The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Miscellaneous Posts by Moth

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Le Guirec (Standing Stone / Menhir)

Didn't have time to go to find this one but think the co-ordinates we had are better, so they have replaced Mark's.

Denmark (Country)

Glossary (as far as I can glean!)
Dysse: 'dolmen' = burial chamber, often with a mound (plural - dysser)
Dyssekammer: 'dolmen chamber' = burial chamber - as we usually use dolmen
Runddysse: 'round dolmen' = a chambered round barrow (plural - runddysser)
Langdysse: 'long dolmen' = a chambered long barrow (plural - langdysser)
Jættestue: 'giant's stones' = passage grave (plural - jættestuen)
Høj: 'hill' = barrow
Skibssætning: 'stone ship' = megalithic boat-shaped setting

Books & maps
For our trip Jane and I used Julian's The Megalithic European (see link at top of page to 'The Books') and James Dyer's Discovering Archaeology in Denmark (1972, Shire ISBN 0 85263158 8).

For Langeland, we also used the Danish language Oldtidsmindser På Langeland (1996 Langelands Museum ISBN 87 88509-133) available at the Tourist Information office (and, I would imagine, Langelands Museum itself) in Rudkøbing, Langelands. It doesn't seem to be available on their website though - http://www.langelandsmuseum.dk/museum_en

We also got a useful 1:50,000 map/leaflet in English Six cycling trips on Langeland (ISBN 87-7343-380-2) from the Tourist Information office.

Mapwise, we used the Euromap 1:30,000 of Denmark (ISBN 3-575-03112-6), which allied to some maps printed from the Visit Denmark website (see below) allowed us to find pretty much everywhere we looked for.

I also did some web research with limited success. I have posted the most useful site I found for the whole country (Visit Denmark) in the Links section below. I've posted a link specifically for Northern Jutland on the Jutland page. There is also a great PDF document available for some of the sites on Als, see Links on the Als page.

Als (Island)

Wish we'd had this pdf map of the Norreskov monuments - Frydendal Kro, Frydendal Øst, Havrekobbel, Gamle Troldhøj and Baronens høj, as well as many others we didn't find.

Right-click & chose 'save as' http://www.skovognatur.dk/NR/rdonlyres/C696C301-64AA-405C-A447-895DA377B5D2/0/30_NoerreskovenAls_kort.pdf

Baronens Høj (Runddysse)

Wish we'd had this pdf map of the Norreskov monuments - Frydendal Kro, Frydendal Øst, Havrekobbel, Gamle Troldhøj and Baronens høj, as well as many others we didn't find.

Right-click & chose 'save as' http://www.skovognatur.dk/NR/rdonlyres/C696C301-64AA-405C-A447-895DA377B5D2/0/30_NoerreskovenAls_kort.pdf

Havrekobbel (Complex)

Wish we'd had this pdf map of the Norreskov monuments - Frydendal Kro, Frydendal Øst, Havrekobbel, Gamle Troldhøj and Baronens Høj, as well as many others we didn't find.

Right-click & chose 'save as' http://www.skovognatur.dk/NR/rdonlyres/C696C301-64AA-405C-A447-895DA377B5D2/0/30_NoerreskovenAls_kort.pdf

Frydendal Øst (Runddysse)

Wish we'd had this pdf map of the Norreskov monuments - Frydendal Kro, Frydendal Øst, Havrekobbel, Gamle Troldhøj and Baronens høj, as well as many others we didn't find.

Right-click & chose 'save as' http://www.skovognatur.dk/NR/rdonlyres/C696C301-64AA-405C-A447-895DA377B5D2/0/30_NoerreskovenAls_kort.pdf

Gamle Troldhøj (Runddysse)

Wish we'd had this pdf map of the Norreskov monuments - Frydendal Kro, Frydendal Øst, Havrekobbel, Gamle Troldhøj and Baronens høj, as well as many others we didn't find.

Right-click & chose 'save as' http://www.skovognatur.dk/NR/rdonlyres/C696C301-64AA-405C-A447-895DA377B5D2/0/30_NoerreskovenAls_kort.pdf

Frydendal Kro (Complex)

Wish we'd had this pdf map of the Norreskov monuments - Frydendal Kro, Frydendal Øst, Havrekobbel, Gamle Troldhøj and Baronens Høj, as well as many others we didn't find.

