fitzcoraldo

This is a crazy place and almost defies interpretation – we had a go anyway!
What puzzles me is, why did the folk who built the structures around these stones not remove them? they must have hindered them.
There is a possible ditch and embankment.
Stu and I came up with the following possiblilities;
A complete fake
Stones that were placed there when the structure was built and served some sort of pratical purpose.
A robbed cairn with part of the kerb still in situ
A fourposter
A horse shoe with central stone.
A circle – we found two different possible routes for the circle.

The site appears to be on a similar contour and looks across the valley to the Backstone Beck enclosure.

After spending the hottest day of the year traipsing all over the moor, I was started to become a little jaded. We had passed a path down to the Cow and Calf Pub and my mind was on the prize – a pint.
This was to be our last site of the day and to be honest with you I just wanted to get it done and head for the pub.
When we got to the quarry site I stopped for a rest but Stu assured me that it was just up a wee hill and then we were done, so once again I dragged my weary arse up the path. At the top of the path the first carving came into view and then as I looked around.......JESUS! I just wasn’t prepared for this.
During the day Stu and I had discussed the many possible interpretations of the various motifs on the rocks of the moor. Stu had even identified a possible map on one stone. But these are beyond interpretation and the only thing we could come up with was ...shamanic.
Stu had christened one of the carvings ‘the waterboatman’ which fits it perfectly.
If you only have time to visit one set of carvings make sure these are the one.

We only got to this stone thanks to Stubob’s GPS so if you’re GPS-less you’ll have to keep your eyes open or go in winter when the grass is low.
It’s a great stone and is well suited to it’s name.

I was up at the rocks today and they were absolutely heaving with folk.
The rocks themselves are an amalgamation of every proto temple you have ever seen. Not so much a landscape but a dreamscape. the Ur equivalent of a city of dreaming spires.

Me and Timmo decided to check this fella out this evening.
We packed our picnic and set off to eat our tea at one of Ormesby’s houses of the dead.
We parked up at Flatts lane and followed the footpath through the woods and into the cowfield.
Crossing the field I noticed a bunch of cows and calves checking us out from a distance.
Half way up the cowfield is a stile, don’t take the one at the bottom of the field...believe me ...experience ( I gotta stop kidding myself that I can find sites using intuition alone).
The middle stile will lead you to the site.
The weather was beautiful, the path was dry and dusty, the grass was parched, the crickets were in excellent voice and there was an acrid smell in the air, a mixture of pigs and cows, the vibe was definitely continental.
The woods beyond the cowfield are full of pigs, they just roam around looking for shade and make a hell of a racket when you disturb them.

Anyhow, the barrow is at the top of the hill and on the edge of a field. The land is private and I suppose you should seek permission from the farmer before venturing on to it.
The mound itself is fairly impressive and totally shagged. The first thing I noticed was the large axle, sub frame and wheels that had been dumped on top of it – they resembled a sort of modern exploded chariot burial!
The excavation trenches are open but as they were dug in the early 70’s they have now become the kingdom of gorse and are on the whole, impenetrateble. There is still enough there to see some sort of structure.
There was a carved rock reported here but I couldn’t find it. I know Graeme C has been up here and also turned up with nowt.

The thing about this mound is the setting – 360 degrees of beautiful Cleveland. To the north is the Teesmouth the as you track east, the nearby Eston Nab, the rock art site of Airy Hill, the mesolithic site of Highcliff Nab. I could go on but the list will only bore you.
Needless to say you have views of the Cleveland escarpment and the vale of Cleveland with westerly views to county Durham and the Pennines beyond are excellent. A fitting place for a grave.

On the way back we got spooked by pigs and chased by half sized cows. As I had my boy with me I had to show a little bravado as he ran for the stile, I turned and faced the curious calves and give them a good bollocking for daring to chase my lad and me...hey it worked, the calves turned and fled but then their mams starting looking a bit pissed and slowly started to head my way..time to leave.

