Rhiannon

Rhiannon

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Stonehenge and its Environs

CBA Response to Scrapping of Plans

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 22, 2005

The Council for British Archaeology (CBA) has responded to news that the proposed tunnelling of a main road past Stonehenge is to be reviewed after its estimated cost doubled. The CBA hopes the Government will reconsider the whole scheme.

“We were strongly opposed to the planned tunnel,” said Mike Heyworth, Director of the CBA. “Now it sounds as if they’re going to kick it into the long grass.”

A statement from the CBA confirmed that it remains: “resolutely opposed to the proposals for a short tunnel, which removes the A303 from the immediate vicinity of the stones but only at the cost of major damage to the rest of the World Heritage Site. The CBA believes that it is essential to look beyond the area visible from Stonehenge itself, as its prehistoric builders so clearly did, to appreciate the extraordinary landscape of ceremonial and funerary monuments around it.”

Mike Heyworth explained that for the CBA, the most pressing issue is the closure of the A344 (which runs right by the stones) and the relocation of the visitor centre. He believes there are other options that haven’t been explored, in particular a new surface route outside the World Heritage Site, which the CBA will be strongly pushing for.

He commented: “It is ironic that the Government has made this announcement during National Archaeology Week ... The CBA urges the Government to use the forthcoming review to seek a world class solution for a world class archaeological landscape.”

taken from the article by Caroline Lewis
at the 24hr Museum website
24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART29513.html

Folklore

Spellow Hills
Long Barrow
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 21, 2005

Grinsell says that Spellow Hills were originally ‘Spellhou’ – incorporating a word for hill, so now it’s a bit of a double name. The barrow (looking as it does like several barrows) was known as the ‘Hills of the Slain’ and it was said ‘bones and armour were found’ inside ‘many years ago’. The barrow was also regarded as a place where plague victims had been buried, or the dead soldiers from a mythical ‘Battle of Partney’ (Partney being a nearby village).

(’Ancient Burial Mounds of England’, 1936)

Miscellaneous

Snail Down
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 21, 2005

Colt Hoare described and interpreted the contents of one of the large Snail Down barrows, bringing to life its occupant:

“The body of the deceased had been burned, and the bones and ashes piled up in a small heap, which was surrounded by a circular wreath of horns of the red deer, within which, and amidst the ashes, were five beautiful arrow-heads cut out of flint, and a small red pebble..
Thus we most clearly see the profession of the Briton here interred. In the flint arrow-heads we recognize his fatal implements of destruction; in the stag’s horns we see the victims of his skill as a hunter; and the bones of the dog deposited in the same grave, and above those of his master, commemorate his faithful attendant in the chase, and perhaps his unfortunate victim in death.”

Miscellaneous

Upton Great Barrow
Round Barrow(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 21, 2005

Hoare wrote in ‘Ancient Wiltshire’ that William Cunnington had found a cremation in this barrow, accompanied by “forty-eight beads, sixteen of which were of green and blue opaque glass, of a long shape, and notched between so as to resemble a string of beads; five were of canal coal or jet; and the remaining twenty seven were of red amber; the whole forming a most beautiful necklace, and such as a British female would not in these modern days of good taste and elegance disdain to wear.”

Folklore

The King Stone
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 21, 2005

[The King’s men and the knights] go down the hill “at midnight to drink of a spring in Little Rollright Spinney. According to some accounts they go down every night when the clock strikes twelve; according to others at certain special occasions, “on Saints’ days for instance.” What is more, the gap in the bushes is pointed out through which they go down to the water. In some versions of the tale, the King also goes down to the stream at the same hour with his men; but others say that “the King* goes down to the water to drink when he hears the clock strike twelve,” meaning, as my informant was at pains to explain to me, that as he cannot hear the clock stays where he is. One sceptic assured me that he had passed by the stones many a time at midnight and never seen them move.
*Sometimes too, the king’s men with him. In some accounts the stones descend to drink at a stream by Long Compton.

The Rollright Stones and Their Folk-Lore
Arthur J. Evans
Folklore, Vol. 6, No. 1. (Mar., 1895), pp. 6-53.

Folklore

Long Meg & Her Daughters
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 21, 2005

Celia Fiennes wrote travel books in the 18th century and her take on the stones was that they were ‘a warning for boggy ground’, an interesting if elaborate idea(?!). I have my suspicions whether she actually visited the site, as she talks about Long Meg as being in the middle of the circle:

A mile from Peroth in a Low bottom and moorish place stands Mag and her sisters; the story is that these soliciting her to an Unlawfull Love by an Enchantment are turned wth her into stone; the stone in the middle wch is Call’d Mag is much bigger and have some fforme Like a statue or ffigure of a body, but the Rest are but soe many Cragg stones.

...they affirme they Cannot be Counted twice alike as is the story of Stonidge [Stonehenge].

quoted by Grinsell in ‘Ancient Burial Mounds of England’ 1936 (but I will look at the original soon).

Stonehenge and its Environs

Reactions to Stalled Tunnel Plans

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 21, 2005

The “national disgrace” of Stonehenge is back where it started. After decades of argument and millions spent, the government yesterday went back to the drawing board on the traffic-choked roads which strangle the world heritage site.
Supporters and opponents of the tunnel were equally stunned. The Campaign to Protect Rural England, noting the approved proposal for a new 50-mile toll motorway beside the M6, said: “The government’s green credentials have withered in the heat.”

English Heritage, whose new, Australian-designed visitor centre is dependent on resolving the roads issue, said it understood concern over costs.“However, we continue to believe that the proposed road scheme represents the best value for money for achieving all the desired improvements while offering protection to the underlying archaeology.”

The National Trust, owner of thousands of acres of surrounding farmland, has called for a much longer tunnel. It said the review “should not in any way diminish the quality of the long-awaited project, or delay it substantially”.

Mike Pitts, an archaeologist who has excavated at Stonehenge, and written about the site, said: “This is terrible news. In the wake of winning the London bid for the Olympics, it hardly encourages belief in the government’s support for grand projects.”

from the article by
Maev Kennedy in The Guardian
guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1532745,00.html

Folklore

Staple Howe
Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 21, 2005

“The village folk will have it that the mound was reared over the body of an imaginary General Stapleton, ‘killed in the Civil Wars’’; and they account for its unusual height by declaring that the general, an exceptionally tall man, was buried standing upright.”

quoted in Grinsell’s ‘Ancient Burial Mounds of England’ (1936).

