Moth

Access: Carpark right next to road. The graves are immediately next to the carpark. Walk of 100 hundred metres or so across heathland.

In far north of Jutland on road between Tømmerby and the 29/11 between Thisted and Fjerritslev.

From the east, soon after a section of the 29/11 follows the edge of the Limfjorden fjord, there is a right towards Tømmerby at Øslos. I took this but it was more complicated than it looks! So I’d recommend keeping on the main road until Vesløs and turning right (north) there – I cam back that way and it was far simpler.

This is actually the road that the cemetery is on. Follow it north for about 3km and keep an eye out on the right (east) for the the stones of the cemetery and its little carpark.

Visited 6 April 2006
Hmm. Lindholm Høje it ain’t! It’s far less extensive and far harder to work out what’s going on.

I wasn’t able to explore terribly well due to weather, time-constraints and, frankly, fatigue. This was the last site on a very long and very wet day with a lot of mileage, so I feel my visit probably didn’t do it justice!

It didn’t help that commendably, the info board is a fair bit away from the graves – meaning I found it difficult to relate the plan of the site to what I could see on the ground.

This was important because, at least when I visited, the site was quite overgrown with scrub – which is as different as you can get from Lindholm Høje – more natural, but much harder to navigate.

It’s also different from Lindholm Høje in that many of the memorials are single stones, as well as a lot of more distinctly Viking longboat settings and small barrows.

Definitely worth a visit though if you are in this part of Denmark or if you can’t make it to Lindholm Høje.

Approximate long/lat coordinates, as I couldn’t be sure I could see the dolmen in the fieldborder on the aerial photomap. Shouldn’t be too far out though and, if anything may be a few metres closer to the farm.

Access: Walk of something like 300 metres along reasonably even field edge. (First few metres were across ploughed field when we visited.)

Very near Kong Humble’s Grav. From the 9, at the eastern edge of Rudkøbbing take the 305 south for about 11km. Not far after passing through Lindelse, the road distinctly zig-zags through a small village, probably Bogetofte or the outskirts of Kædeby. Just after the zig-zag, there is a turning on the right (west) into Kædeby village.

Take this turn and continue on this road for about 0.5km. Look out for a farm entrance on the left (south) with a (telecoms?) tower. Park here and walk around left (east) side of buildings. It may be worth asking at the farm first, but there seemed nobody about for our visit.

You will find a tiny paddocklike field with a tree-ed area to the west. Go to the corner of this diagonally opposite and you will reach a very far large field.

From here you should just about be able to make out the dolmen in the field boundary to the SW, quite far ahead on your right. Cross to this field boundary (there was a slight path when we visited) and walk along to the dolmen.

Visited 7 April 2006
Wow! A spectacular dolmen in the mould of Cornish examples like Mulfra or even Trethevy.

Unfortunately this is another one I’ve not been able to find any info on. And because it just sits in a narrow overgrown bit of field boundary between well-cultivated fields, it’s very difficult to make anything out on the ground.

Lovely big chamber though, with a huge allegedly cupmarked capstone. Not sure about the the authenticity of the cups, but enjoyed our bonus deer! (See photos.)

Access: Short walk of less than 50 metres gently uphill over grass. Park at edge of road.

Kong Renes høj, as it is also known, is very near other monuments in the woods near Frellesvig on Langeland. For full directions see Ringlehøj i Snave Skov.

From Ringlehøj i Snave Skov, head east, back out of the woods and take the first left turn, north along Pæregårdsvej. As you enter the woods, you may glimpse a barrow on your left through the trees. (Actually, I seem to remember that it’s on a bend and is initially right in front of you.)

This is Gravhøje i Pæregård Skov, which we didn’t stop at – it seems as though it’s probably ‘just’ a mound – of course I now wish we’d had a quick look!

Continue through the woods, and after just over 0.5km you will emerge into fields. The road winds along to the monument just under 1.5km ahead, on the left (north) of the road just before re-entering trees.

Visited 7 April 2006
In a pretty rolling area of cultivated land in the middle of woodland stand 2 chambers on a large mound, along with a couple of trees.

The southern one is a passage grave (jættestue) dating from 3,500-3,100bc and the other a (very ruined) passageless chamber added around 3,000bc.

The latter has been brutally butchered – its capstone has big chunks cut from it. The edges of these cuts are so straight that they speak of (at least relatively) recent damage. And as if to emphasise the damage, at least one piece cut from the largest piece is still right beside it.

Despite the frankly shocking state of this northern chamber, the monument retains an impressive majesty – certainly living up to its billing as “King Rene’s hill”.

Approximate long/lat coordinates, as I couldn’t see the site among the trees on the aerial photomap. Shouldn’t be too far out though.

Access: Walk is about 0.5km south to wood down a track, then on forestry path and finally by small vague paths into the SE corner of the wood. There are good paths most of the way, but keeping on course is quite tricky and there are deep gullies (sometimes with water in) to navigate past or to cross.

Not far from monuments near Frellesvig on Langeland. From the 305 heading north, pass Frellesvig and continue on through Tranekær and out the other side, past the park and its castle.

Just over 2km past the castle, you need a left (west) towards Helletofte. At the next junction (a road heads off north, to the right) park. There is plenty of room.

Just east of the junction, on the south side of the road you have just come along, you will see a track heading south towards the woods. Follow this and enter the woods on a good foresters’ track.

On the west of this path, there are lines of trees as you head south. Before long, you will reach the south east corner of the regimented lines, at which point you need to try to follow paths into the SE of the main part of the wood.

From here it gets difficult to give directions and you may need patience and persistence! You should be able to see a steep hill in the woods to the SE. Generally head for the SE side of that hill, avoiding or crossing the gullies mentioned above as seems best in your quest!

The monument is near the SE corner of the woods – sufficiently close to be able to see the fields beyond, but not right at the edge and right among trees – not in a clearing to speak of. Look out for a slight raise in the ground with a few largish – but not really properly megalithic (!) moss-covered stones, just visible through the trees. Good luck!

7 April 2006
Gah. Quite difficult to find and hardly worth it once you do, I’m afraid.

This is a pretty badly trashed passage grave. There is a fairly slight mound in which most of the small orthostats of the chamber survive. The chamber is actually relatively long for the size of the mound (which is obviously much reduced) and as the ortostats are small, the chamber must presumably have been low.

Astonishingly, the tiny passage on the ESE side has somehow managed to retain one of its capstones, but there are only a couple of stones left at the foot of the ‘mound’ that look as though they are (or were!) probably kerbstones.

Other than Jelling, this was the last site we visited in Denmark, and not a good way to say ‘goodbye’ to the wonders of Langeland. It was also one of the most badly mistreated and damaged sites we saw on the whole trip.

Access From Callanish V. Quite tough! Involves reasonable length yomp that took us around 45 mins to an hour I guess, across undulating, boggy & slippery ground. And I’d say the weather had been only averagely wet for Lewis (at most) when Juamei & I visited....

If memory serves, I think you can make out the standing stones on their hillock/crag from Callanish V itself. If not, you can certainly see them (probably most of the time) on the way towards them. You also lose sight of them at times.

There may be a better way than this, but it’s the best we could find! Starting from Callanish V, head east north east down the hill to a bridge at approx NB238301.

Cross and follow the stream/river east. There are tributory burns to cross, some of which have plank bridges but some don’t. Some may be almost impossible to cross if the weather’s been particularly wet....

Warning! We found that trying to strike out for the stones are can be a waste of time. Even from spots where the stones are clearly visible, you can come to hidden burns running down to the main river.

At around NB245300, at a distinct bend in the river (on the map, at least – the whole thing is bends ‘on the ground’!), we set off more or less NE heading up the hillock/crag that the 2 standing stones are clearly visible on. We still had to leap across at least one inconveniently placed burn....

The last bit of the walk is steep – but that’ll be pretty obvious when you see it!

