8digit grid ref: NT 4701 0624
Info courtesy of RCAHMS
"This stone circle is situated on a natural shelf at a height of 950 ft, near the summit of Burgh Hill. Sub-oval on plan, it measures 54 ft from NE to SW by 44 ft transversely and comprises twenty-five stones, thirteen of which are erect while the remainder are recumbent. They are all comparatively small slabs (ranging in height from a few inches to 2 ft 8 ins) and most of them have a broad face aligned on the perimeter of the setting."
"Only one of the recumbent stones, on the SW side, is appreciably larger in size, measuring 5 ft in length by 2 ft 3 ins in width. It is recorded that the circle "has been well explored, but yielded nothing of a sepulchral nature."
"An egg-shaped ring of many stones. It has been ruined but alone among its little stones a 1.5m pillar remains, fallen, at the SW (238) opposite a 1.1m long, low, thin slab in appearance like a Cork recumbent stone. This 'recumbent' and the prostrate pillar are on the main axis of the site."
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Canmore says:
"Measures 20.1 by 18.9m Seven of a probable 12 original stones set in a circle 60 ft. in diameter remain. Four are still (1963) in situ, none protruding more than 2 ft above ground"
It's still marked on the map, so presumably it's still there.
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At NU04700418 is Cartington (b), a slab which according to Beckensall's description, has many cups and rings, but very faint. Including some possible picks marks waiting to be joined into a groove.
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Examination of the records shows some confusion regarding the Poind. Some seem to refer to it as the mound, others seem to use the term in ref to the surviving stone.
It's reasonably clear that at some point there were at least two stones here, one of which appears to have been taken to the grounds of nearby Wallington Hall. Speculators have even suggested that there was once a circle at Shaftoe crags, and that the Stone here, the one at Wallington, the Middleton stone and another as yet re-discovered stone near Salter's nick, may have all been taken from this postulated circle.
The cup-marked outcrop is marked as 'Hunter's stone' on the 1866 map.
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The following cribbed from English Heritage via Magic Map:
"Bowl barrow situated 350m NE of Dewley Farm near Throckley.
On a small rise above Dewley Burn, Circular in plan, dome shaped in section. 6m high, 40m diameter with associated cropmarks. Neolithic stone axe found at the site."
This is backed up by local affirmation that 'it's always been a burial mound', and farmers having found flint artefacts in the vicinity.
Despite this apparent provenance, there are some academic references which seem to imply doubt, arguing that this is a natural feature of the landscape. It seems a bit unlikely to my uneducated eye, as there are no other hillocks like this. None so round, nor any with the neolithic artefacts placed so that aximum visibility is from a nearby spring. It's a burial mound. Surely.
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A neolithic long cairn has recently been identified a few hundred metres to the south of the hillfort. This cairn may have played a role in the decision to place the stones of the nearby Five Kings alignment in their position overlooking Hareheugh hill.
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A mesolithic rock shelter has been found in one of the overhangs on Shaftore Crags, to the NW of the IA/BA settlement.
This fits a vague pattern for this area, usually there is associated rock art, which in this case there is, at Hallion's rock. I've a gut feeling that there would have been a lot more rock art on the crags before they were quarried in the late 18th century. There are a few recorded 'portables' in nearby farms, though perhaps these were once part of the crags. The stone quarried from the crags was used to build almost all of the farms and walls on the Shaftoe estate.
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8Digit ref: NT 5576 5231
Info from RCAHMS:
"The setting of these stones is an example of Thom's Type II egg-shape, though the ten surviving upright stones are inconspicious, some barely showing above the heather. Many more fallen ones are visible and some buried examples were located by probing. Most of the stones lie on a true circle 41.5m in diameter. The west segment is formed of an arc of a circle 25.6m in the diameter, the circumference of which passes through the centre of the main circle. The perimeter is completed by straight lines which join the arcs of the two circles."
"A plain circle 41.5 by 36.6m on WNW-ESE axis. Of its low stones, none more than 0.6m high, one lies exactly at the N, 3.1m inside the circumference, like an inlier at Cairnpapple. Thirty-seven metres NW, two stones may mark an alignment on Capella."
"Situated on level, though boggy ground in an otherwise undulating area, this egg-shaped circle is generally described except that its overall stone-centre dimensions are 48.0m WNW-ESE by 41.0m transversely. Of thirty stones found, five by probing, fourteen appear in-situ uprights up to 0.5m high, and the remainder are recumbent. The SE arc crosses an overgrown and boggy area where further stones are probably buried. The alleged inlier on the N side is an inconspicuous flat stone, and no significant stones were noted to the NW of the circle."
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According to RCAHMS:
"This peat-covered stone circle is situated in the saddle between Cambret Hill and Cairnharrow, and it lies immediately to the SSE of a large round cairn (NX55NW 22). Nine stones survive on the N and W arcs of the circle but only two others are visible on the remainder of the circumference; together, they define a circle about 25m in diameter. The largest surviving stone, which lies on the WSW, stands to a height of 1.2m and measures 0.8m by 0.2m at the base. The stones are all thin slabs, with their broad faces aligned on the circumference of the circle.
What may be an outlier to the circle lies some 100m to the NNE (NX 5298 5723); it comprises a flat slab protruding from the peat with its long axis orientated towards the centre of the circle"
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The following dredged out of RCAHMS:
"This stone circle consists of four large conglomerate boulders, varying from 2'-4' in height, and a fifth broken off at ground level, arranged on the circumference of a circle 10' in internal diameter. A sixth stone, 5' E of the truncated one, has probably been broken off the latter and moved to its present position in recent times. A thin sandstone slab protruding through the turf outside the NE arc of the circle is not earthfast, and is unlikely to have formed part of the monument. No comparable monument exists in Peeblesshire, but one near Penmaenmawr, Caernarvonshire, dateable to the Middle Bronze Age, is strikingly similar."
