postman

From Gamelands stone circle Sunbiggin cairn is, carry on up the lane up Knott hill, but turn and look down upon the circle before you reach the trig point or it will be too below to see. From the trig point go south east and with as much grace and finesse as possible get over the dry stone wall.
However, north east of the trig point is Castle Folds Romano British settlement, which I didn’t get to because of time constraints but from pictures ive seen it reminds me of Castle Wark in Derbyshire.
The cairn will come into view soon, it’s really very visible, at least from the direction I came and as my daughter says, there’s only One Direction. (Ghaaa!)

I do not think this is a ring cairn, true, i’m an amateur, but it is almost definitely a round cairn.
A good one too, as tall as I am and still half it’s original height. The obligatory scoop has been taken from it, a bloody big scoop too, and the also obligatory stick, nay, post, arises from the cairns inner, like a frozen arm waving the cairns whereabouts. It is of course made of limestone rubble, as is the whole of Great Asby Scar. Scar is an unfortunate term for such geological occurrences, the exposed limestone paving along with the very odd tree, and the very agreeable view is as mesmerising a place as the cairn or even the stone circle.
From Gamelands this cairn is very nearly 1 mile away, and it is 1495 meters or 878.97 smoots. Its also in line with the stone circle and the summer solstice sun rise, probably. But the circle cant be seen from the cairn, maybe at its original height it could be. But it might not have to be in direct line, just in the general vicinity of the sunrise might have be enough for the cairns owner.
Either way this is an astonishing place and most suitable to sitting silently pondering.

From Orton head east towards Raisebeck, go through a crossroad junction and take your second left. Park on this lane/footpath, there is room. The stone circle is up the path on your right, look for a kissing gate type wotsit.
Sounds easy enough, but I couldn’t find it without an OS map once.

Today was the Summer solstice, en route by 2.30 am, with three kids and two dogs, not ideal. But I’m going into hospital for spinal surgery tomorrow so i’ll be blown if i’m staying in. Eric and Luke and the two dogs come over to the stones with me, but wet feet and hearing the news that i’m staying here til the sun comes up sent them back to the car for more nap time.
There’s just me and the stones, and a long wait til the sun comes up. But to be honest Gamelands isn’t really a good place for the summer solstice, the large bulk of Great Asby Scar gets in the way, delaying the magical moment by up to an hour ?
But on the hill, just where it looks like the sun is going rise is a cairn, Sunbiggin cairn, cant be a coincidence surely, and to have the cairn named Sun anything is a bit, you know, provocative.
But the light here pre-sunrise is just great, the sky is a deep blue to the west, and the golden glow of dawn, shimmers among the sparse clouds. Far to the south light creeps down the Howgill fells
They didn’t look after this stone circle though did they. All the stones are down or gone, but their size and their bright pink colour makes up for this more than adequately. I cant help wonder about the stones closest to the wall, obviously the wall wasn’t built out of broken circle stones or these would have gone first. Why didn’t the wall builder incorporate them into the wall ?
What a thought provoking place.
But the sun is taking too long to get anywhere so I decide to go up hill, and photograph the circle as it gets bathed in the first light of summer. Worked well too, plus the limestone paving and the one tree, are a great bonus to the circle below.
Over I go now to Sunbiggin cairn, solstice marker ? we’ll see.

Well, it’s been a long day, we’ve come quite far to see this, driven through some awesome scenery and seen many wonders on the way, but ive saved the biggest wonder til last.
I came here some years ago, early in the morning, and the place just took me over, completely. The shape of the land, the curves of the cliffs of the Storr, the light, the Golden eagle carrying away a struggling rabbit, and the massive God like Old man.
But I only walked round half of it and sat for ten minutes before it was time to go, so I decided there and then that I would come back and have a fuller look round as soon as circumstances allowed.
A brief window of allowance presented itself and off we shot, like a startled rabbit.

