baza

Not much left to see here, just an arc of stones which probably formed part of the western side of the kerb of a cairn, with a pile of stones nearby.

Back in 1887, five cup marks were seen on this stone; by 1997 only two were visible. When I visited in 2010 none could be seen as most of the stone was covered in grass.

I drove down the lane to Culnakirk steading in search of this panel and encountered a fairly new house named ‘Clachmhor’ on my left. The owner was pottering about in his yard so I asked him about the whereabouts of the stone. He amiably pointed over a fieldgate leading from his driveway to a large block just a few yards away.

Here’s a novelty: at just two metres above sea level, the lowest hillfort in Britain.
If you’re in the area, I recommend you go and take a look. You wont see massive earthworks, but you will find well-defined banks and ditches within the flat, Fenland landscape.
Drive along the B1093 between Wimblington and Manea and you’ll see a signpost pointing down a farm track, passing Stitches Farm, to Stonea Camp.
There are information boards to read scattered amongst the defences as you wonder if Boudicca walked on this site 2,000 years ago.

The Norfolk Archaeological Trust bought this hillfort in 2003 to save it from any further damage by the plough.
Nowadays it is grazed by sheep and has a dedicated carpark.
Apart from that, I agree with the previous visitors; sadly, it has been almost completely flattened.

Only after visiting the stones in Oxfordshire for some years did I finally bother to pull off the A361 down the quiet lane which passes Knollbury.

I’m glad I did.

I like this place.

Its steep-sided banks are easily seen from the road which runs parallel to the north-west side. In fact, the road is so close that the ground underneath it is scheduled as part of the monument.

Don’t stop the car until you come to the bottom corner; park up and go through the gate. You can see two openings in the south-eastern side; only one is original and that’s been enlarged.

Knollbury is classified as a hillfort, like many other similar univallate enclosures in Oxon. This one lies on a gentle slope, nowhere near the top of a hill.

The walls are steep-sided because they are made from stone. Walk along the outside of the north-eastern side and you will see.

Nowadays, when I’m in the area, I like to come back to Knollbury.

It’s my kind of place.

When I visited the nearby Borg in-Nadur temple I must have walked past these without knowing they were there.
There’s only a short length of ruts to see, but what makes them of particular interest is that they run straight into the sea.

La Hougue de Vinde is a cist-in-circle, a type of monument peculiar to the Channel Islands.

We liked this place – and it seemed to like us. It’s been robbed – the cist has long since gone; damaged, overgrown and neglected; not easy to find in the trees. Branches overhang and encroach into the inner space. A saw is needed here. There’s a geocache. Yet, despite all the setbacks, we were pleased to be there in its stillness to share its existence.

We kissed in a circle.

This menhir is just a couple of hundred yards from the airport entrance.

Directions

At the roundabout outside the airport go south (turn right) towards St Brelade along the B36. Turn 1st left (sign for Mermaid Tavern) then immediately left again. The stone is in the field on the right just after the hire car compound.

The island of Jersey is well endowed with megalithic sites. Here, you’re never far from something of interest. However, if you want to see all of the major sites you’ll need some form of transport.

I flew in to St Helier airport and collected a hire car from there. The hire car company gave me a map; it was crap. Be sure to get the free map from the airport with “Jersey recommended” on the front. You may need good eyesight or a magnifying glass to see it, but it has got all of the main sites marked and named on it.

I drove directly to La Hougue Bie. There’s a small museum there, so, even though I had done some research, I thought they may have a guide to the other sites on the island. There were two useful and complementary free leaflets. “Where to find the dolmens of Jersey” and “The spiritual landscape”. On Jersey, they call all of their prehistoric burial chambers “dolmens”.

Entrance to La Hougue Bie (the only megalithic site at which you have to pay) is £6.50 in 2008.

Most of the roads are narrow and parking is difficult everywhere unless you can find a car park. Luckily, there was always a nearby car park or a handy, flat field boundary whenever I needed to stop.

IronMan is correct in stating that this is off the beaten track; Anglezarke Moor is open access land and there are no continuous footpaths. It can be heavy going on the way here.

In answer to Stroller’s query, and further to Charles’s reply, there’s been no known excavation of Round Loaf. Some flints have been found on the surface over the years. There’s no point in visiting Bolton (or Manchester) museum as they have nothing from local, human prehistory on display whatsoever.