(Information from R W Feachem notebook 1955-7, i, 68)
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In medieval times, the black magician the Evil Lord De Soulis was said to have drilled holes in the shoulder blades of local peasants to assist in the moving of the stones needed to build nearby Hermitage castle. He also kidnapped and imprisoned their children. Robert the Bruce supposedly captured De soulis and the Locals took him to the stone circle to be dispatched. In a vat of molten lead if the tale is true. His ghost, and that of the curiously named Robin Redcap may still occasionally be seen
People have said that there may have once been other monuments and/or settlements in the vicinity:
"On a careful examination of the ground we found that a great extent around the circle (Nine Stones on Nine-stone Rig 35 SW 2) appeared to have been occupied and to the south a number of the same kind of circles had existed but were now entirely destroyed. The hollow in the centre of each circle is still to be seen and the appearance of the herbage and the marks in the earth around clearly indicate the position of the upright stones".
A Jeffrey 1855
On the top of Nine Stone Rig there is a whole street of circular pits running directly from the stone circle. They are planted at regular distances, and fairly close together, and they gauge from 8 to 10 feet deep, with rather more of diameter. They have in most instances a gently sloping side, in some more marked than others, and runs in a kind of curve towards the north. These, or some of them, may have been originally natural subsidences, although their number, regularity and uniformity of size are against that idea. All the suggestions are that these formed the shelters of the men who set up the Circle and heaped up the barrow... The ground is dry and lying as the pits do, just a little over the edge of the Rig, there would be no danger of flooding".
J Snadden 1923
But then, more recent accounts dismiss this idea:
"No archaeological significance could be attributed to these 'pits' which lie a few metres NNE of the stone circle. They appear to be simply caused by natural subsidences in the mossy ground."
Visited by OS (JLD) 28 September 1960
Pehaps even more dubious is the report of a possible long barrow (unusual in this area):
"On the western slope (of Ninestone Rig, NY 51 97) and towards the Roughley Burn, I found a long barrow, or earthen burial mound. It is oblong in shape, and the lines of the mound are composed of earth and small stones so firmly compacted together that they cannot be pierced by a spade. The earth has been dug and thrown up from the inside, which leaves the space between the lines hollow. There is a line of mound at each end which meets the main lines at right angles. The length over all is between 80 and 100 yards. The breadth of the base may be eight to nine feet. The barrow is intersected in the centre by a fifth line of mound, which meets the main lines at right angles. The most probable explanation of this is that the barrow was originally square, and was afterwards elongated. Lying on the inside slope of the mound is a stone about three feet in length, in which a deep hole has been cut six to nine inches square. In its place it looks as if it had served some sepulchral purpose".
J Snadden 1923
Later visitors relate:
"This feature was not located during an extensive perambulation of the area around the stone circle. From the description it is doubtful if this is of any archaeological significance. "
Visited by OS (JLD) 28 September 1960
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Apparently this is a 1m tall wedge, 60cm at its back end, 10cm at the narrow end of the wedge. Aligned NW/SE, pointy end to the SE. Top surface with much weather induced pitting.
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In the back end of the 19th century, there were still five stones. The fifth was taken away for gatepost duties. At about the same time, Mr David Dippie Dixon, a local antiquarian, made a sketch which has since been reproduced as a lithograph.
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Six upright stones, allegedly part of a cairn, according to the 'keys to the past' website, which says this information is from unpublished references.
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What the RSM describes as 'Limited antiquarian investigation' found a full circle of ten boulders. On the inner side of four of these was found a total of ten urns, many containing cremated bone. The centre of the stone cairn within the circle was found to show traces of a funeral pyre.
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According to the RSM, the smaller southern stone was re-erected in 1977, when a small, plough damaged cairn was found immediately to the east of the stones. In the central area of the cairn there was found a large amount of burnt bone, interpreted as the remains of several humans.
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"This is a very fine court cairn, not restored as Cloghanmore is, and therefore difficult to reconstruct its original shape. It had a central court now cut across by a track and a stone wall. The main galleries set to the east and west of the court are two-chambered. These were originally roofed and covered in a cairn of stones. Three subsidiary chambers set around the court can be clearly discerned; a fourth is indicated by some large stones set in the north-western corner of the court where the structure has been largely removed by the track and is tday covered by a stone wall. Two ancient stone walls running to a nearby rock outcrop can be distinguished on the north side."
From 'Glencolumbkille, A guide to 5000 years of history in stone', by Michael Herity.
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Coflein (thanks Kammer for bringing Coflein's existance to my attention) says:Small hillfort on rounded hillock, two lines of defence circle the hillock, the outer consists of an earthen bank and an external ditch. The inner defence is a heavily robbed stone wall, between 4 and 5 metres wide. The entrance ramp cuts both defences on the SE. No mention of the strange, big, white and distinctly out-of-place stone. Nor of the chevaux-de-frise (sp?) on the NE entrance.
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Triangular Long Cairn.
Unusual for the North Cheviots.
Aligned NNW by SSE. 24m long, 14m wide, 1.5m high.
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From the EH register, courtesy of MAgiC:
'The circle consistes of six boulders in an arc which, with two other boulders further west, forms an oval 10.5m by 7m. About 9m to the northeast, is the outlying stone which appears to be associated with the oval, and is considered to be part of the stone circle. The stones forming the oval range in size from 0.5m by 0.3m by 0.3m to 1.5m by 1m by 0.5m and 1.2m by 0.5m by0.8m. The outlying stone measures 1.5m by 0.6m by 0.6m'
It's also only metres away from the B6276.
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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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