Wednesday 12 July 2006
Brilliant! What a lonely spot, especially on a wet & misty day. What a lovely spot it could be on a sunny day though!

On Lewis it’s easy to feel like you are miles from anywhere, but here it seemed particularly easy – perhaps because it’s a bit of a walk (and awkward) to get here. If fact, it’s not really all that far from 2 roads (which seems ironically close to civilisation by Lewis standards!)

As mentioned by Kammer in his miscellaneous post, this seems unlikely to be a circle. To me, it also seemed unlikely to be a pair of standing stones – not least because they are too far apart and don’t ‘feel’ interlinked in that kind of way.

I can see that they may however, be part of the same structure that would have taken up most of the top of the craggy hillock. At the very least, the northernmost stone is a very nice chunky standing stone.

According to Gerald Ponting, the stones are now thought most likely to be the remnants of a chambered cairn. It seems possible, and there are many stones and fragments around that could once have been part of it – especially in the nearby sheepfanks etc.

It seems unlikely to me that they are anything to do with the signs of more modern settlement, such as the sheepfank. I can’t think what the stones could be part of if associated with the more modern remains, particularly because of the way whatever it was would have been perched on top of the hillock.

To be honest, about the only thing that ‘bothers’ me slightly about this theory is the general lack of chambered cairns in the area.

So, not one of Lewis’s most essential attractions unless you’re a completist, but well worth a visit if you have the time and inclination. Or if you are a completist…!

Note that the site is actually to the right (south) of the B8060 – I think the OS ref must be slightly ‘out’. I’d say more like NB286189 by my guess.

Access Not good for people with limited mobility. The hill is reasonably short, but fairly steep. Probably boggy & maybe slippery in the wet/damp.

Approaching on the B8060 from Sildinis, park at the second loop of old road on the right (south) of the present road. (The first one seems just to be marked as a path on the Landranger, but on the ground – & the Explorer, I think – it looks more like a bit of old road.

Probably best to park by & use the second gate on the right of the disused road. You should be able to see the 2 stones protruding from the mound on the nearest hilltop. Just go for it!

14 July 2006 Talking to Margaret Curtis in the morning, she suggested we see what we think of this site, while we were in the area visiting Fangs circle. As it happened, I had the TMA page printed out, but didn’t register that it was the same place until I checked later!

Juamei & I immediately agreed that it looked genuinely ancient but neither part seemed really like a ‘pure’ stone circle, which I believe it is being reported as. (This was also what it was noted as on this website at the time.)

The circular setting is very small, with fairly small stones, and pretty wholly uncharacteristic of the stone circles in the area. In many ways, it seemed to us more like the kerb of a cairn, though the stones are far from contiguous – in fact fairly widely spaced for the size of the circle. There are also some stones within the circle that could possibly be the remnants of a cist. (Not that that rules out ‘stone circle’ in those parts!)

The other ‘monument’ is another interesting one. At first glance, it immediately screamed “cairn!” at me. But on closer inspection, some of the stone further down the mound that appears to be kerb material, is in fact bedrock. And the 2 stones protruding from the ‘mound’ seem kind of out of place if the mound represents a fair proportion of the remains of a cairn.

So perhaps these are meant to protrude and there should be more – like the neighbouring circular setting. It was interesting to note that they seemed, at least superficially to point towards Sleeping Beauty’s feet, where Fangs circle lies....

Discussing the site afterwards with Margaret, we got the impression that she is dubious over whether either of the settings is a stone circle, but she did NOT seem to doubt that they are ancient. At mentions of kerb circles and cairns there was much nodding, as if this is her suspicion.

Access seems to be considerably improved compared to most of the posts below! I didn’t have to climb any fences etc. Not easy for those with health problems or limited mobility though, as part of the walk is pretty damn steep!

I parked at the big layby-type car park on the south side of the A57 & walked back down the hill to ‘Cutthroat Bridge’. There’s now a pedestrian gate there which leads to a permissive path (’no dogs’ I’m afraid).

The path goes gently up thru trees for a short distance and across the moor following the bottom line of the ‘Edge’. After mebbe a few hundred yards, there is a fairly small wooded area on the right of the path.

From there, I struck off more or less straight up the steep slope of the ‘Edge’ itself. Unfortunately this steep slope means that mobility could be a serious ‘issue’ and the walk up is quite strenuous.

Reaching the outcrops at the top of the Edge, the circle is around 50 yards onto the moor, maybe less. Where I reached the outcrops, it was slightly to my left, but it shouldn’t be far away if you set off from the path at the trees and go more or less straight up. Though the stones are small, it’s reasonably easy to spot and doesn’t look like it’d get overgrown in the summer.

Sunday 15 May 2005
Bloody gorgeous!!!

Somehow I’d never got round to this one on my several previous trips to Derbyshire – goodness knows why as I always used to be coming from Leeds & this is one of the most northerly sites in the area.... As a result, it’s been nagging me for a while.

Anyway, the Stonehengineers event was going well and I didn’t seem to be essential to proceedings. So, upon discovering that Mr & Mrs Goffik had the requisite OS map with them, I decided I must take advantage of the sunshine (and their map) for a little jaunt.

A bit of a drive from Crich (where the Stonehengineers were), I was certainly glad I went for it!!! A lovely characteristic Derbyshire circle with plenty of stones left. A short segment at the north (?) has had the stones broken off at ground level, but this isn’t a really a problem. (Though it’d be better if they were there, obviously.)

And the views are wonderful, particularly towards Ladybower. A great place to sit and chill out in decent weather, though bleak and unwelcoming in wind and rain I guess! Lots of interesting nearby crags to check out too. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay long, as I was already feeling guilty for ‘bunking off’ from stone moving duties!!

Access I walked along the coastal path from Warebeth beach towards Breckness. I’d guess it’s a mile or so on a reasonably good path, but it’s probably only good if you’re OK on your feet – it undulates and has been damaged by subsidence in a few places.

The stones are easily visible from the path but a real struggle to reach. I ended up being a bit naughty and nipping through the barbed wire and walking up the field margin – you’d have to get through the fence to reach them anyway....

Friday 25 June 2004
As Wideford has said, Orkney is littered with stones, often in pairs, some of which seem to be acknowledged as ‘bona fide’ standing stones, and some that don’t.

These are in a lovely spot and it’s a really nice walk from Warebeth beach, round the ‘corner’ from Stromness.

The nearby stone that Wideford has mentioned looks every bit as much a ‘real’ standing stone as these, though many others seem maybe less convincing. Bottom line is that unless proved otherwise, many could be ancient boundary markers, and many might not be.

I passed a big pile of at least 5 or 6 similar stones stacked by the coastal path on the way up from the beach. Were they ‘old ones’ taken down & stacked by a farmer, or ‘new ones’ ready for use? Or both?

Access HARD! See Knowe of Lairo, plus a further short, but extremely steep and fairly hard climb up the craggy escarpment above Lairo. If you climb up just to the right of a shrub-lined stream to the north of Lairo, you’ll reach the ‘terrace’ coming out virtually straight onto the Knowe of Ramsay itself!

Wednesday 23 June 2004
Not all that ‘whelming’ I’m afraid, the mound is still evident but pretty low. I was pleasantly surprised that I’d managed to capture it on camera at all!!! In decent weather, worth the scramble up for the views, especially to look down on the Knowes of Lairo – itself a ‘must visit’ site! In bad weather, forget it!!!!

Access unless you’re fully mobile I’m afraid you’re not likely to get much out of this one! We parked by the farm at about HY397280 and walked a few yards uphill along the the lane.

Here the lane bears left away from the cairn, but it’s a handy place to cross the stream. Once across the stream, we turned to the right and crossed the rather overgrown fields to where the cairn stands. It’s pretty easily visible, so we just followed our noses. Torch ESSENTIAL and 1:25,000 map handy!!!!

