Visited 3rd August 2004: We parked above the harbour in Cealagbhal (aka Port Nis) and walked to the Clach Stein. It was a pleasant enough stroll, but it would have been easy enough to park a lot closer.
I don't recall seeing a sign for the stones, but they're easy enough to find with a map. They're sited very close to a croft in a small paddock (home to some very jumpy sheep when we visited). The scene was rather bleak. They look like they're huddling down to keep of the chill. Belligerent stones!
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Visited 3rd August 2004: Carnan a'Ghrodhair is easy to get to, but not really worth the journey. There's nothing much to see of the souterrain, but if you're interested in Second World War architecture you may want to ponder the Home Guard bunker that's been planted on top of it.
This was my first visit to a souterrain, and based on what I've seen so far I'm a bit disappointed.
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Visited 1st August 2004: Achmore is now signposted from the road, but there's a degree of guesswork involved. You need to go through the gate, then ascend the hill bearing right. From the gate you can't see it, but you're aiming for a bench and an information board.
I'd strongly advise reading the information board before you leap off looking for stones. This isn't an easy site to interpret without a plan. The bench is a nice touch, with excellent views towards the pregnant 'Sleeping Beauty'.
Achmore is great! I loved it. The stones that remain buried in the peat fascinated me. It's a real insight into how parts of Calanais would have looked before the peat clearance. As for the stones and sockets that are clearly visible, some are in very good condition. There are excellent examples of stone sockets that are extremely clear and easy to match with their accompanying stones (all now fallen). If you're interested in how standing stones were planted this is a fantastic place to visit.
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Visited 1st August 2004: These cairns weren't high on my list of places to visit, but William and I came across them on our way to Airigh Na Beinn Bige stone circle. Because of the topography of the hillside, there's a good chance you'll get to the cairns before the circle.
They're both pretty large, and the northerly one is obviously a cairn (you can't miss it). Both are slightly to the east of the circle on the same plateau. For directions to this site see my fieldnotes for Airigh Na Beinn Bige circle.
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Visited 1st August 2004: When I set out to find Airigh Na Beinne Bige I got lead on a wild goose chase by the GPS, wondering around in totally the wrong area. The following directions might save you from the same fate:
Follow the road inland from Breascleit until you come to a cattle grid. Immediately after the cattle grid park up (if you're driving) and walk up the hill (approximately north). You'll come to a 'peat covered terrace' below the summit of the hill. The remaining standing stone is relatively easy to spot, as is the larger of the two cairns.
William and I found the big cairn first, then the standing stone and the hollow. Will found the remains of a dead sheep at the foot of the stone fascinating. The views of the Callanish area are spectacular! We had fun taking photos of each other with the digital camera. It was what people would have once described as 'a lark'.
Unfortunately I only spoke to Margaret Curtis after this visit, and it was then that I came to fully appreciate that Airigh Na Beinne Bige is widely accepted as a ruined stone circle. If you can't speak to Margaret, read The Stones Around Callanish before you visit.
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31st July 2004: I failed to visit this stone, even though we stayed the night in Uig. Just ran out of time. However, I did see it from the quayside in Uig, armed with binoculars and a Landranger map. As we sailed away on the ferry I watched it wistfully (the one that got away).
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Visited 1st August 2004: Having missed this stone when I visited in '95 I was pleased to see it 'in the flesh'. This is one of those extremely accessible sites that you can drive right up to. Compared to its neighbours (with the possible exception of Olcote) it's extremely unglamorous, but there's something intriguing about the contrast of old and new here. At least Stonefield hasn't been chopped in two by a road!
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Visited 30th July 2004: Armed with insuficient notes and a grid reference I tried to find this circle. I found some stones that weren't conclusive, and subsequent research suggests that these are nothing to do with the circle.
So, where are the stones I was looking for? They're not exactly tiny, so how did I manage to miss them? I was searching to the south of the little road to Cuidrach, but I'm not 100% sure that's right. Hopefully someone else will have better luck than me.
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Visited 30th July 2004: I left the others in the car and walked to the stones on my own (they were suffering from megalith fatigue). I made my way across the field without any adverse bovine attention, and got a few shots of the stones before running out of memory on the digital camera.
