Rhiannon

There are a lot of round barrows in this area. Mr Grinsell found reference to them in the ‘Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic’ of Henry VIII, XIII (ii), p555, 30 Sept, 1538.

Brightwell, 1538: Thomas Toyser to Cromwell complains of divers ill-doers who have digged for gold and treasure in his lordship of Brightwell, Suffolk. Thomas Toyser applies for the Kings licence so that he will not only save much goods and treasure as shall be found there to the King’s use, but will the sooner come to the knowledge of these ill-doers.

There is an important group of barrows on Brightwell Heath, which were probably the objects of this investigation.

On p38 of Barrow Treasure, in Fact, Tradition, and Legislation
L. V. Grinsell
Folklore, Vol. 78, No. 1. (Spring, 1967), pp. 1-38.

This barrow cemetery behind the Pheasant Hotel probably consisted of nine mounds. Now only a couple are visible. Mr Grinsell speaks of it here:

- In one of the round barrows behind Winterslow Hut, Wiltshire, there was a secondary Late Bronze Age cremation with unburnt human hair associated. Recent analysis .. showed that it was from the eyebrows.. and the total quantity is more than could have been obtained from the eyebrows of one individual. It therefore seems likely that the hair has been shaved from the mourners as a sign of grief. It is of interest to note that a bronze razor.. was associated with this interment (WAM 52, 1948, pp126f). The late Mr. Frank Stevens drew attention to the shaving of the eyebrows as a sign of mourning among certain Eastern peoples of the present day...

231. Shaving off the Eyebrows as a Sign of Mourning
L. V. Grinsell
Man, Vol. 50. (Oct., 1950), p. 144.

A curious tale, and here’s another (though irrelevant bar geography).

Winterslow Hut was the name of the inn on the A30 coaching road here, since renamed the Pheasant Hotel. In 1816 it was the scene of a bizarre incident in which a mail coach was attacked by a lioness that had escaped from a travelling menagerie. “The coach passengers with great presence of mind locked themselves inside the inn while the keepers recaptured the lioness from under a granary.”
wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getfaq.php?id=112

To the eastward of this little wart or ward-hillock, about an English mile, is a high stone, called the Standing Stone of Shapinshay. Above the level of the ground it is 12 feet high, and perhaps 5 or 6 below it; its breadth is between 4 and 5 feet; its thickness a foot and a half; and from its being clothed in moss or scurf, it has a very venerable majestic aspect, and seems to have weathered many ages. In form and dimensions, it very much resembles stones that are found standing in many of the other islands, particularly, the circle and semicircle in the parish of Stenness..

The RCAHMS record adds: “The stone occupies a small patch of unimproved moorland near the highest point in the SE part of the island. A few years before 1928 it was overthrown and re-erected, losing a portion of its upper part in the process. ” So it’s only 2.9m tall now.

This piece (on p80-1 of the New Statistical Account of Scotland, vol15 – 1845) mentions another stone:

“Towards the north side of the island, and by the sea side, is another large stone, called the Black Stone of Odin. Instead of standing erect, like the one above mentioned, it rests its huge side on the sand, and raises its back high above the surrounding stones, from which it seems to be altogether different in quality. How it has come thither, for what purpose, and what relation it has borne to the Scandinavian god with whose name it has been honoured, not only history, but tradition is silent.”

So possibly natural? But interesting for the name.

When the Dorchester bypass was being built, traces of a little ‘hengiform’ monument were found at Conygar Hill.

This Highways Agency page describes a “strikingly similar” monument at Deep Tye Farm in Cornwall (there is a diagram):
highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/3485.aspx
- they found an arc of pits forming a segmented ditch, and an inner arc of postholes. Not many monuments like this have been found – but then they don’t leave much trace unless you happen to be digging in the area, so they’re good at evading detection.

If you can find this document, the details of the Conygar site should be in it:
Smith, R J C, Healy, F, Allen, M J, Morris, E L, Barnes, I and Woodward, P J. 1997. Excavations along the 3544 Route of the Dorchester By-pass, Dorset, 1986-8. Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology.

The lengthily titled 1832 book “The Family Topographer: Being a Compendious Account of the Antient and Present State of the Counties of England’ by Samuel Tymms (volume two, “Western Circuit”) refers to the mound as
“Earthworks, Marden, called Beechingstoke tumulus or Hatfield barrow, 35 feet high, and covers about an acre of ground.”
- I thought I’d mention it as I’ve not seen the mound given this name before. It was more convincingly near Marden, but Beechingstoke is on the same side of the river (stream) so it may be a matter of territory.

A description from the pre-toppled days of the Logan Stone. I think it’s probably really folklore as the story of the ‘peasants’ seems a bit of a local tale to support the untoppleyness of the stone.

.. I may venture to say, from all I have seen myself of that kind, or read, or heard of, I know not a more singular one than that which I am describing.

[..]
It was on a holiday, not long ago, that a vast number of miners and peasants assembled together for the purpose of hurling this prodigious rock into the sea. Every effort was exerted, and all their force applied to no purpose. The vast orb moved as if to mock their toil, but still retained its equilibrium. The people beheld it with astonishment; they concluded it was retained by supernatural agency, and returned venerating the stone.

Those who are hereafter to visit this place, and have not yet beheld this almost miraculous spectacle, will rejoice that it still keeps its center, and resists every effort to move it.

Yet if it was to fall I much wish to be a witness of its overthrow. So huge a mass precipitated, like the stone of Sisyphus, and rolling with prodigious ruin from precipice to precipice, over rocks into the sea, must afford a very striking spectacle.

Oh right. So after all that you’d actually like to see the big splash, very good.

from p115 of Tour Through the South of England, Wales, and Part of Ireland, Made During the Summer of 1791, by Edward Daniel Clarke (online at Google Books).

No-one seems to have mentioned it yet, but it’s been suggested that like Pentre Ifan, the outline of the capstone seems to mimic the outline of Carn Ingli behind the monument. Kammer’s photo here
themodernantiquarian.com/post/8128/images/llechytripedd.html
might convince you.
Perhaps local awareness is the source of Merrick’s folklore – that St Samson threw the stones from Carn Ingli.

(this idea is suggested in ch6 of Alasdair Whittle’s ‘The Archaeology of People’ (2003))

1887 was Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee year, and on June 21st beacon fires were lit all over the country to celebrate.