We arrived in good humour, until they saw where I intended to take them, “up there” they cried in unison.
“Yup, come on” I said jovially
They jumped out of the car and followed me up. I wish it had happened that way but, what you gonna do.

The forestry bit that I’d walked through last time had been cut down, so the first half of the ascent was through a desolate wasteland, which was a shame because someone had erected some strange natural sculptures among the trees. All gone now, but the Old man is still up there, and he still draws me on.
Then it’s out of the felled bit, through a stile and onto the sheep sheared undulating roller coaster hills below the Storr, but still the Old man remains out of sight.
The view opening out below and around us is, magical, it’s difficult in the extreme to adequately describe the scenery here in just a few well chosen words, but magical is my best shot, it works on me so well, I may as well be under a spell. Over four hundred and fifty miles in a day says what?

I can see the old man, but it’s perfectly camouflaged against the cliffs behind it, I wonder where it’s gone, am I in the right place? we could see it from down the road, why cant I see it, it’s not like you can lose it.
We keep going, it must be there, and as we change direction on the hillside it comes out of hiding, I ask the kids if they could see it, they couldn’t either. Were getting closer now, heading as straight as we can, for the base of the Dude, the kids and I soon disagree on the easiest way up, I follow the path and they straight line it the way up. When they get out of view I begin to worry, but Eric soon decides his dad knew best and were soon reunited, but Luke doesn’t reappear until right at the very top, he looks very out of his comfort zone, don’t let kids wander off, giants wander these hills and they wouldn’t even notice one underfoot.
Standing staring around together under the Old man I ask them if it was worth the climb, I think the answer was in the affirmative but only just, we soon take a seat and look about, there will be no sunset for us, that’s happening on the other side of the ridge, but the distant mountains fill the whole horizon, The Cuilins far right, and I’ve no idea what all the others are, they stretch far away to the north, and half of them have water between us, I’ve no idea, but it looked good. How can anyone bare to live down south with this here, even Glasgow’s too far south.
But soon the kids will be wanting to go, so, I tell them to stay where they are and I’ll be back in a moment, I want to go all the way round the base. Firstly, the ground isn’t even, it slants down towards the sea, secondly it’s a long way down in places, and whilst it may not be fatal, the fall would be fantastically painful, almost as painful as Sciatica. Two points that make for a scary circumambulation (take that dictionary), but my boots are sticking to the rock very well and soon I’m out of danger, i’m now facing the cliffs of the Storr, and they are forbidding, the tall thin spire next to the Old man is long on its other axis, but from here it brings me out in anxious leg shakes just to look at it.
The place where the big Dude is attached to the ground, looks like, it’s been welded into place, the rock is obviously of a volcanic sort, and that’s as far as I go in the field of Geology. But those giants, what a bunch, eh?

I’ve returned to the spot where I left some children, i’m sure that really happened, no it definitely happened, I really did tell my son and his mate to wait here, so where the Samsons jack are they.
I catch up with them shortly and deliver the deserved speech about safety in the hills, then we run all the way back to the car, dead safe.

It’s been a while since I was last here, lost photos from the previous trip prompted me to return when next I could, well I can and here I am.
First time it was early morning with my old dog Arnie, we got soaked, though it never rained.
This time it’s early evening with my son Eric and his best mate Luke whom we’ve kidnapped for a few days. Rather than come over to the stones with me they’ve opted to dare each other further and further into the what must have been a pretty cold loch, if it is a loch at all.
I make my way over to the stones trying to pick a good crossing place over the stream that runs into the loch with no name. Last time I was wearing wellies and had to jump it with a Jack Russell in my arms, we didn’t make it. This time, the stream was a lot lower and I could just walk over.

