On Mull to climb mountains and drink....not go looking at stones. Still, we had a few hours before the ferry back so I managed to convince my fellow travellers to take the road from Tobermory to Dervaig to see these monsters.
A parking space with viewpoint out over the sea to Tiree and Coll gives access to the stones. The sign confused me at first, I thought it meant it was a 1.7 km walk to the stones....but looking back I think thats how far it was to toilets. I think I would have disappeared behind a tree before then.....
Anyway, a short walk across some rather boggy grassland leads to the gate into the plantation and there you are. It is interesting to compare the photo in THA with how things are now...the trees have grown somewhat...when will they be felled and the stones returned to there rightful place overlooking the bay?
Somewhere I read that they line up with the hill to the south...hard to say with the trees all around....perhaps soon we will find out.
|
As can be seen from the images posted there are several cairns in the vicinity of the Stalldown Row...the trouble is, the row is so mighty that the cairns are insignificant in the scope of things!
Usually i would take my time to search them all out but i was just so enthralled with the light playing on the stone row that I only photographed one....sorry!
|
Having visited this area about three years ago..or was it four? I decided it was time to return. Last time, after walking up the east side of the Erme, I had decided against the climb up onto Stalldown whilst heading back down the west side and so missed this mighty stone row.
This time I chose a route starting on the west side of the Erme, crossing Harford Bridge and taking a path along the river that soon petered out into several animal tracks and nothing else. Going 'off piste' I found my way to Tristis Rock then picking up the stone row directly behind it crossed the moorland northwards to Stalldown.
It is this route that Crossing suggests in his Guide To Dartmoor, Excursion 33 but I have to say the route from Torr along the waterworks track may be easier!
Reaching Stalldown you can not see the row and must head off in a northwesterly direction uphill. You find yourself on a spur of the main ridge and at last get a view of the row ahead and over to the left. It is still a bit of a walk across boggy moorland to reach the southern end of the row, but once there all that remains is to follow its majestic stones to the summit and beyond.
There are a number of small low cairns to be seen along the rows length, but the main one, which gives the hill its name is across the plateau to the east.
|
March 20th 2009
At last, after being stuck inside during several days of sunshine I get a chance to leave the office and escape onto the moors. Having dropped my father at the hospital on the outskirts of Plymouth I ventured a short distance onto the south west edge of Dartmoor.
Saddlesborough seemed the easiest place to access and having parked the car at the little junction where the lane from Shaugh Prior meets the road going to Cadover Bridge I walked the short distance to the cross beside the road.
Crossing the road here it is not long before you reach a tumuli, a grass covered mound of stones with one large stone sitting just off the mound.
A quick photo and then I headed uphill to where I could already make out the star topped post. Between tumuli and post I thought I might have discovered a circle of stones, all recumbent but creating at least three quarters of a circle about 18 meters across..
As Pure Joy has said before, there are so many stones, it is easy for the mind to imagine things...
The Stone Row when I reached it had recently been cleared of any long grass or gorse and so my walk along it was easily traced. Plunging downhill it ends just before the waste tip of the nearby china clay pit. There is no evidence to suggest it ever went further, but one does wonder.
From the bottom of the row I headed east to discover the hut circles and enclosures lying along the north facing slope of the hill.
|
Visited on a clear but very cold January day, the settlement at Catshole requires a bit of hunting. From the western side of the outcrops look for the remains of a square enclosure and ruined building (all very low), the settlement is to the north of them.
There are supposedly 12 hut circles/storage buildings in the complex, myself and Mrs Hamhead found five without looking too hard...and were too cold to search for the rest. The huts make great use of the natural rocks as walls..but this also leads to confusion over which are huts and which are just natural formations.
The two most westerly huts I thought to be cairns, they are just a collection of stones with a few uprights around the edges and would have been very small buildings.
|
Just above the settlement in a field to the north are three cairns marked on the OS map. They have been robbed out and now lie very low to the ground.
Their position on the hilltop would suggest that in the past they would have been prominent from some distance, alas now they are hard to see even from close by.
A forth cairn sits just downslope to the west. At least i think it is a cairn...either that or a very small stone circle!
The question I ask myself is How come the other cairns are so ruined but this one survives?
|
Approached from Temple Bridge, just south of the A30, this complex of 94 huts and enclosures is possibly best visited in the spring, before the bracken covers it. I found it quite hard to make out things in amongst the autumnal undergrowth. There are loads of upright stones..presumably all doorways..you get to the point where you have seen half a dozen why go looking for more.
Don't think many people get out on this bit of the moor...
|
Well I don't know about a mischievous pixie...but this stone enjoys playing hide and seek. Standing on the tor above there are a couple of other 'standing' stones that could easily fool you. This one is nearly hidden behind a large gorse bush...it can just be seen to the right.
Enjoy the hunt!
|
Found this whilst trying to get to Goodaver Stone Circle..see fieldnotes...it sits on the summit of a hill known as Smiths Moor (Smiths farm was once just to the east). Because of the long grass it was not easy to see but there was a large round raised platform about 30ft across that would have been visable from a good distance before the conifer plantations were planted and the area abandoned by grazing animals. It is alo on the high point of the ridge running south to Goodaver.
Can find no archaeological records for it.
|
This featureless bit of moorland has not seen much archaeological research carried out according to the latest Bodmin Moor book published by English Heritage. Which is why i thought I would take a look...