“At Lowbury-hill, Reading, 40 fires [lit on other hills] were counted, and 1,000 people from all the surrounding parishes sang “God Save the Queen” with great enthusiasm around the fire. A traction engine drew two truckfuls of people to the top of the hill..

..there must have been 2,000-3,000 fires [countrywide] at least. The most striking and the most beautiful sight was the instantaneous bursting into view of all these fires when the signal was given, proving, if proof were necessary, the former value of beacon fires..”

From a letter to the Times by Victor Milward, on Tuesday, Jun 28, 1887; pg. 8.

Gavin MacGregor suggests why Bennachie is so important in the landscape, and hence why “the majority of RSCs are relatively close to, or have a view of, the mountain..”

The distinctiveness of Bennachie’s form is from the series of prominent peaks on its top: Mithers Tap, Oxen Craig, Watch Craig, Brunt Wood Tap, and Hermit Seat.
...

At one point on the plateau.. there is a basin surrounded by four peaks: to the east Mithers Tap, to the south Brunt Wood Tap, to the west Watch Craig and to the north Oxen Craig. Apart from a limited view to the north, this basin prevents views of the landscape below. The experience is of being enclosed by both land and sky. This is clearly a distinctive place on the mountain.

When you continue to walk within this natural amphitheatre toward the most prominent peak of Bennachie, Mithers Tap, the distinctive form of the Tor becomes apparent. The western side of Mithers Tap has a substantial cleft in the rock which when viewed from below has a geometric form to it. Together, Mithers Tap and the three other peaks veiwed from within the basin form a topographic monument...

.. I would argue that Bennachie is likely to have had considerable importance within cosmologies during the third and second millennia BC in the region, and the nature of experience at the top of Bennachie provided the source of inspiration for th form of the RSC tradition. Construction of a particular form of monument was an explicit statement by local communities of wider shared-belief systems. In the case of Bennachie, the basic form of the topographic feature was unambiguous..

from ‘Making Monuments out of Mountains..’ by Gavin MacGregor, p141-158 in ‘Colouring the Past’ ed A Jones and G MacGregor (2002), partly online at Google Books.

The excellent Sir Richard Colt Hoare wrote these observations as part of his description of Ancient Wiltshire (1812):

[Near] Warminster are two very singular knolls, which form a very conspicuous and beautiful object from every part of the adjacent country. They bear the name of CLEE or CLAY HILLS. They differ considerably in size, and rise very boldly from the surrounding plain. The larger hill is surrounded by a ditch and rampart, bearing the marks of high antiquity*. Its form is like that of a cone with an obtuse head; that of the lesser hill is drawn more to a point.

On the summit of the larger hill are two barrows, both of which I have caused to be opened. The largest produced no evidence of its having been destined to sepulchral purposes**. Near the bottom of it we found some ears of wheat undecayed, and the soil of which the barrow was composed had fragments of pottery, charred wood, and ashes intermixed with it, which may be accounted for, by supposing that this eminence was inhabited by the Britons previous to the formation of their mound, which, perhaps in later times, was made use of as a beacon. The adjoining barrow was certainly sepulchral, and originally contained an interment of burned human bones, which, on opening it, we found had been disturbed.

*Bishop Gibson, in his edition of Camden, says that ‘Clay hill shews no marks of any trenches,’ a proof that he, like many other writers on topography, never visited the place he described..

**I thought this was interesting. Because let’s face it he opened enough barrows and surely he knew something different when he saw it? (I mean maybe modern archaeologists would see it differently. but this did leap out at me, especially considering its position on a very prominent landmark.)

Two widely spaced letters about the threats to the stones:

To the editor of The Times.

Sir, -- [..] you will perhaps agree with me in the regret, amounting to horror, which I have just felt in observing, as I passed the “Gray Wethers” on Marlborough-downs, that the utilitarian work of destruction is actually breaking up these ancient stone, whether for repairing the roads or extending the herbage I know not.

Surely no modern barbarian, whether he be a commissioner of the turnpikes or a wealthy agriculturist, has any better right to deprive his country of these fine Druidic relics of the earliest age than he has to blow up Stonehenge and then to chip it into fragments; or to level the stupendous barrow of Silbury-hill in order to bring a few more acres into cultivation.

What are the county members, or the county magistrates, about, to suffer this work of spoilation to proceed! Are there no newspapers in Wiltshire! [..] Antiquarius.

The Times, Wednesday, Aug 12, 1840; pg. 3

---

[..] In consequence of a recent change of ownership.. there is every probability that the work of breaking up the Sarsens will be undertaken on a greatly extended scale.. the Grey Wethers in Pickle Dean and Lockeridge Dean would be the first to go, owing to their situation adjacent to high roads – while for the same reason their disappearance would be a greater loss to the public than the disappearance of those in more remote parts of the Downs.

[..] it was felt that steps ought to be taken to secure the preservation of some characteristic examples of the stones in their natural condition, and representations were made to the owner by the National Trust and the Wiltshire Archaeological Society. Mr. Alec Taylor, the present owner, met the representatives of the two societies in a friendly spirit; he stated at once that he intended to preserve.. the Devil’s Den, and, after some further negotiations, he has given the National Trust an option to purchase about 11 acres in Pickle Dean and about 9 acres in Lockeridge Dean for £500 [..]

The Times, Friday, Jul 05, 1907; pg. 4

The stones were bought by the National Trust in 1907.

Don’t believe those people who say youths were better behaved in their day, as surely their behaviour accounts for the following, in 1930:

Disfigurement of Prominent Landmark
..Damage has been caused by the tearing up of the edging stones which border the outline of the figure. Many of these have been wrenched out of place and rolled down the steep hill on the side of which the figure of the horse is carved. Turf has also been removed from around the edge, exposing the chalk and detracting from the shape of the figure. The head of the horse has been especially singled out for spoliation. The general condition of the landmark is bad, the chalk surface which forms the figure being sadly in need of cleaning.

Because the horse was on War Department land, it couldn’t be scheduled as an ancient monument. The Office of Works man suggested perhaps a notice could be put up to say the horse shouldn’t be disturbed..

Times, Tuesday, Apr 08, 1930; pg. 13

The horse was eventually concreted in the 1950s.