The stones are pleasantly perched on the edge of Loch Eyre. They're not especially close to the water, and with the lower sea levels of the Bronze Age it would be a mistake to think of the stones as strongly linked to the modern loch. These two megaliths are big and bold. They leave you in no doubt that someone wanted to make a statement here!
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Visited 30th July 2004: This is one of those sites where access couldn't be much better. Wheelchair, pushchair and car friendly.
Three stones remain standing in the village of Borve, overlooked by modern houses on the other side of the road. They are thought by some to be the remains of a stone circle. The row is aligned approximately in a north-westerly (or south-easterly) direction, with the road running parallel. The smallest stone is in the north west but the other two are approximately the same height. Look out for the friendly sheep. They'll want to know what you're looking at.
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Visited 30th July 2004: What a charming place! The views are great, but the site itself is also interesting. The remaining stones are relatively large, indicating something of the way it once looked. This must have been something special when it was in one piece.
Access to the site isn't too tricky on foot, but the route in isn't wheelchair friendly. Cnoc Ullinish is quite close to the road, and there's space to parking isn't a problem. You're unlikely to bump into any fellow visitors.
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Visited 30th July 2004: An Sithean is easy to find, sitting just off the B8083. Parking is easy, and it's a short but moderately steep climb up to the stones (not wheelchair friendly).
The stones are dominated by the peak Beinn na Caillich, but no less significant is Broadford River which lies between the two. This landscape is not lacking in drama!
An Sithean sits enigmatically on top of a hillock, with one remaining standing stone on the very top. The rest of the stones are on the south side of the mound. What appear to be two or more natural ridges fan out from the central point of the mound.
What is this place? If it's a chambered cairn then most of it became road building material a long time ago.
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Visited 21st June 2004: We walked to Budloy Standing Stone from the Dyffryn Stones thinking that the footpath would continue to be relatively easy going. We were wrong. After Dyffryn it deteriorates, getting narrow and overgrown in places. There's a stream to cross, then the path follows the bank of a tiny tributary with the inevitable insects. Lastly, after Budloy Farm, there were shoulder high grass and stinging nettles to get through!
The stone itself is elegant and feels relatively isolated even though it's not far from the farm. By the time we got there the kids had had enough. We stopped to have a drink and apply sun cream (it was scorching!). I rattled off some photos and we made use of Budloy Farm track (not a public footpath) to escape further suffering and return to the car along the road.
Maybe this is a site worth visiting in the winter when the undergrowth and insects are less of a problem.
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Visited 21st June 2004: This site was the highlight of our Summer Solstice. We parked on the little lane that runs to the south of the Dyffryn Stones next to a dilapidated set of farm buildings (SN05502825) Dyffryn Stones. The walk from there to the stones was pretty easy, but a bit on the muddy side.
The stones themselves are in a field adjacent to the public footpath. The size of them was surprising, and the fact that there are stones still standing. It's much more circle-like than I anticipated. If the remaining standing stones are kerb stones, then this is a very unusual site. Was this once a circular chambered cairn? There's quite a bit of foliage in the centre of the cairn, but it's easy enough to see that there's not much sign of a chamber. Very curious.
Another curious thing about Dyffryn are a couple of corrugated stones on the northern side of the cairn. In cross section they look like a ripple. It's hard to imagine this effect being artificially created, so it's likely that these stones were chosen specifically for their look.
Access to this site is reasonably good, and it's well worth the visit. Not as glamorous as Gors Fawr, but more mysterious.
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Visited 21st June 2004: Following a disappointing Summer Solstice dawn at Gors Fawr this was the first bit of prehistory to get me excited. There is no public right of access, but at the time of our visit the field in which the stone stands was empty of livestock. The stone can be seen from the road, but not very clearly.
I spotted no attractive horses, but there are a couple of interesting lumps of stone in the hedgebank. If Maen-y-Parc was a stone row then perhaps these were once part of it.
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Visited 20th and 21st June 2004: After Moel Drygarn we went to pay our respects to Gors Fawr with some good friends who'd not been before. It was fun showing them round in the sunshine, collectively anticipating the Solstice dawn.
We spent the night in a static caravan at Trefach Campsite and headed back to Gors Fawr to see the Summer Solstice sun rise. There were a handful of people there, including two women who appeared to have spent the night in the circle in sleeping bags (madness!). Sadly it was not to be. Clouds obscured the view to the east, but it was good to be there so early and get a feel for the site in the eerie dawn light. Then it was back to the caravan for a celebratory fry up breakfast!