Wednesday 23 June 2004
The mound is fairly impressive approaching from the ‘back’, but having not researched it or read the fear’s fieldnote, we didn’t know what to expect. Partly because it’s fairly overgrown and overlooked, we were very much expecting it to ‘just’ be a mound, and so it seemed once we arrived.

Having looked around the mound and walked up on top of it Jane decided to head back to the car, rather than to climb the extremely steep and rather craggy escarpment up to where the Knowe of Ramsay appears on the map. I decided to press on and found its remains (lowish mound only remaining).

Having taken a few shots of the Knowe of Ramsay, I considered just walking along the hillside and rejoining the lane back to the car at a higher point than we’d left it, in order to avoid the incredibly steep decent back down towards Lairo and the thrash through the ‘overgrowth’.

I decided to go back the way I came, as at least I knew exactly where I was going, and was extremely glad I did. Firstly because the view down onto Lairo and its place in the landscape are worth seeing, but more importantly, because I could see a glimmer of white at ground level between the ‘horns’ (evident from above) of the cairn’s mound.

I descended, still not expecting to be able to get inside the cairn, as I took the whiteness to be perhaps a notice or a barrier of some kind. But at least I’d be able to see where the entrance had been. Once I reached it however, the whiteness proved to be lichen on the lintel of the entrance, reflecting the bright sun!

I set to work ripping away vegetation to reveal a downsloping entrance only around 18” high. The entrance to the passage was a little muddy (no problem) but had a good covering of rubble that looked is if it might’ve fallen from the passage itself (potential problem!). I decided that as long as I was careful and bore the possibility of instability in mind, I should be OK and that it wouldn’t take Jane and the boys long to work out where I was should the worst happen.

Gripping torch between my teeth, I crawled in. The passage is around 15-20ft long and although it is slightly higher than its entrance, it stays pretty damn low! As I reached the inside end of the passage, I sensed more space, though hadn’t realised that I’d reached the chamber as it is hardly wider than the passage. But as I shone my torch upwards, my breath was taken away by the height of what was in fact the (very narrow) chamber!!! Stunning!!!

‘The fear’ is right. It actually seems taller than the mound – a mixture of optical illusion and psychological illusion caused by the narrowness and the surprise! That said, I’d be amazed if it’s less than around 18ft from floor to ceiling!

Edit: according to Rodney Casterton in ‘The Stonehenge People’, it’s 4 metres high, but may even appear more due to entasis – that visual effect where the builders use narrowing to distort perspective.

Inside and upright, I found it difficult to work out what was ‘going on’ in the chamber*. It certainly didn’t seem to be a stalled cairn, unless a severely mucked about with or damaged ‘double-decker’, originally like Taversoe Tuick. But equally, the lack of side chambers seemed to say it wasn’t a Maes Howe type either. It also has a number of ‘cross-bracing’ lintels across the upper part of the chamber to add to the confusion. I wonder whether these are ‘original’ or a later addition.

Edit: Rodney Casterton (see above) says they are original and similar cross beams may also have figured at Midhowe.

I spent as long as I reasonably could (with the others waiting back at the car) wondering open-mouthed at the place and trying to get decent photos. As I wriggled back out of the tiny entrance I just thanked my lucky stars to have been there and to have ‘stumbled across’ the entrance in such a fortuitous manner!!!

(Oh, and ‘the fear’, if you’re still around here – you had the right place – the one to the NE is the Knowe of Ramsay and is much less impressive!)

*I’ve since read that it is in fact a modified tripartite chamber, with the 2 side chambers walled-off. I guess this may also kind of explain the chamber’s extreme narrowness. No wonder I couldn’t work it out!

Saturday 12 June 2004
In the area anyway, thought I’d pop up & get a few more pics for Stubob & Fitz who’ve shown an interest in this place.

You can still recognise the circle by the fact that there’s an uncultivated patch in a cultivated field. At the moment this year the right field is recognisable by the fact that the field to the north is either fallow or has only just been seeded – it’s bare dirt either way.

The undergrowth the stones lie amongst is not quite as thick or vicious as last year, with fewer nettles, making it MARGINALLY easier to see what’s ‘going on’.

There are roughly 12 stones left around the outside unevenly spaced and of varying sizes. The largest are probably about 6ft ‘tall’, though the majority of these are down.

I get the impression that with the possible exception of the few that are still ‘rooted’, the stones are not necessarily anywhere near their original positions. But as they stil form a vague circle, I’m not sure that it’s likely they’ve been moved far either.

Towards the western side there is what looks like it could be the remains of a cairn-kerb with a whole load of (probably) clearance stones dumped in it. There are a couple of ‘rooted’ stones in this bit, but because of the undergrowth I found it difficult to estimate where the curve would take them if more remained.

Couldn’t say whether it looked like i) nowt, ii) a few remnants of a small ‘simple’ cairn, off-centre to the outer stones, or iii) an inner circle/cairn circle like Gunnerkeld. Actually, if the latter, it’s more like Oddendale, as the outer circle doesn’t include any MASSIVE stones as at Gunnerkeld. Though they may have gone of course....

Anyway, I wish someone else’d go and have a look!!!! Preferably when the undergrowth dies down in the winter – it might be easier to make out.

Access: Easy access. The quoit is visible from the road, through a kissing-gate and stands only a few yards into a small grassy field. There are a couple of parking spaces by the quoit next to a grassy ‘island’ at the road junction between Crow’s Nest, Tremar and Derite. It is signposted, but we found that the signs seemed to disappear at Crow’s Nest (the direction we arrived from) and had to use the map.

Saturday 6 March 2004
Wonderful. I visited once about 8 years ago and had great memories of the place. It was just as I remembered.

On our journey to Land’s End, I made this visit to Trethevy mandatory. As Jane had been lusting after it for years – ever since she got the Mod Ant book – I got no argument!

Looming, incongruous, spectacular. I know I’m not alone in thinking this is THE ‘must-see’ dolmen.

We chilled for 30-40 mins and at uncanny speed, Jane produced the painting (she calls em ‘sketches’) that appears elsewhere on this page.

Access: See the Hurlers. The path leads directly north and is incredibly easy to follow because you can see the Cheesewring all the way. It undulates over reasonably even moorland for about half a mile’s easy going until you reach the foot of the hill with the Cheesewring outcrops on top. It then gets steep and considerably harder going as you negotiate craggy exposed rock and boulders.

Saturday 6 March 2004
This is such a great place! I have to confess that on my first visit to the Hurlers I hadn’t bothered to walk up here. The views and feeling of wildness and freedom are everything you could expect.

It was cold, but bearable as it wasn’t particularly windy. So Jane painted while I poked about amongst the outcrops and investigated the north side of the hill.

On the way back for another look (successful this time) for Rillaton Barrow we spotted Daniel Gumb’s House low on the hillside at the side of the quarry, just below the most teetering and prominent outcrop nearest the Hurlers. I’d forgotten about it on the way up, but for some reason had thought it was on the other side of the hill anyway....

Access: See the Hurlers. About a quarter of a mile from the Hurlers on a fairly good path leading to the Cheesewring. About halfway to the Cheesewring is an almost non-existent path to the right (east), which takes you to the barrow. It is a distinct cratered mound, a little to the SE of the highest point on this part of the moor. Probably just as easy to find by heading NNE straight across the moor from the Hurlers.

Saturday 6 March 2004
Can’t add much to previous posts, other than to support the view that for ‘bump’ fans (I’m one) it’s well worth a visit.

Battered and pretty wild, the barrow bears many scars from treasure-hunters over the years. The exposed stones of the spot where the famous cup and other artefacts were found are surprisingly diminutive and not visible from ‘ground level’. We thought we’d got the wrong place on the way from the Hurlers to the Cheesewring, but luckily we had another look on the way back and realised our mistake. I’d have been really disappointed to miss it. Good view of the Hurlers from the top of the barrow too.

Access: See the Hurlers.