In this ragged pile may be observed five several works: the first of nature, who, as a mother, begat this stony substance; next of force, whereby the water at the general flood deprived it of her earth covering shelter, leaving it naked; the third of art, which raised a building upon so cragged a foundation; fourth, of industry, in working concavity in so obdurate a subject; lastly, of devotion, wherein men, in their then well-meaning zeal, would abandon, as it were, the society of human creatures, and undergo the tedious daily ascent, and continuance of so cold and so abandoned a place. To this may be added a sixth work, even of Time, who, as she is the mother, and begetteth, so is she the destroyer of her begotten children; and nothing that she brings forth is permanent.

From Norden’s ‘Description of Cornwall’ (written 1610), quoted in Ancient Crosses, and Other Antiquities in the East of Cornwall By John Thomas Blight (1865), p108.

A curious watery factoid about the edge of the downs:

..The chalk ridge of Martinsell and St. Anne’s Hill, not far from the centre of the county, furnishes three springs, which, as old Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary of the seventeenth century observed, ‘do take their courses thence three several waies:’ one to the German ocean through the Thames, one by Salisbury to the Channel, the third by Calne and Bristol into the Atlantic.

Renoted on p109 of a curiously anonymous article on Wiltshire in ‘The Quarterly Review’ no205, v103.(1858)

These are the actual words from King Alfred’s will, so I understand (well, translated into modernish English):

But it came to pass that we [Alfred and Aethelred] by all the heathen folk [the Danes] despoiled were. Then discoursed we concerning our children that they would need some support to be given by us out of these estates, as to us was given. Then were we in council at Swinbeorg; when we two declared, in the West-Saxon nobles’ presence, that which soever of us two were longest liver, that he should give to the other’s children those lands that we two ourselves had acquired, and those lands that Athuf the king gave to us two while Aethelbolde was living; except those that he to us three brothers bequeathed. And of this, each of us two to the other his security did give, that whether of us two should live longest, he should take both to the land and to the treasures; and to all his possessions, except that part, which either of us to his children should bequeath.

What a strange thought, that these discussions should have taken place here at this spot, which is now just a tangled wooded lump, so easy to hare past in your car to somewhere else.

Translation in vol 1 of ‘The whole works of King Alfred the Great’, in a section entitled ‘King Alfred’s Will’ by Dr Giles. 1858 edition, online at Google books.

In Gunnerkeld-Bottom, a mile north-east of Shap, is a circle of large stones, in great perfection: it is usually called the Druid’s temple; but has unquestionably been used as a burying place.

This is from the admittedly touristy sounding ‘Beauties of England and Wales’ by J Britton and others (1813). So it’s a good point who might have ‘usually’ have been calling it after the Druids.

The ‘keld’ of Gunnerkeld is apparently a name for an old well* – and indeed the farm nearby is called Gunnerwell. And there are springs in the vicinity, judging by the map. So maybe it’s near ‘Gunnar’s Spring’.

*A Glossary of North Country Words (1825) by John Trotter Brockett. Both books via Google Books.

This extract (from 1818, well before the saga of the burying / reerection) seems to imply that the surrounding stones were from a defined structure, rather than just being some stones that were lying about. But who knows – this sounds more romantic.

The boulders of this brecia.. were used in distant ages as sepulchral stones. Beneath one of those, near Brighton church, an urn of high antiquity, containing human bones and ashes, was discovered by the late Rev. J. Douglass, F.A.S. An immense block of this kind is situated in Hove parish, near the Shoreham road, and is vulgarly called Goldstone,

“from the British word col, or holy-stone; it is evidently a tolmen of the British period. This stone is in a line to the south of Goldstone Bottom, at the end of which, close to the rise of the hill, is a dilapidated cirque, composed of large stones of the same kind.

On a farm of Thomas Read Kemp, Esq. opposite Wick, are two dilapidated kist=vaens, formed of similar materials; and on each side of the British trackway, leading to the Devil’s Dyke, blocks of the same substance may also be observed.”

Extract of a Letter from the late Rev. J. Douglass to the Author, dated May 1818.

p60 in The Geology of the South-east of England. By Gideon Algernon Mantell. (1833). Online at Google Books.

Here’s a strange story from Bredon Hill. I like the way it finishes with “it is said that a strong sulphurous odour was perceived” – kind of geological, but hinting at the unusual and possibly devilish origins of the phenomenon, perhaps?!

About half past five in the afternoon of Thursday, the 3d of May 1849, during a storm of thunder, lightning and hail, an enormous body of water was seen to rush down a gully in the Bredon Hill, and direct its course to the village of Kemerton. The stream was broad and impetuous, carrying everything before it. Its extraordinary force and body of water may be judged from the fact, that, on reaching the residence of the Rev. W. H. Bellairs, of kemerton, it broke down a stone wall which surrounded the garden, burst through the foundation of another, made a way for itself through the dwelling-house, and then carried off a third wall of brick, six feet high. The garden soil was washed away, and “enormous blocks of stone,” and debris from the hill left in its place. By this time the current was considerably broken; nevertheless, it flowed through the house, to the depth of nearly three feet, for the space of an hour and forty minutes. The neighbouring railway was so deeply flooded as to delay the express train, by extinguishing the fire of the engine.

The Rev. went up for a look on Saturday, and seemed to find that a waterspout had dumped its water on the north-west shoulder of the hill, not even the top, as he couldn’t find much damage there? A five acre barley field had been totally flattened. The water hadn’t spread out as it had rushed down the hill, it had stayed in the gully, and he claimed that “the general depth of the torrent was from six to seven feet.” Bizarre and scary.

From p182 of The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal (1850).

Meon Hill is topped by a large multivallate hill fort, one of only two in Warwickshire – it must have been a pretty important place in the Iron Age.

Traces of many huts have been found, and long ago there was discovered a hoard of currency bars:
“In the month of June last (1824) as some workmen were searching for lime-stone in a turnip field belonging to a Mr. Smith, situated in the centre of a Roman camp on Meon Hill.. they discovered about three feet below the surface 394 javelin-heads of iron, the blades of which were 28 inches long, and 3/4 of an inch wide, with the exception of one whose width was two inches. ..they were not above the thickness of a shilling...”
(p262 of the Gentleman’s Magazine v94 pt2 (1824).

The eye can scarcely contemplate this nodding ruin without exciting a momentary aprehension in the mind, lest some of these vast disjointed fragments, which it exhibits, should instantaneously descend.