To be honest there ain't much to look at, I approached via the large conifer plantations that sit just south of the A30 east of Jamaica Inn. You could come via the Nine Stones but its a long walk across some pretty soggy ground.
Anyway i didn't expect to find much but did spot these two upright stones, both surrounded by water. One is roughly at SX214777, the other at SX217771. They stand no more than 3 ft tall but like the East Moor menhir posted by Martin Bull do look the part.
Perhaps one day someone in the know will get up there and have a look?
|
Spent all afternoon yesterday trying to get to this circle via open access land...without success. Barbed wire, conifer plantations and knee high grass and gorse plus quite a lot of marshland were all put in my way.
Phil's suggestion back in 2001 may still be possible but you would need to ask permission at the farm.
|
After many years of thinking about it I finally got out to this stone this week. It takes a bit of doing and there are plenty of interesting diversions along the way. I parked at the Hurlers and took the track north that leads out to Golddiggings Quarry (passing Craddock circle). Once at the Quarry I dropped down to a lower level and followed a very rough track along the side of the Witheybrook marsh. This brings you to a gate which allows the only access into a section of open access land that is well fenced off with horizontal barbed wire all along its boundary.
Keeping low you have to follow the edge of the marsh, avoiding the wet bits, to reach the area known as Newell Tor. (this does include going through small areas that are not open access, so you do it off your own backs and don't quote me if you get approached by landowners telling you to bugger off!)
The stone sits at the west end of the enclosed fields that make up the mediaeval settlement area on the slope of Newell Tor, it stands proud and is easily seen from below. On the hillside behind it are several hut circles including one circular enclosure inside the field to the right. I was unsure if this was an 'antiquity', it is undoubtedly old but there was no sign of a doorway...
I did not venture far up the hillside and I am sure there is more to explore. As far as I know a detailed survey of the area has not been undertaken and so there could be other sites lurking.
Despite the fact that the hill is within site of the Cheesewring it is a difficult place to get to. I would not recommend it to the casual visitor but I will endeavour to get out there again and explore further.
|
|
Leaze remains off limits to the casual visitor to the moor. I have found an easy way in but with the fields full of lambs at the moment I was not going to trespass. At least now I have a decent lens I can get a photo of the circle from both the east and west.
|
|
This robbed out cairn is about five mins walk south of the Soussons circle and is just off the Two Moors way. A nice low ring of stones encircle the messy centre which is over grown with gorse. There is quite a lot of quartz scattered around the cairn...perhaps it was originally topped with a shining white layer?
|
A nice little sanitised 'circle', easily accessible from the main Mortonhampsted to Twobridges rd.
The other name I have for it is Runnage Circle. The central kist was badly damaged by campers lighting a fire within it in 1993 and has since been in filled with turf to prevent any similar incidents.
|
Black Head juts out into St Austell bay on its west side. Very little remains of any antiquity except two high banks and one deep ditch on the east side of the istmus.
The headland can be reached via the SWCP from a car park at Trenarren, but it is still at least half a mile away...great views on a good day!
|
Having been asked by Chris to go and see what i thought, I duly obliged. Despite the fact that Chris had warned me about the confusion over footpaths I still went wrong! Parked on bend by telephone box just north of Penhal Vean. Footpath leads past a couple of farms and a flooded pit (nature reserve?)before splitting. Take the left hand side path, that helpfully isnt signposted but heads up through a gateway. Follow the left side hedge as it bends to the left going over a stile in a wire fence along the way.
The stone is hidden right up to the point you see it.
Like Chris I am still not totally convinced...but why should it not be? Why erect a huge lump like this for a gatepost when there are loads of other stones around that would have done just as good a job but without the effort?
Ocifant..your views next please.
|
The jewel in the crown of this area. Not only is this a wondeful example of a cist but the wall of stones around it just make it all perfect...and all this with the backdrop of Kilmar Tor.
It can be found on the south (left) side of the track leading to the farm. Head upslope just before reaching the farm gate, the cairn is about level with the change of direction with the field wall.
I did not test how deep the cist was as it was full of water but it is fair to say it is compact in size.
|
Not a true quoit as in those at Trethevy, Zennor, Lanyon or Chun but more in keeping with the one at Leskernick.
The cap stone sits balanced on one boulder and one very large rock. From the wetern end it looks as if the base has been cut away to allow space...or was it chosen because of this feature?
I will endevour to find out more about this stone setting.
|
|
Found upslope of the Twelve Men's cairn this wonderful lump sits proud on its base just as if someone had sited it there.
|
|
Mr Hamhead started as a doodle on a scrap of paper many years ago.....then he became a submariner in a series of poems that I am writing. When I needed a name for this site he just sort of popped up.
In the real world I go under the far less interesting title of Mark Camp, keen walker, historian and tourist guide.
I am lucky enough to live in Cornwall, a mile from the south coast and within half an hours drive of Bodmin Moor. Hence the sites I have contributed.
My first love up on the moors (and Cornwall in general) is industrial history, but you are never far from a lump of granite and through research for walks I have become interested in all things ancient.
It has helped that I have been listening to Mr Cope since buying Reward as a young student and have followed his career from the far west where musicians seldom come to play.
As I have said before on the site, if any TMA contributors are in the area and fancy a walk on the moor, get in touch, I will be happy to share my knowledge of everything the moor has to offer.
oh yes ..my website is at http://www.walkaboutwest.co.uk
|
Log in |
Register
Previous 20 | Showing 21-40 of 211 fieldnotes. Most recent first | Next 20 
Top of page