Me and Ella decided to have a traipse down to the Raven Hall Hotel to check out the carving there.
Ella was a bit anxious about going in , “looks a bit posh dad”. The friendly folk on the reception desk informed us that it was £1 per person to have a look around the grounds, but free if we bought a drink from the bar. Two cokes = £2. So drink in hand we checked out the gardens. A quid for this ? complained Ella. Must admit that the gardens weren’t up to much, there was loads of mint and butterloggies but not a lot else. We had a mooch around the ‘battlements’ and admired the views of Robin Hood’s Bay or just ‘Bay’ as it’s known locally.
The carved stone has been cemented into the wall of a wee recess in the cliff face, as Pebbles mentions there is a little carved cave with a plinth carved into it.
The carving is lovely and although I’m glad someone has saved it and preserved it, I would have rather seen it in context, but you can’t have it all can you.
After leaving the hotel we had a walk down to the cliff edge on the NT land, on the way back we were having a poke around an old stone tip next to the cottages beside the hotel when we spotted what appears to be the top portion of a beehive quern being used as an ornament outside of one of the cottages.
If you visit, avoid the bar meals in the hotel – £5 for a cheese toastie!
Check out the lovely Post Office / Tea Shop at Staintondale. 2 toasties, a coke & a pot of tea all for £5.20 new pence.

I saw this fella yesterday from the A1. He was standing in the middle of a beautiful cereal crop. I hope it was barley! unfortunately I couldn’t stop. A couple of miles east is the Kirklandhill Stone another handsome chap also sat in a cereal crop and visible from the A1. I’ll definitely stop and greet them properly next time I’m in the neighbourhood.
The view to Trapain Law and Berwick Law are crackin’.

Clifton is the next vilage along from Eamont Bridge on the A6 south.
We tried to access the stones via the footpath at Mount Clifton but the farmer had not kept the path clear and it would have meant taking two lads through a bunch of agro-industrial stuff. So we used the path from Clifton Hall instead. This turned out to have a bonus because there’s a Peel tower that you can have a mooch around.
Cross the motorway using the bridge and follow the path south along the side of the motorway. Once you get to the gate you can see the stones a couple of fields away. Just before you walk down the field boundary towards the stones, check out the field clearance in the corner of the field. There is one large stone that may be earthfast and a number of other stones. This clearance is on the same alignment as the two standing stones.
The stones themselves are a handsome pair of boulders a big ‘un and a little ‘un. They are made of a red stone. The smallest stone has been set in concrete. They are aligned NW-SE.
There is a nice view of eastern Penrith to the north

Cat Nab is a prominent hill on the seafront at Saltburn.
According to local people, the name comes from the wild cats that used to live on the hill.
There was a burial mound situated on the summit which has now been destroyed.
I’ve posted this site because it is the most northerly of a group of intervisible coastal sites.
If you climb to the top of Cat Nab you can see site of the Warsett Hill group of 7 mounds.
The mound was excavated by Hornsby in 1913. He didn’t publish his excavation. The finds, two cremations, a pygmy cup, the sheards of thre vessels, a collared urn, and a vessel with an inverted green rim are in the Middlesbrough Collection.
Check out the sweet little victorian mortuary house which sits at the foot of the hill.

This is a magical place set in a megalithic landscape.
You can see evidence of the hand of man altering the rocks stretching way back into prehistory. There are at least two sets of rock carvings here that are unique, this is not suprising once you look at the landscape they are set in. Views across the valley to Cratcliff Rocks and Robin Hood’s Stride with Nine Stones Close just beyond, Doll Tor and the Andle Stone less that 1km away and Stanton Moor just beyond that. This is a beautiful and unique landscape and must have influenced the minds of the carvers.
The Serpent carving was very difficult to make out and will probably have to be visited in different light conditions to appreciate it’s true beauty. The quartered circle with cup and petal motifs is gorgeous as are the two ‘eye-like’ rings.
The none-prehistoric carvings are is amazing too. What was in the head of the barmy masons who altered huge swathes of the rocks. Caves, steps, seats, passages and massive rock faces have all been created from the altered rocks. Me and Stu checked out one rock cut room that had been worked on every surface, a small hole had been bored through the cave wall to allow a tiny shaft of light to enter the otherwise dark room. In this room I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in the UK, it was supsended from the roof and guarding a huge silk ball.
Whilst admiring the view, a huge wagon drove by in the valley below, on the back of the wagon were three massive stone blocks, evidence that the Derbyshire stonemasons have an unbroken lineage from the present day back to the neolithic (that beats the phoney freemasons, with their Solomon’s temple crap, hands down dunnit?).
Rowtor Rocks is a magical place, take your kids, take a torch and take your time.