The stones were just as I remembered them, but the surroundings if anything were more sublime, the high mountains have more higher mountains peeking over beyond them, I’m sure the position was precisely chosen for this reason. It is a fabulous place, well, as fabulous as Britain gets, the colour of the sky, the grass and the reflections on the loch. The orange colour on one of the stones is particularly fetching. I’d really like to see the one fallen stone re-erected, just so it would be perfect, if it was a four poster, but who knows, its certainly not a stone row.
But it is an epic place, the bare rocky mountains will fill you with dread as you drive round Loch Slapin, they look so tall when they arise right out of sea level. Epic place.

I’m fairly sure I came here on my last Skye trip, but I have no memory of it except sitting on the stone and wondering at the mountain view, nor do I have any pictures of it, perhaps I didn’t even know it was a chambered cairn, it might only have been a top place to sit and gawp.
It is I think understandable, I was probably just passing and honestly the first thing you think about when faced with this is not wow look a chambered cairn, it’s oooh look at those mountains, couldn’t you just take them home with you.
So whilst this site is not my primary concern on Skye, and seeing as I’m passing again, I’d be a bit of a Muppet if I didn’t stop off and take a closer second look.
It still doesn’t look much like a chambered cairn, but now that I know, I can see it, though the mountains are still too overpowering.
I did find one quite expansive spread where the cairn material can still be seen, but the kerb stones still look like random stones on a hillock, and the top stone is still a top place to sit and gawp.

It’s been nearly six years since my last stop off here at Kintraw, it is for my money one of the best sites in western Scotland. Sure there is only one standing stone, and the cairns are of the non get into type, but this is one of those places that seems to be greater than the sum of it’s parts.
I didn’t park in the parking place, again (inwardly groans), but by the first gate you come to when driving north, I did not get in anyone’s way.
Some standing stones are barely standing at all, but rather a tallish stone lump, some stones are hidden by long grasses, this one is neither. It is tall, pointy, slim and uber graceful, if I were a rich Victorian landowner wanting a folly, this would be my choice for a standing stone.
The menhir stands between two cairns, of vastly different types, the smaller of the two is a nice little kerb cairn, honestly, I’d have stopped off for just that one. But the other cairn is a whopping great pile of stones, with at least two large kerb stones still in place. Next to it is a fallen monolith, and perhaps others lie around as well. Over by the gate where I came in is another cairn, at least I presumed it to be a cairn, there are some suspicious looking big stones upon it.

But that is not all, this is, allegedly, an observatory, not for observing cars as they belt past, but the sun, moon, comets and returning space gods of old ( I made the last two up). Somewhere near here is a so called observation platform but time precluded a protracted wander round. One can almost imagine some kind of priestly old guys making pronouncements made upon observations, this is how science starts, where it ends I cannot guess, hopefully with all the greed heads going off planet.

Then there’s the view, it is gorgeous, not the every day gorgeous of other places ive been to, but world renowned gorgeous. The way the reflections shimmer on Loch Craignish and beyond the Loch the verdant green hillsides above Ardfern. Amid the village of Ardfern is a chambered cairn
themodernantiquarian.com/site/669/clach_an_tsagairt.html Ive not been there yet.
But all that is just to the west of here, there’s hills
with forts on and mountains behind them.

Kintraw, greater than the sum of it’s parts, I really must try and spend a longer time here next time.

I spotted these two cists on the map, and as they are en route to Kilchoan of Poltalloch I decided that a quick look was in order.
As I passed by first time I could see a slight stoney bump in the field, so on the way back I pulled over by the gate and hopped on over. There was sheep and lambs in the field but apart from a few half arsed bleats they mostly ignored me. The small bump I’d spied on my way past was indeed one of the cists, it wasn’t a particularly good one, just a small cairn with some stones poking out at odd angles. But the other cist, which was mostly hidden in long reedy grass was much better, maybe. One long capstone still seems to cover the whole thing, it looked intact, how cool.
So, easily seen from the road but the best one is hiding in the grass.

