The Eternal
27/05/06 E edge of The Cockpit, looking SW to Arthur’s Pike.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 Inside The Cockpit, looking SW to Arthur’s Pike.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 Inside The Cockpit, looking NNW. Some complete twat has seen fit to scratch their pathetic name on the dark stone left of centre. Perhaps it was the same moron who, in January, made a fire in the centre of Castlerigg , and who also let their dog(s) shit there. Arseholes of society. Glenys I think her name is.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 My latest visit, the first been in the formative years of a child at junior school, when a threatening sky lay low over the ridge that takes the High Street Roman road. A defining moment, with the atmosphere making an impression that turned me onto prehistory for life.
Today there were four people in the circle, two with a playful puppy, up there for the exercise, and two backpackers, resting, yet seemingly unaware of the significance of the fact that they lay on old, damp ground, which wasn’t any old, damp ground. It was old, yes, and damp, but not any old, damp ground. They lay back oblivious, more concerned with the water from the nearby beck, and its quality. Not once did they mention the circle. Heathens.
I wished they would go away, but no loitering with a camera would shift them , so I had to make do with avoiding them in the shots.
The circle is set in a green sward of close-cropped grass, all around being rough scrub. The views aren’t bad, but are better from Arthur’s Pike to the SW.
27/05/06 Swarth Fell stone circle, looking back from the ESE.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 Swarth Fell stone circle, approaching from the W. Recumbant is the word. The Roman road of High Street stalks the ridge beyond.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 Carrock Fell Iron Age hillfort, viewed from just outside
The Cockpit stone circle on Moor Divock, looking NW.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 Dunmallard, the tree-covered, cone-shaped hill at the northern end of Ullswater, viewed from Arthur’s Pike.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 Dunmallard, the tree-covered hill, from just outside The Cockpit stone circle on Moor Divock.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 Dunmallard, the tree-covered cone at the northern end of Ullswater, seen from The Coombs Bronze Age cairnfield, Martindale.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 The Coombs, Martindale, Bronze Age cairnfield, and its position in the landscape. A steamer pulls into Howtown, on the E side of Ullswater, on the right. In the background is the cloud-capped Helvellyn massif. Behind the lens, in the teeth of a sou’wester, The Eternal tries to stay steady on the edge.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 Large, overgrown Bronze Age cairn, the largest visible in The Coombs, Martindale. Looking S to the head of Martindale.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06 Two overgrown Bronze Age cairns, part of the cairnfield at The Coombs, Martindale. Just a few stones showing through.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06. Overgrown Bronze Age cairn, with a few visible stones, at The Coombs, Martindale. Part of a cairnfield.
Image credit: The Eternal
27/05/06,
A showery, overcast, windy Whit Saturday saw me visiting a number of old favourites, with a day on th’ill thrown in for good measure.
Parking at Martindale new church, I was heading for The Cockpit on Moor Divock, followed by Swarth Fell stone circle.
Round the back of the church, a grassy path takes you over a low rise, then descends to a well-worn track. Here are the cairns, described as “Bronze Age cairnfield” on the ADS website. They are very overgrown, the only sign being the protruding rocks in an otherwise grassy area. It’s not worth visiting for the sake of it, but if you’re ever passing it’s only five minutes from the car, and in a beautiful setting, and there is a good view of Dunmallard
Hill sitting proud at the northern end of Ullswater. I wonger if anything of interest lies within?
A dig near Malmesbury town walls has uncovered a substantial stone-fronted defensive rampart and a deep ditch which could date to the Iron Age.
Archaeologists believe the prehistoric hill fort would have had impressive multiple defences rising above the valley of the River Avon.
English Heritage said the results were very exciting and showed how important the town’s defences were.
The work was said to bring a new dimension to the story of Malmesbury.
‘Defensive rampart‘
A project spokesman said it was the first time that the area outside of the line of defences has been examined archaeologically.
The finds add to discoveries recorded during the previous investigation carried out during November 2005 during restoration work on the walls, that revealed new evidence about the nature of the town’s defences.
When the collapsing stone of the wall was removed, substantial clay deposits almost 3m (10ft) high were found. Archaeologists identified these as the upper rampart of the Iron Age hill fort on which Malmesbury was later built.
It is believed the whole of the Eastgate Bastion is an artificially constructed fortified gate (barbican) built to extend the area of the former hill fort and to provide substantial and impressive stone-built defences.
Investigations revealed evidence of a further rampart against the outer face of the lower levels of the town wall.
This consisted of burnt material including a large quantity of slag.
Archaeologists consider that this burnt material is probably Late Saxon and may date from the 8th or 9th Centuries AD.
If confirmed, it would add support to Malmesbury’s claim to be the oldest borough in England.
A website featuring thousands of sites of archaeological interest in Cumbria’s Lake District is being set up with the help of a £171,000 grant.
The district has more than 6,500 historical attractions including Shap Abbey, Castlerigg Stone Circle and Hardknott Roman Fort.
The Lake District has 275 monuments and 1,740 listed buildings.
The project is being paid for by the Heritage Lottery Fund and run by the Lake District National Park Authority.
Lisa Keys, a former exhibition interpreter at the National Museums Liverpool, who is helping to run the project, said: “At the moment unless you are very interested in archaeology, there isn’t a particularly accessible way of finding out more details.
“By the time we’ve finished there’ll be lots of exciting ways to link into the past which everyone from schoolchildren to communities and the area’s 12 million visitors can all use.