This circle has a North Yorks Moors groove about it, it’s wrecked, it’s buried in heather and there’s not a lot to see.
I love it!

This is a nice spot and is enhanced by the walk over the moor with all of it’s features and megalithic oddities. Stu reassures me that the site looks a lot better now that it’s had a good coat of looking at.
The setting amongst the birch trees and with the new turf give the site a park – like quality.
I liked the tree with all the bobbles and ribbons on it. It gives a focus to folk who feel the urge to leave their hair care products at this ancient site, although I think a used bobble is pretty crappy gift to leave. At least they’re not strewn all over the stones.

“Love comes pouring out”
The Crystals

Sums it up for me
Nuff said?

When I saw this stone from the road I just had to smile, it’s gorgeous!
It’s a beautiful proto temple and fits right in with the other megalithic wonders of this part of the Peak.
A climb to the top is worthwhile, there are two oversized cups with channels. I think they’re what those blokes on the antiques shows diplomatically describe as “being made in the style of”

I was still buzzing from Arbor Low when me and Stubob hit this site.
Stu sorted out the access and we were away.
It can’t be a coincidence that this site and it’s beautiful grove of Beeches can be seen from all over the area.
This is an awsome place, full of wonder and dignity.
I gotta big-up stubob for letting me in on this lovely spot.

Still smiling we walked over to Gib Hill.
This place..........The henge, the circle, the cove, the avenue, the half-a-henge, it’s just too much for an unsophisticated lad like me.....
I’m still smiling!

Well wierd.
Did they just give up?

A double first for me. Not only was this the first time I’d been to Arbor Low but this was also my first Derbyshire circle. What a way to start.
I just smiled and smiled.

The walk to the circle from Robin Hood’s Stride is beautiful. You see the stones in a field up ahead, you see the farmer between you and the stones, the farmer smiles and waves you on.. you’re there... Stone groove.
Lovely stones in a beautiful setting. Each stone is fiercely individual. The stone with all the deep depressions on the outer face is my foxy favourite,
the stone in the wall looks too shy to join in.

This beautiful outcrop is the most dramatic of the area’s proto temples.
The first circle builders must have been awe struck by this landscape.
Walk up to it from the B5056 along the limestone way breathe it all in, and then look across the fields to 9 Stones Close...breathtaking!

This beautiful stone greets you as you walk up onto Stanton Moor from the south.
It’s a fun sphinx

I arrived at the school at playtime and it was mental.
I Mooched over to the office/staffroom to get permission to visit the stones. All the teachers were in the staff room drinking tea, they were very nice but I found the whole experience rather unsettling...the staffroom ...erghhhhhh bad memories.
I also had in the back of my mind the recent case of a council wanting to ban photography in and around schools. Fortunately this school is very welcoming to strangers and shows no signs of PC police holding sway here.
Of course this doesn’t mean that you should just wander into the place without first getting permission.
The carvings are lovely. They were locked behind a fence when I was there but I was still able to get a good view , although it would have been nice to touch them. The sun was fairly high so the shadow wasn’t too great but you could still appreciate the beautiful designs.
The children have created their own monument next to the carvings which is lovely.
The round house is coming on well too.

This is the megalithic section of the Ure Swale Landscape, this bit was built by folk from the moors, ‘stone people’ as their contribution the sacred landscape...
“we’ll ‘ave nun o’ yer fangled swaimish henges,
Tell ye what tho’ I can get thee some reet lovely geet big stanes.
Did thee see that job I did at Rudston?”

For me these rude fellas are a gatepost to the North Yorks moors. They stand beside the ‘Great North Road’ and beside the two main routes onto the moorland plateau.

I think I may have cup-mark fever, is it me or..........

No rampant badgers today, But the new housing developments seem to be gradually stalking the site!

