Managed to find these elusive carvings last week. It was decided that the choice of Feb 29th was auspicious, as it proved to be.
A bit of research via Google Earth showed a patch that looked to be in shadow, implying the existence of a clearing. A bit of tricknology with a gps device converted the GE co-ordinates into a gps friendly point at which to leave the path and follow the furrows made when planting the trees.
The trees have recently been thinned slightly in the southern part of the plantation, so access wasn't as much of a problem as it could have been. Working out where the carvings are was, and we initially walked right past the spot where the carvings later showed up. This led to an hour or so of hands-and-knees crawling through some dense and highly resistant coniferous gloom.
A combination of the satellite images, Stan Beckensall's sketched map and a bit of tree-stump observation eventually led to the conclusion that they were buried under a 25 yr old annoyingly deep and tangled pile of pine branches and needles. (It took much effort to shift the heap).
It was still a very sludgy bit of rock art, as the decades of decomposition had left an unpleasant slime mixed with pine needles over the surface of the outcrop. Hence a return visit today, this time armed with a (soft) brush and some water.
The carvings are very worn, but quite complex in composition. I couldn't help but think it looked like a panel that had been added to over time, possibly starting out as a set of simple cups, elaborated upon at a later date.
If you take the trees away, there's a great view, showing significant hills such as Ros Castle, Simonside and the Cheviot.
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I can't say exactly how many cups there are on this stone as I lost count (got bored counting) after 30 or so. They seem like the real deal, though in the 4 years since I saw it in the real, I've not been able to find any information about it.
The stone looks like it could have once stood up, though now it's propped on top of four small stones making a strange kind of not-dolmen.
It sits just at the Syddyssen end of the bridge between the Maelkebotten and Syddyssen areas of the strange and semi-autonomous hippy/radgey commune of Christiania, in an old military barracks on the seaward edge of Copenhagen.
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I've listed this site as a Taula as that's probably the main attraction for most folk. The taula is missing it's cap, but does have an interesting hole in it, in the manner of the Stone of Odin.
I was quite chuffed to find this out, as it seemed very difficult to get any information regarding the site, it's existence only being marked in a very vague fashion on one of the Menorcan Megalithic tourist maps.
Thankfully, there were some helpful folks at the farm, one of whom was quite happy to guide me to the right area. This is just as well, as it would have been nigh on impossible to find without exact directions.
The poblat is still quite in evidence, though it's been co-opted for agricultural purposes, and it seems as if some of the original structures have been rebuilt over the centuries. Like little circular drystone structures which my guide explained were alleged to be made from the stones of the dwellings in the ancient village.
There are also a couple of interesting anomalies in the poblat zone, namely a line of large orthostats which seemed reminiscent of the facade of something or other, and a patch of outcrop bearing large stonecut basins, some circular, some irregular almost head-and-torso shaped.
These parts are reasonably accessible, as the grove in which they sit is grazed by livestock. The livestock are prevented from getting into the Taula sanctuary/Talaoit by a substantial wall.
On the other side of this wall, it is very overgrown. The trees and bushes are virtually impenetrable. it's a bit of a scramble to get to the holed Taula, around which can be made out a good few other orthostats poking up from the very uneven undergrowth/cobbles mixture that is underfoot. Some of these orthostats also have holes, some of which looked natural, as if the stones had been chosen specifically because of the holes.
The talaoit is not easy to get up, I found myself wriggling under branches and through nettles to circumnavigate it to find if there was one of those little cave things built into the side, which there is. It was very disorientating, but I think the cave thing points roughly in the direction of El Toro.
It's a bit of a mad and gnarly old site, but if you like your prehistoric sites raw, unexcavated and untended, this is a very untidy and atmospheric example of exactly those qualities.
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Having spent best part of a week in the village, I got a few opportunities to examine the various chunks of oolitic stone dotted about the village. It's difficult to avoid thoughts that these could so easily have once been part of something Rollrighty.
The larger stones forming the kerb of the church looked to me as if they were once fewer, larger stones that had been split to be the right size for the kerb. There are definite feather marks, and the more angular edges Jane mentions seemed to me to be the bits where larger stones had been split. Some of the others in the kerb are just as gnarly as the Rollrights themselves, making it easy to imagine them as part of a monument.
There are also a couple of the roadside stones that bore slight circular depressions that if they appeared on fell sandstone in Northumberland, I would have no hesitation in declaring them cupmarks. But as these Churchill stones are oolitic, its not so easy to say. Though the presence of the possible cups in Salford might lend a tiny sliver of credence to the possibility that they are artificial, and not just statistically inevitable natural cup-like formations.