Although Whitelow cairn is more easily approached from the Bury Old Road to the east, I chose to walk up Whitelow Road from the north west.
Driving up the A56 from Bury, where I’d visited the museum to see the urns excavated from the cairn, at the traffic lights where the left turn takes you into Ramsbottom, I turned right into Whitelow Road, immediately parking up as the road is only suitable for off-road vehicles.
The road rises gently and skirts the southern side of Whitelow Hill, where I had to jump over a drystone wall to climb up to the cairn, which forms the top of the hill.
If it wasn’t for the copious amounts of stone which formed an outer wall, it wouldnt be possible to see where the hill ends and the cairn begins.
The view is only to the west because of higher ground on the other sides.

This 1,200 feet long stone row runs east-west within private woodland near to the A39 west of Porlock. There is a permissive path to the nearby Culbone Stone which stands 130 feet south of the western end of the row, but there are signs requesting visitors not to stray from the path. There are thought to be twenty one stones remaining; I managed to find thirteen in the sometimes dense undergrowth of the wood. None of the stones stand more than three feet above the ground.

This round barrow lies 300m to the south-east of the Longstone and is probably the largest on Exmoor at 34m wide by 2.7m high.

It’s a three kilometres walk from the lay-by at Goat Hill Bridge on the B3358 to the Longstone, the tallest menhir on Exmoor. Formed from a slab of local slate, it measures 3m high by 1.25m wide and 0.25m thick at its base. There is a much smaller, companion stone sharing its hole, known locally as a trigger stone, which is 0.7m high.

It’s a walk of about one mile to Thor’s Cave, either down a dry valley from the village of Wetton or along a cyclepath which runs alongside the River Manifold.

I chose to approach the cave from the cyclepath, crossing the river on a footbridge below the cave. The riverbed is usually dry here, apart from in very wet weather, as the river disappears into swallowholes in the limestone bedrock and travels underground through this part of the valley.

Thor’s Cave is a popular calling point for visitors to the Dovedale area and the path up to the cave has been provided with many steps. The entrance to the cave can be very slippy on the usually wet floor, made smooth by the passage of many feet. An internal fissure allows light into the cave and a torch is required to explore its inner reaches.

Occupied from the end of the ice age, a Bronze Age burial has been found within.

Two days have past and I am still in awe and wonderment at the sights I saw at the weekend. I took the opportunity to book up to see the cave art within Church Hole Cave – and what an opportunity it turned out to be! For over half an hour I stood on the temporary viewing platform which had been erected to coincide with the cave art conference which took place nearby. I had an image of an animal, drawn by a human in the Palaeolithic, within six inches of my nose! My head was within inches of other animals and images which have yet to be fully interpreted! I feel privileged; no – I AM privileged – to have been allowed in to Church Hole Cave and to be shown the first prehistoric cave art to have been re-discovered in Britain.

This stone stands on the B4450, halfway between Churchill and Chipping Norton, in the northern roadside hedge. Usually, it’s difficult to find, being swamped by the hedge; however, on my latest visit the hedge had recently been cut, freeing the stone from its green prison. To my dismay, the stone had been trimmed, too, with loose flakes lying on the top.

14th September 2003:
On a trip down to the Cotswolds today, I visited the Longstone of Minchinhampton. As Gatcombe Lodge long barrow is only a couple of hundred yards away, I thought I might as well go and have a look at that, too.

Gatcombe Lodge long barrow happens to be on the Gatcombe Park estate (Princess Anne`s home). There`s a footpath which runs close to the barrow and I only meant to walk past and have a look. Anyway, I couldn`t resist. I went through a gate and onto the barrow. An estate worker spotted me as he went past in a Discovery; he blocked the entranceway and phoned the police.

A Land Rover duly arrived with two police officers, who did a full security check on me and my motor. They could see that I was an unlikely terrorist, with my sandals, shorts and Stonehenge Tshirt. When the all-clear came through, I was allowed to go with a rollocking.

The barrow itself is overgrown with stones from the chambers scattered over it.

On a recent visit to the Nympsfield long barrow, I noticed this one marked on the OS map, so decided to pay it a visit.

Shortly after turning onto the minor road leading to the village of Nympsfield from the B4066, I drove into a National Trust car park on the left which serves Woodchester Park (you have to pay to park here, although I didn’t notice until I was leaving).