Saturday 6 March 2004
By the track SW of the Hurlers lie the Pipers, a pair of appreciable standing stones, clearly part of the same complex. Just as Craig Weatherhill says there is doubt of their antiquity, Aubrey Burl seems to accept it. Guess you pays yer money and takes yer choice. Worth a look anyway.

Access: Pretty easy. By road, head for the small village of Minions off the B3254 near Liskeard. The Hurlers and the Pipers are on the NW side of the road at the SW end of the village. There is a car park that might get quite busy peak season (with attached barely recognisable cairn).

The stones are about 200 yards (tops) across relatively flat grassy moor and are not at all overgrown. May be boggy in wet weather.

There is also a roughish track that runs just to the SE of the circles, but this is probably no better for access to the circles. It does lead straight to the Pipers though. (And on towards the Craddock Moor circle etc).

Saturday 6 March 2004
What a place to start off my first Cornwall trip in around 8 years! My memories of the place turned out to be really hazy – I didn’t remember it being so impressive!

It came up as a candidate for somewhere to stop on the way to the Land’s End peninsula, simply because I really wanted Jane to see Trethevy Quoit. As the Hurlers are so close, it seemed like a viable ‘addition’, though I wasn’t that enthusiastic.

In fact, I was more interested in the neighbouring Rillaton Barrow, just because I hadn’t seen it before!

Of course I’ve read a fair amount about the Hurlers since that first visit and seen the pics on here, so I should’ve known to expect more. After all, it’s not everywhere that you get to see 3 stone circles in a row with a couple of nice ‘probable’ outliers (see the Pipers and a prominent ‘proto-temple’!!!

Actually seeing the Hurlers again though, I saw that my memory it as ‘scrappy’ and ‘wrecked’ was far fom the truth. OK, the south circle is largely gone but its presence is clear. And the other 2 are a bit ‘knocked-about’, but far more complete than I expected. Along with the setting, this all makes for a pretty damn spectacular ‘monument’!

With the weather changing constantly as the dark but broken clouds scudded across the sun, the ‘atmosphere’ of the site seemed to change from moment to moment. Picturesque and welcoming, to bleak and unfriendly in seconds. Considering the proximity of the village, it’s amazing how remote the site can feel after a short time there.

It is impossible to overlook the presence of the Cheesewring, though it’s far enough away that it doesn’t dominate the site, and isn’t exactly an integral part of it in the way of say, the Cnoc an Tursa at Callanish, or the Gorsedd at Bryn Celli Ddu. Its significance is surely indisputable, however, and seems clearly to have been part of the overall ‘vision’ of the place.

If you visit, do make sure you walk up to the Cheesewring and Rillaton Barrow if you can!

We didn’t make it to Craddock Moor stone circle and other sites on the moor, as we still had quite a distance to go before journey’s end (and Trethevy Quoit was calling). We did stop briefly at the Long Tom christianised menhir though, as we were passing.

Access my distant memory suggests it was a pleasant and fairly flat walk of no more than about a quarter to half a mile across moorland....

Having looked at the map, today, I reckon the map ref’s more like SX612730.

Sometime in 1995-6
I’d previously posted this under Merrivale because I couldn’t remember where it was but knew it was vaguely near there.

When I finally remembered to ask on the forum if anyone knew it, TMAer greywether suggested it was the Crock of Gold – I recognised the name immediately....

Now I know more (ie a little bit!) about cairns, I’d like to visit again!!

Friday 12 March 2004
The bank (in the same field but ‘opposite corner’ to Brane Barrow) does have quite a long-barrowy look. Not altogether convinced, but possible! Worth a look if you’re at Brane Barrow.

(Wish I’d taken a photie now!)

I had previously entered this circle on this website as ‘Corrie Hill’, having visited a few years ago.

I can’t remember where I got that name from, but it has been pointed out that the site seems to be the same one as this, added by Merrick. And I’m quite happy to go for ‘Druidstones’.

Merrick’s pretty much said it all, all I’d add is that it’s certainly well worth a visit if you’re around!

When I went, I approached the same way as Merrick did in the end.

I had a word with a (slightly eccentric, but very pleasant) woman at the bungalow at the top of the hill, who said that the farmer is quite happy for people to visit the circle.

Obviously, it’d be unwise to approach if it could cause damage to crops and it’d be a REAL shame to abuse this trust.

Access can be seen easily from the road at approx SY554938. We left the A35 at SY555917, heading north towards an aerial mast near West Compton. We took a left at the first t-junction and after about 100 yards, the stones were around 50 yards away in the field to the north of the road.

Depending on the state of crop in the field, it lies around 100 yards from a path that leads north from the road around 100 yards east....

Thursday 18 September 2003
We didn’t have time to investigate closely, but this looks like around 3 or 4 large stones left from a collapsed burial chamber, but collapsed in such a way as to be recognisable.

Like to get a closer look, but goodness knows when I’ll be back in these parts and there’s just so much to see!

Access depends whether you take notice of signs saying things like ‘private’. If you didn’t, you could drive quite close along a tarmac access road. To walk to the stone from there, you’d just need to cross the intervening hundred or so yards of field – depending whether in crop or not.

Otherwise you could follow Juamei’s instructions

Thursday 18 September 2003
Juamei‘s fieldnotes say just about everything. All I want to add is that something about this site, maybe the openness of the valley that Juamei refers to, made me feel quite strongly that it may originally have been a circle.

No evidence. No signs. But then the field has so obviously been ploughed and cultivated for so long that once any stones had gone, there’d be no evidence. And then again, why leave this stone and clear the rest? So perhaps it’s just me.

Access pretty easy to see if you park in the layby on the left of the A35 travelling west, at approx SY598904. The stone we saw is over the hedge just a few yards further west from the layby. Just need to walk a few yards on the reasonably even grassy verge. The ‘Broad Stone’ itself is right by the roadside, in the verge....

Thursday 18 September 2003
So is this the remains of the circle that, according to Julian and Burl, John Aubrey mentioned as 3 stones, half a mile west of the Nine Stones of Winterbourne Abbas? It’s in about the right place.

There’s only one small stone visible in the field, but the grass was in just the right state that we could clearly see a number of slight tussocks forming what looked distinctly like a circle extending towards the road. The circle looked to be around the same size as the Nine Stones just up the road....

Unfortunately, the dense and vicious looking hedgerow and lack of time meant that we couldn’t enter the field to investigate further.

So anyway, I probably shouldn’t mention that we totally missed the Broad Stone itself. (See Juamei’s picture.) Or that we thought this possible circle stone must have been it. Which it wasn’t. QUITE.

BECAUSE I do also now notice that Juamei reckons that this stone AND the Broad Stone could have both been part of Aubrey’s circle – which makes sense. And means that we must have virtually have stood on the Broad Stone itself. Ooops! And we’d been doing so well all day!

Access getting on for a couple of miles walking I guess. Visit Grey Mare and her Colts on the way. Fairly flat and good going along a bridlepath. Could get fairly muddy. OS map helpful.

We parked at a junction between lane, farm track and bridlepath at SY499868. Dickie gives good directions here. (The barrow he refers to is of course, the Grey Mare and her Colts.)

Thursday 18 September 2003
We weren’t expecting much. After all, it’s not even in Burl...!

WRONG!!!!! Having since read the reports on this website, I know we’re not alone, but we thought this is an unsung marvel. I’d not researched it, just spotted it on the Landranger earlier in the day while doing a bit of ‘on the hoof’ planning....

So OK, all the stones are down, but they’re BIG, there’re loads of them and they form (get this) a BIG CIRCLE!!!! Looked like the views would be superb on a clear day too!!!!

Where we got lucky was that the field was well stocked with (stop reading Ocifant!) stubborn but placid, big but hungry cows. And the reason this was lucky is that they had obviously been grazing here for quite a while and the circle was not overgrown AT ALL, making viewing it much easier!

After stomping around the circle taking photos, our bovine friends finally took the hint and left the circle, meaning I had the opportunity to take the same photos without the friesian ornamentation. Which, of course, I had to do.