Overall, I'm in agreement that these stones really do look like they could have been part of the circle that Hamish says was once down the way at Sarsgrove wood.
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This was the second panel of rock art on the itinerary of the Rock Art Meet 2007. The bushes meant that only three or four people could visit at a tme, so the viewing was done in shifts.
It tripped off the continuation of a discussion that's been bubbling for a couple of years now, due to the way in which the complex three lobed motif at the centre of the panel emerges from a substantial natural cleft.
If there is anything in the theory that natural features, particularly fissures/clefts, influenced the choice of the rock to be marked, then the subsequent placing of motifs, then this panel is a good example.
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I'm embarrassed to say that I couldn't find this one. I think I must have been on the wrong path. I hope so, I'd hate to think it's gone.
I hope that if it has been moved, it's somewhere safe.
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If you want to see one of the most peculiar cairns the north of England has to offer, come here.
As stated below, the variety of rock art is top notch, with many motifs, of all different designs and execution. But don't be distracted by the bvious carvings, there are a few heavily eroded complex ones to be found on the northern side of the cairn. These are at one end of the extant spectrum of visibility at thi site, with the other end being occupied by the most in-yer-face motif, which looks susiciously as if it's been re-touched at some point in the distant past. Much the same as one nearby at West Horton
But the thing that makes this cairn odd is the large number of portable marked stones found during excavation. It's generally a workable rule of thimb that portable cup marked stones in cairns are associated with some kind of funereal function, like those on the underside of cist covers. But the carn here yielded absolutely no sign of any burials at all, not even a bit of burnt bone, nor potsherd.
This doesn't mean it wasn't of course, but it certainly adds to the ambience of the place to think that it's maning, and the meanings of the carvings, is so obscurely lost in the mists of time, that it defies even the most general of generalisations.
Access does require getting in touch with the farm though, they're quite keen on that, as they usually have livestock in the field.
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The marked stone is nicely looked after in it's own puropse built niche in a wall. Apparently it was found in the field containing Shortflatt barrow, just to the east. Stan Beckensall has recorded three other cup-marked stones from the area, all of which are also in private hands.
This is definitely one that visitors should ask permission for before visiting, as it's very much on private property.
I was struck by the strange veneer of reddish stuff that looked as if it had been splatterred onto the carved surface. No idea at all what it might be, but it doesn't look like a natural feature.
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Marked on the map as a Tumulus, as it's never been dug, this is apparently a bona fide bronze age burial mound. There are traces of a ditch, and the remains of stone kerbs, though the latter are a bit obscured by the field clearance dumped on the mound.
It's got a good line of sight to nearby Shaftoe Crags, and particularly to the striking natural feature of The Piper's chair, on the horizon. Maybe this had something to do with the choice of this spot for a mound?
It does bear a striking resemblance to the nearby Poind and his man, only without the standing stone. Who knows, maybe one there was a stone here too, a few standing stones in the area have gone walkabout, see Wallington and Middleton for examples.
The field just to the NW of the mound has turned up a few examples of portable rock art over the years, thought to be from now vanished cairns. There are still many large clearance stones dotted all over the immediate vicinity.
Nice to see the sturdy fence protecting the mound from the drepidations of cattle.
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The thing that struck me today about this site, is that it forms a point in a straight line across from Fowberry Mains to Coldmartin Lough. Also on the same line, to within a few metres, are Whitsunbank 3 and Fowberry cairn.
I've never been a great believer in Watkinsesque straight line stuff, but sometimes I do wonder. 4 points on a straight line. Would this be enough to discount random chance? Hmmm.
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Who the heck found this one?!?!
It's underneath a boulder, with only about 2 inches clearance, so you can just see it.
You have to admire the thouroughness with which this area has been surveyed.
There is another carving here, but I was in a bit of a rush, so missed it this time. Pictures can be seen on the BRAC link below.
There's also what looks like a standing stone between the carved boulder and the trees.
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Managed a quick visit here following a call to the thoroughly decent farmer to ask permission to wander the fields. This later involved a bit chat about the placement and possible meanings of the carvings. It was this chap who first discovered the carving in the early 1970s, he says he's scoured the area for others, but none have turned up.
The carvings itself is placed in such a spot that there has to be a high likelihood that it's creator was making reference to the natural feature of The Piper's Chair. As Beckensall says, it is very finely carved, it put me more in the mid of the Galloway carvings I've seen than of the general style in Northumberland. Quite tightly made, and unusual in this neck of the woods to see 4 penannulars and such a shallow cup.
It's also puzzling to try and work out what the damage was. I'd always assumed that it must have been quarried, but on close inspection, this seems unlikely. It's really just surface damage, but deliberate or accidental, who can say?