Folklore

Hangour Hill
Round Barrow(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 21, 2005

A shepherd related to a friend of Leslie Grinsell told how the devil was making a ditch, and cleaned his spade by scraping it against a tree. A large lump of earth fell off, and this became Hangour Hill (’Ancient Burial Mounds of England’ 1936).

The ‘Devil’s Dyke’ is close by, so perhaps that was the ditch he was digging.

Folklore

Bosporthennis Quoit
Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 20, 2005

Here is the quote from Copeland Borlase that tells the story of the strange round capstone, that ‘created consternation in the antiquarian world about 1860’*.

The fame of the discovery quickly spread. The Local Antiquarianism of the whole neighbourhood was awakened immediately, and savants of all shapes, sexes, and ages ‘visited and inspected’ the stone. The sphere for conjecture was of course unlimited, and ranged from Arthur’s round table, to the circular tombs of modern Bengal...

But.. edging his way through the crowd which surrounded the monument, until he had reached the front rank, an old man was heard dispelling the fond illusion in the following cruel words:
“Now what are ‘e all tellin’ of? I do mind when Uncle Jan, he that was the miller down to Polmeor, cum’ up ‘long to the croft a speering round for a fitty stoan of es mill. And when he had worked ‘pon that theere stoan; says he: ‘I’ll be jist gone to knack un a bit round like’; so he pitched to work; but ‘e wouldn’t sarve ‘es purpose so theere ‘e es still. And lor bless yer all, a fine passel o’ pepple has been heere for to look ‘pon un, but what they sees en un es more than I can tell ‘e.”

This was “minding the bigging o’t” with a vengeance, and the antiquaries could only console themselves in the reflection that the stone must have been of a rudely circular form to have induced the miller to try his tool upon it at all.

When the author saw it in December, 1871, some of the splintered pieces were lying round, and he is led to imagine that the original shape was oblong.

archive.org/stream/naeniacornubiaed00borluoft#page/277/mode/1up

Stonehenge and its Environs

Scheme Review Announced As Costs Soar

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 20, 2005

Roads Minister Dr Stephen Ladyman today announced that a detailed review of the options to ease congestion on the A303 and improve the setting around Stonehenge is to be carried out.

The review is necessary because there has been a very substantial increase in the estimated costs of the proposed Stonehenge tunnel since the scheme went to Public Inquiry.

Following recent detailed site survey work carried out by the Highways Agency the estimated costs of the scheme have risen from £284m when the draft Orders were published in 2003 to some £470m. This significant increase on original costs is due to two main factors; very large quantities of phosphatic (soft, weak) chalk and a high water table, with the groundwater potentially rising to the surface at times of heavy rainfall. These factors would significantly complicate the tunnelling process and extend the overall construction period of the scheme.

Dr Stephen Ladyman said:

“The increase in scheme costs represents a significant change to the basis on which the Government originally decided to progress this scheme. Our recognition of the importance of Stonehenge as a World Heritage Site remains unchanged but given the scale of the cost increase we have to re-examine whether the scheme still represents value for money and if it remains the best option for delivering the desired improvements”.

The Government plans to carry out a detailed review of the options, consulting relevant environmental interests including, in particular, English Heritage and the National Trust, before taking a final decision on the Inspector’s Report. The review will also consider the implications of delaying the Stonehenge scheme for the delivery of improvements proposed for other single carriageway sections of the A303 further to the west. We will make an announcement on the way forward as soon as possible.

more at the DoT website:
dft.gov.uk/pns/displaypn.cgi?pn_id=2005_0081

Miscellaneous

Avebury
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 20, 2005

A wry comment in the 1950 edition of the Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, which highlights how it is not always ‘riffraff’ which damage archaeological sites; perhaps interesting in light of the present issues at Silbury?

Even under Mr Keiller’s care, it has not been possible to foresee or provide against all forms of attack, and in the distraction of the present moment [the site being signed over to the nation] it is more than ever difficult to protect the stones of Avebury.

Thus within the month that preceded the completion of these protracted negotiations two megaliths were defaced with the bench-mark of the Ordnance Survey! The broad arrow of the symbol carries a suggestion befitting the desecration*.

How are we to be sure that other sign manuals are not appended in future? [Avebury’s] policing, if it comes to that, will not be easy.

*the arrows on prison uniforms, I assume. Good one.

Miscellaneous

Avebury
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 20, 2005

Don’t try this at home, kids.

Aubrey “heard the minister of Aubury say those huge stones may be broken in what part of them you please without any great trouble. The manner is thus: they make a fire on that line of the stone where they would have it to crack; and, after the stone is well heated, draw over a line with cold water, and immediately give a smart knock with a smyth’s sledge, and it will breake like the collets at the glasse-house.”

(quoted in ‘Avebury, the biography of a landscape’ by Pollard and Reynolds (2002), maybe from Aubrey’s ‘Monumenta Britannica’?)

Stonehenge

Replica Stonehenge Still Looking For A Home

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 8, 2005

If you have a large garden and would like a full-size replica of Stonehenge to impress your neighbours and visitors then you need to speak to Channel 5.

The biggest problem is that it measures 33 metres across. The good news, however, is that it is light to carry about because all of the replica stones are made of polystyrene.

Exact copies of each stone were made at a military camp near Bicester, the only place big enough the programme makers could find. It took a fleet of 14 articulated lorries to transport the replica stones to Wiltshire. The chosen location, said Mr Pitts, was a hilltop near Warminster.

Mr Pitts said the most important aspect for him as an archaeologist was the detailed inspection of the real monument that had to be carried out so that the stones could be replicated. He said: “I realised how little time we had actually spent before looking at the stones themselves.”

He said: “It has impressed us so much that we are talking seriously about a proper modern survey of the megaliths using modern techniques.” Such a survey could reveal much about the stones, where they had become from, the way they had been shaped and possibly the way they were originally put up.

Anyone wishing to acquire the replica should get in contact with Channel Five.

more at
thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/marlborough/news/MARLB_NEWS_LOCAL2.html

Folklore

Wookey Hole
Cave / Rock Shelter
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 7, 2005

It’s all very well being scared of the Witch, but what about the 30ft long conger eel that lives in the caves? To use the standard unit of measurement in these situations, it is as long as a double decker bus.

