fitzcoraldo
People have said that they have heard the fairies patting butter on the hill as they passed at night. Once a man heard them say “mend that peel!” (a peel was a long-handled shovel used to remove bread from the oven.) Passing by the next day, he found the broken shovel and took it home to be mended. The following day a piece of bread and butter was lying on a stone where he had found the peel. The man was afraid to eat the bread or give it to his horses, fearing the consequences. Unfortunately, unaware that he had offended the fairies, his horses dropped dead before they reached the top of the hill.
Myth and Magic of Northumbria
Coquet Editions
1992
William Parker, Bateman’s father-in-law.
He accompanied bateman on many of his excavations.
Following recent discoveries I have made on the North Yorkshire Moors and information I have received from Graeme Chappell, I think these marks are not prehistoric cups but marks left by bullets. Apparently standing stones were used for target practice during World War 2. Further evidence for this on this particular stone is that the ‘cup’ has damaged the carving of the date which would imply that the cup is younger than the date carving. The close proximety of an army training ground would also support this.
As well as the existing sites, Graeme Chappell has turned up a number of new sites in this area.
NZ 964 013 – 764 303
NZ 965 012
NZ 9674 0105
NZ 9622 0147
NZ 9624 0152
NZ 9561 0123
NZ 959 009
All co-ordinates blagged fron Stan Beckensall’s wonderful book “British Prehistoric Rock Art.”
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.
There are 15 henge-like structures in the Milfield basin, 9 of which are thought to be definite henge monuments. This is the greatest concentration of henges anywhere!
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.
Pebblethief mentions Blawearie House (the ruin). For a potted history of this place, check Stan Beckensall’s lovely book “Northumberland, The Power of Place” published in 2001 by Tempus.
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.
The virtual Archaeology of Durham and Northumberland.
Nice site check out Yeavering!
” On the 11th October 1711, the justices of the peace sitting at Northallerton ordered that guide posts be erected at all cross roads; stone is much more easily obtained on the moors, so as a result a number of ‘handstones’ – the way indicated by a roughly carved human hand, were erected.”
Stanhope White
The North York Moors
1979
Dalesman Books
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.
The view across the field to the entrance of the ring, the trees are grownig on the bank and so give some idea of scale
The Handstone – a modern megalith erected in the early 1700’s
It reads ROAD TO KIRBYMOORSIDE
Standing Stone on Little Blakey Howe with Blakey Howe in the background
The Little Hograh Moor Standing stones, looking south over Baysdale.
Yet another cup or Pseudo-cup.
The theory of bullet holes gathers momentum!
According to Janet & Colin Bord;
“A St Barnabas Fair used to be held in a field near the stones on summer solstice, probably a continuation of ceremonies held there in prehistoric times”.
A short excerpt from William Blake’s Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion.
“They groan’d aloud on London Stone
They groan’d aloud on Tyburn’s Brook
Albion gave his deadly groan,
And all the Atlantic mountains shook.”
The accompanying notes say the following;
“The ancient stone in the east central part of London and the site of public execution in the western part form a London Stonehenge, a place of druidical sacrifice where Albion is tortured.”
This from Stanhope White
“Not far from the Percy Rigg village, on Ayton Moor at NZ598114, is a square enclosure with rounded corners; the earthen wall have been almost eroded away, but it can be seen that there had been an internal ditch. This cannot have been a defensive work, and a similar structure in a far better state of preservation exists at Studfold Ring. The name implies an enclosure for horses and the internal ditch can be seen today in many open air zoos.”
The North York Moors.
1979
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.
“Originally the mound had been enclosed by, or enclosed a stone circle, 30 feet in diameter, in the form of a wall 4 feet thick, traces of which were found on the south-east side of the barrow. Seven cremated internments had been made in this mound; two of these were accompanied by food vessels. A third vessel stood by the side of an urn holding calcined bones.
At the centre of the mound on the natural surface was a stone net-sinker, very similar to two others found with urns in the Rudda Howe at Staintondale. If these two barrows are not the last resting place of fisher-folk, at any rate fisher -folk took a share in building them.
More remarkable was the occurence in the body of the barrow of over 150 stones of varied sizes and shapes and all with cup-like hollows, usually on one side, sometimes on two. Generally a stone has one cup only; but sometimes two, three or even four cups have been hollowed out. Other peculiarly marked stones were also found, one with a incised cross, and another with a V-shaped mark.”
Frank Elgee
Early Man In N.E. Yorkshire
1930
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?
The Cairn was excavated by the legendary Canon Greenwell in the 1860’s where he reported a central cist from which a pot had been taken. It was also excavated by the mighty Stan Beckensall 1984 – 1986 where he found further cists, amber beads, a jet bead, flint flakes, a melon bead, a number of cremations and a copper ring.
Burl could find no sign of an entrance to the circle but remarks on a “small isolated and unexplained stone that stands halfway between the rings at the ESE”.
Image credit: Fitzcoraldo
Burl could find no sign of an entrance to the circle but remarks on a “small isolated and unexplained stone that stands halfway between the rings at the ESE”.
Image credit: fitzcoraldo