For the record (in the absence of Burl providing statistics) and as a shock for anyone who knows me, we paced out the diameter of the circle and made it around 26-28 yards across. I also uncharacteristically counted the stones and made it 18 OR 19 – diplomatic huh? (See other fieldnotes below.)

We did however wonder if some of these stones were broken parts, and reckoned that the original circle may have ‘only’ been 16 stones. As the vast majority, if not all, seem to have been around 5 feet or more high, this wouldn’t have taken away from what would have been a pretty spectacular circle!

Another one that I’d love to see re-erected!!!! I’m soooo glad we didn’t miss it!!!!

Access getting on for a mile walking I guess. Fairly flat and good going along a bridlepath. Could get fairly muddy. OS map helpful.

We parked at a junction between lane, farm track and bridlepath at SY499868. Dickie gives good directions here.

Thursday 18 September 2003
Hmmm, must admit to being a little bit underwhelmed with this one. I felt it was very reminiscent of a trashed Waylands Smithy.

This may have been because the although by no means bad, the weather wasn’t conducive to sitting and chilling and it was a bit too hazy for good views of the surroundings.

Had a good go at trying to see or hear (trying to cause echoes by shouting and tapping) whether any chamber was vaguely intact under the collapsed capstone. It seemed unlikely.

Another ‘well worth seeing’, but for me, it turned out to be an ‘incidental’ on the way to Kingston Russell Stone Circle a bit further along the path.

Access Walk of around half a mile. Leaving the car in the layby next to the farm at SY601879 on Portisham Hill (same as for The Hellstone) we crossed the road and entered the farm gate on the west side of the road. We followed the track through the farm past docile cattle.

I’m pretty sure that at the far end of the farm itself there may have been a stile, but I think when we visited the gate was unlocked anyway. Up a fairly gentle hill, the stones are in a little fenced off area at the top of the hill, to the left of the path where it crosses a(nother) stile.

Thursday 18 September 2003
As mentioned by Burl and other people on this website, it has been considerably ‘messed-about-with’. It’s quite pretty despite that and the views must be great (though it was too misty when we were there).

Definitely worth a look for so little trouble, especially if visiting other sites in the area, especially the Hellstone.

Access a bit of a walk, maybe half a mile, with a few stiles. We parked in a layby on Portisham Hill, next to the farm at SY601879. Phil’s map and description would have been very helpful, as we only had a Landranger map and would’ve been helped greatly by knowing where the site is in relation to field boundaries.

Dunno how everybody else seemed to find it so easily!!!

Other than using Phil’s map or an Explorer/Pathfider map, the easiest way to find the dolmen is simply to follow the path leading east from the layby.

Although strictly speaking, the Hellstone is in the third field on the right, after passing into the second field, start watching the (near) horizon on the right and you’ll see the dolmen and it’s companion tree.

There is a stile (though on our visit no signpost) and you can reach the Hellstone by crossing or skirting the field towards it. The way is up a fairly gentle hill at this point and obvious once you spot the stones. Annoyingly we didn’t do this and missed it, reaching it by a far more haphazard route!

Thursday 18 September 2003
In a pretty good spot at the crest of the hill, this is a nice dolmen, if slightly unusual (due to the reconstruction perhaps?) and the extent of the original mound is much more evident than at many similar sites.

Interestingly, to me anyway, the actual stones of the dolmen themselves seemed to be on quite a raised platform. More so than most dolmens I’ve visited I think. Although I guess this could also be a legacy of the reconstruction.

‘Duck pond’? That’s a bit grand. I’d read ‘big muddy puddle’. And the ducks were right back way down the hill as if giving it a wide berth.

Access difficult. We parked at the Little Chef, as suggested by Julian in the big papery TMA. What he fails to mention is that it’s a fair distance (mebbe 300-400 yards) along the very narrow verge of the pretty busy A35. So add my voice to the others saying ‘park at the layby’!!!

The very small layby is on the opposite (north) side of the road to the circle but much closer. To actually get to the circle, you have to cross the road and a roadside ditch by a short but rather narrow concrete ‘walkway’. Once into the trees surrounding the stones, the ground is fairly uneven.

Thursday 18 September 2003
It might be me, or it might have just been the day I was there, or maybe I was uncharacteristically fazed by the running of the A35 ‘gauntlet’, but I can’t agree that this circle had any peace to it!!!! At all.

Which is a shame, because it’s a cool little circle of wildly differing stones, the largest of which is a great example of the weird ‘gravel-and-flints-welded-together’ stone that appears in some of the other ‘monuments’ in the area. (That’s the geological name for it, honest.)

I think I’d be saying that the trees ruin it anyway actually. Don’t get me wrong though, I liked it and it’s still certainly WELL worth a visit.

Access hmmm, didn’t actually go up to ‘the man’, but I guess this might still be useful to someone.... Tarmac car park is signposted from the A352, on the left heading south. This is the best observation point for seeing the Giant on his hillside, which is of course the only way to really see the figure properly (other than from an aircraft!).

Thursday 18 September 2003
I’d been looking forward to seeing ye-probably-not-quite-so-old-as-perhaps-was-thought-but-who-cares Giant for quite a while. Pretty damn impressive the old boy and his Belisha beacon are too!

Although I still find the evidence not completely conclusive, I’m quite happy with the notion that it’s a later figure on a long-significant hillside. And even if the theory that it’s supposed to represent Ollie Cromwell is right, it’s still a cool sight/site.

Although not quite steep enough for perfect observation from below, Giant Hill gives a pretty good view from the car park. We didn’t bother climbing the hill, as we were on a pretty tight schedule and wanted to see quite a few sites on our only day in the ‘far’ south.

Is it a dolmen/quoit/cromlech? Or is it safer just to call it a burial chamber?

Having been there I’d JUST come down on the ‘dolmen’ side, but am willing to be persuaded....

(Proper fieldnotes to follow – eventually!)

See previous fieldnotes for Access comments.

Wednesday 17 September 2003
If you get the chance, you have to do this. Take one sunny day in and around Avebury, preferably in good company. End the day sitting around and wandering about the stones as the sun slowly descends, giving a constantly changing lightshow on the stones.

It certainly works brilliantly in the area near the southern inner circle, as the sun sinks towards the henge bank to the west. I’d like to try it up in the north west quadrant next time!!!

And it’s great for easily-done but impressive-looking photographs full of light and shade!!!

Before the sun got too low I also took a walk up onto Waden Hill while Jane painted and John finished his investigations of the stones. Worth the walk for a nice overview of Avebury itself, a surprisingly clear and detailed view of Windmill Hill and my favourite views so far of Silbury!

Access car park at top of hill. From memory, bends in road mean care needed crossing road back to the viewpoint and White Horse. Pretty sure there’s a stile too. Paths and surface are reasonable but the slope is reasonably steep in places.

Best place to view the horse itself is when approaching along the road east from the A4361. There are a couple of places where you can stop for a quick look.

Wednesday 17 September 2003
Yet another significant ‘Avebury’ hill to add to the list. Fantastic views to the west.

Would be a good starting point for a longish but practical walk along the Ridgeway to The Polisher and then down into Avebury.

Or even better, with a full day available and if concentrating on the way things fit together rather than looking at the individual elements, maybe even straight along to The Sanctuary, doubling back along the West Kennett Avenue to Avebury, then back up onto the Ridgeway! Hmmm, that’s got me thinking....

Access parked at a gate just off the A4361 to the west, more or less opposite East Farm (slightly south). Walk of maybe half a mile, uphill but not steep, and (from memory) the surface is pretty even on grass. A couple of gates to go through that were unlocked. Terrain on site is a little rough and could be muddy or slippery in the wet.

Wednesday 17 September 2003
Wow! Well worth the pretty easy walk – for the views of Silbury and Cherhill and the general Avebury landscape if nowt else*.