A long time ago it swam up into the Severn estuary and set itself up as King of the River. Naturally most creatures weren’t prepared to argue. But after watching the eel repeatedly ruining fishing nets, splashing about and flooding the land, and generally stuffing himself with fish, the local fishermen had had enough. They lined up their boats and drove him towards Brean Down, forcing him up the narrow River Axe. The eel had no choice but to keep swimming, and eventually squeezed himself into Wookey Hole, where he’ll probably be stuck forever. He must get pretty hungry.

It’s possible you know. Some mad cave divers set the British record by diving down nearly 80 metres, and the cave system still isn’t fully explored.

(mentioned in the collection “Reader’s Digest ‘Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain’“)

Folklore

Dunmail Raise
Cairn(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 7, 2005

If you like frightening your children by driving with your knees while you point at prehistoric monuments, this is the site for you. Dunmail Raise is a 4m high Bronze Age cairn right on the central reservation of a dual carriageway. It marks the boundary of the old areas of Cumberland and Westmorland, and lies on what would always have been a useful N-S pass through this region.

It’s said that Dunmail, King of Cumberland, fought the Saxon army of King Edmund and the Scots led by King Malcolm (some time in the 10th century) right on this very spot. Unfortunately Dunmail met his end, and his remaining and loyal soldiers built the cairn over him. Some legends have it that he sleeps there King Arthur-style, waiting for when his country needs him.

Meanwhile (according to Kenneth Woolley) “tis said that his no1 man took his [gold] crown and flung over the top of Seat Sandal and it landed in Grisedale Tarn.Should you venture up Seat Sandal on a winter night it is said the king and his bride can be seen dancing in the moonlight.”

coast2coast.co.uk/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001423-2.html

Folklore

Kilchiaran
Cup Marked Stone
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 7, 2005

From the information on Canmore:

“A cup marked and perforated slab lies in rough grass 20yds WSW of St Ciaron’s Chapel and 20yds N of the road. The slab is of schist 6ft by 3ft with a thickness of 6ins exposed, the rest being buried. Graham noted 22 cups in 1895 but only 18 are now visible, 6 1/2 ins in maximum diameter and 4 ins deep, clearly man-made but some having vertical sides. Two cups have penetrated the slab completely.”

The local tradition is that church-goers turned a pestle in any cup-mark and wished. The constant turning wore the cups, “in some cases right through the stone”.

A similar ritual is done with cups in the base of a cross at nearby Kilchoman (NR215632). According to the source used by Kevin Callahan in his article on rock art here:
tc.umn.edu/~call0031/folklore.html
it was still being used 1968 – the pestle would be turned 3 times sunwise, and a coin left. The cup was full of pennies and the church officer collected them up periodically.
But this cupped base just looks too neat and new.
rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.p_coll_details?p_arcnumlink=416799
Was it a ritual adopted from the (presumably)older Kilchiaran?

Folklore

Heaven Stone
Holed Stone
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 7, 2005

There is a holed stone here in the churchyard. If you’re a spotless Christian, an atheist, or just feeling lucky – you may like to take the following test. Close your eyes, stick out your finger, and try to shove it into the hole. If you’re successful first time, heave a sigh of relief, as you’re off to heaven when you die. I’m afraid less co-ordinated people are going The Other Way.

The stone was also called the ‘Trial Stone’ as a similar ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ style test would tell the world if you were innocent or guilty of a crime.

(story mentioned in the Bords’ ‘Magical Atlas of Britain’ among other places).

You can see a picture of the stone on geograph.

You might also find this hollowed stone seen on Canmore,“said to be a font or holy water stoup,” so says the database. Does it look rather like a bullaun stone?

Folklore

Kempock Stone
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 7, 2005

Also known as Granny Kempock and Granny Kempock’s stone, this 6ft megalith was once a landmark to ships passing Kempock point. Now it’s surrounded by buildings and probably can’t be seen from the sea?

The sailors didn’t just use it as a landmark; they would visit it for luck.

“It was chiefly in connection with the winds and sea that the Kempock Stane was regarded with superstitious dread … sailors and fishermen were wont to take a basketful of sand from the shore and walk seven times round Granny Kempock, chanting a weird song to insure for themselves a safe and prosperous voyage.”

Rev. D. Macrae, “Notes about Gourock”, 1880.

Marie Lamont was burned in 1662 after confessing to having attended a sabbat of witches intending to throw the stone into the estuary. Let’s face it she’d probably have admitted to anything in the circumstances (including, as she did, turning into a cat). And besides, by the sound of it she’d have been doing Christians a favour by getting rid of all of its attendent weirdness. She’d also have stopped another custom the church surely didn’t like (mentioned by Macrae) – that of newly wedded couples taking a turn around the stone for luck in their marriage.

And Macrae also knew of the belief that the stone revolved three times on the stroke of midnight. Perhaps the stone would even come alive:“On Hogmanay night it was one of the freaks of the Gourock lads to go and array Granny Kempock in shawl, mutch, and apron, that she might appear in dress on New Year’s morning.”

“Granny” Kempock is said to wear a hooded cloak. But ‘Granny’? Is it just my imagination, or does she look decidedly unfemale, if you know what I’m saying? Have a look for yourself at the photo on the Inverclyde Council site (where there’s also a detailed map):
inverclyde.gov.uk/Economic_Development/index.php?module=article&view=189

Folklore

Elva Plain
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 7, 2005

Aubrey Burl says that this site used to be called ‘Elfhaugr’*. Haugr means mound in Old Norse; and Elf – well, one would like to think this meant ‘elf’ rather than a person with an elf-inspired name.

Haugr may imply burial mound, (like ‘howe’) but as the stone circle on Elva plain isn’t actually a mound, could it refer to Elva Hill itself? Does the whole hill belong to the elves? Better watch out if you pay a visit, just in case.

