daveyravey

daveyravey

Fieldnotes expand_more 51-80 of 80 fieldnotes

Robin Hood’s Stride

It does look a bit like a hippo (as Burl suggests) but it looks more like the Pink Panther. What a landscape, loved it as soon as I looked at it from the lane. I aim to spend more time there, perhaps with a picnik. I want to see the major moon rise between the ears!

Nine Ladies of Stanton Moor

Very lovely setting, surely no-one wants to destroy this. Great walk to get here with so much to see on the way. It looks very manicured at the mo, with it’s turf base neatly cut, but still great ambience.

Eyam Moor Barrow

This looks kind of bizarre to me, without the sign and a mind to look for this kind of thing you would believe that it was a few hundred miles of future stone wall. I wonder what is beneath it as it is very large

Ewden Beck

This is the third time that I have visited this site and the first time that I have actually found it. It quite excited me as it has been a quest. To get there you follow the mettled path. Today I had to pass hundreds of bee-hives as currently someone is making a venture out of honey. The track runs directly at the circle but veers off as a stream is reached. Directly after the stream is an obvious path off to the right but there is also a less obvious path to the right of that, through bracken etc.. Head for the 7’ tall stake and you will then be at the SSE entrance. There is an entrance on the exact opposite of the circle. This circle appear to be built on a rubble ring with several large stone still standing and more lying flat.
I would urge other more experienced antiquarians to visit this site as I believe ther may be a possible avenue leading upto the circle following th line of the path between it and the circle. There are two outliers in a line with the SSE entrance just five yards out, but there are also a pair of stones in the same alignment adjacent to the silver birch trees to the SSE. See what you think. A great site if omnly because it has taken me so long to find it.

Bar Dyke

I can’t work out any use for this site. What could it possibly be for. The right hand side (from the north) is used as a car-port by Netherlanders (no offence intended but it was today). It would have been a formidable defence against attackers from the south

Eyam Moor III

This is probably the most obvios circle (cairn) on the moor. It’s funny how the Bilberry highlights cairns on this moor, I counted at least five other stone lined pits that have similar characteristics to this on the south side of the footpath and several more on the north. I am sorry but I didn’t have my compass with me to give grid references.

Eyam Moor II

Found it quite quickly, when you walk around the bank it is very obvious. There are some big stones that form part of the footpath in a south-westerly direction that look suspiciously like part of it.

Wet Withens

Very difficult to find but as has been mentioned earlier, the chair does mimic the hills beyond, how intentional this is I don’t know but quite impressive. I will visit again at a time the heather isn’t so obtrusive

Bamford Moor South

Damn right it’s hard to find. I got stuck in the bog to the south, attacked by sheep and cut to ribbons by heather. Didn’t actually find the circle, the summer stone seeker’s lot is no a good one but the cairn to the south west is quite good. There appeared to be a large cap-stone. Nice setting

The Merry Maidens

We have been blessed with an almost lonely visit. Only one couple there inhaling deeply what can only be described as a Camberwell Carrot. Take a walk round the whole field and catch the landscape in it’s entirety. As most have described this, it is a perfect circle but how perfect is it to it’s original design after reconstruction work and archaeology. Nice though

Tregiffian

In my beer dazed state I stumbled on it, taking a few minutes to focus. Had the 17th century navies really drove this road straight through this structure. You wouldn’t want a big bend around it though, it might slow up the speeding horse and cart. I can only believe that they were the ancestors of MT! Fab place though.

Men-An-Tol

I first heard about this site when The Levellers wrote a song about it, so I always wanted to go here. Not at all disappointed. The gallery at the end of the footpath by the road had some good info and some fantastic paintings. I wish I had bought some. There is so much to see in this landscape, how can you be disappointed. Time to have a quick look at Nine Maidens before that storm arrives!

Lanyon Quoit

A great first call, apart from the pub, on an epic trip round the Lands End peninsula. No-one there at all, it was early morning and myself and my brother had hang-overs after 1 too many Scrumpies at the Newbridge Inn. Great shade and great setting as we watched the storm gathering a pace over Lands End. Although not a area of country where you want to be caught in a storm to see black clouds on one side of you and sunshine on the other is quite dramatic.