But there is ‘else’!!! Plenty of ‘else’. Barrows. Really nice barrows. Enclosure earthworks. Quite spectacular enclosure earthworks (I thought). A real sense of ‘settlement’ somehow, I felt – despite the surprisingly exposed and, once you’re up there, kind of ‘remote’ position.

And of course there’s the generally held assertion that this is where it all started, which somehow seemed to make sense.

*Could even just make out the Longstone Cove! (Can’t see it on my photo though – too hazy....)

Access a walk of at least 2 or 3 miles from the nearest parking place. Walking as we did from Manor Farm to the east of Avebury, the Ridgeway is a reasonably evenly surfaced bridlepath-type track. The gate to the bit of the down where the Polisher is has been locked both times I’ve been there, but isn’t difficult to climb if you can climb at all.

Wednesday 17 September 2003
When I was here before I thought it’d be a cool place to sit & chill in good company. I was right.

Also had a stomp about looking at the sarsens in the area. Loads of them are beautiful and impressive. Made me want to go down into the Mother’s Jam etc & just wander about looking at stones, but didn’t have time!

Found a couple of stones nearby with holes in, but probably not ‘the holed stone’ that people talk about. Didn’t find the ‘cup-marked one’ either. Didn’t much care. This is such a special place.

Access ahem, I won’t bother with directions! The tunnel has ramps. The path’s pretty good. I assume everyone in the world knows you can’t get right up to the stones which are roped (or more accurately, ‘stringed’) off. £5 entrance fee on 16 September 2003. Various concessions. (Except if you forget your relevant documents as John forgot his UB40 or whatever it’s called at the moment!)

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Oh bl**dy hell! I’ve always said it’s not ‘overrated’ and it’s not. Sad? Yes. Undignified? Something like that. Overrated? No. How can it be? It’s both spectacular and totally unique. AND it’s a whole complex of ‘monuments’.

Of course it’s horrible having to share it with so many other people. And of course they’re irritating especially when they’re not very interested, ‘over-interested’ or just plain too damn loud.

But I found I can ‘tune them out’ and really feel like I got a lot out of the place by being patient waiting for it to happen. I can’t say it’s easy and maybe I’m just lucky or less easily disturbed or something. I don’t know.

Once that happened though, I found that I could see or imagine all the things that I can remember hearing about the place – some of the sight lines and so on. The avenue, the place of the monument in the overall ‘landscape’.... Of course there’s no point in me describing it – we pretty much all know it back-to-front.

Time flew. One of these days I’m going be able to give myself enough time for a proper look around. Maybe I just need to go more often than after 33 years and then 8 years!!! I’ve had a pretty good look at the stones and the henge now. Cursus and a few of the barrows next I reckon.

It is a mindbender and I’d love to be able to do it justice. I’d love even more if it could do itself justice. I suppose English Heritage don’t do such a bad job in some ways given the amount of attention (positive and negative) the place gets. But there must be a much better way. It should at the very least be free to people who can’t afford to go!!!!

And you should be able to book to go right up to the stones without extra charge. And they do seem to use Stonehenge’s entrance fee to subsidise EH and its other places, esp non-prehistoric ones! And...and...and....

Access we headed north off the A303 up the A345. Woodhenge is well signposted and has a fairly small car park across the road. There is a gate or kissing gate into the ‘monument’ itself.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Well I expected weird and I got it. Goodness knows what anybody who hasn’t read a bit about this site would make of it. I guess the info boards would help, but I still had difficulty even vaguely making any kind of sense of it!

If you’re going, read up first to get anything out of it!!! Also, get an OS Explorer or be with someone who knows what’s what if you want to see Durrington Walls.

Although I thought I knew which direction was in, we were unable to work it out for ourselves even though we later found it had been staring us in the face! (It turned out to be where I thought but we hadn’t recognised it because I had no idea of the size or where the main visible bits are....)

Access using the route we did, it’s a fairly long walk (a few miles). A lot is uphill, some fairly steep. Ground is largely pretty even. Couple of stiles and a few gates.

We parked in a passing place-cum-layby which was plenty big enough to still be used for passing even with my car parked at one end! This was at approximately map ref ST727565.

Bear in mind that other people on this website have left their cars somewhere they refer to as a ‘car park’. While references to this seem to be tongue in cheek, it was almost certainly at least as good if not better than where we parked!

We walked down the hill to a left turn heading north east along a lane which runs alongside a small river. About a quarter of a mile along, we turned right, through a kissing gate I think (though it could have been a stile). The path crosses a narrow grassy area, through the trees and across a little bridge over the river.

At the other side (east) of the river, the path heads briefly uphill across a field, meeting a farmtrack or bridlepath running roughly north-south. We turned left and followed the track northish.

The track stays maybe 50-100 yards from the river for a few hundred yards, but before long we could see a hill in front of us and the river was getting further away. There are some farm buildings just the other side of the river.

Very soon we could make out the profile of the barrow up on the hillside in front of us and to the left. About halfway up the hill I guess, we took a lightly worn but distinct path off to the left across the field, still going uphill. At the hedgerow was a stile and, I think it was here that there was a signpost to the barrow.

Over the stile and right, along the field edge following the hedgerow, slightly uphill I think. After only 100 yards or so I’d guess, there was a collapsed stile back to the other side of the hedgerow. The barrow is clearly visible and close, side-on straight up the hill from here. I think there is an English Heritage sign. There may be one more fence and stile, more-or-less directly in front.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Reaching the barrow, I commented to John that the final approach from this direction was a tiny bit disappointing, being uphill and from the side.

I feel it would be more impressive if you could approach the barrow directly towards its entrance, by continuing up the main track to the level of the barrow and then approach it by turning left. John was quite happy with it the way it is!

Maybe I’d been expecting something a little more overtly striking because I’d been looking forward to ‘meeting’ this place for a few months.

Approaching from the side, the first thing I noticed was the low retaining wall round the bottom of the long barrow’s embankment. It seemed incredibly neat and well-preserved. I was pleased with how well it had survived and wondered if it is one of the elements of the barrow that has been restored.

Round to the entrance and the barrow took on an extra beauty for me. It’s proportions are lovely and the stonework around the portal is beautiful (except for the scar where there has been a nasty plaque on the right.

I was proud to have remembered my torch for once, so we took a look inside. And discovered that the batteries were sadly inadequate!!! One day I’ll get it right!

Quite a few signs of the repairs and reinforcements made before the chamber was reopened to the public. They don’t exactly look subtle, but I suppose they’re better than nothing. I’m no structural engineer so I’d better not complain. Funnily (?) enough, they’re even more evident on my photies....

Speaking of photies, I was going to take one of the legendary giant ammonite on the left upright of the entrance. But we couldn’t find it!!!

I have to say that at the time I couldn’t remember where it was and hadn’t seen a photo. Having checked on this website since, I really can’t see how we missed it. Unless we missing it because we were too close and it’s SO big?! Guess it must still be there?! My only photos of the entrance are a fraction too distant to make it out now I know where it is.

But most of the stones throughout are just dripping with chunks of shell and stuff – never seen owt like it. I was impressed. But then, I’m not a geologist either & know nothing about shelled creatures!

The chambers themselves are impressive, possibly even more so because it’s a bit of a squeeze to actually get in there and manoeuvre about to see them – or is that just me being perverse?

Probably not, as this really is the first barrow to even vaguely make me feel ‘cocooned’ – or perhaps what I really mean is ‘cockooned’ given the spectacular feminine imagery of Severn-Cotswold style barrows like this!

Access at farm on right of B3130 travelling east. It’s just possible to park by the gate to the farm. Ask to see the ‘stone’. They might snigger – the old chap painting the gate did when we asked! The stone (what there is to see!) lies on the farm side of the hedgerow to the east of the farmgate.

I emphasise this because the aforementioned ‘old chap’ didn’t bother to point this out, letting us set off blithely down the roadside verge.... (I hope he did it out of cantankerousness, otherwise he was just annoyingly unhelpful!!!)