At Barsloisnoch lodge the road turns left at 90 degrees, we parked the car here, just. Then came the walk up the road to Kilchoan lodge, which was happily mainly uneventful. As you approach the latter lodge listen out for running water on your left, if you look over the hedge you can just see the burial chamber on it’s little hillock, or maybe not. Either way keep going til Kilchoan lodge is on your right, take the left hand turn and thar she blows.

Initially, it all looks a bit of a mess, a haphazard jumble of stones. But the more you move around it the more you can tell where things went, mentally putting things back together is something that has to be done and is a good thought exercise, or maybe not.
Greywether goes so far as to identify it as a Clyde cairn, but my knowledge only goes far enough to ascertain that it’s a burial chamber. But a good one.
If it wasn’t for the nearby lodge this would be a perfect place, as it is, the farm track is a muddy quagmire of a stinky mess, phone lines interrupt the delightful view, and a couple of other little niggles nag at me.
But that view is something though, looking down onto Loch Crinan with tree covered hills beyond and bigger mountains beyond them. A truly beautiful place, if not for the lodge, there’s not even any Freemasons.

I’ve been past these two stones loads of times, but their location in a clearly farmed field had always put me off. But not this time, as ive learned that with in reason there is no such thing as trespassing in Scotland. So I parked in the lay-by close to the stones and dropped over the wall into the field. Followed the fence line down to a babbling brook, sorry a burn, crossed it and over another fence. I’m now in the same field as the stones but they’re hidden round the corner of a low hill.
Rounding the corner the stones are fifty yards distant, I sidle over trying not to attract attention. A chainsaw buzzes in the trees by the farmhouse.
I’m at the stones , I have a framed photo of these stones on my wall at home, but I cant quite see this in them, if you know what I mean, perhaps the photo is of the other two in the field north of here, before the other stone fell.
One stone is much taller than the other and pointy, whilst the lower stone has a flat top. Both stones have thick lichens on their higher reaches.
A lovely place with two fine examples of their genre, pity about the chainsaw.
On the way back I got closer to the cairn on the hillock top and zoomed a photo, little realising that the two fallen standing stones are right next to it. If I’d known, I’d have risked further non trespassing. Something that does not come naturally to an Englishman ,boxed and caged as we are.

I didn’t find this place easy to find at all.
After the depot on the forests edge I turned right instead of going straight on. Accordingly I ended up south of the fort Dun na Maraig on a track that takes you to Achnabeck farm house and standing stone(fallen).
We saw a sign for the rock art pointing into the trees, so it seemed all would be well. But somehow we ended up on what looked like a BMX track which took us to who knew where. But with map and compass and the high fort to get our bearings from we soon found our selves back on the right track. It took us straight to the rock art, Yaay.

I’ve been to Kilmartin several times now and seen the sign on the road pointing the way here but always I’ve gone off to see the stones instead. But not this time, it is high on the must see list.
To say that the rock art panels are extensive is to say that the kilmartin glen has some stones in it.
I wasn’t expecting it to go on so far, the first panel is quite massive, inclined at 45 degrees, perhaps. It has many interesting forms upon it. But round the corner and you can see just how much further it goes. I’m afraid to say it was at this point that the fence jumper in me got the better of me. Over we go, no one saw us, i think we got away with it. Needless to say we didn’t trample on the carvings, we always trod on grass.
One of the spirals is a meter across, huge, comparatively, it’s the overgrown mutant of the rock art spiral world.
Plus, there’s the view down into and across the valley, it’s a nice place, a very nice place indeed.
But just then the swarm came, the real monster of the highlands, those god damn midges. Eric earlier in the day had pointed out some midge hat net thingies, but I said we could cope without them. We couldn’t, they fair chased us away, there was more midges than there was vacant air, run for the hills, damn were already there.
The way back was more straight forward than coming.

The cheap car challenge for the day was to visit Kilmartin and end up at The old man of Storr on the isle of Skye. More specifically for the Kilmartin area I wanted to get to the burial chamber at Poltaloch and back up here to Dunadd, it had been so long my archived pictures of the place showed that it had been nearly ten years. So here we go again.