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Almost totally obscured by the heather, this is a stumpy little stone but definitely a standing stone, and seemingly prehistoric. It has packing stones and is heavily grooved on top, it's also next to what look very much like disturbed cairns. Is about 120cm tall, rectangular in section, no apparent cupmarks. Similar to (and actually larger than, believe it or not) other small stones of Northumberland, such as that at Rothbury. They used to call them 'Stob Stones' in these parts, a stob being the stump of a tree.
This might be a new discovery, I'm not sure. Possibly it's the one mentioned by Beckensall in prehistoric Northumberland, though I think it's further south. His description would seem to fit better with this one photographed by Rockandy. Alternatively, this could be the stone mentioned on the http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N4388 "> Keys to the Past website but if so, their grid ref is waaaaay out, over a kilometre in fact. I Find it a bit baffling that their grid ref was originally only 4 digits, as it's placed right on NU160110, down in the Titlington Burn. The OS do report a couple of stones in the area, but don't give then the gravitas of the antiquity script. I've not seen either, so wouldn't want to comment.
Should anyone want to give it the once-over, Garmin E-trex said: NU 12357 17161 (82m altitude, 4m accuracy)
There's also a weird stone with cortical texture nearby, reminiscent of the one at Cuthbert's Cave
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Hunterheugh 2 is one of the finest panels of rock art in Northumberland. The motifs aren't anything special, but the way in which you can see the effects of weathering are superb. I can't think of many other places, with the possible exception of the frieze at Buttony where a single motif has been partially covered so that the viewer can see quite clearly what effects the years have on these kind of carvngs.
With Hunterheugh 2, the largest motif is almost completely worn away at the top, but fresh as the day it was pecked at the bottom. It relly improves appreciation of the other simple carvings in the area, as they have mostly been weathered to virtually nothing, but panel 2 shows what all the others must have looked like when they were fresh. For this reason, it is imperative that the turf must always be replaced to protect the fresh carvings.
Panel 3 on the other hand, is barely discernable. It's only a couple of metres away from panel 2, but presumably has always been exposed to the elements. It's so worn away, you would be forgiven for walking right past it without noticing a thing.
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No much to see here, overgrown with tall heather, very disturbed, but definitely cairns. There's a little rectangle carved into a stone on the north side of the northern cairn. Looks like it was made with metal tools, no idea how old. Possibly some kind of boundary marker thing.
Supposedly there's a cist in one of them. I couldn't find it amongst the rubble and heather. Couldn't make out any kerbs either, but they're so overgrown with heather, there may be kerbstones hidden.
There may be marked stones in there somewhere, maybe even marked bedrock, similar to those found beneath the excavated cairn at Hunterheugh 1 further up the crags.
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Notes originally posted in 2004, then reposted after site was taken from TMA by he who did originally post it's presence, then edited after a 3rd revisit on Nov 02 2007, this time with a bunch of veteran D&NRAPers. What a faff.
Despite what I've written below, closer inspection showed that this does look like outcrop.
There are also signs of quarrying, though by whom, who knows. it may have even been those pesky romans, who went around snaffling other people's sandstone for their gaudy Mithraic temples etc.
Irregardless of who did the quarrying, it is interesting to wonder why they stopped before they'd broken up the whole bit of outcrop.
Imagination, given a bit of free-rein, suggests that this may have been because the 'significant' nature of the cupmarks was recognised, as is seen on many other marked outcrops in the county.
or, it may have been a deliberate act of desecration, with the remaining few cups being left as a reminder of what had been done. In which case, perhaps the original outcrop was much larger, maybe with more, wonderfully complex motifs (as opposed to a handful of fairly ropey cups...).
This speculation in turn leads to the idea that it may have been a case of prehistoric reverence, that a part of the marked stone was taken to serve as part of one of the many cairns in the area, or maybe even one of the cists, as is also seen with marked rocks elsewhere in Northumberland.
But, when it comes down to it, it's more than likely that the stone was quarried to provide material for the nearby limekilns. Why did the quarrying stop before the whole stone was removed? Well, if I were some 18th/19thC dude repairing what was possibly an old roman limekiln, I'd only quarry as much as I needed, no more. What's the point of going through the effort of breaking and transporting stones you don't need?
Possibly the same cup-marked stone originally added to the county SMR by a keen cup-spotter, but then largely overlooked (like most of the prehistoric remains close to Hadrian's Wall), this erratic boulder is fairly conspicuous, it's the only one in the enclosed field, more or less in the middle of what is marked on the OS map as 'Davy's Lee'. I'm not sure if it's the thing recorded on the Beckensall Archive, as that had a grid ref which placed it in a nearby stream, and was listed as being on outcrop. There's no outcrop in the stream and there's more than the 6 cups related on both the Archive and on the Northumberland county SMR, so ambiguity prevails.
