Bryn Celli Ddu – side stones – I realise this picture may not add a great deal to the pics already here, but I’ve added it because it’s B&W and because it was taken circa August 1993 and may be useful from a historic point of view.
I realise this pic doesn’t add much to the others already on here, but I’ve added it because it’s B&W and because it was taken circa August 1993 – just in case anyone wants to study if anything has changed since then....
I realise this pic doesn’t add much to the others already on here, but I’ve added it because it’s B&W and because it was taken circa August 1993 – just in case anyone wants to study if anything has changed since then....
The avenue and the Avebury sign – I like this, it’s a sort of ‘you have arrived’ kind a thing – circa 1997 (not quite sure!)
The avenue – circa 1997 (not quite sure!)
Male and female on the avenue – circa 1997 (not quite sure!)
The avenue – circa 1997 (not quite sure!)
Nice aerial picture, and a little bit of info.
A deep channel in the hillside was said to have been dug by the Devil, who was trying to drown the local people in anger at their religious enthusiasm. He was hurrying to dig as far as the sea before daybreak, but a cock crowed – the Devil, hearing that sound and seeing an old woman’s candle, thought the sun was rising and abandoned his task. He is said to be buried along with his wife in two mounds on the hill. Apparently this is rare because the Devil’s wife rarely appears in British legend! Interesting marriage.
Note earthworks, fort, barrows etc in the general area.
An underground passage at least a mile long is said to lead from Montacute House to Ham Hill. Ham Hill is the site of a huge 210-acre hillfort, one of the largest in Britain. Although it is now much damaged by quarrying there are apparently still some very impressive ramparts to be seen.
As is often the case, there are alternative versions of the tales below – other versions say the Devil was throwing it at Blindon Abbey or Salisbury Cathedral. Another name for it is the Devil’s Anvil.
It was believed that the fairies would dance on this hill at midnight on Midsummer Eve. Gold was supposed to be hidden underground. Little trace apparently remains of the Iron Age hillfort on the summit.
On the top of the hill is a small prehistoric fort, together with around 160 depressions which were Neolithic flint mines; here, the locals believed, was the last home in England of the fairies, who left when the mines were excavated early this century (see Rhiannon’s post above). Interestingly, in the tunnels the excavators found soot from the miners’ lamps on the walls and roofs, and scratch marks which may have been records of the amounts of flint they had removed. This all dates back 4-6,000 years.
There have been many suggestions as to what the Long man represents, including a warrior, a god, or the giant who was killed by the Firle Beacon giant. Another legend has it that the long man fell and broke his neck, his body being outlined in chalk where he lay before it was buried in a long barrow on the hilltop. A Roman in a golden coffin is said to lie buried beneath the Long man.
The long barrow on the hill was said to be the burial place of a giant who lived up here. he regularly quarrelled with another giant on Windover Hill and they would throw boulders at one another; one of them struck and killed the Windover giant, who can still be seen on the hillside (cf The Long man of Wilmington). there is also said to be a silver coffin buried somewhere on Firle Beacon.
An Iron Age hillfort crowns this hill, traditionally formed from a clod of earth thrown here by the Devil while feverishly digging out the Devil’s Dyke. Another legend says that a giant called Gill who reputedly lived on the Downs would throw his hammer from the summit of the Caburn. Somewhere in the hill a silver coffin and a knight in golden armour are said to be buried.
The church apparently stands on an ancient mound, although legend says that originally it was intended to be built elsewhere. Each morning the builders found their work destroyed and the stones thrown over on to the mound. They didn’t know whether to persist in the original location or move the site, but when ‘wise men’ saw 4 oxen lying on the mound in the shape of a cross this was taken as a sign that the church should be built there.
Following a battle at this hillfort a dragon was said to have been formed by ‘spontaneous generation’ from the pile of dead bodies. It terrorised the neighbourhood until it was killed by a local hero known as Fulk Fitzwarine. The events are commemorated on a carved and painted rood-screen (circa 1500) in the church (or did the rood screen inspire the dragon tale?).
I’ve read something a bit confusing about the remains of the prehistoric tomb being connected with a 10th Century battle, but according to legend they were thrown here in a contest between the Devil and a giant as mentioned in Rhiannon’s post. On the leaning stone the Devil’s handprint can apparently be seen but I’ve not yet been to this site....
Dunkery Hill was supposedly formed when the Devil was digging out the Punchbowl on Winsford Hill – he dumped the rock and soil to form Dunkery Hill. On the north-east promontory are several large Bronze Age stone Cairns. Two of them are called Joaney How and Robin How, but there is no surviving folklore to explain these names. One suggestion is that they derive from Robin Hood and Little John.
