely interesting. it makes me think of lovely Mayburgh henge and its narrow escape from the motorway there.
This article, if you can find it, will no doubt have all the details:
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
Roberston-Mackay, R. The Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure at Staines, Surrey: Excavations 1961-63. 53, 1987 Page(s)23-128
This hill fort has amazing views of all the Shropshire favourites – the Stiperstones, the Long Mynd, Wenlock Edge, the Clee Hills – plus the mountains of the Welsh borderland.
The two entrances are cunningly designed in a wiggly fashion for maximum defence.
This is one of only four long barrows known in East Anglia. Apparently it’s pretty overgrown, but at 66m long should still be fairly obvious! When the southern end was excavated they found a platform on which a body had been cremated.
(You can read some fieldnotes by Rob Gillespie for this site under the general ‘Eastern England’ heading).
The barrow is 35m long and 2m high. Next to it is a horseshoe shaped enclosure, the terminals are 140m apart – the bank and outer ditch are visible near Ditchingham village hall and beside Green Lane.
More than 22,000 flint tools were found during the excavation of the settlement!
There doesn’t seem to be anything on the OS map, but my research suggests this is the largest Iron age fort in Suffolk. It has double ramparts, and a church is built inside them. It’s St Botolph’s church – for some reason his shrivelled relics were kept here for 50 years before being taken to Bury St Edmunds (sic).
Strangely there is another church about quarter of a mile down the road.
Daggers and jet, amber and gold jewellery were found buried with the occupants of these Bronze age barrows – pretty Wessex style for somewhere so far away
Can this really be the second largest hillfort in the country? It’s a bit of a cheat – 4.5 acres inside a bigger 150 acre enclosure. It used to be covered with BBC masts but Daventry council own it now and there’s only one left. Apparently it’s a bit of a birding site and full of butterflies in the sun. A late bronze age axe has been found there.
you’re right, it does look a bit new – they’re actually concrete posts I’m afraid to say, but to show you where the post holes that did hold the wood were. There are six concentric oval rings of holes, surrounded by a round bank and a ditch (originally 8ft deep) – the bank and ditch is really the ‘henge’.
Maybe the posts stood by themselves, maybe they were carved or painted, or maybe they made the uprights for a building. The long axis points to the midsummer dawn – perhaps it was an earlier version of Stonehenge.
Siegfried Sassoon lived nearby, and wrote this poem about Scratchbury Hill.
On Scratchbury Camp
Along the grave green downs, this idle afternoon,
Shadows of loitering silver clouds, becalmed in blue,
Bring, like unfoldment of a flower, the best of June.
Shadows outspread in spacious movement, always you
Have dappled the downs and valleys at this time of year,
While larks, ascending shrill, praised freedom as they flew.
Now, through that song, a fighter squadron’s drone I hear
From Scratchbury Camp, whose turfed and cowslip’d rampart seems
More hill than history, ageless and oblivion – blurred.
I walk the fosse, once manned by bronze and flint head spear;
On war’s imperious wing the shafted sun ray gleams:
One with the warm sweet air of summer stoops the bird.
Cloud shadows, drifting slow like heedless daylight dreams,
Dwell and dissolve; uncircumstanced they pause and pass.
I watch them go. My horse, contented, crops the grass.
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