*spotted at
britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba17/ba17int.html

Gareth Evans at ‘Time Travel Britain’ claims
“The hill itself is locally reputed to be a fairy hill and, according to some, hides a secret gateway into the otherworld, which only opens at certain times of the year.”
timetravel-britain.com/05/fall/fairy.shtml

Miscellaneous

Crofton
Causewayed Enclosure
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 6, 2005

I found this in the Wiltshire Arch Magazine (v59 – 1964). This is from long before the enclosure was spotted on aerial photos. Could it be just wishful thinking that it’s the traces of another really old track focusing in on and passing by the site? Maybe it’s just coincidence, and mere romanticism for me to posit such an ancient origin.

“In July 1962 Mr C N Tilley drew attention to a cropmark showing intermittently in corn for 2 miles and following roughly the 600ft contour line south of Savernake Forest from Durley to Langfield Copse, dropping down near Crofton Pumping Station and then winding up the hillside south of Wilton Brail. According to one of the oldest local inhabitants it was the line taken in his father’s time by shepherds going from Cirencester to Weyhill Fair with their flocks.”

It’s certainly seems a memory of a long distance route (Cirencester to near Andover). How long does a route take to make an appreciable crop mark I wonder? Perhaps not long.

Whatever, Weyhill Fair was a major sheep fair held since... well since a ridiculously long time ago, according to the info at
testvalley.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=349
a website which also claims Weyhill is the crossing point between the Harrow Way (taking tin from Cornwall to Kent) and ‘the Gold Road’ bringing Irish gold through Holyhead down to Christchurch Bay.

Folklore

Harrow Hill
Ancient Mine / Quarry
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 6, 2005

The composer John Ireland was much influenced by the English landscape. He lived in sight of Chanctonbury Ring, and it was there and at Harrow Hill that Ireland found the inspiration for ‘Legend for Piano and Orchestra’.

On one occasion John Ireland arose early, cut some sandwiches and chose Harrow Hill as the place for his picnic. Just as he was about to start eating, he noticed some children dancing around him in archaic clothing -very quiet, very silent, He was a little put out about having his peace invaded by children; he looked away for a moment, when he looked back they had disappeared. The incident made such an impression on him that he wrote about his experience to Arnold Machen whose books had greatly influenced much of his music. The reply he received was a postcard with the laconic message “So, you’ve seen them too!”

Children – or fairies, eh?
Taken from the article by Iain Lace, quoting Norah Kirby at musicweb-international.com/ireland/lace.htm

Link

Chanctonbury Ring
Hillfort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 6, 2005
All Music

As you will know if you’ve been following David Dimbleby’s ‘Picture of Britain’, the composer John Ireland found great inspiration in the landscape of Chanctonbury Ring and Harrow Hill: his ‘Legend’ was written whilst wandering here. In his final years he lived in a windmill overlooking the Ring.

Folklore

New King Barrows
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 6, 2005

In 1720, Stukeley wrote: “On Salisbury Plain near Stonehenge in the sheep-penning there several barrows called the Kings Graves. The stones which once stood there are lately carried away.”

The existence of these stones is apparently corroborated by the detailed drawing of Stonehenge and its surroundings made by J Hassell (for Inigo Jones’ ‘Stonehenge’): he drew stones on the side of the hill above ‘Penning Bottom’.

It’s likely the stones went for road making. And speaking of which, here’s a peculiar tale told by “the late Mr Soul, grocer and baker of Amesbury”:

The Marquess of Queensbury set out to make a road to Shrewton, the remains of which can be seen today. It left the Amesbury road just after the Seven Barrows, crossed the valley, went over the Stonehenge Avenue, and nearly got to the Cursus. But one day the Marquess rode up to see how the work was getting on and then went on to Shrewton. It was Trinity Monday, the Shrewton fete day, and he found them all so drunk that he decided Shrewton was no fit place to be connected with Amesbury.

Now what’s all that about? Various Marquesses certainly made their mark on the land round here*. Perhaps it’s based on a truth. But doesn’t the story smack slightly of the town rivalry / devil folklore you get elsewhere? Perhaps my imagination.

In ‘Notes’ on the Seven Barrows, WAM 61 (1966)

* eg see the history mentioned in the 2002 ‘Stonehenge World Heritage Site – Archaeological Research Framework’ at
apollo5.bournemouth.ac.uk/stonehenge/pdf/section2.pdf

Miscellaneous

Marlborough Mound
Artificial Mound
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 6, 2005

Perhaps the idea that the Marlborough Mound is not merely a motte is not a new one. In 1782, in his ‘Observations on the River Wye’, William Gilpin (the prebendary of Salisbury) wrote:

Marlborough-down is one of those vast, dreary scenes, which our ancestors, in the dignity of a state of nature, chose as the repositories of their dead. Every where we see the tumuli, which were raised over their ashes; among which the largest is Silbury-hill.. At the great inn at Marlborough formerly a mansion of the Somerset-family, one of these tumuli stands in the garden, and is whimsically cut into a spiral walk; which, ascending imperceptibly, is lengthened into half a mile. The conceit at least gives an idea of the bulk of these massy fabrics.

Could this have been an idea he was told as a visitor – that the mound was a giant barrow? Maybe he heard it was Merlin’s burial mound.

Quoted in ‘Notes on Marlborough Castle’ by JHP Pafford, in WAM v60 (1965).

Miscellaneous

Manton Round Barrow
Round Barrow(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 6, 2005

When the Manton Round Barrow was excavated by Maud Cunnington it turned out to be the richest and most elaborate of only a few ‘Wessex-style’ burials in the Avebury area.

An elderly woman’s body had been wrapped in cloth and laid in a crouching position on the ground surface*, with grave goods at her head and feet. Amongst the items found were: a gold-bound amber disc; a biconical shale bead with gold bands; a halberd pendant with a shaft covered in sheet gold; a bronze knife dagger with an amber pommel; a second knife dagger; a shale bead necklace; amber beads; three bronze awls; other beads of shale, chalk, and fossil; and two small ‘accessory vessels’ (list in Pollard & Reynolds’ ‘Avebury – the biography of a landscape’).

Neil Burridge’s “Bronze Age Craft” website has pictures of the fantastic objects, which I believe are on display at the museum in Devizes.
templeresearch.eclipse.co.uk/bronze/wessex_b.htm

(*whether this means a hole was left in the centre of the barrow, or the barrow was built complete over her, I don’t know – I’m sure it would be evident from the excavation)

Perhaps with all this (and the publicity which no doubt surrounded the finds) it’s no wonder the folklore above became associated with the barrow. (One thing confuses me, that the info on MAGIC clearly says ‘no details are known’ about the barrow at this grid reference. Have I got the wrong location?)

