The Eternal

08/04/06 Floutern Cop Bronze Age cairn NE bank exposed.

08/04/06 Floutern Cop Bronze Age cairn W side.

08/04/06 Floutern Cop Bronze Age cairn NW side.

08/04/06 Floutern Cop Bronze Age cairn from the W.

08/04/06 Floutern Cop Bronze Age cairn from the WNW.

10/02/06. Castlerigg stone circle in its landscape setting. Viewed from the summit ridge of Blencathra, looking SW. Derwent Water lies beyond.

10/02/06. Carrock Fell hillfort from Bowscale Fell, looking N, 1.6 miles away as the raven flies.

10/02/06. Great Mell Fell from the eastern slopes of Souther Fell, looking SE. The ridge of High Street Roman road is in the background.

14/01/06. Binsey Bronze Age cairn, NE of the north end of Bassenthwaite lake. Viewed from Barf. The cairn lies at about 1450 feet above sea level, twice the altitude of Elva Plain stone circle, which lies about 3.8 miles to the SW, and within easy sight. Are they linked?

Elva Plain stone circle, viewed from Broom Fell looking NNW. It lies at the east end of a low west-east ridge, just west of the north end of Bassenthwaite lake. On the edge of the western Cumbrian mountains, the Cumbrian plain stretches westwards to the Irish Sea.

07/01/06. Castlerigg stone circle, early morning, from outside the south side, looking north west to Skiddaw.

07/01/06. Castlerigg stone circle, early morning, with the unusual stone in the south east quadrant. The stone on the left looks like it would almost fit, but not quite.

07/01/06. Castlerigg stone circle, early morning, from within, looking to the south entrance.

07/01/06. Castlerigg stone circle, early morning, the eastern edge, with the “cove” behind. Looking south.

07/01/06. Castlerigg stone circle, early morning, the north west edge from outside the north entrance. Grisedale Pike is the peak on the right.

07/01/06. Castlerigg stone circle, approaching from the north, early morning. Cloud-capped Helvellyn on the left, its slopes dropping down to Dunmail Raise – see site for that.

07/01/06. A murky early morning, Dunmail Raise Bronze Age cairn. Note the dual carriageway ending sign (north end). The dual carriageway only lasts a few hundred yards, so beware idiot speeders, desperate to overtake anything in front. Taken from the car, perched on the grass verge, looking east. The hill in the background is Dollywaggon Pike. Behind the gap on the right lies Grisedale Tarn – see the legends of this site.

28/12/05. Working off the ale, twixt Crimbo and New Year, I found myself looking on this fine sight, on a day that would freeze the proverbials off a monkey cast in brass. The cairn sits in the middle of the dual carriageway. I just loved the place I was in, sod the view from the road.

31/12/05. Loft Crag from Pike of Stickle summit. A cold day, in spite of the thaw. The Loft Crag site lies just over its summit. There’s not much to see, just a load of interesting, sharp greenstone flakes. They stand out against the natural rock shell, so anyone who knows what they’re looking for will see them. I left the place as I found it, moving and taking nothing. Please leave it as you find it.
After coming here all my life I still find it an awe-inspiring place.

31/12/05 Loft Crag flakes, with sharp edges, eroding out of the peat.
The last day of the year, and a raw day at that. You can see where the rocks were worked, and here, where the peat had been eroded away, the evidence of the working of the greenstone can be seen as clean flake chips. No one I’ve ever seen here gives them a second look. I left everything in place.
This place is fragile, please tread carefully, and leave everything as you find it.

31/12/05. Loft Crag stone axe factory: the evidence. Greenstone flakes, with sharp edges, on a thawing, but raw, day. By the way, I left everything untouched. The last site of 2005 for me, visited yet again. This place is fragile, please tread carefully, and leave everything as you found it.

23/12/05 Castle Crag hillfort from the north, on the descent to Grange, as the fingers of night creep up on the Borrowdale valley. The last rites of one of those dark days at the sad tail-end of the year.

23/12/05 Looking back southwards to Castle Crag hillfort, showing the west face in profile.

23/12/05 The west face of Castle Crag hillfort rearing up in a mass of Borrowdale volcanic rock.

23/12/05 The west face of Castle Crag hillfort rising up in a mass of scree and rock to the larch-girdled summit and sky.

23/12/05 The west face of Castle Crag hillfort, impregnable on this side to any attack.

23/12/05 Castle Crag hillfort from the south ridge, with Derwent Water behind.

23/12/05 Castle Crag hillfort from the southern approach, below Low Scawdel, with the larch showing against the sky. Derwent Water lies beyond.

23/12/05 Looking south down Borrowdale to Castle Crag hillfort, from the eastern slopes of Catbells.

Castle Crag hillfort from the south. Taken from Grains Gill above Seathwaite.

Carrock Fell hillfort from Great Dodd. View looking N.

Great Mell Fell Bronze Age bowl barrow from Randerside on the slopes of Great Dodd. View looking NE.
The barrow is just below, and to the W of the summit of Great Mell Fell.
Great Mell Fell is a prominent, wedge-shaped hill to the W of the N end of Ullswater, which attracts few, apart from obsessive peak-baggers, and the odd, misty-eyed loner with an antiquarian bias.

The watery autumn sun shines briefly through the gale, from whence we had come, illuminating Selside Pike Bronze Age cairn. Looking WSW.

Selside Pike Bronze Age cairn, looking WNW, with the ridge we travelled earlier in the day on the mountain to the left. The mountain to the right is High Raise, with its own Bronze Age cairn on the summit. My mate, Pie Eater, sits within.

Looking WSW into the modern shelter made from the Selside Pike Bronze Age cairn. My mate Pie Eater can be seen within, sheltering from the gale, supping tea, and pondering on the meaning of it all.

Selside Pike Bronze Age cairn from the SW.

Selside Pike Bronze Age cairn from Artle Crag on Branstree. Looking NE.

Castle Crags Iron Age hillfort, from Whelter Crags, on the descent from Low Raise.

The Bronze Age cairn on Low Raise, viewed from Selside Pike Bronze Age cairn. Looking NW. These two cairns are very similar, being great piles of stone on ridge-crests, and on fell tops where there is nothing but grass.

Whit Moss and Brats Hill stone circles in their landscape, from the N. Viewed from the slopes of Slight Side, below Scafell.

Maiden Castle cairn appears out of the long grass as you top the Eskdale to Wasdale col. This is obviously an old cairn, with the hoary old stones showning no signs of present use. I feel this is a very old burial cairn.

Lookin S through White Moss NE circle, with the SW circle in the background to the left.

White Moss, inside the NE stone circle, looking to the SW stone circle.

White Moss NE stone circle, looking NW to Illgill Head.

Wall enclosure-type feature on the E side of White Moss stone circles, looking NW.

Wall enclosure-type feature on the E side of White Moss stone circles, looking SW.

White Moss circles from Brats Hill. Looking westwards to the shallow col between Whin Rigg (left) and Illgill Head (right).

One of the cairns within the Brats Hill stone circle. Looking SE, with Harter Fell in the background.

Brats Hill stone circle looking to the the S side. My mate, Pie Eater, composes himself to a photographic quiescence, tries to hide his newly acquired weight, all the while adding a sense of scale to the scene. One of the central cairns is in the foreground.

Brats Hill stone circle. Approaching from the SW, over deep grassy tussocks (off the path), with the bulk of Scafell rising ahead.