My friend, the Rev. B. Pidcock of Youlgreave, informs me, that a few years ago, and after a violent thunderstorm, a large solid mass, loosened from its ancient fastnesses, and weighing many tons, fell to the earth, and blocked up the entrance to the Hermit’s Cave. This obstruction was very properly removed by the late Henry Thornhill, Esq., and the access to the cave restored.

p201 in Reflections: A Poem: Descriptive of Events and Scenery Connected with the Different Months of the Year. By John Gisborne (1833).

Daniel Defoe visited the area in the 1720s. He was surprised to find a family living in the cave at Harboro’ Rocks, and wrote about them very sympathetically. You can read the full piece at ‘A Vision of Britain Through Time’:
visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp?t_id=Defoe&c_id=30

but here is a little of it.

..We asked the woman some questions about the tomb of the giant upon the rock or mountain: She told us, there was a broad flat stone of a great size lay there, which, she said, the people call’d a gravestone; and, if it was, it might well be called a giant’s, for she thought no ordinary man was ever so tall, and she describ’d it to us as well as she could, by which it must be at least sixteen or seventeen foot long; but she could not give any farther account of it, neither did she seem to lay any stress upon the tale of a giant being buried there, but said, if her husband had been at home he might have shown it to us. I snatched at the word, at home! says I, good wife, why, where do you live. Here, sir, says she, and points to the hole in the rock. Here! says I; and do all these children live here too? Yes, sir, says she, they were all born here. Pray how long have you dwelt here then? said I. My husband was born here, said she, and his father before him..

..On one side was the chimney, and the man, or perhaps his father, being miners, had found means to work a shaft or funnel through the rock to carry the smoke out at the top, where the giant’s tombstone was. The habitation was poor, ‘tis true, but things within did not look so like misery as I expected. Every thing was clean and neat, tho’ mean and ordinary: There were shelves with earthen ware, and some pewter and brass. There was, which I observed in particular, a whole flitch or side of bacon hanging up in the chimney, and by it a good piece of another. There was a sow and pigs running about at the door, and a little lean cow feeding upon a green place just before the door, and the little enclosed piece of ground I mentioned, was growing with good barley; it being then near harvest..

Here there are “two turf-covered cairns some 13.0m in diameter and 1.0m high, very badly mutilated and robbed.” In the centre of one cairn you can see three upright slabs, probably the remains of a chamber – maybe the other cairn had/has one too. (RCAHMS record).

The RCAHMS record says “A standing stone, rectangular in section and measuring 2ft by 1ft 2ins and 5ft 8ins high, facing NNW-SSE, stands in the corner of an enclosed wood some 200 yds ENE of the gamekeeper’s house at Forse.”

The Official Visitor in the 1960s wasn’t too impressed and said they thought it was nothing more than a cattle-rubbing stone. However, the 1980s Visitor thought it had a good chance of being prehistoric.

According to the RCAHMS record, there are two stones here:

“A massive standing stone 12ft 8ins in height, quadrangular in section, with a circumference at base of over 12ft, and of 14ft at a height of 7ft; its upper end is pointed. The base appears to be bedded in rock which outcrops nearby.”

and

“A large upright stone block which has been badly split from top to bottom. Facing NNW-SSE, it is almost 3ft thick and 4ft 10ins across its widest face.”

Borlase boldly said that it was ‘morally impossible that any lever, or indeed force (however applied in a mechanical way)’ could topple the rocking Logan Stone that was on the western side of the middle group of rocks here.

However, on the 8th April 1824, Lieutenant Goldsmith, who was in command of an armed vessel off the coast, decided that ‘nothing could be impossible to the courage and skill of British seamen’. So by ‘a continued application of [the] united strength’ of himself and twelve men, they eventually slid it off its base.

“The sensations of all the neighbourhood were entirely at variance from those of the gallant officer; fears were even entertained for his life”.

Luckily (so I understand?) Davies Gilbert (editor of the ‘Parochial History of Cornwall’ and ‘sometime President of the Royal Society’) had a quiet word with the Lords of the Admiralty, suggesting that he could help raise some money, and that the Admiralty might lend some capstans, blocks and chains from the Plymouth dock-yard, and Mr Goldsmith would have to help to put the stone back up again.

On the 2d of November, in the presence of thousands, amidst ladies waving their handkerchiefs, men firing feux-de-joye, and universal shouts, Mr. Goldsmith had the satisfaction and the glory of replacing this immense rock in its natural position, uninjured in its discriminating properties.

In consequence of the Editor [Gilbert] making a second application to the Admiralty, and of his commencing another contribution of money with five pounds, Lanyon Cromlech was also replaced by the same apparatus.

From a review of Gilbert’s book, p273 in the 1838 Gentleman’s Magazine.

Earlier mention of the stone by this name is in Ralph Bigland’s (or Rudge’s??) ‘History of Gloucestershire’ (first published 1786) p392. He says:

“On the summit is placed a huge fragment of rock, evidently a sepulchral monument, which has been known for ages* by the name of Tingle Stone.

In the common field near it are two large stones set upright in the ground: one has its top broken off, the other is perfect, and stands nearly ten feet above the surface. Tradition assigns one or both to the memory of Long, a Danish chieftain, whence the name of Long’s Stone, or Pillar: near it two ancient rings have been found.
Long’s Stone, which stood beside the turnpike road from Tetbury to Hampton, in the ascent from Dane’s Bottom towards the town, has been within a few years broken up and destroyed.”

*ooh like, ages.

This barrow is on the summit of Eldon hill, and mutually visible with the barrows on Gautries Hill and Snels Low. Bateman found various skeletons and worked antler and bones. Later excavations found more burials accompanied by quartz pebbles, and a jet bead. More details here: magic.gov.uk/rsm/23265.pdf
The hill has been mined for lead over the centuries, and has many dips and earthworks connected with that. Including a huge quarry now.