I was up here on Sunday as part of the Yeavering conference.
The day started with a visit to Maelmin which set the context of Yeavering bell being a sacred hill to the people of the neolithic. The Coupland henge being orientated towards the twin peaks of the Bell. Clive Waddington and Paul Frodsham explained how the Bell was the most nothern most hill of the Cheviot Massif and how it stood apart from the rest of the hills.
From Maelmin we were bussed to Ad Gefrin at the foot of the Bell. This is the site of King Edwins palace and the place where Paulinus converted and baptised the Northumbrians in the River Glen.
Following a look around the site we proceeded up the Bell via the tumble down barn known as the Old Palace which was probably a bastle.
The woodland on the north face of the Bell is last piece of ancient woodland in the national park.
Yeavering means place of the goats and you can still see wild goats and their kids chilling out in the valley below the footpath. As you follow the path around the back of the Bell you can see evidence of field systems with low walls still intact.
The Hillfort itself is huge, the stone walls, although collapsed, are still huge and completely encircle the twin summits for 950m enclosing an area of 13.5 acres. The walls in some places were 8m thick.
Once inside the fort there is evidence everywhere of hut circles, there are at least 125.
The eastern peak has a modern walkers cairn on top of it but there was originally a neolithic burial cairn on this site.
The views from this place are fantastic. The Millfield basin, the sandstone fells, the coastal plain and the Cheviots can all be seen in a wonderful panorama. We could see the crop marks of at least two of the Millfield Henges and aparently when the crop in the field at the foot the Bell is growing you can see the henge there too.
All in all a crackin’ day and an excellent site.
Get yersel’ there.

Yesterday I (and 50 others) had the privilege to be shown around Maelmin by it’s creator, Clive Waddington. The henge is based on the excavations at the Coupland henge.
There is now a Mesolithic hut on the site which is based on a hut that Clive has excavated at Howick.

Best way to access these fellas is to take the john Breckon Road and then walk up the Skinner Howe Crossroad. You’ll see the stones on the hill above you.
You need to leave the path to access the stones. I was only there for five minutes and a keeper came zooming over the moor in his eight wheeler. I was well impressed with his vehicle it looked like a big green banana split’s car but with an extra two wheels and a rifle. We had a brief discussion over the state of the grouse and how much grit he had to leave on the moor every day ‘because grouse have no teeth’, then I asked him about the marks on the stones. He confirmed Graeme C’s theories and deflated my dreams of finding new cup marks.
The stones are about three feet high and command lovely views over Westerdale and Baysdale. One of the stones is covered in ‘pseudo-cups’- bullet wounds to you and me, apparently they used ‘em for target practice in the war.

This fella sits beside the Castleton to Kirbymoorside road on the low mound of Little Blakey Howe. It’s marked on the map as a boundary stone but you just have to look at this lovely, slender six footer to know that he was here long before Lord Snot and his grouse moor.

You pass this fella on the Three Howes Rigg to Commondale road.
The whole thing is in poor nick and If it wasn’t for the stone on top of the thing you probably wouldn’t give it a second glance. It’s called a cairn on the OS map. I’m not sure if it is a cairn, the rabbits have just about collapsed the whole structure so I guess it’s not made of stones. There are a number of large stones scattered and semi buried around it’s periphery. I’m guessing that these could be the remains of a kerb.
In Summary, a messy site but the rabbits seem to like it that way. I like it too.

There are a number of Handstones on the moors. Although they are relatively modern I have posted this one because it is a lovely monolith. The stone stands 7 feet high and is a lovely thing to see. It is also in an area where many standing stones can be found so if your out mooching about check it out.

This is a lovely site and very accessible.
The only reference to the place that I can find is by Stanhope White, who places it in the Iron Age but the vibe I get is of a henge albeit an angular henge.
What you’ve got is a square-ish enclosure with rounded corners surrounded by a rounded ditch the a bank with one possibly two entrances.
The dimensions are roughly 55 metres from corner to corner of the enclosure, an 8 metre wide ditch and an 8 metre wide bank with no external ditch.
The setting is a faily flat plain of fertile farmland, the are barrows in the vacinity and a set of double dykes.
I would love to know more about this site.
Conclusion – Well worth a visit, whatever it is.
Check out the multimap aerial view.