- Thank you very much MJB for your clarifications (see above).

Miscellaneous

The Polisher
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 6, 2005

(It seems that Baza’s post pre-empts this, but for some reason I hadn’t taken in the human implications of it.)

The deep grooves on the polissoir obviously took years of repetitive axe-polishing to produce, perhaps generations’ worth. Think of all the people who came to this very stone over and over in their lives, as young people, then bringing their children, then their grandchildren – watching how the axes were polished. They must have been thinking about the passing of time, sharing stories about themselves and their ancestors, the land around them, and how the two fitted together. The polissoir would have been a fixed point of reference in a world where people wouldn’t have lived in one place for more than a few seasons or years.

Used as a polissoir in the earlier Neolithic, and containing all this symbolic significance, the stone was eventually stood up on end as a monument in its own right in the later Neolithic. I suppose it then it lost its function as a polissoir, but became purely symbolic of links with the past and the ancestors. Other polisher stones have been incorporated into other monuments relating to the past and the ancestors, as at the West Kennet longbarrow.

(from reading ‘Avebury- the biography of a landscape’ by Pollard and Reynolds, 2002)

Gloucestershire

Cinderbury Iron Age Village Opens This Weekend

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 6, 2005

A new attraction which offers visitors the chance to experience life as an Iron Age villager opens this weekend. The Cinderbury settlement near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, includes several roundhouses, an iron smelting furnace, pottery kiln and clay-domed bread oven.

People can visit for the day, for a weekend, or experience an entire week, where they will wear authentic clothes, forage for food or learn to weave.

Director Jasper Blake said Cinderbury aims to be both fun and education. “The idea is that they come and experience some of the life an Iron Age person might have lived,” he said.

“We don’t want to make it a survival holiday, we want people to get back in touch with raw materials like wood and iron and stone.”

Those braving a week’s stay will live in a communal roundhouse, sleeping on animal skins, existing on a pre-Roman diet which excludes caffeine, sweets or potatoes and using compost-style toilets.

No mobile phones, wrist watches or any modern accessories will be allowed, although “tribal staff” will have access to telephones for emergencies.

“It’s not the only thing, we are open to day visitors and school parties, it’s very much an educational type project,” said Mr Blake, who hopes to inspire an interest in archaeology.

from news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4647917.stm

The Thornborough Henges

Campaign Groups Keep Up Pressure

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 2, 2005

Protesters to deluge council over quarry
By Richard Edwards

Protesters fighting a quarry plan near an ancient Yorkshire monument are to hit a council with the biggest number of objections in its history. Campaign groups Timewatch and the Friends of Thornborough Henges have been campaigning for more than a year against Tarmac’s scheme at Ladybridge Farm, Nosterfield, near Ripon.

Timewatch will hand 1,500 letters of objection and a petition on Monday that will carry more than 10,000 signatures to North Yorkshire County Council planning chiefs.
The response will be the largest number of objections the council has ever received to a single application.

Timewatch chairman George Chaplin said: “Our response shows that the application is fundamentally flawed and contrary to council planning policy on many counts.

He added: “We feel that by showing we are more than willing to argue our case, together with significant public support, we can ensure that right is done at Thornborough.”

taken from the article at Leeds Today
leedstoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=39&ArticleID=1073879

coverage also at the bbc website
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4642175.stm

Miscellaneous

Dunnydeer Farm
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

Canmore’s record says: “Of the three stones that survive, only the recumbent appears to be in its original position, the W flanker having been re-erected in about 1976 by the father of the present owner, Mr Mackie of Dunnydeer, and the E flanker some years previous to that.”

The Canmore visitors imply that it’s easy to imagine the recumbent ‘facing the wrong way’ – and that it was in the NE part of the circle. But in fact because the SW face of the stone is smoother than its NE face, it was probably in the SW part of the circle.

Someone’s had a go at the West flanker at some point – it has a drill-hole and has probably been deliberately split along its length.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, IF), 3 April 1996.
details at
rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.details_gis?inumlink=18161
where there is a photo from 1906.

Folklore

Glenkindie
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

This granite standing stone is 2.3m tall and sits on an old river terrace of the River Don. The stone fell in 1991, but was re-erected the following year after the hole had been partially excavated (the original packing stones were reused). Info at Canmore’s record
rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.details_gis?inumlink=17168

The stone is also called the ‘Treasure Stone’ as some was buried there by a Pictish prince. When someone attempted its removal they suffered a heart attack*. Another name for the stone is the Bullhide Stone, but I can’t find an explanation. It is a motif found at other sites, eg Lled Croen Yr Ych and Maiden Bower.

*This modern-sounding medical diagnosis is from a snippet of information at the ‘Alternative Approaches to Folklore’ bibliography at
hoap.co.uk/aatf1.rtf.
the original info in Northern Earth 64.

Folklore

Waulkmill
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

This lone 5’8” stone is said to have once been part of a stone circle. The other 10 or 11 stones were removed c.1835, according to the 1905 source mentioned in the Canmore record. It was also said that the surviving stone originally had projections from two edges so that it resembled a cross. They were supposedly knocked off when the circle was destroyed. This tradition was collected in the 1930s (and was still known in the late 60s) – it seems quite a strange idea? The stone does have a kind of ‘waist’.

You can see a picture of it from 1904 at
rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.p_coll_details?p_arcnumlink=680007

Miscellaneous

Knockando
Christianised Site
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

A stone circle used to be at Knowehillock / Drum Divan at NJ193433, but it was removed between 1830 and 1870. One stone was left, but this was eventually moved to the grounds of Carron House in the early 20th century. At some point it was moved again. According to the information on Canmore, the minister of Knockando parish church (in the 1970s) suggested that it had been reused as a grave stone in the Grants of Carron burial enclosure (“The Elchies Tomb”). There are actually two suspicious stones there: one with the date 1934, the other 1940. The church itself will look rather modern – it was burnt down and rebuilt in 1990. They obviously like reuse of stones here – there are two Pictish carved stones in the churchyard wall too.

rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.details_gis?inumlink=16062

Folklore

Clach an Righ
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

Clach an Righ circle is now in a forest clearing. Two stones remain standing opposite each other; one is 6ft high, the other 8ft. Other stones from 5ft to 9ft lie fallen.