Gow also mentions (p87) some cupmarked rocks at Garnafuaran:

On the opposite or south side of the River Balvaig, on the farm ofGart-na-fuaran, there is a great number of huge water-worn boulders, which appear to have been brought down from the adjoining Glenbuckie in the Glacial period. They are of the coarse rock of the district, many of them with large veins and masses of quartz. About fifty yards east from the farm-house there is an immense boulder, 26 feet long, 18 feet broad, and about 12 feet high. It is on the roadside leading to Strathyre, and on the top, which slants slightly to the south, there are five cup-marks, and, as usual, of various sizes, the largest being 4 1/2 inches in diameter; and, as on the stone at Auchleskine, there are other shallow hollows, but these are not marked enough to be identified as cup-marks. The two end cups of the group are 30 inches apart from centre to centre and point due north and south.

As usual there is no tradition extant regarding these marks. “The oldest inhabitant” knows nothing about them, and never heard them referred to in any way, one exception being that one of the stones here was known in my informant’s youth as “the Stone of the Pots.”

This stone is a large half-buried boulder of mica-schist, flat in shape, above 8 feet long and nearly the same breadth, about 30 inches above ground, slanting upwards from the north, and on the upper slanting side there are 15 undoubted original cup-marks. But as it had been used by the children of many generations as a slide, the marks are a good deal defaced. The cups are from 1 1/2 inches to 2 1/2 inches in diameter, and the smaller ones are shallow, the larger in some cases being about 1 inch deep, and some of them were deepened by men now living, when they were boys, by working on them with nails; they had also tried to make cups with the nails, but these are easily distinguished.

Some years ago the stone was bored for blasting, but fear of the consequences to the adjoining house prevented this being
done, and it is now likely to remain uninjured and in its present position for many years to come. It is situated at the east side of thegarden wall, which at one time had been the gable of the old house of Auchleskine.

From Gow, J M (1887 )
‘Notes in Balquhidder: Saint Angus, curing wells, cup-marked stones, etc’,
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 21, 1886-7, 86.

An OS visit of 1968 (mentioned in the RCAHMS record) says “This stone, at NN 5441 2096, is partly covered with turf. Only two faint cups are visible but by pulling back the turf six other were exposed. Three of these show sign of having been deepened. The name “Stone of the Pots” could not be confirmed locally.”

West from the same farm-house, in the field behind the byre, there is a buried boulder nearly level with the ground. It measures about 4 feet long, the same breadth, and in the centre of the top there is a large cup about 5 inches diameter and 1 inch deep.

J M Gow’s 1887 ‘Notes in Balquhidder: Saint Angus, curing wells, cup-marked stones, etc’,
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 21, 1886-7, 84.

In 1962 the OS had a look and couldn’t spot it “Mr Ferguson, a [local farmer] of eighty with a good local knowledge, had no knowledge of it.” Hmm.

In 1979 there are two reports – the OS found the stone at NN 5435 2097. But the RCAHMS couldn’t seem to find it. Crafty cupmarks.

A challenge for cup mark finders. Perhaps it’s turned up again. Perhaps the owners of the land might like to know where it is.

About 400 yards directly east from the farm-house there is a group of three large water-worn boulders of coarse mica-schist, with veins of quartz, the largest of which is about 15 feet long, 7 feet broad, and nearly 5 feet above ground. On the top of this stone there are seven cup-marks of various sizes. The largest are 5 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep; the smaller ones are shallower and from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter. There may have been more marks on this stone, as a portion of the top near the marks has been broken off, and there are several other faint hollows, but, in my opinion, not sufficiently pronounced to indicate that they ever were cups.

At NN 5458 2087, according to the RCAHMS notes.

J M Gow’s 1887 ‘Notes in Balquhidder: Saint Angus, curing wells, cup-marked stones, etc’,
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 21, 1886-7, 84.

SV894142

The scheduled monument record on Magic says:

“Close to the west of the church’s north west corner, the scheduling includes a prehistoric ritual holed stone, visible as an upright slab 1m high and 0.5m wide, roughly shaped to give parallel sides and a flat upper edge; below the
top edge, the slab is perforated by two round holes, each approximately 0.08m in diameter and 0.1m apart, one above the other on the slab’s midline. The slab was found on Tresco or Bryher at the beginning of the 20th century and was erected in its present location to serve as a feature in the Tresco Abbey Gardens.”

The priory has an early Christian slab that is the earliest evidence for Christianity in the Scillies, and even after the dissolution of the Priory, people were buried in its grounds until the early 19th century.

“The holed stone near the church is one of four examples from Scilly of this very rare class of prehistoric ritual monument whose distribution is concentrated in the western tip of Cornwall and Scilly; although not in its original position, its present setting near the early Christian memorial slab and the upright gravestones in the church’s post medieval cemetery gives a good illustration of the long period over which upright stone slabs have held a strong religious and funerary significance.”

From the northern bank of the lake [at Ugbrooke], a long and steep ascent extends to a richly wooded and high ridge of land, called Mount Pleasant, on which is an ancient encampment, surrounded with a trench, and overhung with oaks, and other forest trees; its shape is elliptical; and tradition ascribes it to the Danes. The prospect from this eminence is noble and extensive; the local beauties of Ugbrooke combining with the romantic scenery of the surrounding country. The Park contains about 600 head of deer. Many of the oak and other trees are of uncommon magnitude, and shoot their branching arms to a stupendous height and distance.

Unfortunately the OS map makes the fort and hillside look pretty bereft of trees today. From p106 of The Beauties of England and Wales, Or, Delineations, Topographical, Historical, and Descriptive,... By John Britton. 1802.

I’m surprised such a large stone has long gone unadded to TMA; this is how the RCAHMS record describes it:

“This standing stone is 9’ high and 6’6” across the base. The New Statistical Account (NSA – 1845) notes a fragment 12’9” long lying on the ground, but this had disappeared by 1909. Reid (1909) suggests that the two stones may have formed part of a circle, the recumbent one not having broken off as suggested in the NSA.

There is a small upright stone in the field-wall 6m to the east.”

The NSA suggests that the massive 12’ section was a part of the standing stone, that had split off (though in what sense they don’t expain), and that “in the memory of man [the standing stone] tapered towards the top, but the projecting part has been knocked off”. Also, that “it cannot be less than three or four feet in the ground.”

“Tradition is silent as to the purpose for which it was erected.” says the New Statistical Account of the 1840s.

This doesn’t mention ‘Lugbury’ as a name and rather backs up Moss’s assertion that it was a later invention:

Account of a Long Barrow in the Parish of Nettleton, adjoining to that of Littleton Drew, Co. Wilts.