“Most people don’t come to here to delve into history, but we want to share all this fantastic archaeology and see heritage placed on a prominent platform alongside the beautiful scenery.”
Visited on 06/05/06. It was a warm spring day, with a thunderstorm threatening, but not arriving. Hardly anyone visits this rather uninspiring fell, one of the dullest in the Lakes, just a bit of a grassy wedge. However, on a fresh day, with cloud shadows chasing across the landscape, the views would be worth it without the barrow.
The barrow’s nowt to write home about, but if you did it’d go summthing like this: “Saw a Bronze age barrow today. Quite a small barrow, grassy, with a modern cairn on top.” It’s set on the western edge of the fell, where the ground falls steeply away. To the west the bog of Flaska stretches away to Castlerigg stone circle, north north west to Carrock Fell hillfort, east to The Cockpit and south to the Beckstones rock art. It’s probably 15 to 20 feet in diameter and a few feet high.
An easy ascent, with time to spend on top if you’ve got a spare hour.
06/05/06. Great Mell Fell from Little Mell Fell, looking NW.
Image credit: The Eternal
06/05/06. Great Mell Fell Bronze Age barrow looking SSE. Gowbarrow Fell is in the foreground, the High Street Roman road is on the partially cloud obscured ridge in the background.
Image credit: The Eternal
06/05/06. Great Mell Fell Bronze Age barrow looking S, the distant hills obscured by brewing cloud.
Image credit: The Eternal
06/05/06. Great Mell Fell Bronze Age barrow looking NW to Blencathra.
Image credit: The Eternal
06/05/06. Great Mell Fell from the NW base of Gowbarrow Fell.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 White Moss from the knoll, looking WNW. What would we do without knolls?
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 White Moss N circle, E edge, looking N. Scafell behind.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 White Moss N circle, S edge, looking W. Whin Rigg – Illgill Head ridge in the background.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 White Moss N circle, S edge looking E. Harter Fell behind.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 White Moss from a different position in the W.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 White Moss, from the S circle looking along the SE-NE axis.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 White Moss, from the SE edge of the S circle looking NE.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 White Moss, looking SW into the N circle of White Moss.
Image credit: The Eternal
Brat’s Hill stone circle from the knoll, looking NW. Scafell, the dull side, is on the right, whilst Great Gable peeps over its left shoulder.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 Another burial cairn E of Brat’s Hill, looking W. One of many. On this perfect bank holiday Saturday it didn’t matter that I was up to my neck in old stones – just to be there was perfection, with the larks in the air, the liquid call of the Curlew, a Raven, black as night, quartering the sky, and a fresh breeze blowing up from the west, sighing through the yellow grasses. I’ve been out on t’hill all day in the sunshine, spring has finally sprung, the new lambs have just been born, and it’s good to be alive...... behind, if you’re interested, is the ridge of Whin Rigg and Illgill Head, which I traversed earlier in the day. Settle down Beavis.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 Burial cairn E of Brat’s Hill. One of many. Viewed looking E.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 Brat’s Hill and White Moss from somewhere near the overgrown and illusive Low Longmoss, on a lovely April day.
Image credit: The Eternal
29/04/06 The Burnmoor comple from the lower eastern slopes of Whin Rigg, just above Miterdale, on a lovely day.
Image credit: The Eternal
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4753205.stm
An ambitious project to recreate Stonehenge as it would have looked 4,000 years ago is being planned.
Fragments of only three circles remain, but quarry firm Preseli Bluestone wants to build all seven from scratch.
It is hoped the circles will be completed by 2009. The new site would be open to visitors.
An exact location is yet to be decided, but the Cotswold Water Park, which straddles Wiltshire and Gloucs, is one of several sites being considered.
Preseli Bluestone owns the quarry in Wales where the stones for the ancient Wiltshire monument originally came from.
Colin Shearing, from the company, said: “We don’t want to replicate Stonehenge as it stands today, but rather as how it would have looked when completed about 4,000 years ago.”
The new Stonehenge would be built using both modern and ancient methods which the public would be invited to watch.
The plans are in the very early stages, but the aim is to create a 21st Century ‘landmark architectural heritage sculpture’ which allows visitors to walk among, and touch, the stones.
14/04/06. Carrock Fell Iron Age hillfort, viewed from Knott, looking easterly.
Image credit: The Eternal
08/04/06
A day of snow showers and bitter winds. The snow that plastered the central and eastern Lakeland mountains was a litte higher around the Buttermere, Crummock, and Loweswater hills, with little around the cairn. The wind was bitter, and snow showers raked the hills all day.
The cairn is set on a low ridge, above boggy ground, on the ridge top, but not on an obviously high point. It is situated on a down slope, above a broad col, on a ridge leading to a low summit. A most unusual place.
The centre looks like it has been dug out, or do I mean excavated. It looks like it’s tough shit, no records exist.
It’s about 2 to 3 feet high, and about 25 to 30 feet in diameter. Why it was set here is anybodys guess. Is it connected with the Crummock rock art? Westwards, over a high ridge, lies the West Cumberland Plain, where many Bronze Age Settlements have been found.
08/04/06 Floutern Cop Bronze Age cairn looking into the centre from the N.
Image credit: The Eternal
08/04/06 Floutern Cop Bronze Age cairn view of the centre from the E.
Image credit: The Eternal
08/04/06 Floutern Cop Bronze Age cairn looking from the N edge across the E edge.
Image credit: The Eternal
08/04/06 Floutern Cop Bronze Age cairn NE bank exposed.
Image credit: The Eternal