The footpath from the car park leads you down into a wooded valley. Where the path turns to the right, along the valley, I carried straight on up the other side, through the trees and out onto the end of a gliding club’s airstrip.

The barrow lies at the western end of this grass airstrip. It’s been ploughed over, in the past, and is now no more than 2 metres high, with no visible stones.

Very little remains of this long barrow, which was nearly completely destroyed in the 19th century AD.

All that’s visibly left to see are two parallel slabs, set into the ground 6ins apart, and rising maybe 2ft above the ground, presumably part of a burial chamber.

They’re not easy to find, despite standing barely ten feet from Hayhedge Lane, a minor road running from the village of Bisley, one mile away.

I entered into a field on the northern side of the road through a metal gate and walked westward to the corner of the field where they stand in the undergrowth.

GPS: SO 91783 06122

I visited Avening in Sept 2003 in an attempt to find these burial chambers. After trespassing all over the site someone appeared and asked me what I was up to. On being told of my quest, they informed me that there’s been a lot of changes in the area and the burial chambers have gone.

Update:

I revisited this site on 30/5/04 and, I’m pleased to report, the burial chambers are still there, although they are very neglected and appear to be disappearing back into the earth, with only the tops of the chambers still visible.
This time, instead of approaching the site from the village, I parked my car in Avening and walked north along the B4014 until I came to a private, unmetalled road going south-east up a hillside. Within 100 yards I could see the chambers, behind barbed wire and set within a steep bank on the right-hand side of the track.

This double stone row seems so fragile and elusive.
With over 30 stones (a friend says he’s counted 44) averaging only 10” in height, I wonder how it has survived. Then I look around, at the wild Welsh scenery.
Very few people come here, now and for probably hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. It’s common land, the only resource being a few hardy sheep and the Afon Disgynfa, a mountain stream the waters of which flow over the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall, a mile further downstream. After climbing the path from the bottom of the waterfall up to the top and negotiating the boggy vegetation, the only way to find the row is to find the stone circle, first.
The avenue (as this is a double row leading to a stone circle, so it is classed as an avenue) starts nearly 30ft to the east of the circle, as a double row just over 6ft apart. You have to be standing over most of the stones to see them in the grass. After about 60ft, the rows widen out to about 12ft apart before veering slightly towards the south and continuing for another 100ft.

The remains of the Horslip long barrow can be seen from the track leading up from Avebury Trusloe to Windmill Hill, although there’s not much left to see. It has been ploughed out and is now just a barely discernible mound in an arable field within 100yards of the bridleway.

Buzzards, butterflies and bovine bother

I visited Lacra on a glorious August Saturday, battling through the holiday
traffic to find myself completely alone on a sun-drenched hillside.

Although there is a footpath leading straight up from Kirksanton, I took Burl`s advice and parked at Po House, taking the longer but more gentle path around Lacra Bank. On my journey, I heard the characteristic `mewing` of a buzzard and, looking up, saw this magnificent bird perched high above me. On reaching a ruined farmhouse, I could see an area of stones beyond the drystone walls of the fields and knew that I`d arrived.

Lacra A was the first of the features up here that I encountered. It was difficult to see which stones belonged and which didn`t. Only two remain standing out of six of those that count.

Walking east, Lacra D was the next that I investigated and, here again, I had to study the stones scattered about to try and work out where the circle actually was. I was helped in this by a large slab which lies within the circle, possibly a capstone. From Lacra D, two stone rows are said to run, one to the north-east and the other leading south-west down the hillside.

A ring cairn, Lacra E, lies just 8metres to the north-west, but I could only make out three small stones. The many butterflies feeding on the thistles were a welcome distraction to my quest to try and sort out this bronze age landscape.

Walking south-west from Lacra D and passing through a gap in a field wall, Lacra B was my next destination. This one is unmistakeable as a stone circle, although only six stones remain of a suggested eleven. Whilst here, I was pleased to hear again the call of the buzzard and, looking up, saw a large bird of prey circling in the sky with a smaller bird, who answered the buzzard`s call with its own. I admired their encounter as they circled away and down towards the lower ground where the Giant`s Grave standing stones stand majestically, far off in the distance, before continuing on my quest.