‘Clach an Righ’ means ‘King’s Stone’. The stones were also known as ‘King Harrald’s Pillars’. They were said to commemorate a victory of King William the Lion (or perhaps his army, led by Ragnvald Gudrodson / Reginald of the Isles) over a Norse army (led by Harald Madadson, Earl of Caithness) in 1196 or 1198.

Field clearance heaps in the area were said to be the burial mounds of the dead soldiers, including Harald Madadson, from whom another alternative name ‘Dalharrold’ (or Dailharraild), is said to be derived. The mounds have now been ploughed and planted with trees.

Info from the Canmore record.
rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.details_gis?inumlink=5540

Flag Fen

Public Meetings on July 13th and 25th

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

Peterborough City Council is to hold two public meetings about plans to build a renewable energy plant near the famous Flag Fen Bronze Age site.

Local residents and businesses will get the opportunity to question the company behind the £250 million, 29-acre waste processing energy park proposed for the site at Fengate in Cambridgeshire.

The two-hour meetings will be held on July 13 at Peterborough Central Library and on July 25 at Peterborough Town Hall Council Chamber.

The developers estimate that the plant could handle more than a million tonnes of waste each year. Innovative technology will then be used to generate electricity by burning the waste along with biomass (organic matter such as plants) at very high temperatures in an oxygen deficient environment.

Dr Pryor recognises the importance of renewable energy: “Anyone living in the fens has to be in favour of any electricity generation which doesn’t contribute to global warming and I’m wholly in favour, in principle. But,” he added, the location of the plant “seems to me really very insensitive.” While he considers the possibility of a visitor centre at the plant to be a good idea, he added: “It isn’t going to make up for the impact of the development.”

Responsibility for approving or disapproving the planning application lies with the Department for Trade and Industry. The city council has until September to compile a report and make comments for consideration.

For more information about the development visit prel-online.co.uk and to see the full planning application online see the Peterborough City Council website
peterborough.gov.uk/page-4166

Taken from the 24hourmuseum article at
24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART29265.html

Miscellaneous

Aird Sleitenish
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

This sounds like a magical place for a circle (if that’s what it is). Jutting out into Loch Tamanavay (Tamnabhaigh) is a little peninsular, which becomes an island 100ft in diameter during the high spring tides. It has ‘a wave washed shore of stones and boulders’ (according to Canmore’s romantic description). A small 10m diameter grassy mound has many small stones and also 10 larger stones (up to 1m across) protruding from it, including one that Canmore concedes may be a fallen monolith. A 1970s investigation discovered lots of ash just below the mound’s surface – so perhaps we can imagine people sitting there on their island with a roaring fire. Sounds great.

Miscellaneous

Hatton
Cairn(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

According to Canmore: “A prostrate monolith measuring 1.8m in length by 0.6m in width and 0.4m in thickness”. It was once thought to have been part of a circle but may have been actually part of a cairn. Victorian sources give its local names as ‘The Catholic Chapel’ and ‘The Papish Kirk’. Sounds rather scathing! I’ve read that pockets of Catholicism remained in Aberdeenshire after the Reformation – but maybe not round here, then. Doubtless someone with more knowledge of Scottish religious and social history could interpret further.

Folklore

Peat Hill
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

This granite standing stone is over 2 metres tall. An urn was apparently found almost underneath it “some time ago” (according to a source in 1866). It was also recorded that:

It is remarkable that the corn grows very luxuriant around this solitary pillar to a distance of fifteen yards, and has always been eighteen inches higher than the crop immediately beside it.

This surely implies some pretty special fertility-promoting quality of the stone. When visited in 1996 the field was in cultivation, so perhaps you can check its powers for yourself.

Information from the Canmore database, at which you can find photos from 1904 and 1910.
rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.details_image_summary?inumlink=19480

Folklore

Arn Hill
Stone Circle
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 1, 2005

The huge Recumbent Stone at Arn Hill is also known as the Ringing Stone or Iron Stone: it is said to give off a clear metallic noise when struck. The information on the Canmore database goes on to describe it as “set absolutely vertical, on a base 8ft 10” long by 3ft 4” broad. Its extreme length is 11ft 7” and it stands 10” clear off the ground. There are traces of much weathered concentric rings on the NE, which may be artificial.”

Canmore also has photos of the stone from 1909 (looking stoney and much like it does today) at
rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.details_image_summary?inumlink=17827

Folklore

Devil’s Stone (Staple Fitzpaine)
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 30, 2005

The Somerset Historic Environment Record has this to say:

Measures 6ft by 5ft 4ins by 5ft. Composed of hard sandstone of irregular shape, somewhat hollowed out on the sides and partly smoothed and rounded at the top. Several holes on the upper sides.

Local legend has it that the devil gripped it at these holes and flung it at the nearby church, or that hearing of the intended building of the church here, gathered some stones as he approached but fell asleep and dropped the stones.

It also seems that there are a number of similar, smaller stones in the vicinity (suggesting the natural nature of the Devil’s Stone) but still, the stone is near the crossroads at the heart of the village.

At Staple Fitzpaine, a few miles west of Taunton, there is by the roadside a big ‘Sarten,’ known as “the Devil’s Stone”, because, having come overnight with a lot of big stones on his back, wherewith to pelt the builders of a church which he heard was to be built, against his wish, in that then benighted place, he suddenly saw in the morning the beautiful tower of the finished church; and in his chagrin and amazement he was so taken aback that he dropped his budget of stones from his back; and this big one in particular, from off his shoulder, remains on the spot to this day, as a strong (though dumb) witness of the fact!

Sent in by ‘F’ on p61 of
Notes and Queries
The Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1. (1889), pp. 53-63.

Miscellaneous

Maiden Castle (Dorchester)
Hillfort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 30, 2005

It seems fairs were often held at hill forts – here’s an example of what went on at one in 1798.

