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I found this curious feature on one of my many walks on Anglezarke Moor. Its cut into the rock on the side of the hill with the entrance gap being about 2 foot wide the well goes about 4 foot down, at the time i visited the well it was almost dry however i did manage to pick a few pieces of worked flint out the bottom of the well which is good evidence as flint isnt native to this area, sadly by the time i found this it was getting dark and photos werent possible i’ll return here soon.

This barrow nestles high upon the chalk downs of Purbeck Amongst an assortment of round barrows.

A nice hike uphill through atmospheric ancient woodlands brings you out onto Nine Barrows Down Cemetery where you are greeted with stunning views of Purbeck and a stunning array of barrows in all shapes and sizes. There’re two large round barrows with ditches five smaller round barrows and one long barrow combine this with Rempstone Stone Circle and you’ve got a perfect day.

I visited this site e few days ago and was pleasantly surprised to get it to myself after a visit to Belas Knap a few days earlier was a lot busier than i thought it would be, a beautiful site in a beautiful setting very peaceful indeed.

Access: Approaching Peasedown St. John from the south via radstock drive all the way through PSJ till you get to the roundabout straight after the village, take the right turn there follow the road to another roundabout take the turn there signed for Wellow look out for that cemetry on your right mentioned in Julians directions in TMA just before you enter the village of Wellow theres a narrow road(now signposted for Stoney littlrton) take that track all the way to the end be warned this road is narrow! youll come to a farmhouse with a small carpark accross from it from there cross a stile and a bridge and a signposted 5 min walk brings you out at Stoney Littleton Bliss!

Before going here I really should have read the fieldnotes but never planned the visit I just stopped off on the way to Dorset. It was the middle of summer and I decided to park my car at the bottom of the lane and walk up. At the bottom of the lane it says Belas Knap 1.5 miles walk a 1/4 of a mile up the lane you are greeted by a sign pointing into the cricket ground also saying Belas knap 1.5 miles! So I set off up the footpath through the cricket ground uphill into a field and uphill again you get to a wall at the top and cross the stile which brings you out on the lane you parked at the bottom of! I followed the lane up turned the corner and was met by parking spaces for your car with a sign saying ‘Belas Knap 0.5 miles’ arghh! Ah well I enjoyed the walk anyway. From there its easy, through a small wood into a field (just go straigt up the top of this field) turn left through another field and there she is at the end of the path. Wow what a beauty, I was quite suprised by the number of visitors up here I always like a little solitude and rtime out when I get to these sites but I was also quite happy that more people are taking an intrest in these special places to, which kinda makes up for it :) Go there and see her for yourself the walk really isn’t that bad.

This year we decided to spend the summer solstice a little more quiely than usual. So we decided to spend it at Barnscar in the middle of nowhere camped in an iron age village no tom toms, no Fire-eaters and no born again christians trying to convert us!
So we pitched our tent high upon Barnscar (hoping we wouldnt be noticed) and spent the night here it was very peaceful and not a soul for miles bliss! This place is so calming the ground is nice and spongy to sleep on and it was beautiful to watch the sun rise over the Cumbrian Mountains on Midsummers morning.
Sadly this was Midsummer and the Ferns and bracken had grown to about 4 foot high so it was hard to see most of it.I did however find some stone tools just lying on the ground and a possible forgotten stone circle with an outlier too.
Barnscar is a little hard to get to but more than worth the effort it has a real ambience to it and is just dripping in archaeology a must for all TMAer’s if you get to Cumbria dont miss this one!

A bit of a strange one this in the middle of a public park and no-one seems to know much about it, as I havn’t really found many references to Hawksclough. Me and Rivington Pike (a fellow member of TMA) who also had vaguely heard of it decided to find it.

What we found does seem to be the site that’s on the map, its earthworks quite prominent, just no-one seems to know its there! This monuments purpose and meaning has been sadly forgotten but after all this time it still remains there on the hill for all to rediscover.

Not to hard to find this one, this settlement is located high on a hill in the middle of a field of sheep with the highest dry stone walls i have ever seen! on this occasion there was one too many farmers and tractors about to get a good close up. I will return soon, i also found what could be the remains of a stone circle just outside the field with castle hill in. You can also see high park from here and i soon realised why its called this, its cos its so high up! to access it from here you need to go down a huge slope cross a river and then climb another huge slope to get up to it another way round is needed i think.

An ancient rock shelter with evidence of early human habitation stone tools and bones were excavated here.
The Fairy Holes consist of 3 caves one large enough to walk into, the other 2 entrances being about 2 and a half foot high but open into much larger chambers a small crawl is required.
These caves took me about 3 hours to find but were more than worth the effort. Beautiful and serene and set in a magical setting its easy to see how faerie folklore has attatched itself to these caves. There is definately an ambience here ive never seen my dog so nervous when i came accross the large entrance to the walk in cave i was also greeted by a small bird which didnt seem to want to let me enter he sqawked at me as i walked by him but didnt move from his prominent position , once inside i switched my torch on and marvelled at the cave it went back at least 40 foot and ends in a small cavern too.
All the while i was inside the guardian bird is sqawking in the background making it very eerie indeed! i think ive been brave for long enough now so im coming out!
I only peered inside the other two caves as what i was wearing wasnt really appropriate for crawling and besides when i attempted to look in the other 2 caves the dam bird blocked my way! freaky :)
So you can make sense of the photos i will give the caves a label from left to right A,B,C. (A+C being the smaller of the caves)

DIRECTIONS: there are 2 ways to access the caves one hard way and an easy way! guess which way i chose? anyway the best way is park up at the inn at whitewell plenty of room to park there and by the church, take the footpath on the left hand side of the church down to the river bank, look to your left and youll see the stepping stones that cross the river cross these and go up the hill towards the farm just before you reach the gate at the top of the hill which leads into the farmyard there’s a metal gate to your left just before the farm, which leads into the woods take this! a word of warning though im not sure wether your allowed access here so be cautious, the path beyond leads to a small tip at the end turn right into the trees and youll see two paths the slightly higher path leads to the fairy holes but is quite treachourous when this path bends right look up to your right and youll see the rocks the caves are located in if you take the lower path count the water manholes you see along the way when you get to 5 look upto your right and youll see the rocky outcrop the caves are in just remember the caves are in the woods and not outside them like i thought they were! alternatively you can walk round the right hand side of the trees once again im not sure about access but look for the wooden gate outside the forest where it bends to the right enter the wood and the caves are below you. As always have fun!