I have visited this area many times but haven’t payed much attention to the beacon until the last couple of years. The Beacon consists of a round barrow which is very prominant as its sited on the crest of a hill. There are a few mentions of a cupmarked boulder here which I have tried, in vain, to find. I was up there today prior to taking my lad down to Port Mulgrave to hunt for fossils. The barrow itself is very significant and has yielded a number of important finds (See Elgee’s description in the Misc.). It is part of a chain of coastal sites with confirmed rock art finds.
The best way to get there is to follow the lane from Hinderwell to Port Mulgrave and then join the Cleveland Way footpath turning left along the field boundary (you can’t miss it!).
This site is visible from the Newton Mulgrave Long Barrow and the famous ‘Wossit’ mortuary structure at Loftus.
Whilst I was on the beach below the barrow I noticed that jet was still being extracted from the cliffs ( small scale), this is an activity that has occurred constantly for the past four thousand years at least.
Continuity or what?

This stone is situated on the entrance road to the Pitreavie Business Park in Dunfermline. It has been set into the boundary of the Bank of Scotland offices and has a bench seat mounted beneath it. The stone has been carved with it’s name.
There are a number of possible large cups across the southern face although these could be natural features, hard to tell.
All in all bit of a sorry sight but at least it survives.

This is a beautiful concentric circle. I was inspired to come here by a lovely aerial photograph that Stubob sent me of the site. Photography on the ground is difficult due to the size of the circle (30 metres) and the flatness of the site. The inner ring is 5 metres across and is described by Burl as a paved ring cairn. This must have been something to see in it’s hayday.
You can see the factory chimneys of Shap quite clearly from this site which implies that the shap complexes would have been visible back in the day.
There is a stone between the outer and inner rings which forms an alignment with the cairn to the east, the circle and Shap. There are also three aligned boulders to the north of the circle.
In summary, an intriguing site, well worth a visit.

This lovely little cairn circle is just beside the entrance to the village of Oddendale. It is situted on a bridleway and close to the path to Shap. It has the feeling of a small shine possibly to protect the village. As I spent some time here a bloody great buzzard flew overhead and seemed to lazily check me out.
The circle is only 5 metres across with 12 outer stones and 3 inners.
Someone had scrawled a notice on a slate informing any passers-by of the fact that this is a ‘stone circle‘

This site is probably not prehistoric. See Misc post

I’ve been trying to get to this site for some time and have eventually got there. I must say I wasn’t disappointed. You can see the stones profiled on the horizon as you come up the road from the cattle grid. The footpath up the hill is walled on both sides and seems like an extension of the road. The first site you come to is the cairn which is bisected by a stone wall. The cairn is approximately 10 metres in diameter and only has stones on the southern side (10 of ‘em). It makes you wonder about the farmers attitudes to these sites. Why did the farmer of the northerly side remove the stones and the farmer on the southerly side leave them in situ?
Fifty metres south of the cairn along the low limestone scar is the second circle. This is a lovely intimate circle with twelve stones, nine of which are lovely Shap granite and the rest limestone (I think).
The view from the circle is over the massive Hardendale quarry. A truely rural/industrial landscape.
Fifty Metres east of the first cairn is a single large stone that stands at the entrance to another walled corridor between fields.
Weird boundaries they have up here!

I have been visiting this site since I was a bairn. My uncle used to take us camping to the lakes and his favouite stopping off place was the boozer at Eamont Bridge. Me and my cousins were given the obligatory glass of pop and a bag of crisps and left to our own devices for a couple of hours. The henge and the river were our playgrounds.
In recent years I discovered the Mayburgh Henge and neglected King Arthurs Round Table. I decided to make amends on my last visit and stayed away from Mayburgh and devoted myself soley to this henge.
It’s a beautiful place! How could I neglect it ? You can be just yards away from a busy road (A6) and yet emerse yourself to an extent that everything else just fades away.
This is what henges do to me, I’m sure that this is what they are supposed to do. I knew it as a kid and I’m re-learning it now.