Right-click & chose 'save as' http://www.skovognatur.dk/NR/rdonlyres/C696C301-64AA-405C-A447-895DA377B5D2/0/30_NoerreskovenAls_kort.pdf

Dun Ringill (Stone Fort / Dun)

On the subject of the Jethro Tull references, last night at Reading Hexagon, they played Dun Ringill. Ian Anderson introduced it as a song about a neolithic (sic?) hillfort & went on to talk about it being used to try to see off the Vikings....

He's usually reasonably knowledgable about stuff, so I suspect he was simplifying it for the plebs in the crowd. Or not.

Benllech (Burial Chamber)

Mentioned in Frances Lynch's 'Prehistoric Anglesey'. Exact map ref is SH 5190 8275.

Thanks to Dunston & FourWinds for clarification - I'd previously used the name for Glyn when I couldn't find any info on it.

Edinchip Chambered Cairn

CANMORE calls it a ‘Clyde-type long chambered cairn’ and puts its overall dimensions as 56 metres long and 16 wide. Sounds about right. Full description is well written, very detailed and of course accurate, but possibly makes it sound a bit less impressive? Or perhaps not.

Anyway, it’s at http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/canmore/details_gis?inumlink=24120

An aside…
While writing this, at around 2am just before giving up for the day, I searched ‘Auchtubhmore Hill’ on the web, looking for info on Edinchip. The search returned various documents on the HMSO site, relating to restriction of movement, slaughter etc of possible ‘radioactive sheep’ as a result of the Chernobyl disaster.

Honestly – I was afraid I’d fallen asleep and was dreaming of the person currently known on TMA as Atomic Mutton…!
www.heritageaction.org - ordinary people caring for extraordinary places

MORE THAN YOU COULD EVER WANT TO KNOW ABOUT MOTH

How?
Though I'd been interested in both for a long while, I finally got into stones & Cope relatively late in life and at around the same time (mid 90s). I guess my girlfriend at the time has to take the blame. She bought me 'Peggy Suicide' and she used to get those nice megalithic postcards from Mr Julian.

Why?
At first, looking at stones seemed just like a good excuse for stomping around in beautiful countryside. Little did I know how much more it would become. And that they're not always in beautiful countryside....

Where?
At the time I was living in Tufnell Park in London so started off with a lot of southern stones 'n' bumps, particularly on holidays to Devon, the Lands End peninsula and the west country in general. Since then, holidays became increasingly megalithacentric, and are now mainly wildlifecentric (tho often with some stones thrown in)!

A couple of years later I moved back to Leeds where I lived for much of my adult life (I'm originally from Kent) prompting numerous visits to stones 'n' bumps in places like Derbyshire, Cumbria, N Wales and of course Yorkshire. I now live near Oxford (see 'Life?').

I've seen stones all over the UK & further afield, including (but not limited to) bits of France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Menorca, Sardinia & even Jordan.

Strangely enough however, my most visited and probably favourite 'stony areas' are Aberdeenshire and Perthshire, though I've been to quite a few all over Scotland. This is again thanks to a (different) ex-girlfriend who comes from Montrose and is the mother of my glorious son Callan, who at the time of updating is now 21....

As you may have guessed, Callan is named after Callanish - at the time of his birth this was a long intended but unmade pilgrimage for me. Happily I've now been twice & hope to go again for the next 're-gleam'.

Life?
Currently living just to the north-west of Oxford with the gorgeous Jane (we got married in October 2004). Seafer (Jane's dangerous 'n' stripey cat) is no more and for the last 8 years we've been in the custody of Officer Dibble and Skipper (also cats). Jane's also responsible for increasing my love of travel & the expansion of my love of wildlife!

I'm an editor really, but now have a nice easy admin job 4-days a week working for a tiny IT training company who do expensive niche training for IT professionals.

Fun?
In a varying order

Travel
Wildlife & bird photography and watching
Stones, walking, and the countryside, obviously
Various music, especially heavy rock and funk
Real ale & real ale pubs (though as Jane can't drink for medical reasons we don't often go to pubs)
Single malts
Bourbon (of the whisky persuasion - not the biccies)
Red wine
Cheese
Roast tatties and chips (not usually together)
Chocolate
A lot of other food that never had a face
F1
Talking bollocks
Sarcasm
Laughing
Having a good moan, especially about the Tories

Vital statistics?
Height 5'8"
Chest N/K (medium t-shirt size)
Waist 32-34" depending how fat I happen to be at the time
Inside leg 32"
Aged 60 but we don't talk about that
Hair Long mostly grey (used to be brown)

love

Moth
updated 2 September 2022

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