The ground may be a bit rough if you have trouble walking, but the stone is only about 100 feet (?) from the farmgate, next to the hedgerow under a tree.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
No dog in evidence today. Good job. Had no biscuits.

You will think ‘is that it?’ You almost certainly will think ‘why did I bother?’ But you’ll probably also be glad you did. Me and my imagination were.

To confirm what Kammer says, I’ve read (can’t remember where, other than Burl’s mention) that the stone did, relatively recently, used to be bigger. Considerably bigger I believe.

Also see The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues , South West Circle and The Cove.

Access Going south through the village, when the circle is signposted left keep going. (It might even be signposted too.) As you reach the far end of the village there is a bend left with the Druids Arms on the left. Immediately after the pub there is a small car park. Park here.

If you can resist going straight for a pint, there is a gate from the car park to about 5 fairly steep steps up to the beer garden. When the back door of the pub is unlocked you can also get through that way, but it still involves steps. The stones are set in well kept grass on a gentle-ish slope in the beer garden.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Well, when we arrived the beer garden was deserted and the setting seemed fine. (Sorry Oci!) We had a look at these BIG old rocks and stood on walls at the top of the beer garden working out the relative position to the Great Circle etc and the SW Circle.

This was relatively easy. We orientated ourselves by the tops of the trees in the Great Circle’s field, the Church – which lies between the Great Circle and The Cove (...hmmmm!), and, less pleasantly, a farmer’s huge stockpile of old tyres that we’d noticed not far from the SW Circle!

This gave useful visual support to John Wood’s observation a couple of centuries ago (related by Burl) that The Cove would align on a straight line through the centre of the NE and Great Circles. (He also says that Hautville’s Quoit aligns on a line through the centres of the SE and Great Circles.)

Curiously none of this is mentioned in English Heritage’s little info sheet, though it does give loads of interesting info about a geophys survey of the main site. (Once you’ve waded through the usual woolly ‘what stone circles were for’ and ‘folklore’.)

Anyway, nice Cove! Inevitably a little reminiscent of, but very small in relation to, the Avebury one(s) – but still big stones in comparison to an awful lot of megaliths! Wonder what coves were? (I’ve read a few theories of course.) Pre-dates the circles according to Burl.

Have to say being sited in a beer garden quite appealed to us. (Ahem, what a surprise!) So, better to enjoy the ambience, we grabbed a pint of Wadswoth 6X each and drank to the glorious Mr Stanton Drew....

Also see The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues , South West Circle and Hautville’s Quoit.

See main Weddings at Stanton Drew page for Access notes.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
It is (now) possible to approach this circle directly from The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues.

Considerably more unkempt than the main site as a result of being in an apparently uncultivated field, the stones here are all fallen. And a bit overgrown. And almost impossible to photograph.

But this doesn’t prevent this from being a nice circle featuring large and interesting and aesthetically pleasing stones. Ace.

Also see The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues , The Cove and Hautville’s Quoit.

See main Weddings at Stanton Drew page for Access notes.

Tuesday 16 September
While there John and I had the Great Circle down as marginally smaller than Long Meg and her Daughters but when I looked in Burl later, it’s actually a bit bigger. As my copy of Burl lives in my rucksack I really ought to remember to look at the damn thing on site a bit more often!!!

As we walked round the Great Circle looking at the fallen stones, it became simultaneously easier to imagine the circle when the stones were standing and more frustrating that the vast majority are fallen.

This is an amazing place, that would be truly mind-boggling in a Hurlers, or Machrie Moor way if only the stones were standing!!. Kind of almost in an Avebury way if you look just at Avebury itself, the West Kennett Avenue & Longstone Cove. (Leave out Silbury & everything else though, because that’s where Avebury leaves everything else trailing!!)

John’s still slowly converting me to the opinion that more circles should be ‘restored’ – not in the Cullerie sense, ‘just’ re-erected as well as possible. Never would’ve said that a few months ago! (I’ll probably change my mind again anyway next time I see a ‘badly’ or ‘overdone’ one!!!)

In fact, you only have to look at the damaged but BEAUTIFUL NE circle to see what I’m on about. If the Great Circle was anywhere near as complete as this, we’d all be mind-blown bunnies I reckon.

Big stones, most of them standing. Nice proportions

Maybe it was the defiant insubordination of the smaller circle in close proximity to a much bigger ‘monument’, or maybe it was something about the proportions. Or maybe it was something else. But somehow, the NE circle in relation to the Great Circle put me in mind of Cnoc Fillibhear Bheag in relation to Callanish.

Well, I know what I mean, even if nobody else does!

(The Avenues are sh**ged and seem very strangely aligned, but they’re still a nice little bonus!)

Also see South West Circle , The Cove and Hautville’s Quoit.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
Access coming from the west, we took the B3130, turning right at the signpost for Stanton Drew. This junction is remarkable for a strange little cottage on an ‘island’. One of the most bizarre domiciles I’ve ever seen – looks more than a little like a toadstool. Shame about the incongruous big brick chimney.

Driving into Stanton Drew, the circle is clearly signposted to the left. There’s a small car park, and entrance to the field where the main circles stand is by a (kissing?) gate with an English Heritage honesty box.

And if you’re lucky (we were) a little stock of b/w photocopied A4 single page info sheets. Nice touch but makes it annoying that they don’t do it more often!

There’s another kissing gate just before you reach the Great Circle. Looks bizarre because (at least at the moment) the only fence either side of it is a single string! This is not visible from more than a few yards away, so it just looks like a gate standing in a field!

The ground around the main and north-east circles is reasonably even, on a gentle slope.

Access to the south west circle is, from memory, over a stile and possibly through a gate too. Or 2 gates. Or 2 stiles. (Sorry!) The small field is also considerably less even and level.

Tuesday 16 September 2003
I’d been looking forward to this one for a very long time, since spotting it in Burl’s ...Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany – many years ago, not long after I got the book.

Despite having read quite a bit about it, the place still surprised me, particularly just through the sheer size of the Great Circle, and I guess, the cohesiveness of the whole ‘complex’. Guess it’s not ALL that often that you visit sites that are so distinctly and unavoidably inter-related. Shame about Hautville’s Quoit....

Also see The Great Circle, North East Circle & Avenues , South West Circle , The Cove and Hautville’s Quoit.

Access is very difficult! Starting from the Longstone Cove, there is a bridlepath leading down the side of the nearest house to the west. After 100 yards or so I guess, the long barrow is in the field to the left. There is a rough hedge along the edge of the track and no clear access but, with difficulty, we were able to squeeze through a thin patch in the hedge.

Monday 15 September 2003
Having managed to get into the field where the overgrown long barrow stands, it was clear that it was quite damaged.

Squeezing through the trees and bushes on the remaining segment I was able to see that from its height, this must have once been a pretty damn sizeable barrow. This only made it clearer that each end has been badly ploughed out and basically destroyed.

Not much else to say really.

Access visible from the road and on reasonably even flat ground. Very short walk. May be in crop at some times.

Monday 15 September 2003
To find the stones follow Julian’s instructions in the big papery TMA. If you don’t have the book and are not too ashamed, Kammer has reproduced the directions here.

When we visited there were 2 active excavation pits. But by the time we arrived the excavations had finished for the day and there were just a few people stood around chatting and a very ‘professional-looking’ (for want of better words) dowser...well, dowsing...!

The excavations and the resulting piles of rubble gave the place a bit of a bizarre feel, making it feel almost like we were in the middle of a quarry rather than a very well cultivated field!

But, oh what stones these are!!

This was another site I had been looking forward to visiting for some time, ever since I discovered that it wasn’t the same ‘Cove’ as I’d visited at Avebury itself 8 or more years before. (Yes, I’d got the wrong end of the stick at some point!!! Just call me ThickyMoth.) I wasn’t disappointed!!!