The Goggleby Stone is beautiful. No matter how much you read about the Shap complexes, you need to visit the sites to appreciate the scale of the thing. It must have been some place back in it’s day and I was lucky enough to have the stone to myself. I walked from Skellaw Hill, which I would recommend, and saw the stone get larger and more impressive.
The concrete bed is a bit disappointiing but what can you do?
Check out the sheep with the shamanic face markings in the next field!

Mr Cope informs us that this humble bump was once a “splendid sepulchral heap”.
All that remains today is a slight rise in the south eastern corner of the field. The field wall to the south of the hill contains a couple of decent size stones, especially when viewed from the field side.
The Goggleby Stone is visible from the hill with another large, unnamed, stone in between. To get to the Goggleby Stone from Skellaw Hill just walk along the narrow marked corridor between two fields that starts at the crossroads. On this path you will also come a cross another couple of decent sized stones.

I like this site.
Although it was only excavated in 1977 there is continuity here. Not only has the henge been restored but it is also once again the focus for a community. A well kept estate has been built around the henge and manages not to encroach upon it. The space is here, which is surely what a henge is meant to do.....create a space that is different from it’s surrounding. The sacred landscape is long gone but the sacred space remains. The people of Glenrothes are fortunate enough to have two beautiful sacred sites, Balfag and Balbirnie.
Check the lovely modern megalithic roundabout on the way in from the A92.

I got to this site via Balbirnie Park. I drove up to the Golf Club and parked just beside the first tee.
The walk to the circle is a lovely 10 minute traipse along the beck side path which was covered in snowdrops.
I had mixed feelings about visiting this site, especially after reading the posts here. I needn’t have worried, this is a beautiful site and so what if it has been moved, it’s been moved with love and respect and the reconstruction is beautiful.
I like the urban setting and the fact there are houses a few feet from the site. It’s nice to see people co-existing with a sacred space. I would love something like this on my doorstep.
This circle has everything, lovely stones, cists, rectangular cairn-like thang, and rock art (o.k. its a replica). But surely to have a monument like this out in the open air is far better than in some museum.

I love this stone. I used to pass it once a fortnight , either driving up to Scotland or in the opposite direction. It is the first/last megalith you encounter in England (if you don’t get out of your car).
I passed this stoney chap yesterday and I must say he was looking splendid in the winter sunshine.

Me and my apprentice dodman set off in search of hut circles. I had read somewhere that there were circles just above Baysdale on Kildale/Warren Moor.
We parked up at Hob Hole and marched up the road to the bridleway opposite to the Sloethorn Park road. The weather was terrible and the path was a mud monsters paradise.
The are lots of rocks and boulders strewn along the hillside that leads down to the beck. We investigated quite a few of these and found quite a few possible cups most of which were fairly weathered. You have to be careful around here because the rocks are iron rich, the iron forms nodules in the rocks which weather-out leaving a ‘pseudo cup’.
The was one distinctive rock that we came across that I’m pretty sure has a genuine single cup. The rock is in a significant spot about 20 metres downhill from the path and directly opposite to the junction of the Great Hograh Beck Valley and Baysdale. The rock itself is larger than most of it’s neighbours and has a large weather-polished upper surface. The cup is right in the middle of this surface. I examined the rock for pseudo-cups and found none. There is also some graffitti on the rock dated 1948. There are other possible cups on rocks opposite to the junction of the little Hograh Beck and Baysdale.
You may say “one cup mark, so what?” but considering that there are huge stretches of the UK that are completely devoid of any rock art , one small North Yorks site, is significant.
We failed to find the hut circles as we spent too much time looking at the rocks in the valley. We’ve saved them for another day, preferably in summer.
25/03/03
Update.
I was back in Baysdale yesterday and found another ‘cup’ but following a discussion with a local gamekeeper I am now less convinced that this is rock art and more convinced that these marks could be bullet holes. Apparently the armed forces used standing stones for target practice during WW2. The bullet hole theory was also put forward by Graeme C on his excellent website.
Don’t let this put you off visiting Baysdale, it’s a lovely spot. There are some rather unsatisfactory hut circles at NZ628078 and although I’m not a big fan of grouse butts, if you up there check out the lovely grouse carving in the butt.

