Chris Collyer

A ring of 6 stones measuring about 10 metres in diameter.
Strange how people’s perceptions of a site can be so different, everybody else who has visited this site seems to have loved it. Maybe it was because it was getting dark and cold, maybe it was having to jump the wall and the feeling of trespassing or maybe it was the decayed whole sheep remains and bits of bones, but I only stayed long enough for a quick look round and a few photo’s. I do have to agree about the largest stone though, it looks like a natural boulder that is partly covered with grass to the south and with a flat front facing into the circle, almost like it was addressing it – could explain the orientation of the site. I found it interesting that the fine views to the south that can be seen from the road are just about hidden at the circle with only the tops of the distant hills still in sight – was this circle meant to be hidden from those approaching from (or living in) the south?

The henge sits on a small plateau of land with Wharfdale to the west and Hebden Beck to the east. To answer Stu’s question about views, it’s mainly hills in the near and middle distance with a gap to the east and a larger view down towards the south across the Grassington area. The henge itself is a tiny little thing, English Heritage give it’s measurements as a 20-22 metre internal area surrounded by a 3.5 metre wide ditch and then a 3-4 metre wide bank. The bank is made of stone and earth and covered with turf with a single causeway to the southeast. As Stu notes there is a large area that has been quarried away in recent times but considering the amount of mining close by and the fact that the henge is so small and seemingly forgotten about it’s done well to survive.
Crossing over the wall and into the field I had to disturb a flock of sheep to get to the henge, these critters and the position of the site with hills around gave me the idea that it could well have formed a local meeting point for stock trading and well as other ceremonies that we might expect at such places, but only serving a small local community. I couldn’t really picture people travelling great distances to get here – definitely a local henge for local people.

This is a lovely little ring of stones that is recorded in the scheduling information as a small stone circle. Dyer on the other hand thinks it may have been a ring cairn while Burl marks it under ‘uncertain status including misidentified sites and hybrid rings such as complex ring cairns’ in his Stone Circles of the British Isles – I don’t know if he elaborates further in any of his other books. Whichever, it’s in a fantastic position just beside the river which when I visited was in full flow making any idea of paddling across an impossibility but the walk via Yockenthwaite farm and the side of the river is pleasant enough. The first thing you notice going by this route is a large boulder just to the south east of the ring, the scheduling cites this as a possible outlier and mentions a couple of other questionable outlying stones further away to the west, the ring could possibly have had a pair of concentric circles as there seems to be the remains of an outer ring to the northwest.

Five Wells has two chambers – the western facing chamber is battered about and only the two portal stones remain. Collapsed against each other the southern stone looks like it has been snapped in half, the rest of the chamber is either buried or has been smashed and removed. What is left is the gorgeous eastern chamber with a pair of 1.5 metre portal stones, flanking slabs about 2 metres in length with a smaller stone forming the back of the chamber which is as about a metre wide inside. I can’t imagine anybody resisting the temptation to sit inside the chamber and contemplate the meaning of life, which is probably why somebody has put a layer of gravel on the floor of the chamber – it must have got pretty churned up over the years. The whole thing would have been covered with a mound of earth and could well have had a kerb of stones, all of which was removed in the 19th century partly by antiquarian excavations and partly for building material although the chambers still stand on a small raised mound.
One thing you can’t miss of course are the views north across the Wye Valley and Chee Dale, luckily for me there was no sign of activity in the quarry and the place was beautifully peaceful with just a few cows grazing in the distance. I couldn’t help noticing cow pats covering the field between the stile and the site itself, so be aware that you may have to fight your way through bovine beasties to get here. Well worth it though.

This is a strange one, a carved stone in a wood on the posh outskirts of south west Sheffield, but there are a few clues to work from. First thing you notice as you approach the wood from the northeast is that you’re going uphill, if you carry on for another few miles you’re onto the moors with Ash Cabin Flat only 4 miles and Barbrook 5 miles from the stone. So it stands close to an existing prehistoric landscape, it’s just that the urbanisation of Sheffield has destroyed anything to the east – it’s a miracle that this stone survived. This hillside position is also close to the River Sheaf which reminded me of the stones that overlook the Wharf on Ilkley Moor. Also the general design is typically ‘Yorkshire’ with the gutter that runs around the edge of the rock being very similar to The Planets. The similarity with the rocks to the west ends with the condition of the stone however. The grooves are so deeply cut in places and the edges so sharp that it’s hard to believe that it’s the same age as the worn and eroded west Yorkshire rocks which leads me to one of three conclusions. First, that this wood is *very* old and has protected the stone from the worst of the elements, I would still expect more erosion though. Second is that the stone has been buried for a long time – certainly in October it had almost vanished under a layer of leaves. Thirdly is that the stone came from somewhere else where it maybe formed part of the inside a cairn and was moved here for some reason by those overenthusiastic 19th century antiquarians, a lack of other rocks in the wood might support this theory.
Whichever, it’s still a lovely example of a carved stone – I love it!