Walking downhill to the east, the remaining stones of Lacra C stone circle came quickly into my view. Just three stones now stand in an arc which would probably have been the largest of the the four stone circles up here. Then the cattle arrived. I usually have no problem with farm animals, but these bovine beasts were very numerous and inquisitive and being mindful of the fact that I was alone upon the hillside, decided that I should play safe and leave. On my return journey, I was entertained again by the buzzard, now back on its previous perch, as it called out to me as I returned to the car.

This barrow lies just 20metres to the south-west of the bank of the Bull Ring henge. It is described in the SMR as an oval barrow overlain on its western end by a later bowl barrow, although no known excavation has taken place.

It now stands 2metres high and the northern end seems to have been foreshortened by the erection of a churchyard wall.

If you drive down Dyffryn lane you`ll see this stone standing by the road-side. It`s nearly five feet tall and leans to the north-east.

Maen Beuno could well be an outlier to the Dyffryn Lane henge which is about 100 metres further on down the lane, in a field on the other side of the road.

On a recent visit to Mitchell`s Fold, I carried on walking along the path leading from the stone circle which crosses Stapeley Common. At the Cow Stone, I veered to the right to climb Stapeley Hill.

Stapeley Hill is a saddleback hill and the ring cairn is situated on the lowest point of the summit, within the saddle.

The cairn appears to consist of an embankment encircling a circle of stones with a mound within the centre.

GPS: SO 31277 99037

Chumbawala may have encountered horses here, but I had to watch out for the feisty cattle protecting their calves.

At Three Cocks, on the A438, take the minor road heading east signposted to Llanigon. After just less than a mile, the barrow is in a field to the south of the road.

The site is dominated by two old trees which hampered the excavation carried out here in 1929ad. The remains of five males were found.

On approaching, I first saw a large blocking stone(?), followed by a small mound, then the remains of the burial chamber.

GPS: SO 18226 38060

On a recent visit to The Rollrights, I thought I`d go and have a mooch around for the Goose Stones on Chastleton Common, just a couple of miles away.

Approaching from the north-east on a singletrack road, as I crossed over the cattle grid leading on to the common I was dismayed to see a sign saying PRIVATE PROPERTY. NO PARKING.

I thought uh-oh, this is going to cramp my style, and it did. Slowly driving down the road, I spotted some stones to my right, so I abandoned the car in the middle of the road and set off to get some pics. These stones were the ones that hamish had seen, at SP2626228769.

Then I heard the sound of a vehicle approaching, so I had to dash to the car to allow the postman to pass. Further along the road, I saw some more, more embedded stones on the right. I had to carry on driving a short distance to the entranceway to a farm and parked there while I investigated my find. These two stones are at SP2570128746 and look more promising than the previous pile.

Carrying on in my quest, near to the south-westerly edge of the common, I saw another likely candidate, to my left. I parked next to the cattle grid leading out of the common and walked a short distance to a stone standing out of the ground at SP2537828682. This is the same stone that Celia Haddon has on her website Goose Stones
The published location for the Goose Stones (SP265288) seems to come from Paul Bennett and Tom Wilson`s booklet The Old Stones of Rollright and District, however, they were unable to find them.

Within 1/2 mile of Lower Swell, on the far side of an arable field which is next to a minor road running west from the village, lies this long barrow. The crop in the field had been recently harvested, so I was able to walk downhill across the stubble to see it.
It appears to be in an unusual location, very near to the bottom of a dry valley, with a conjunction with another dry valley on the opposite side. The barrow retains some height, too, although it was difficult to estimate due to its complete covering in bush and other vegetation.
The north side is twice as high as the south, due to the barrow being oriented along the side of the valley. There are many animal holes dug around its base. Although I saw rabbits, from the size of the holes I think that badgers have made a home here. No megaliths visible.
GPS: SP 17015 25774

Cow Common Long Barrow GPS: SP 13511 26272

Not much of interest to say about this long barrow. It lies like an island in the middle of a large arable field next to a minor road just over 2 miles west of Lower Swell. I walked up the tractor tracks in a field of wheat to reach it. No megaliths are exposed.
On my way back to the road, I startled a deer hiding in the wheat, which didn`t bound very far away. Shortly afterwards, I was startled by a fawn jumping out of the crop in front of me.