Although this large stone is a couple of miles from White Hag I have included it as it is on the approaches to the site.
The stone is a large Shap granite boulder (as are most of the other Thunder Stones in the Shap area). This chap has been built into the farm wall and lies on the Roman Road just after the junction with the Orton to Shap road.
It’s a sad stone, not only is it built into a wall but it then has the further indignity of having a barbed wire fence built across it and various items of rubbish strewn around it including an old tyre and an abandoned car.

A couple of sources quote two rings on orthostat walling on Warren Moor.
I parked up by the entrance to Park Farm and walked up the side of the park to the crag that overlooks Kildale, I then followed the path onto Warren Moor and walked down the eastern side of the dry stone wall for about a kilometre, never taking my eyes off the wall. I then retraced my steps along the western side, again studying every inch of the wall. I did come across some vague markings on the eastern side but nothing that I could hand on heart describe as a pair of rings.
This NYM rock art is bloody elusive stuff.

Stubob and Ironman are right, you should see these fellas, they have just been dumped.
The works and the railway make a surreal backdrop.

One of the many stones in the area with the title Thunder Stone.
This fella is a great big Shap granite boulder perched on the edge of a small quarry just beside the Shap to Crosby Rasvensworth road.
Shap Granite is a beautiful stone either polished or raw. Its pink colour comes from the feldspar within it’s matrix and the large feldspar crystals, plagioclase feldspar I think.

No mad sheep today, just a padlocked gate with a barbed wire fence enclosing a poorly repaired stone wall, this sad little circle deserves a little tlc. The sooner the farmers catch onto the custodian tip, the better.

I’ll start this by telling you that I didn’t find the circle but I’m posting this so that you don’t make the same mistakes as me. I do know where the circle is, I spotted it half a mile away as I was returning home but the weather was coming down and the light was fading so it’s one for next time for me.
I parked up at the cattle grid on the Orton to Shap road at NY601091 and followed the bridlepath north. Check out the mighty Thunder Stone that has been built into the farm wall (look at both sides!). The path follows the course of a Roman Road. My tip to find this circle is to forget the cairns and look at the field boundary walls. Once you clear the first rise and can no longer see the road there should be high ground with cairns to your left, look right and keep an eye on the wall across the valley, this will lead you to the circle. The OS map has wicker street and white hag marked, these are limestone pavements and not as obvious as the map implies (they may be more prominent once the snow has cleared).
I stopped a couple of gamekeepers and asked them if they knew the whereabouts of the circle, their reply ..“what circle?” To their credit they did tell me about a local barrow and the Century Tree.
So in summary, keep you eyes on the field boundaries, take the multimap aerial photo, the rectangular plantation is not marked on the 2002 O/S OL19 map so don’t let that throw you, don’t bother asking the gamekeepers. Happy hunting pilgrims.

This was first stop on todays tour of the Howgill Fells.
I parked on the roadside and walked the few yards up the lane. As I was pulling my boots on the farmer, a very pleasant bloke who looked about 200 years old, pulled up for a chat. He asked me where I was walking to? I explained that I was just going to see the stones and he told me of some folk who had stopped him on the fell to find out where the stone were, “daft buggers were looking right at ‘em!.
The fells and the Lune Valley were looking spot-on with a covering of snow and the lovely sun shining upon them. The only thing to spoil the scene was the airforce putting itself on war footing by screaming around in their Tornado jets.
The field with the stones in was full of sheep so I walked to the next field along to use the gate, as I opened the gate, hundreds of black and white faced shep ran towards me “oh shit, cumbrian fighting sheep” they were obviously expecting me to ladle out a few bales of hay. Needless to say I beat a hasty retreat.
Maybe I should suggest to the generals that they forget the Tornados and just drop a few flocks of hungry Cumbrian fighting sheep on Saddam.
Summary – A lovely big Cumbrian Circle in a lovely setting.
Get yersel there!

This is a pretty unremarkable round barrow. It is however significant that it was one of very few barrow that have been found in the vale of Cleveland. The hills and moors around the area are dotted with barrows but the lowlands contain very few. This could be due to the ploughing- out of sites. There is evidence in local place names that barrows did exist elsewhere in the Tees valley e.g., Ingleby Greenhow, Sexhow.