..having for many years past, cast a longing eye upon this singular vestige of early British Antiquity, I at length, in the year 1821, put my long-intended plans into execution..

..Our operations commenced on the 8th of October, and a stout body of spade-men, with our able pioneer, John Parker, at their head, began their work, which was rather arduous, the whole of the barrow being almost entirely constructed with loose stones. Being determined to spare neither trouble nor expense in developing the history of this singular tumulus, and hoping to find our Wiltshire maiden, intacta et inviolata*, we determined to make a complete section along the centre of the mound..

They dug down to the original soil suface and found ‘many pieces of charcoal’ from cremations or rituals, and a layer of flat stones on the bottom and sides. There was a ‘rude arch’ of similar stones beneath the chamber at the eastern end. Then they had to down tools until the owner had had a look. Also the ever-busy Rev. Skinner drew some pictures. Lots of people turned up on the 11th when they opened the interment 30ft from the eastern end of the barrow, and found a skeleton in a curled up position with a ‘lancet’ style flint tool near the head.
He didn’t get to have a go at the ‘Cromlech’,

for, though a zealous Antiquary, and anxious to dive as deeply as possible into the womb of time, I could not conscientiously endanger the falling of the stones...

..my curiosity was satisfied by ascertaining the history of this tumulus, notwithstanding the disappointment experienced in not being able to venture on that deposit which was probably placed beneath the huge superimpending stones at the East end, which have hitherto, and I hope ever will protect the bones of the antient Briton.
R.C.H.

Just as I’m getting irritated with Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s barrow raiding, he comes out with something like the end paragraph, and I know I would have been simpering round the barrow like all the other lady visitors. But I’m not sure I can forgive him the silly ‘maiden’ remark* even considering it was 1821.

From p160-161 of The Gentleman’s Magazine, v92 (Jan-June 1822). Online at Google Books.

Opening a couple of major league barrows used to be something you did in between lunch and afternoon tea.

The next day another excursion was made to Castle Combe, where the Society was entertained by its President, Mr. Poulet Scrope. The opportunity was taken to open two ancient earthworks.. [the first being Lanhill ].. the other site of exploration was Lugbury, near the Foss road.
This tumulus was found to contain a cairn, remarkable for the great number of chambers of which it had consisted. Beside the arrangement of a central line, and branches at the eastern end, there were others to the right and left, and each chamber contained three, four or five skeletons. There was also a remarkable trilithon, which it is thought may have been employed for sacrificial purposes. From the absence of any traces of the metallurgical arts, Dr. Thurnham pronounced this monument to be of very great antiquity, – probably four or five centuries before Christ.

You turn the site over and then you get it wrong anyway, Dr. Thurnham. And now look at the ploughed out state of the barrow. What a terrible shame. Still, you weren’t the first. Page 416 of The Gentleman’s Magazine, v44 (1855, Jul-Dec).

Some words on the possible ‘specialness’ of the location and the deliberate siting of the barrows.

According to Christopher Tilley, the holes in this landscape are known as ‘dolines’ and they’re little sinkholes where the chalk underneath has collapsed. He notes:

[They] are particularly striking not only because of their size and depth but also their close association and juxtaposition with the burial mounds, something that surprisingly has been completely ignored in the archaeological literature on the Dorset Ridgeway.

Standing near to some of the largest barrows it appears as if the barrows themselves have been thrown up out of the largest of the dolines. The dolines themselves may indeed have been enlarged or at the least have provided a ready source of building material for barrow construction. One is a transformation or inversion of the other..

As Formicaant suggests, the way the barrows are laid out seems to show some deliberateness over their views: “it is only from the bell barrow at the highest point that the majority of barrows both to the west and east are visible” – inter-barrow visibility is very restricted at other points. The “finest and most extensive views of the Chesil Beach and the Fleet lagoon are obtainable from the vantage point of the largest and highest bell barrow on the summit of Bronkham Hill.”

from ‘Metaphor and Material Culture’ by Christopher Tilley (1999) – a limited view is available on Google Books.

Probably not worth adding as a site, but perhaps worth recording for past attitudes towards prehistoric remains. If any of it’s true of course.

It appears that up to the end of the twelfth century, the site of the present churchyard of Ludlow, the most elevated part of the hill, was occupied by a very large tumulus, or barrow. In the year 1199, the townsmen found it necessary to enlarge their church, which seems to have been of small dimensions, and for this purpose they were obliged to clear away the mound. In doing this, they discoveredi n the interior of the mound three sepulchral deposits, which were probably included in square chests, as at Bartlow, and the narrator perhaps exaggerates a little in calling them ‘mausolea of stone’. But the clergy of Ludlow, in the twelfth century, were by no means profound antiquaries; they determined in their own minds that the bones they had found were the relics of three Irish saints, the father, mother and uncle of the famous St. Brandan, and they buried them devoutly in their church, with the confidence that their holiness would be soon evinced in numerous miracles. It was to this tumulus alone that the name Leode-hlaew belonged.

The account of this event was preserved in the monastery of Cleobury Motimer, in what Leland calls a ‘schedula,’ and was copied for that antiquary by a monk of the house. It is printed in Leland’s Collectanea viii, p407...

Is it cynical to think the amazing discovery might have been made with making a bit of money out of pilgrims and tourists in mind? From p14 of ‘A history of Ludlow and its neighbourhood’ by Thomas Wright, 1852.

Sorry about this but I can’t resist the language. I love a good 19th century rant. And besides, you might see the stones and get confused. Maybe.

To the south [of Dorchester] extends the great Roman way to Weymouth – straight as an arrow on the inequalities of the surface. On the left of it, on quitting the town, Malmbury, or Maumbury, rings (lately disfigured by two hideous municipal boundary-stones, which it is to be hoped the authorities of the Duchy of Cornwall, on whose estate the relic is situate, will, on seeing this epistle, utterly extirpate)..

From a contribution by William Wallace Fyfe, on p68 of ‘The Historical Magazine’, vol III for 1859 (New York).

This is from ‘A Voyage round Great Britain, undertaken in the Summer of the Year 1813’, by Richard Ayton, and illustrated by William Daniell. I know it dates from a few millennia after the mining in the Bronze Age, but it was an industrial site then too. The following does make you wonder what the mountain looked like in the Bronze Age, the miners’ lives, what people who lived there and visitors might have thought of it, where and how they did the smelting and so on.