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Visited 20th June 2004: Having come close to visiting Moel Drygarn in April 2003 on our way back from Bedd Arthur (William was far too tired after the 4 mile walk) we finally made it on the eve of Summer Solstice 14 months later.
Ironically, William pegged it up the hill leaving the rest of us a long way behind him. At first we were tickled by his fell running, but then as he got smaller and smaller it got a bit alarming. Lou had to run to catch up with him while I plodded after with Alfie on my back.
Near the top, just beyond the Iron Age defences I found Lou (looking exhausted) and Will looking bored. The three Bronze Age cairns in within the defences of the fort are blinking enormous! We made our way to the trig point (insensitively placed in the centre of the middle cairn) and were rewarded with beautiful panoramic views. To the west Carn Meini dominates the horizon, but you could be equally transfixed looking in any direction.
After a snack in the lea of the trig point and some exploring, we headed back down towards the car. On the way back we met our friends who, by coincidence had been passing, and the run up to the Solstice began early! Bonza!
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Visited 18th June 2004: This was a sneaky visit on my way back from a conference, so time was short. As it turned out, good weather was running short as well. Having approached cross country in beautiful sunshine, I arrived in ominous gloom.
No sign of an 'ovine choir' on this visit. I could smell the rain, and I had no coat, so I ran to the stone. As you can see from the photos, there was plenty of sunshine, just not over me!
Before the heavens opened I rattled off some photos. The sheep (although absent on this visit) are eroding the soil around the stone, and polishing it up by rubbing on it. The end result, a sort of grubby brown sheen, isn't what I'd call aesthetically pleasing. Access is pretty good though. You could feasibly get a wheelchair up to the stone with some help from a lackey.
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Visited 2nd June 2004: Just wanted to check on the stone as I'd not been to see it for two years. It was a lunctime dash, and my mate from work tagged along for the ride (hence the shirt and tie).
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We did a circular walk, parking just off the B4306 to the south east of the burial chamber (SN486123) and following an extremely overgrown footpath onto the common.
With an eight figure grid reference from Coflein (SN48541328) I used the GPS to navigate. There were a lot of brambles and general undergrowth in the way, and Lou was wearing sandals, so we ended up hopping from boulder to boulder. We eventually arrived at the spot where the GPS thought we should find the chambers - the top of a large rocky outcrop. Of course there were no burial chambers on top of the outcrop. It eventually dawned on me that the site was directly below us, a short distance as the crow flies, but a long way down (here's the view we got).
The climb down to the chambers was laborious because of the brambles, but on the flat the foliage was a little less daunting. There's a mess of rubble and vegetation at the base of the cliff, some of which is clearly cairn material or collapsed chamber. The two capstones are really easy to spot, as are some of the remaining orthostats (the easterly chamber still has one apparently in place). The cliff next to the chambers dominates them, and presumably blocks out quite a bit of sunlight (not for us thankfully). The landscape surrounding the chambers is very distinctive, with another outcrop to the north east, similar to the one by the chambers. This must have been pretty poor agricultural land when the chambers were built.
On the way back to the car we had a go at finding the cairns to the north west of the chamber, but the bumps on the ground weren't convincing. We did meet some friendly horses though. From the summit of Mynydd Llangynderyrn we walked back to the main road, rejoining it near the milestone (SN481127). This was a lot easier than our route in!
NB. The chambers are easy to get at from any direction other than the south east (the way we approached them). Visit in the winter for a less bramble orientated experience.
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I live in a small Welsh seaside town on the west coast. As well as being well placed for visiting the local sites, it's relatively easy to get to sites in south Wales, north Wales and the borders.
If you'd like to use one of the photos I've posted on this site please contact the TMA Eds who'll pass the message on ([email protected]).
Some of my favourite prehistoric sites:
Avebury (England)
Calanais (Scotland)
Castlerigg (England)
Dolgamfa (Wales)
Gavrinis (France)
Kernic (France)
Pentre Ifan (Wales)
La Roche-aux-Fées (France)
Stones of Stennes (Scotland)
Wayland's Smithy (England)
Kammer x
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