When the Devil first say the Mendip Hills they were smooth in outline, and legend has it that he decided to spoil them by digging out a deep channel which became the Gorge. His first spadeful of rock and soil was thrown out to sea to become the islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm (off of Weston Super Mare). The next load became Brent Knoll. He also meant to destroy the Minehead and Watchet area but when he jumped over the River Parrett the basketload of soil he was carrying flew off in several directions.
Robin Hood was said to have used these three barrows for target practice, but it was also believed that the bodies of warriors killed in battles between the Danes and Saxons (or in the Civil War) were buried there. Another tradition is that they were formed by giants throwing clods of earth at one another. The largest mound is supposed to conceal a hoard of gold but no one could reach it because however much they dug, the holes would fill up again overnight.
As at Harrow Hill excavations produced some fascinating underground galleries and tunnels which may have given rise to the tradition of an underground passage. Antler picks found in the tunnels have been dated to around 3500 BC. The mines predated the Iron Age hillfort by over 300 years.
I’ve read similar things, re an underground passages and snakes. It was also believed that fairies could be seen dancing on Cissbury at midnight on Midsummer Eve.
Fairies are believed to dance in a stone circle near to Huccaby Tor – I guess it’s this one??
The Cornwall Archaeological Unit’s Review of 1995-6 reported that the Iron Age hillfort of Caer Bran was the most prominent feature within an 18 hectare area surveyed for Penwith District Council to provide information for a Countryside Stewardship Scheme. The new survey is said to have “produced some exciting and unexpected results . What had always been tentatively described as a central roundhouse, cut by a later post-medieval track, is now interpreted as one of three probably Bronze Age ring cairns, possibly within their own contemporary, banked enclosure”
When do vandals help us discover that a ‘perfect‘ stone circle was not so perfect after all……
There is an important news item about the Merry Maidens stone circle in the Cornwall Archaeological Unit’s Review of 1995-6, which comments “The Merry Maidens (SW433245) is one of the best preserved and probably the best known stone circle in Cornwall. It came as a shock then, in June 1995, when Mike Rosendale of Penwith District Council reported that the circle had been vandalised; one of the stones had been uprooted and left prostrate on the ground. Before the stone was re-erected the stone hole was excavated by Charlie Johns and Andy Jones of the CAU. They made the surprising discovery that the stone had originally been set at right-angles to the circle and that when restored in the 19th Century it had been turned through 90degrees and placed in line with the circle. On this occasion the stone was set up again as it had been before vandalism. It was re-erected by Andrew Marment and Marcel Deigan, under the supervision of Mike Rosendale, on the occasion of a visit to Cornwall by English Heritage inspectors and Field Monument Wardens form southern England”.
If you fancy buying a copy of the Cornwall Archaeological Unit’s Review of 1995-6, called ‘Archaeology Alive No 4’, check out the CAU’s website, which I’ve added on the ‘Links’ page. It is currently being flogged off cheap at £1. No more info on the Merry Maidens, except for a picture or grubby men re-setting the stone, but a good read in general. The CAU also do lots of other interesting publications, and all in all they seem like real dudes.
This longstone apparently has 5 crosses carved on it, one on the top and one on each side. This was presumably done to Christianise the stone.
Folklore says it was thrown here by the Devil and now cannot be moved; it has proved impossible to shift, even when using horses.
A man was supposed to have been chased by the Devil across this Iron Age hillfort. I’ve also read about the Diana one mentioned below.
Like many others, these round barrows are said to contain hidden treasure.
The pool in this earthwork is one of the places here King Arthur ‘s sword Excalibur is said to have been thrown (cf Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor). Ghostly galloping hooves and wailing voices are rumoured at Trent barrow, following an incident when a coach and horses with all the passengers aboard drove into the pool. This site is only a few miles from South Cadbury Castle which is often believed to be the site of Camelot.
The Anchoret’s Well inside this Iron Age hillfort was said to contain a golden table or tablet. On 21st September (i.e. the Autumnal Equinox) each year the local people used to come to the well and drink its water which was believed to have healing powers.
Legend has it that the hill was built by the giant Cormoran and his wife. They were using white rock which had to be carried some distance, so Cormoran’s wife tried to cheat by bringing local greenstone in her apron instead. Cormoran kicked her when he found out, her apron string broke, and she dropped the stone. Far be it for me to pour scorn on folklore, but it seems a pretty mixed up case of folklore, and all a bit male centric!