It has natural grooves, which seem to have deermined the placement of the cups to some degree, as they are in groups, each group in an a part of the surface defined by the grooves.
The enclosed field in which the stone sits is interesting in it's own right, as the boundary is a low earthen bank, containing what looks like cord rig. The banks are more pronounced at the NW corner, where a ditch is also in evidence, possibly part of a settlement?
Like most of the pre-roman remains in the vicinity, I'd argue this stone may have some connection with the stupendous stone at Queen's crags.
Access:
Ask permission at the gatehouse, or at Sewingshields Farm. Rough, boggy terrain unsuitable for wheelchairs.
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The easternmost of the currently recorded Hunterheugh motifs, Hunterheugh 4 is a set of faint cups with single rings. These are recorded on the Beckensall Archive as such. It's not easy to say if there are 3 or 4 C&Rs as they are quite worn away.
There's another single cup a couple of metres away to the NE, next to what looks like a natural feature that's been enhanced into a shallow basin.
The other possibly significant thing about this site is the way the line of C&Rs seem to point to the peculiar natural feature of Cloudy Crags on Aydon moor to the south.
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Re-visited 25-02-07
This little marked stone is more or less exactly where akas555 reports it, on the south side of the field boundary. (Garmin e-trex says NZ019648 when rounded up from 10 figures). It looks like a very old boundary, with the remains of a bank, mostly quite low, but giving the impression that it may have once been quite substantial, with traces of hedge in places. The absence of undergrowth shows there are oodles of field clearance stones in the bank, making me wonder if there are any other carvings still hidden from view. The marked stone is quite obviously no longer in situ, but presumably came from somewhere fairly close. Maybe there was once a cairn in one of the fields, or I suppose it may have been part of an inconvenient (from a farmers point of view) lump of outcrop. The former seems more likely.
I'm very pleased to see someone has located this one again. For it has deliberately hidden from me in the past.
I spent a very uncomfortable afternoon in high summer a couple of years ago looking for it on the wrong side of the fence, which is festooned with brambles and nettles. I was searching on the north side of the fence, further east towards Brockhole dean, which is where it appears to be when using the ref given on the Beckensall Archive. So near, yet so far...
I feel a revisit armed with akas555's info and a gps would be in order.
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In Northumberland's Prehistoric Rock Carvings (Pendulum, 1983), Beckensall says 'The site is very unusual at the side of a stream, and does not command the usual extensive views', this is closely tied in with his Zen-like statement in Prehistoric Rock Art in Northumberland (Tempus, 2001), when he adds as a caption on the photograph on p.119, "This flat boulder is either in it's natural position, or has been brought there". I'd agree that it seems to be in an incongruous setting, but noticed that when approached from the east, you can see above the treeline and there's a superb view over to Cheviot, framed by the two nearest hills. This argues to it being in situ.
However, when you're at the boulder itself, there's a profusion of field clearance stones, all of which are either small cobbles, or medium sized bits about the right size for a Northumbrian kerb cairn. So there's the possibility that the marked stone came from a now defunct cairn. The area drips with funerary remains.
Adding to the ambiguity is the fact that the stones seems to lie smack bang on a prehistoric trackway, complete with standing stones, cists etc., which supports either viewpoint. I just couldn't make my mind up completely.
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If you're heading for this panel, whatever you do, don't rely on the OSmap (like we did), the explorer map shows a track leading from Slockaullin to Tayness, heading south, then doubling back after a mile or so. This track turns into a total bog (we slogged through it). Not worth the bother. Instead, follow Greywether's directions, and use the newer track heading uphill to your right as you walk up from the road to Slockavullin, it's not on the map, but it'll get you right up there to where you want to go, we used it to get back down, much better.
Tidily mown inside the fence, completely wild and woolly outside. The panel itself is nice. A frequently made observation seems to be regarding how the motifs are clustered together on the rock surface, with a big gap around the edge. No-one knows if this was a deliberate choice or simply because the carvings are on the part that was exposed back when the carvings were pecked.
Possibly due to the uneven water table, we found that sunset at Ballygowan to be a very midge infested time.
Visited August 2006
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I like the Prehistoric Rock Art of Northumberland:
Ketley Crag
Chatton
Weetwood Moor
Dod Law
Roughting Linn
Lordenshaw
Fowberry Cairn
Hunterheugh
Old Bewick
Morwick
Currently obsessed with waving torches at things, often including rocks, as a prelude to some serious waving of torches at rocks that will inevitably appear here on tma at some point :)
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