Hob

If you like playing ‘Spot the cup mark’ then have a walk around the outside. The heather is over 3ft high in places, so who knows what’s hiding under there?

The ditches and ramparts are easily visible from Beacon Cairn, just up the hill, on the other side of the road from the carpark.

Simonside is a heck of a good hill to climb on a sunny day. It would be awful in wet weather. However if you got trapped in a sudden mist, away from the path,you could take cover in one of the rock shelters and wait it out. I wouldn’t reccomend it though, as many clefts have only enough vegetation to hide them from view, not enough to stop you from disappearing. In all, not a place to go near dark on a rainy day, only go if it’s sunny, or if you’re very nimble. especially so if you intend to leave the path.

The path is needlessly wide, due to heavy erosion, but that does make it easy to follow, if a bit covered in the kind of loose stone that gives you a bad time no matter what the weather.

But once you get up to the top of the ridge, 360 deg views, madly eroded patterns on rocks, possible rock art, rock shelter type overhangs, cairns, even a pool at the bottom of The north side of Simonside proper.

The south side of Old Stell crag has a fantastically sheltered cranny with exellent views, but is toatally sheltered, ideal for a rest and a ponder.

Note of caution from a pleasantly unexpected encounter, there are adders, and they ain’t scared of humans or dogs.

Park at Lordenshaws car park for the easiest route, i.e that with the shallowest incline.

Strange weathered formations abound. The horizontally grooved pillar is particularly conspicuous. It’s on the north edge, about 20m NW of the cairn.

It has possible cup marks at it’s foot, a couple of which may be artificially pecked, or may only be solution holes. Better lighting, or a rubbing might make this clearer.

Beneath this are some of the many overhangs which could easily have been effective rock shelters before they silted up.

Another 10m or so along the path from the formation, is a boulder which appears to have definite pecked cups, less weathered, on a few of the side faces. I’m still not 100% sure though. Single cups being tricky to diagnose and all.

It’s not above the doorway, as a childhood memory suggested. Rather it is next to the doorway, opposite the gate entrance, you can’t miss it. It must be some of the easiest to find rock art ever.

Two, possibly three motifs, the upper two connected.

Reasonably good disabled access too, though the cobbled castle entrance is a bit steep.

Shame it’s been moved out of context, but great that it’s survived.

It’s another hypergroovey bit of stone.
The channels down this, and others like the Poind’s man, The Warrior Stone, Duddo, proudly display their centuries of braving the elements.

It’s also got a goodly number of cup marks, on all four sides according to Stan The Man.

There’s something about the grooves though, that taunts my imagination. They are so similar to similar grooves found running horizontally on natural rock features such as Dove Crag on Simonside, or even the vertical ones on Robin Hood’s stride further afield.

Part of me wonders if stones suh as the Matfen stone were deliberately quarried from already weathered rock.

One bad point about this stone, it has a chip recently taken off it near the bottom of the SW corner. Fresh new yellow stone is like a raw wound. Whether as the result of accident or deliberate idiotic behaviour, it’s shocking bad hat.

Keep going through Ingoe hamlet, don’t take the left fork in the village, it gets tangly. Rather, head along to the right. down the dip, and up to Sandyway Heads farm. The short hardcore track not marked on the map leads to the field with the stone.

The associated tumulus is on the other side of the fence, and looks badly ploughed out, can’t be more than 70cm above field level.

Excellent views over the Tyne valley, and further south across to Hexhamshire Common, and to the Simonside hills to the north, though the farmhouse obscures this.

On the way into the hamlet of Ingoe, check out the possible quernstone on the tiny village green by the fork in the road.

The stone itself is deeply grooved stone, like a few of the others in Northumberland.

The walk from the road at the top of the hill is rough. I can’t imagine it would be much fun in wet weather, as it is a rut through about a foot of peat. Could be quite tricky.

However, it’s worth the effort. This is a fantastic space. The slidey metal hatch, the useful torch in a box, the superb quality corbelling and the ladder down into it all contribute as does the excellent view.

The passages are very low and muddy knees seem to be the order of the day to get into the side chambers.

I visited four tombs (5 if you include Mine Howe), on Orkney, this was the best by far. It isn’t as grand as Maeshowe, but it has a superb beehive corbelled chamber, and a much more emotive sense of place.

Phone in advance to make sure there’s some one there. The hardhats provided are a good idea, as is the removal of backpacks, as it’s very steep, with many chances to bang your head or snag your bag.

The difference in the quality of the corbelling between here and the likes of Wideford or Ibister is quite evident.

There’s lots of information in the cabin, much of which relates to the ‘Time Team’ programme.

It didn’t feel like a burial chamber.

One of the best things about this place is the Simpsons obvious enthusiasm for their prehistoric gem. Visitor centres aren’t usually particularly inspiring, but the opportunity to talk with the fella who discovered it is a fine thing. The hands on approach makes the experience much more real.

As for the tomb itself, it’s canny enough, though the sandbag placed outside to supposedly stop folk from shooting over the cliff if they exit too fast on the skateboard, is more likely to stop them getting minced by the fence.

I found the surroundings are as breathtaking as reported.

If you’re passing, say from Stromness to Kirkwall or Finstown, Unstan is near the road, and has parking.

If you aren’t sure about dark dingy tombs, it’s neither, the whitewashed modern ceiling and the skylights make it quite dry, and well illuminated. To the point where the stones are a vivid green on a bright day, due to the algae growing on them.

There are many inscriptions, you could lose an hour or so trying to decipher if any are prehistoric. Most seem to be 19thC