It was about 8am, new (dry) socks for the kids from the garage, sigh and tut.
Eric and Luke shot up the hill with the energy and exuberance reserved only for young children. We practically kidnapped Luke to bring him with us, the poor kids never been to Scotland, the only time he’s left England is with us. I’m not sure what he makes of it all.
The first feature reached is the big rock cut, paved entrance, it is very impressive, to say the very least.
Once through the narrow gully it opens out into the lower courtyard. Far right is the well and it’s cover stone, and some low tumbled walling can be seen in places. Naturally we keep on going up.
Just below the highest part of the fort is the rock art.
Though rock art is maybe not the right phrase for all of it. The ogham inscription was hard to read but from what I could read was something about the rightful king of Scotland would be a Postman from Crewe.
The foot carving, of which there are two, one very faded, one obvious, it is this obvious one that apparently the king would place his shod foot in to be inaugurated, or something like that. Sounds a tad fallacious to me. The Boar, is pretty faded, only the lower half, the legs and belly of the beast are still clear.
Then it’s up to the citadel, or upper courtyard, they don’t know which, or it could be a yoga space, maybe even kite flying arena, honestly, even the information board is unclear.
What is clear is the view of the surrounding countryside, twisting rivers going off to meet Loch Crinan and the open sea, rocky hillsides with higher peaks peeking over them. It is a very nice place, when i’m king I shall rehouse my dynasty there, as is my divine right.
Until then I’ll go and have a look at some rock art, Achnabreck I think, not been there yet.

Strangely, perhaps, this henge is exactly 100 meters south of the Ballymeanoch two stone row, From the stones, the only sign of this henge is the grass is slightly longer, the ground slightly rougher, it’s not much to go on. Even when stood right next to the henge all you might say is what are these stones for ?
The henge is very slight, nay vague, almost not there at all.
But from what I could see, it had entrances at the north and south. The central area is occupied by a cairn with a still mostly covered cist. Apparently two other cist burials were inserted into this cairn. Four large stones can be found around the henge bank.
It is not a Super henge, but it is a super henge.

I started my Ballymeanoch wander at the kerb cairn in the corner, but to be honest, my gaze was forever turning to the stones. Four big stones in a row, graded in height, the largest at the south. The middle two stones have cup and ring marks carved upon them. Between the two smallest stones is a bit of a gap as if a stone were missing. The tallest of the four is twice my height making it about twelve feet up to the top of it’s craggy tip.
As if that wasn’t good enough two more standing stones lie about fifty feet from here in parallel to the four. Both of these stones are much taller than me but less than twelve feet. All of them are slim, pointy and mossy on their higher slopes.
So, whats it all about then? I could see them being used to measure something in the sky, or perhaps part of a ritual avenue, but to be honest, i’m as perplexed and vexed as I was the first time I came here.
Oh well, i’m sure the vague, unspecific henge just over there will make it all become very clear. Wont it?

In the corner of a field no more than two hundred yards from Duncraigaig chambered cairn, is this little kerb cairn. Its about six meters across and up to about a dozen stones stand up and down around it’s circumference. Four stones on the east side could be said to be contiguous, you couldn’t even get a razor blade between them. Sorry, that’s a lie, but they do look good and it makes me crave a fully intact version. Two large fallen stones are taking a nap, one of them has broken in two the larger part of which has a hole bored through, bored with a diamond tipped circular saw no doubt.

The views are modest yet exquisite, low rocky hills are to the east, south and trees block a presumed view of fort and sacred hill Dunadd. North is the big Duncraigaig cairn, and the rest of the megalith heaven Kilmartin Glen. But mostly it’s west and the almost on top of us Ballymeanoch standing stones. Beyond them the the River Add and the Crinan canal empty into Crinan loch.
It’s a brilliant little spot, and the cairn is worthy of
some time spent here, but man are those big standing stones overpowering. Not to mention the henge over there.