On every part of its surface the hill is as bare as the public road. No kind of vegetation can live in this sulphureous atmosphere; not a weed, not a lichen on the rocks has been spared.. We were amazingly struck with the first view of the mine, which is truly an astonishing monument of of human industry.. The mine has been worked like a stone quarry, and an immense crater has been formed nearly a mile in circumference; and in many parts, three hundred feet in depth. As we stood upon the verge of this tremendous chasm, it appeared to us like a mighty work of nature, produced by some great convulsion, but, certainly, suggested to our minds nothing so mean as the pick-axe and the spade. There were but few people at work, and their figures, disovered here and there among the huge rocks, looked merely as flies upon a wall, and one could scarcely imagine that, by these little creatures, each picking its little hole, the mountain had been thus demolished. The sides of the mine are mostly perpendicular, but the bottom is broken and irregular, and penetrated in various parts, by wide and deep hollows, in which veins of peculiar richness have been followed...

I am Very Reliably (and kindly) Informed that it is Grangebeg to which the news above refers.

The ‘Survey of Megalithic Tombs of Ireland Volume III’ says that there are – or were – five or six blocks here, from 1 to 3m long. One was upright, another rested against it, and three more lay on the ground. According to Comerford’s “The Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin” (1883), II, 239, a human skeleton was found here.

But it’s not clear what kind of structure this is. It has been called a dolmen, but that’s by no means certain. In fact, the Survey says “it may be largely natural.”

Of course it could actually be a “Druid’s Altar” as that’s what it’s been called on OS maps in the past.

Mention of a slightly different name:

Leaving Rippon, we passed the same Day to Borough-Bridge,, where we viewed the three Stones called the Devil’s Bolts or Arrows by the Vulgar, and about which they have a Legend.

They are tall and slender, four-square, of a pyramidal Figure, but not very sharp at the Top. They seemed to us to be factitious Stones, but yet endure the Weather exceedingly well, and may, in Probability, stand there till Dooms-day.

p162 in ‘Select Remains of the Learned John Ray, with his Life’ by William Derham. Published 1760.
Online at Google Books.
This journey was undertaken in 1661.

Vandalism at Addleborough. – Will the editor of “N. & Q.” give further publicity to the following by finding a place for it in his columns? The fame of such crimes should be eternal:-

“So we sat and talked, and afterwards scrambled up the rocks to the summit {of Addleborough}. Here is, or rather was, a Druid circle of flat stones; but my companion screamed with vexation on discovering that three or four of the largest stones had been taken away, and were nowhere to be seen. The removal must have been recent, for the places where they lay were still sharply defined in the grass, and the maze of roots which had been covered for ages was still unbleached. And so an ancient monument must e destroyed either out of wanton mischief, or to be broken up for the repair of a fence! Whoever were the perpetrators, I say,

“’Oh, be their tombs as lead to lead.’”

--A Month in Yorkshire, by Walter White, 1858, p245.

K.P.D.E.

From Notes and Queries, p158, September 4th, 1858.

This round barrow contained a rarely found tree-trunk coffin. The following account is long but contains some fascinating and intimate details about the burial.

“At the south end of Stowborough, in the road to Grange, stood a barrow, called King Barrow, one hundred feet in diameter[?circumference?], and twelve feet in perpendicular height. On digging it down, January the twenty-first, 1767, to form the turnpike road, the following discovery was made. The barrow was composed of strata or layers of turf, in some of which the heath was not perished. In the centre, at the bottom, even with the surface of the ground, in the natural soil of sand, was found a very large hollow trunk of an oak, rudely excavated, ten feet long, the outer diameter four feet, that of the cavity three feet: it lay horizontally south-east, and north-west; and the upper part and ends were much rotted.

In the cavity were found as many human bones, unburnt, black, and soft, as might be contained in a quarter of a peck; viz. a bone of an arm, two thigh bones, two blade bones, the head of the humerus, part of the pelves, and several ribs: the last would lap round the finger. There were no remains of the scull, and many bones were scattered and lost; others entirely consumed; and all had been wrapped up in a large covering, composed of many skins, some as thin as parchment, others much thicker, especially where the hair remained, which showed they were deer skins.

They were in general black, but not rotten; neatly sewed together; and there were many small slips whose seams or stitches were scarcely two inches asunder. As the laborers expected to find money, these were pulled out with so much eagerness, and so torn, that the shape of the whole could not be discovered. This wrapper seemed to have been passed several times round the body, and in some parts adhered to the trunk.

In the middle of it the bones were compressed flat in a lump, and cemented together by a glutinous matter, perhaps the moisture of the body. On unfolding the wrapper, a disagreeable smell was perceived, such as is usual at the first opening of a vault. A piece of what was imagined to be gold lace, four inches long, two and a half broad, stuck on the inside of the wrapper, very black, and much decayed: bits of wire plainly apeared in it.

Near the south-east end was found a small vessel of oak, of a black colour: it was much broken, but enough was preserved to show it was in the shape of an urn. On the south side were hatched, as with a graving tool, many lines; some horizontal, others oblique. Its long diameter at the mouth, is three inches; the short one two; its depth, two; its thickness, two tenths of an inch: it was probably placed at the head of the corpse.”

It’s one thing to be disturbed after thousands of years – but then to have everything trashed. What a shame. Has anything survived of this discovery I wonder? And I wonder which came first, the name or the excavation? The grave was surely worthy of its kingly title. The barrow is still about a metre and a half high, according to the Magic SM record.

From p 385 of The Beauties of England and Wales, Or, Delineations, Topographical, Historical, and Descriptive of each County. Vol 4. John Britton and Edward Wedlake Brayley, 1803. Online at Google Books.

From the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1799, volume 69; part of William Hutton’s ‘Remarks on a Tour in Wales’. I don’t think the author made many friends that day, when he turned up in Caernarvon with his servant. For goodness’ sake, of the passengers on the ferry “not one could speak English”! And as for the poor lad who was ‘kindly ordered’ by Esq. Floyd to conduct him to the Druidic remains – well, “whether he could speak Welsh, I know not, for I did not hear him speak a word in any language during his stay.” Teenagers eh. Still, they got to Bryn Gwyn in the end:

Here was the court of justice for civil and religious purposes.. Here too was a principal place of worship, being in the vicinity of the Arch-druid’s palace. Their church was a circle of upright stones, with a large one at the center. But the ignorant country people, imagining money was hid under them, recently tore them up, which destroyed, perhaps, the oldest cathedral in Europe. I am sorry Mr. Floyd suffered it; but that which is seen every day excites no attention.