The better preserved of the two barrows (although it has a large crater in the top) this one stands close to the southwest entrance to the hillfort and has some gorgeous views to the north, south and west. It could be that it formed a chain of monuments stretching westwards along Rushup Edge including Lord’s Seat and Green Low.

As Stubob says Creswell Crags is a little lost world, as you drive in from the west the cliff faces and the lake make a welcome change from the surrounding area which I found uniformly run-down and depressing (apologies to anybody who lives locally) While you’re there you can take a tour of Robin Hood’s Cave, you get to wear a hard hat with miners lamp and are shown a short way into the cave by a knowledgeable guide who gives a potted history of the site and passes round various bones and flints to illustrate different occupation periods – most of these flints are modern replicas though. It’s not the most wildly exiting tour but our guide was enthusiastic and certainly knew her stuff, she was more than capable of answering any questions fired at her. The tour is £2.75 for adults and lasts around an hour and a quarter including walking time.

This is a pair of Bronze Age round barrows that overlook the sea to the south of Robin Hood’s Bay and not far from the Raven Hall Hotel. Did that carved stone come from here? These barrows seem to be set apart from the barrow cemeteries to the west on Brow Moor, Howdale Moor and Stony Marl Moor and are situated below the crest of a small hill on it’s eastern side with fine views across the bay – this view must have been important to the builders of the barrows. The largest barrow measures about 18 metres in diameter and 1.3 metres tall while the other barrow 30 metres to the east is smaller at 15 metres across and less than half a metre high – it has been badly damaged by ploughing. Both barrow mounds were constructed with earth and rubble and both would have had a surrounding ditch measuring about 3 metres wide, these ditches have now been filled and can no longer be seen. Close by there is a ditch that I thought may have been part of a dike system, on later investigation it turned out to be only Medieval.

As Fitz notes ‘it’s a bit posh’, there’s a sign on the door asking walkers to remove their boots before entering the hotel and I expected to be pitched out of the building by a pair of burly butlers but in fact the staff were courteous and helpful. As for the carving, the whole design has been quite lightly chipped out of the rock and the original pick marks can be seen. This would suggest that the rock has not been exposed to the elements for long which would fit with the reports of it being found within the protecting mound of a barrow or cairn, nobody seems to know which one but it’s supposed to have been from somewhere close by. I have to say I’m doubtful about Pebble’s other cup marked rocks here (although I wouldn’t put money on it), looking at the battlements many of the blocks of stone are heavily weathered particularly those that overlook the sea directly, some of which could almost be described as rotting away.

This barrow cemetery in the northeast corner of Broxa Forest is a little different to the average collection of Bronze Age bowl barrows. There are a few scattered around and mostly buried in the undergrowth, one worth looking at is Swarth Howe at SE970941 which would have had fine views across the valley of the East and West Syme. Now surrounded by trees and damaged it has a small 1 metre high raised mound in the middle with the rest of the low mound measuring about 16 metres across.
What I was really interested in this time were some monuments I had never seen before – Iron Age ‘square’ barrows. Dating from somewhere between 500BC and the coming of the Romans these square barrows are a bit of a rarity and many have been ploughed away but they seem to occur in a greater frequency in the area between the Humber and North Yorkshire than anywhere else in the country. Their design, as would be expected is a square or rectangular flat topped mound usually covering a burial in a pit, with flanking ditches, some also seem to have traces of a small bank outside the ditch and occasionally the burial is accompanied with rich grave goods such as dismantled carts or chariots.
Of the barrows in Broxa Forest, the four at SE967940, SE969936, SE971932 and SE966931 are very difficult to locate due to tree cover and large amounts of undergrowth, but the one at SE962942 is easy to find, quite well preserved, and survives to a height of about a metre and is about 10 metres across. Due to soil slipping into the 2 metre wide ditch it would be better described as ‘squarish’ rather than a true square and it has a couple of indentations in the top – the results of partial excavations in the past. Another barrow just to the east is about half the size and height and is quite heavily overgrown. These barrows seem to be a northwestern outpost of the Arras culture and there is some debate at the moment as to whether they were built by local tribes copying continental burial customs or by incomers from Europe who settled in the area.