Castle Hill (Huddersfield)

Visited again 15th July 2003
A three stage enclosure, from the entrance at the North each area is protected by a ditch and gets a little bit higher. There are two embankments with a ditch, not to mention the naturally steep slopes up to the top. There are plenty of earthworks within the enclosures depicting the layout. There is a well, I asume it is ancient as it is more like a cavern downwards.
The hotel and pub is now closed and the place has become a haven for children and strong cider. Take a Biffa lorry if youhope to have any impact on the litter situation.

Curbar Edge Ring Cairn

6th July 2003
Right on the top of the cliff, just above the path way is circle of small rocks about 20ft (i didn’t have a tape measure with me) from side to side. Although it is marked on the Explorer map of the area it is most visible with your back to the valley. There are quite a few cairns in the area but this is the most obvious

Stoke Flat

6th July 2003. It was my birthday and as usual dragged along my wife and friends along for a walk. I liked this place, as no-one appeared to know it was there, indeed as was mentioned earlier, passers by looked strangely at us. My first impression was of it being a cairn, with a profusion of small rocks surrounding it.
There is an obvious path to the circle that comes off the cliff-top path at Froggat Edge

Castle Hill (Huddersfield)

Visited many times as I live nearby. It is a long walk up steep hills from Huddersfield (as indeed is any walk of any distance from Huddersfield!). Dramatic earthworks are in evidence, you wouldn’t want to be attacking it, that’s for sure, and great views of the Peaks and the town are to be had. . The tower on top is a memorial erected in the tradition of Queen Victoria, it is not of any great age. You can drive and park right on the very top as there is a hotel. Take yer kite, take yer picnic and enjoy.

Grey Yauds

You have to pluck up the courage to to go a long way into private land, and across a steep valley. There was a man on a quad bike hovering around so I cursed my bad luck as my friends and wife cycled on in the distance

Broomrigg

My wife and two friends gasped with trepidation as I suggested we cycled left into a densely forested area, “we’ll get shot!” as a nearby bird scarer blasted off. This complex is marked by red posts of which there are several areas. As you cycle down the slight incline, just before a left hand turn there is one part to your right, and a little further on, on the bend to the left another. I fail to see how the circle was destroyed for this plantation.

Badbury Rings

29th June 2003
Beautiful place, it goes to show how you can convert what is an essentially defunct way of life, into a necessity for the future. I am of course taking about the preservation of wildlife. Great countryside for a head-clearing walk after a boosey night in Winborne, and prior to a 350 mile trip home back to Huddersfield.

Avebury

29th June 2003
Bizarre, this place is unbelievable. As you can tell by the images there are stones everywhere. The earthworks are breath-taking. Will visit again in two weeks time with my wife.

Stonehenge

29th June 2003, My first visit to Stonehenge. Coming over the hill to see that induced a spontaneous and collective shout of some unmentionable Anglo-Saxon. It was so much bigger than any picture lets you believe. Trapped behind it’s chicken coup it had little or no ambience, as the hoards of people with their gadgets welded to their ears walked blindly round. Stonehenge is best looked at from a distance, where you can blank out the swarms and cars and the ice-creams. I know this sounds depressing, and the stones do need to be looked after but I can’t help the way I feel.

Rombald’s Moor

I visited Rombald’s Moor as a result of finding this web-site. I saw lots of stuff up there but could not nail down Ashlar’s Chair, and the pancake stone. I saw the stone that Chris calls the Goth Stone. Not having a camera on me, I did not remember it until now. I have never seen anything like it before. I was surprised by the amount of 18th and 19th century carved graffiti up there.

Ewden Beck

Having the benefit of little heather due to burning, there appears to be many suspicious standing stones here. Being new to the game of looking for stone circles, I first spotted standing stones to the left, just before the bridlepath bends to the left. There is also what looked to me like a circle with several large stones to the left after the bridge. I then walked down the little footpath and found what I thought was the circle to the left, right on the edge of the copse. I am still not convinced that I saw what actually is the circle. Perhaps someone else can help.

Seven Stones of Hordron Edge

Absolutely superb setting on a day like today (sunny and windy). Very difficult to get to, I was put off by the angry sign just down the road from the lay-by. Further down the road I duly clambered across the river, over the fence and up the steep escarpment. This was the best circle I have seen for ambience and setting, the view is fabulous.