Some of the stones are scattered, others brought into use. One of them, which is 12 feet by 7, exclusive of what is sunk in the earth, stands upright, and forms exactly the gable end of the house, for I saw but one in Bryn Gwyn. Another of the same size is also erect, and forms a fence for the garden. By what power they raised these ponderous masses I did not enquire, for I could not be favoured with one word of English.

Three only of the stones of the Temple are standing, which form a triangle, are about 4 feet high, and 24 asunder. I was now about two miles from the Menai and one North of the road which leads from the ferry to Newborough.

About 200 yards West, close by the river Breint (chief, or royal river), is the Astronomer’s Stone; but why the learned in that day should take their observations in a valley, I leave to the learned in this. They seemed to be a cluster of rocks, five or six yards high, which I did not visit.

Continuing to be obsessed with druids and the nerve of the local people not speaking English, he also mentions Tre’r Dryw and Tre’r Dryw Bach which are earthworks to the north of Bryn Gwyn. It’s not clear how old these are – you can read about them on the Coflein database, and here at Castell Bryn-Gwyn?. The excerpt above is online at Google Books.

Lulach’s Stone, Kildrummy.—One of the most impressive of the solitary standing-stones in Aberdeenshire is Lulach’s Stone, hidden in Drumnahive Wood, due west of Mossat Bridge, in the parish of Kildrummy (O.S. 6 inches, Aberdeenshire, sheet li.). It is a tall and shapely pillar of schist, 8 feet 9 inches in height above the present level of the ground, though older descriptions make the height 11 feet. At the shoulder the breadth of the stone is 2 feet 8 inches; the back is rounded and the thickness very irregular, at greatest about 2 feet. There seem to be no cup-marks and no indication of tooling, and the pillar stone stands in all the dignified simplicity of its natural rudeness, grey and lichen stained, hoary with the mute oblivion of its forgotten purpose. The name of the stone is of considerable interest.

He then goes on to say that the folklore connected with the name is the same as at another Lulach’s Stone. From ‘Notes on Lulach’s Stone, Kildrummy, Aberdeenshire’ by W Douglas Simpson, in the April 12 1926 Proceedings of the Scottish Archaeological Society. Online here via the ADS:
ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_060/60_273_280.pdf

CLEARBURY RING is a mean earthen work when compared to the very fine specimens which our county has afforded, but it stands pre-eminent in point of extensive prospect, and is seen at a very considerable distance. Its form presents an oblong square, and it has one narrow entrance to the south-west: the area is encumbered with heath, and planted with trees, to which it owes its very distinguished appearance from distant parts; it contains within the ramparts 5 1/4 acres, the circuit of the ditch is 3 furlong 55 yards, and the depth of the vallum is 43 feet. I think it probable that this camp was occupied, or perhaps constructed by the West Saxon Kings Cerdic and Cynric, who fought with the Britons in this neighbourhood at Charford in the year 519, and the latter of whom afterwards, in the year 552, defeated the same people at Salisbury.

from The Ancient History of Wiltshire, by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, p232 (1812).

The cromlech on the top of Mulfra Hill, in Madron {although Mulfra Hill is part of Madron, it is detached from the rest of that parish by an intervening portion of Gulval}, is 3 1/2 miles north-north-west of Penzance. The cover-stone, according to Borlase, was 9 2/3 feet by 14 1/4, including a piece evidently broken off, and lying near it. Its present circumference scarcely exceeds that of Ch’un. The kist-vaen is 6 2/3 feet long, and 4 wide; the three slabs forming the two ends, and one of the sides, are about 5 feet high; the south supporter is gone, and on that side the cover stone has fallen, so as to rest on the ground at an angle of about 45 degrees.

In this state, with the fragment close by, it was described by Borlase in 1754; the displacement must, therefore, have occurred prior to his description, and I am informed that it took place during the terrific thunderstorm there in 1752. At that period a barrow surrounded it, about 2 feet high, and 37 in diameter, of which at present little or nothing remains. On the same hill, a little to the north of the cromlech, are the remains of four or five barrows.

p27 of The Land’s End District: Its Antiquities, Natural History, Natural Phenomena and Scenery. by Richard Edmonds. 1862.
Online for perusal at Google Books.

It’s a bit of an easy shot. But I want to include it because it shows the old stones still had the power to wind people up. Even though on the surface of it they just looked like big stones in fields.

Montgomery addressed the audience at considerable length, giving, as he often did, additional interest to his remarks by the charm of local allusion.

“This,” said he, “is the fifteenth meeting that I have attended in this northern district, – a district which has with me a peculiar interest, as it contains so many interesting monuments and historical associations connected with the olden times. When I came to Boroughbridge, I saw those famous remains, probably of Druidical idolatory, called by the people the Devil’s Arrows. Why do not they still, as probably once they did, call together the people to sacrifice their children? Because we have the Bible.

Thank goodness for that eh. This was in 1827, and comes from ‘Memoirs of the life and writings of James Montgomery, by J. Holland and J. Everett’ (1855). Montgomery was a Wesleyan hymn writer.

A little more on what we’re missing, with added rant:

[At Land’s End] a few years ago an officer of the British Navy amused himself and his crew by the wanton overthrow of [a rocking stone] from its balance. On representation properly made, he was obliged to restore the stone to its former state at his own cost.

It would have been well if the idle and foolish visitors of Matlock had been compelled to do the same to the logan stones at Rowtor Rocks, near Bakewell in Derbyshire. In the year 1793 there were, on an eminence of about the height of a common barrow, three stones in a state of perfect vibration. Two of them were small, not perhaps a yard high, but one, nearly spherical, was about ten feet high; and could be made to vibrate by continued though easy pushes.

It should seem that a little cost might restore the stones to their ancient state of vibration. The act would be gratifying to the rational antiquary, and reprove that idle and indeed wicked propensity to wanton mischief in which Englishmen of almost all ranks are eminent above the people of all other nations.

p168 in Naology: Or, A Treatise on the Origin, Progress, and Symbolical Import of the Sacred Structures. By John Dudley (1846).