An easy walk southwest along the track from the barrier at SE982975 then follow the line of trees that run southeast. A word of warning though, when I visited in summer after a dry spell the track along the edge of the forest was a real quagmire, no idea why it was so wet or churned up or what it would be like in winter. Also within the forest is said to be a carved rock with a cup and three concentric rings – I made an attempt to locate it but couldn’t find it (my GPS went haywire under the tree cover!)

Thieves Dikes are a series of earthworks believed to have been constructed during the middle Bronze Age or later. As with the nearby Dargate Dyke their purpose is unclear – it could be that they marked territorial boundaries or they could have had a defensive role, they could even have been used for cattle ranching. The best preserved of the Thieves Dikes survives within the eastern edge of Broxa Forest at SE972933 where a pair of banks up to 2 metres high enclose the ditch that now forms a track from a road junction southwest into the woods. Further to the southeast beyond the trees are more banks and ditches that also run southwest before swinging abruptly to the northwest – these however have been much damaged by ploughing.

Apart from the obviously large hole in the ground at Horcum there are also some barrows and dikes along the rim of the crater. Gallows Dike consists of a 3 metre wide and roughly 2 metre deep ditch with eroded 4 metre wide banks on either side that runs roughly north-south over a small raised section of land close to a kink in the A169 road on Saltergate Moor. There are 3 round barrows close by and it is possible that as well as being burial monuments they could also have served as territorial markers – they are probably slightly later in date than the bank and ditches. A word of warning, they are popular with sunbathing adders!
There are also several cross dykes running northwest to southeast further to the southwest beyond the ‘Hole’ and these also have round barrows nearby or associated with them. A much damaged series of banks and ditches known as Horcum Dikes also run north-south along the east side of the hollow.

Probably dating from the middle Bronze Age this dike to the north of Dalby Forest survives fairly well despite the whole area being part of a Forestry Commission plantation. The earthwork runs south from the crest of land in Crosscliff Wood before turning southwest towards Dargate Slack. For most of it’s course it consists of 3 parallel lines of ditches 2 metres deep and nearly 4 metres wide each with a pair of earth and stone banks also about 4 metres wide, with the whole structure measuring over 36 metres across – towards the southern end it is reduced to a single ditch with flanking banks. The easiest place to see the remains of the dikes is just west of an area set aside for car parking and picnicking where the banks are very low but the ditches are still over a metre deep.

A decent sized barrow next to a road that leads through Langdale Forest to the parking spot near Dargate Dyke. The barrow is unexcavated (in modern times anyway) and still stands over 2 metres tall but it’s difficult to gauge an exact height due to it being covered in tall plant growth As it is in a Forestry Commission plantation it is also difficult to figure out the barrows relation to the landscape – about half a mile to the north the land drops away sharply to Crosscliff Beck while Deepdale is to the east with possible views to Howden Hill

September 2003 The first thing I noticed when approaching the Nine Ladies was the pristine state of the turf and the tell-tale traces of the plastic netting beneath that peeps through in a couple of places. The neatness and tidiness of the grass give the circle a bit of an artificial modern air but I can’t really recall how the placed looked when I was last here a few years ago. Once the wild grasses and flowers have started seeding themselves in the new turf the place will look a lot more natural but it’s already a huge improvement judging from some of the previous photographs of the site. One thing to note though is that you’ll be lucky to get the place to yourself as it is popular with families, couples and walkers at weekends, but I’ll bet it’s a cracking place first thing in the morning or in winter. As for the stones themselves, there are of course 10 now, I think the one discovered in 1979 is the fallen slab to the east of the circle – there may originally have been more. The diameter of the circle is about 10 metres and there is a faint trace of an outer bank and what may have been a small cairn or earth mound near the centre and according to Jacquetta Hawkes there were entrances to the northeast and southwest. At least one of the stones (to the east) has some kind of (modern?) carving on it as does the King Stone which is now known not to have been an outlier but once formed part of a now destroyed cairn. For some reason I had remembered the King Stone as being larger than it is – it’s only a tiny little thing.
When there are people around it’s difficult to feel any kind of atmosphere at the circle and the traces of fires and bit’s of rubbish around the place don’t help, but when you get a couple of minutes of solitude then the place still has a little touch of magic about it. The small copse of trees block any views to the north and east, it could be that the eastern view towards the Derwent was obscured by a small rise in the land anyway and it’s difficult to tell whether the Wye valley to the north could have been seen from the circle.