With the sun getting pretty low, the light on the heavily textured and pitted stones (especially the larger, squarer ‘Adam’) was stunning and beautiful. And it’s just so easy to imagine the Beckhampton Avenue stretching off back towards Avebury. If only we didn’t have to imagine....

Wednesday 17 September 2003
Visited the circle again, this time in order to take Jane there. After a while examining the remains of the circle we retired to the east, where Jane spent some time around the large outlier and I just lay back and enjoyed the view.

Before long it was time to move on, so I quickly went (seriously, believe it or not) to see if there was a tree I could climb to get an aerial view of the stones. Couldn’t find one I could even vaguely attempt! If only Jane had known about the circle when she was airborne only a few days previously!

Access a signposted ‘byway’ runs down the side of the field where the stones are. You can just about make out some of the stones from it and there is a small space to park just off the road. Unfortunately access to the circle is by climbing over either a barbed wire fence or an overgrown stile from the road (after crossing the roadside ditch...).

Monday 15 September 2003
We headed north from Avebury along the A4361, taking a left turn to go through Winterbourne Bassett itself. A short distance out of the village as the road continues north west there is a crossroads with a lane to the left and a ‘byway’ to the right.

There is a massive stone clearly visible right next to the road, on the far side of the left turn. You can’t miss it because it stands on a fairly high bank up to the field beyond. The stone circle is in the field diagonally opposite, on the right of the byway.

We turned right, just onto the beginning of the byway, where there is a little space where we could park without causing an obstruction.

Out of the car I could glimpse a couple of stones in the field to the right, looking pretty unimpressive, as some people had warned me they would.

As John went down the track to find a spot to climb over the barbed wire fence, I spotted a rather overgrown ladder stile in the near corner of the field, coming over the fence from the road.

Once in the field and approaching the stones I had seen from the track, I became a little bemused. Although all remaining stones are fallen, the circle was much more obvious and complete than I had expected. And most strikingly, the stones were considerably bigger than I’d expected!

I’d agree with the reports that say that there are 3 stones in a distinct arc, and add that there is a fairly small one stuck within what appears to be the area of the circle. But it seemed to me that the stones give very obvious impression of the full circle.

I wish I’d counted the damn things now, as I’m almost sure there were 5 on the circumference of a circle as well as the one inside the arc.

What there absolutely definitely is, is a huge stone to the east as well as the stone stood on the opposite side of the road. These 2 seemed to me to be more or less equidistant from the circle stones, suggesting that they could be corresponding outliers....

Access pretty short distance (a few hundred yards?) along a fairly rough field edge track.

Monday 15 September 2003
Well I’ve been to a fair few damaged, ruined, wrecked and virtually non-existent circles, but this is right up there with the most underwhelming. Still worth a visit though.

As well as the general lack of stones, it’s difficult to even imagine which direction the circle would have lain, though I felt the angle of the stone gave a strong clue. My mate John wasn’t so sure – making the point that the stone only needs to have moved a relatively tiny amount to be totally misleading....

I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t know exactly what they should expect! I knew exactly what to expect and if it wasn’t for the little ‘Pogles Wood’ style sign by the remaining stone, I still might have been disappointed!

Access the main car park is on the edge of the village itself but as the village is small, this isn’t much of a problem. Don’t think there are any problems with gates from the car park, though some of the others scattered around the different segments of the circle may be a bit narrow and ‘unforgiving’.

Much of the ground inside the henge is easily pretty easily negotiable, being reasonably even and grassed. Guess busy parts might be muddy in sustained wet weather. Don’t think there’s a very convenient alternative to the steps near the National Trust shop when rejoining the circle itself.

Monday 15 September 2003
It was great to finally get an excuse and the chance to revisit Avebury – only my second visit, and my first as an obsessive megarak.

Such was the thrill of walking along the West Kennett Avenue for the first time, that I was quite expecting Avebury itself not to live up to my recollections and expectations. But I needn’t have worried....

It’s a ‘what can I say...’ site if ever there was one! There’s just so much of it, so much too look at, so much to take in, so much to think about!

I want to live there & each evening the weather’s decent, I want to take a bottle of Old Peculiar and sit by a different stone to slowly drink in and savour the beer and the place simultaneously.... And when I’d done ‘em all, I’d start again. Reckon I could pass a few years that way.

Big henge. Big circle. Big trees. Big sky. BIG ATMOSPHERE. About the only thing that’s (mercifully) small is the village. And even though the crowds were fairly big too, the bigness of the place compensated comfortably for that too.

Oh, and the stones!!!!!!!!! Big, big, BIG, BIG stones. So much bigger in the flesh than in photos, pictures or my memory or imagination!!!

And the whole thing is so much BIGGER than my vocabulary that I think I’d better shut up now.

Access layby at ‘West Kennett end’ of Avenue. Through kissing gate. Undulating but smooth grass surface for length of Avenue. Also visible from road for whole distance, but feeling of procession needs to be experienced if at all possible.

Monday 15 September 2003
This is actually the first time I’ve been back to Avebury itself since 95ish. I visited quite a few of the more ‘outlying’ sites in July this year, but other than that, my visit around 95 was my only one. (Don’t think it’ll be so long until my next visit....)

I’ve really been racking my brains to think why I didn’t walk or even really look at the Avenue on that previous visit. And I’ve been doing it ever since seeing some decent photos of it years ago!

Having looked at the fieldnotes on this website, it seems that I’m maybe not as unusual as I thought. There are far fewer than I expected, and I was astonished when I read the notes made by Rhiannon – I’ve had to rewrite the following to avoid too much duplication!!! The fact that they were made so recently and that the Avenue had been a site that Rhiannon had previously ‘missed out’ is almost spooky.

What she says in particular about the serpentine route and the feeling of ‘rightness’ in approaching Avebury this way is expressed so much better than I could have done it! So here comes some gibberish which is all I can find to add...!

So. WOW. West Kennett Avenue at last eh? High expectations? You bet. Met? You’d betta believe it!

What a buzz! It started in the car when we passed the 2 stones back along the road towards West Kennett, before you reach the remaining Avenue proper. And it hasn’t ended yet, 6 and a half days later.

It’s just so...effective...as a way to approach Avebury itself. The undulating ground and the meandering Avenue just add so much to the feeling of anticipation! And so many of the stones are such beautiful and interesting shapes!

Thanks for your fieldnotes Rhiannon! You saved me so much time and effort it’s almost untrue!!!

Access none at present due to well documented subsidence and English Heritage’s inability to get its finger out. May be able to walk around it at ground level. Can view from road. (And various other points around the area!)

Monday 15 September 2003
This is one of those ‘what the hell can I say that hasn’t been said?’ places isn’t it? One thing I have to mention however is that my ass is numb from kicking myself for not walking up the damn thing back in 95 or whenever it was....

What the bl**dy hell DO English Heritage think they’re playing at?

Most impressively viewed (in my opinion) from the hill above and to the west of East Kennett Long Barrow, the field below West Kennett Long Barrow, the bank of the Kennett on the way from Avebury, from Windmill Hill and, best of all, coming round the top of Waden Hill from Avebury.

Access kissing gate I think. Slightly rough path up to barrow, but path is being re-jigged at the moment. Walk is around 10 minutes if you’re reasonably fit I guess.

Monday 15 September 2003
Haven’t been up here for years. Only took about 3 photies before, as I was only just getting interested in stones ‘n’ bumps. Unfortunately had a frustrating time with the camera this time, as our visit coincided perfectly with a (small but big enough!) coachload of tourists....

Must admit I was probably a bit less impressed this time than I expected, having seen numerous other barrows and burials of many kinds since that first visit. It remains an absolute classic though and seems quite a bit bigger than East Kennett (I know it’s not).

So, here follow some banal comments, for the record. It really is a very long barrow, isn’t it? And I suspect it takes quite a few visits to get used to the sheer size of the entrance stones. Smaller inside than I remembered. Oh yeah, the skylights spoil it a bit I think.