The King, Queen and all the Princesses, with a number of the Nobility, went to Maiden Castle near Dorchester to see the sports of the country people [..] the sports were announced in the following handbill:-

All persons of jovial, friendly, and loyal disposition are invited to be present at, and to partake of, the undermentioned country sports, which with others, to be declared upon the ground, are intended, if the weather be fine, to be exhibited at Maiden Castle, this day, September 29, at 11 o’clock in the morning, in honour of the Birthday of her Royal Highness the Duchess of Wurtembergh:-

To be played for at cricket, a round of beef: each man of the winning set to have a ribband.
A cheese to be rolled down the hill; prize to whoever stops it.
A silver cup to be run for by Ponies. The best of three heats.
A pound of tobacco to be grinned for.
A barrel of beer to be rolled down the hill; prize to whoever stops it.
A michaelmas-day goose to be dived for.
A good hat to be cudgelled for.
Half a guinea for the best ass in three heats.
A handsome hat, for the boy most expert in catching a roll dipped in treacle, and suspended by a string.
A leg of mutton and a gallon of porter to the winner of a race of 100 yards in sacks.
A good hat to be wrestled for.
Half a guinea to the rider of the ass who wins the best of three heats by coming in last.
A pig; prize to whoever catches him by the tail.

The mind boggles. Especially regarding the beer barrel.

From The Times, Oct 3rd 1798, quoted in Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset v5.

Stonehenge and its Environs

Campaigners Criticise Progress of Project

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 25, 2005

The controversial tunnel under Stonehenge was dubbed “the new Bath Spa” by campaigners yesterday after the cost of the project soared to £223million. The Department for Transport (DfT) said the previous figure of £193million had ignored the cost of buying and preparing the land for the tunnel, designed to hide the A303, which passes near the ancient Wiltshire monument.

Stonehenge campaigners said the project was looking more and more like the disastrously overpriced Bath Spa and Millennium Dome projects.

The cost of the mile-long tunnel was originally put at £183million in 2002, but Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman yesterday said “some further increase in costs is now anticipated”.

The “Save Stonehenge” group said delays and price increases could lead Ministers to abandon plans for the road altogether.

And druid leader King Arthur Pendragon – who led a pagan service at the monument at Tuesday’s solstice festival – warned that the “biggest protest in Europe” would be staged if the Government rejected the tunnel in favour of a cheaper option.

He said the Government could opt for a “cut and cover” tunnel, which would involve sinking the road then adding a roof, rather than boring a tunnel.

“If the Government did that, it would devastate so much archaeology – they could expect the biggest protest in Europe, ” he said.

“Stonehenge is up there with the pyramids in Egypt for cultural significance, so they have to get it right. But they also have to get on with it – the longer they take the more it will cost and the less chance they will build the road at all.

“It is being handled like the Millennium Dome – needless bureaucracy making what is already a very expensive project into an unattainable one.”

Chris Woodford, of Save Stonehenge, said: “It is increasingly likely the Government will not approve the tunnel. If the price goes up much more it will simply not be affordable. You can imagine the Government thinking this is a Millennium Dome-type white elephant and giving up on the project.”

The planning inspector’s report on last year’s public inquiry into the road was completed in January, but the DfT has still to decide whether to approve the tunnel.

Added to this, plans for a new £57million visitor centre have been submitted to Salisbury District Council by English Heritage. These are the subject of another planning inquiry, but if DfT rejects the tunnel then there is no hope for the visitor centre.

Terence Meaden, of the Stonehenge Society, said the bureaucracy was holding up the project and adding to the cost.

He said: “Nowadays, everybody gets consulted and there are so many bodies and committees sticking their noses in. There are similarities with the Bath Spa situation.”

But David Batchelor, an archaeologist for English Heritage, played down concerns about the project. He said: “It would be nice if the process went forward faster, but it takes time and we have to accept that.”

article at the Western Daily Press website
westpress.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=146278&command=displayContent&sourceNode=146274&contentPK=12705772

Barnfield Pit, Swanscombe

Details of Opening Ceremony – Wednesday 29th June

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 25, 2005

kent.gov.uk/your-council/news/june-05/jun-23-a.html

Time: 11am (speeches at 11.15, opening ceremony 11.45)

Location: Swanscombe Heritage Park, Craylands Lane, Swanscombe

Details: Phil Harding from Wessex Archaeology – part of Channel 4’s Time Team – will cut a ribbon to celebrate the park’s new entry feature. This is a sculpture based on a 400,000-year-old hand axe discovered in the park. The ceremony will celebrate many hours of work by the local community, businesses and public sector in restoring one of the most important archaeological sites in northern Europe. It also marks the 70th anniversary of the discovery of human skull fragments there.

Local schoolchildren will enjoy an organised treasure hunt in the park and will take part in the opening ceremony. Guests will be offered an optional guided tour of the site at 12 noon to see the project work which has been carried out by Groundwork Kent Thameside and Swanscombe Action Group. A short display of the ancient art of flint-knapping will also be given at 12 noon.

Speeches will be given by Swanscombe Action Group Chairman, Cllr Bryan Read, Patrick Conrad from Groundwork Kent Thameside, KCC Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport Richard King and Professor Chris Stringer from the Natural History Museum. The project has been supported by a number of partners with part funding from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. KCC is the accountable body.

Flag Fen

Don’t Let Flag Fen Suffer Like Thornborough, Campaigner Warns

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 25, 2005

A heritage campaigner has warned that Flag Fen could become the next Thornborough if plans to plans to build a waste processing plant near the famous Bronze Age site succeed.

George Chaplin told the 24 Hour Museum that a vast waste processing plant at Flag Fen could affect the site in the same way as quarrying has affected Thornborough.

“We at Time Watch are very concerned that Flag Fen could be turned into another Thornborough,” he said. “Sites like Flag Fen, which are already established as being extremely important, have been invested in,” he added, “and because of the investment we’ve already made what we should avoid at all costs is ruining that.”

The company behind the planning application is Global Olivine UK, which hopes to build a £220 million 38-acre waste processing plant to recycle waste and turn it into electricity.

While George suggested that many of the 20,000 visitors who flock to Flag Fen every year would inevitably be put off by the industrial plant, he also highlighted the potential for damage to archaeology still in the ground.

“We are concerned about the impact on archaeology by things like leakage,” he said, “and the impact on the local environment.” All this, he added, when instead we should be “turning Flag Fen into our archaeological flagship.”