In 495 AD some fishermen had a vision of St.Michael over the summit of the mount. Thereafter it became a Christian settlement. St.Keyne came on a pilgrimage there and left her influence on a rough stone seat known as St.Keyne’s Chair. Whichever one a newly married couple first sits on the chair, he or she will dominate the marriage.
John Michell believes the Mount marks one end of a very long distance alignment which he called ‘the ‘St.Michael Line’, and which includes the Hurlers Stone Circles on Bodmin Moor and Brent Tor church on Dartmoor.
Julian mentions this as part of his text on Mulfra Quoit, on page 165 of The Modern Antiquarian. He says that “for it is here that we have a clear view south to St. Michael’s Mount, known to the Ancient Greeks as Iktis. And it was to Iktis that the great Greek sea captain Pytheus came in 325 BCE, searching for the legendary tin islands that the Greeks called the Cassiterides.”
‘Bodmin Moor’s Archaelogical Heritage’ by Peter Herring and Peter Rose (Cornwall Archaelogical Unit – 2001), says that “Hundreds of flint tools, including tiny microliths, have been found on the shores of this tarn like lake, a focal point of mesolithic hunting and gathering activity on the Moor”
Jan Tregeagle was reputed to be an evil lawyer who sold his soul to the Devil, as a result of which his ghost was given endless tasks by clergymen in an attempt to save it. one of these tasks was to empty Dozmary Pool (said to be bottomless) with a leaky limpet shell.
This atmospheric pool is also one of many places where Sir Bedivere is reputed to have throw away the sword Excalibur at King Arthur’s command as he lay dying, with a hand emerging from the water to grasp the weapon.
According to tradition it was formed from a shovel full of earth thrown down by the Devil when he was digging out Cheddar Gorge. In Arthurian legend it was the Mount of Frogs, and three giants lived there. The knight Ider, who had the task of challenging them, galloped off and killed all three without waiting for Arthur and the knights who were going to help him.
As Rhiannon says this tree-covered barrow marks the breast of the Virgo figure in the ‘Glastonbury Zodiac’. Virgo is the fertile Earth Mother, and Wheathill lies at her feet. Her profile and front are outlined by the River Cary, and she is lying on her back, her head pointing west. Barrows are often breast-shaped, and ‘toot’ is a apparently a variant of ‘teat’. Wimble Toot certainly resembles a breast lying on the fertile farmland.
The 13 foot stone is a probable remnant of a Neolithic long barrow. legend has it that the stone was thrown here by a giant, the smaller stone being thrown by the Devil. Alternatively the Devil dropped some stones from his overloaded cart. There was also a belief that Druids used to meet at this stone.
According to Paul Devereux and Ian Thomson’s ‘Ley Guide’, Winchester lies on an 11 mile ley from Tidbury Ring to a barrow beyond St.Catherine’s Hill. There was an Iron Age hillfort on this hill and in the 12th Century a small chapel dedicated to St.Catherine was built, of which slight traces remain. The Castle Hall in nearby Winchester has lots of Arthurian legends attached to it, which I’m afraid to say do bore me.
In the 2nd century BC it may have been a tribal centre, and a tradition grew up that it was intended to be the original site of Winchester, but the building materials brought here were mysteriously transported 10 miles to the north-west, where Winchester was finally built.
A golden coffin is said to be buried here.
Said to have been erected by a giant (hence the local name of the ‘Giant’s Quoit’) and also to be immovable. if the stones of the quoit are taken away they will come back by themselves. The area of Zennor also has the almost obligatory Arthurian tradition. When this stretch of coast was invaded by the Danes, the King and his men defeated the invaders at Vellan, west of Pendeen.
Said to be the home of a giant who was killed when the giant of Launceston Castle threw a tool at him. In the centre of the fort there is a long mound, 22 m long, 10m high and 6m high, flanked by indistinct ditches in the manner of a Neolithic Long Barrow. This is variously known as ‘Arthur’s Grave’, ‘King Arthur’s Tomb, and ‘The Giant’s Grave’ but there is no evidence to link King Arthur with the site and there are lots of Arthur’s Graves in Britain. Experts say it is more likely to be a medieval rabbit warren.
The stones are said to move round slowly at sunrise so that each face is warmed by the sun in turn. A similar story exists for the Longstone at Shovel Down.
The longstone is said to move round slowly at sunrise so that each face is warmed by the sun in turn. A similar story exists for the stones of the GreyWethers stone circle.