This bump in the grass by the side of Kingstanding Lane, in the district of Kingstanding, is all that remains of the last surviving barrow in Birmingham (that I am aware of).

If it hadn`t been for an incident in comparatively modern history, there`d probably be houses on this one, too.

Great location. It`s exhilarating just to be here, high up over the Wye valley with Hay Bluff breathing down your neck.

BUT......

The only lay-by for miles around on the single-track road has been placed right next to the circle. There are always cars parked here. Most people who park here seem to be totally unaware that there is a stone circle right infront of their eyes. I was angered by the totally unnecessary degradation of the location. To top it all, one of the bollard-stones from the lay-by has become incorporated into the circle.

GPS: SO 23942 37358

Taking the forest road out of Hay-on-Wye signposted to Capel-y-Ffin, the single-track road rises steeply on a southerly course. At the top, where the scenery opens out over mountainous moorland, lies the large Twyn-y-Beddau round barrow, as if standing sentry before the even higher land.

GPS: SO 24148 38612

The Giant`s Foot stone lies just to the west of Shap, in a field behind the houses lining the A6.

It is said to be one of the stones in the Shap Stone Avenue.

GPS:NY 56297 14781

This stone stands by the side of the B4348, 1/2 mile west of the village of Dorstone, by the side of a field entrance. It has been used as a gatepost in the past.

There is a cup mark under the vegetation.

GPS: SO 30558 42261

Four miles south of Arthur`s Stone stands Herefordshire`s tallest standing stone, Wern Derys (or the King Stone).

You need the OS map to find this one. It`s about 1/2 mile down a no through road leading to a farm. On the left-hand side there`s a gate with a large notice saying something like `STOCK – PLEASE CLOSE THE GATE`. It`s in the field beyond that gate. There`s no footpath, but the sign on the gate didn`t say `BUGGER OFF`, so I went in.

This large round barrow is sited on the western flank of Sidbury Hill.

It used to stand at the crossroads of two trackways used by tanks, you can imagine how it came to be called the Hot Cross Bun.

The army is more sympathetic to the ancient remains lying on its land nowadays, hence it is now out-of-bounds to all army vehicles.

I visited this site in the summer of 2002, accompanied by a Wilts archaeologist who called it `the Everleigh henge`, however, jimit has pointed out that on the SMR it is named Weather Hill henge.

Although being on MOD land, the henge can be visited when no army exercises are taking place nearby.

There`s not much to see here. I couldn’t make out any evidence of the bank and ditch; still, the site is clearly marked by the wooden posts and noticeboards surrounding it which warn off the army vehicles from straying over the henge.

I visited this mound yesterday on my way back from Avebury after the solstice celebrations.

As it was a Sunday, I drove straight through the main college gateway, parked in the central area and asked a student for directions. I was told to go down a small flight of steps which led behind the canteen....and there it loomed before me.

Hemmed in behind the backs of buildings, overgrown with trees, yet quiet and peaceful because of it.

You have to climb this mound to fully appreciate it and there are steps on the opposite side.

On a recent visit to the Castlehowe Scar Stone Circle, I looked in the next field and was astonished to see what appears to be a stone row! I presume that if this is `really` a stone alignment then we would have known about it by now. If anyone has any thoughts or information about this then please share it with us.

To reach this Hoar Stone, I parked on the A4260 next to a private road leading to Barton Lodge, then walked along the public footpath which follows the private road. Where the footpath turns north, I struck off in a WNWesterly direction through a plantation of young trees. After about 100yds I came across a small mound, only one yard high and about twelve yards in diameter. In a hollow in the middle of the mound lay the 11ft long Hoar Stone.

This site is no longer marked on the OS Landranger map. I reached it by scrambling over the barbed wired hedge running beside the A4260.

When I found it, I was a little confused....it looks like a cairn at the end of a ploughed-out long barrow. Most of the stones don`t look as if they`ve been lying there for thousands of years.

Back home, I did a little research. It seems that in 1843ad a tenant farmer broke up the Hoar Stone. When the landowner found out, he stopped him from doing any further damage.

The 2.5m long, recumbent Cow Stone (or Dead Cow) lies approx 400metres to the NE of Mitchells Fold stone circle, beside the footpath leading from the circle to Stapeley Hill.

In the right light, the stone looks like a resting (or dead) animal when viewed from the west.

GPS: SO 30912 98880