His words follow the concerns, reported by the 24 Hour Museum last week, of Flag Fen Manager Toby Fox: “It’s absolutely on top of us. We are very concerned,” he said. “On a 30-acre site, the amount of rainfall that will hit a concrete slab and be used in the cooling towers will have a direct effect on the surrounding land,” he said. “It won’t be keeping the archaeological remains wet. We’re trying desperately to protect our heritage and we feel that this will compromise that.”

Heritage experts and members of the Flag Fen team are not the only worried voices. On June 23 it was reported in the city’s Evening Telegraph newspaper that Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson has called for a public inquiry into the plans. The same publication has also run stories relaying the reservations of residents and businesses in the area.

According to Peterborough City Council, the plans will not be approved or disapproved by them. Instead, because it is an electricity generating plant, it falls within the Electricity Act, putting responsibility for making a decision in the hands of the Department for Trade and Industry.

The council’s role is as one of several consultees who will advise the DTI on the application. Council officers will put together a report for councillors to consider, following which their views and recommendations will be presented to the DTI. The deadline for submission is late September.

Despite its restricted role, the council told the 24 Hour Museum that it would be taking archaeological, as well as other environmental, concerns into account.

“Council officers are carefully evaluating all aspects of the planning application,” reads a statement, “including the proposed development’s likely impact on highways, archaeological sites, air quality, landscape, wildlife, ground water regime, water pollution, waste management and noise nuisance to nearby residential and commercial properties.”

The 24 Hour Museum tried to contact Global Olivine, but calls and emails were unanswered.

From the article at the 24 Hour Museum
24hourmuseum.org.uk/images/head_nwh.gif

South Creake

Panels to Illustrate Archaeologists’ Discoveries

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 24, 2005

To the untrained eye the Bloodgate Hill Iron Age hill fort at South Creake, near Fakenham, is nothing more than a circular mound in a grassy field. But with the aid of aerial photo-graphs, hi-tech surveying equipment and painstaking excavation work archaeologists have unearthed the fort’s past and provided a glimpse at the turbulent early history of Norfolk. The site is to be preserved thanks to the work of the Norfolk Archaeological Trust, a local charity which, two years ago, bought the field in which it sits.

Tomorrow, the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk Richard Jewson will unveil two information panels at the fort, explaining the ancient settlement’s past and giving visitors an impression of what it once looked like. It is one of only six known pre-Roman hill forts in the county.

Dr Peter Wade-Martins, director of the Norfolk Archaeological Trust, said the fort, probably built between two and three thousand years ago, was an important reminder of what life was like in pre-Roman Britain.

The fort would originally have had a four-metre deep outer ditch surrounding a bank topped with a wooden palisade. Measuring 210m across, it is one of the biggest in Norfolk and has some unusual features – the main entrance, to the east, is in line the entrance to the inner ditch and mound, which is rare in Iron Age forts. There is also evidence of at least two smaller entrances to the west and other fences and gates within the fort.

Plenty more information and a picture at the EDP website

in the rest of this article by Edward Foss.

Northumberland

Laser Scans for Northumbrian Rock Art

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 24, 2005

Examples of rock art are to be recorded with ‘3D laser scanning’ as part of the Northumberland and Durham rock art project. This is being funded and co-ordinated by the two county councils and English Heritage.

The project’s main aim is to develop new and undamaging approaches to recording and conserving rock art.

Rock Art project officer Tertia Barnett said: “Laser scanning has been used to record only a handful of prehistoric carvings and this will be the largest number of carved panels scanned by one project.

“The scanner sends a laser beam across the rock and records very small changes in the surface. Changes of less than 0.5mm (0.02in) can be captured and recorded as digital data on a computer and used to create extremely accurate three-dimensional reconstructions of the rock surface and carvings.”

She said the technique would not damage the rock surface.

“It’s a powerful tool for conserving rock art and it allows us to look in detail at things such as the techniques used to make the prehistoric carvings and subtle changes in the rock structure where it might have been eroded or damaged”, she said.

“This will help us assess how to protect the carvings from further decay.”

Computer generated reconstructions can also be manipulated to create 3D animations for museum displays and exhibitions.

Northumberland and Durham have more than 1,000 examples of rock art and the project aims to compile a complete record.

from the BBC article at
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4125078.stm

Miscellaneous

Bury Farm
Long Barrow
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 24, 2005

This much-worn long barrow is on the crest of the ridge here, overlooking the flat plain to the north. Or it would be, were there probably not trees in the way. There’s also a later round barrow nearby, slightly further up the slope.

Folklore

St Marnan’s Chair
Standing Stones
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 23, 2005

Canmore’s record tells us that this 8ft+ standing stone called St Marnan’s Chair is now within the walls of a churchyard, at NJ 59705020. There is another, smaller stone (perhaps moved from its original position SE of the Chair) at NJ 59715024.

The entry states the Chair “is almost certainly all that remains of a stone circle, probably one of the pillar stones of a recumbent stone circle centred to the NE where the church stands.”

A little further afield, in Banffshire, just beyond the Aberdeenshire boundary, two standing-stones represent all that remains of a circle which stood on the site of the present parish church of Marnoch. The taller of the two is known as St Marnan’s Chair, though it bears no resemblance to such an article of furniture in its present state. As, however, it seems likely to have been one of the pillar-stones associated with the recumbent stone, its original position may have given some excuse for the designation. St Marnan, or Marnoch, was a seventh-century missionary who is said to have died at his church here in 625.

This is from Ritchie, J., Folklore of Aberdeenshire Stone Circles, in Proc. Soc. Ant. of Scotland, LX, 1926, pp304-313.

Naturally the chair is where St Marnan (or St Marnoch, the name of the village/church) is said to have preached. He is associated with a curious bit of folklore – that his skull was taken from the church and washed every Sunday in his renowned (but now defunct) holy well near the river, the washing water being given to the sick*. One might be tempted to think of ‘Celtic head cults’ and the like. I don’t think drinking water out of a skull would make me feel any better, personally.

*from ‘Wishing Wells’ by Sandy Maclennan at
bath.ac.uk/lispring/sourcearchive/fs7/fs7sm1.htm
original source – ?

Canmore also mentions that one of those geometric favourites, a 7-knobbed carved stone ball, was found somewhere in Marnoch (but is now far away in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).