This is the first site of the day, it’s about 6am, it’s not cold, but the dew laden grass is going to soak the kids feet quickly, they have gone on before me. By the time I’ve stones under my feet, they have been round, over and in the chambered cairn, so off they go to the Ballymeanoch stones.
Low mists swirl around over the river and Loch Crinan south and east from here. The hills cut a fine and striking silhouette against a light blue sky, a Blackbird sings loudly in a nearby tree and Swallows swing low over the field next door. It’s going to be a good day, if a very long one.
The huge mass of stones is a high one, well over my head, so I climb to the top and find the higher of the two cists. It’s not quite able to accommodate me, so I stick the camera in and take a couple of photos.
At the cairns north west edge is a small collection of stones that could be something, a small kerb cairn perhaps. On its south side is the lower chamber, it does not look like a cist, like the one on top, this is big enough to get into.
As first site of the day this is a good way to go, I would probably drive all the way across Wales to see something like this cairn, but in the Kilmartin Glen it’s just a minor player in a much bigger game.

The first time I came up here I was with both my kids, the wife stayed at the bottom, I don’t remember much about the fort only that it was winter. Going back down the south steeper side, holding hands, my son was pulling us down, my daughter pulling us back and me trying to keep us all upright and not falling to our deaths, despite the obvious dangers were all laughing really hard, the wife said she could hear us laughing from the bottom. That was all a million years ago now though, I miss those uncomplicated go for it days.

This time I’m on my own and I’m coming at it from the opposite side, the northern route is longer but half as steep, my sciatic leg thanked me profusely.
As I start the walk there is a couple of older American ladies right behind me, I decide that I cant let them overtake me so I put my foot down as it were and leave them behind, but slowly. It was nice to know that I can still out pace old ladies.
As I gain some height I can see that the hills are liberally strewn with inattentive walkers. I say inattentive because as I reach the top and enter the fort I see no one else all the time I was there, literally dozens of walkers pass by on the path but not a one bothers to come up and see whats what. Whilst that’s good for my visit, I feel sorry for the fort, it deserves some attention, and I feel sorry for the inattentive walkers who are out and about but still not getting their value for petrol money.

I pass through the large obvious entrance and make my way up to the top and sit for a while enjoying the views and the wind in my hair. From up here I can see the Mid Cheshire ridge twenty five miles away, with Beeston castle at its northern end and Maiden castle further south, the inter-connectedness of all the forts round here is almost mind blowing.
From the top I make way down to the earthworks, which are very substantial. Then follow them round, something which ive found just has to be done. On the eastern side they fade away to almost nothing a wall marks the route any fortifications would have followed. The south side is much the same only with no wall. I sit here for another while noting the route down me and the kids took last time, nostalgia huh ? who needs it.
The earthworks slowly rise up again as I approach the east facing entrance. I saw my first Swallow of the year here, which is better than last years behind McDonald’s, and heard my first Cuckoo of the year too, do they really say “Cuckoo”? because they seem to be sticking up two fingers to the natural way of child rearing leading me to presume that their call is really more like “F***you”.
Passing the entrance I move along inside the deepest ditch, boggy ground with the odd boulder here and there. Up the bank I sit once more amid the heather, very close by I can hear a birds wing flap just once, it is very close but it doesn’t betray it’s position, now that’s parenting.
The heather is very comfy to sit upon. A better seat than this I have not seen in all of Clwyd. Over the bank in front of me is the near but distant Pennyclodiau hill fort, the largest in these hills. I spend quite some time sitting hear, the Swallows are shooting about all around me diverting their streak at the last moment when they see me. Nature abounds.
But now time has gotten the better of me so I must trundle back down to the car park and resume my normal life. Juxtaposed the two parts of my life couldn’t be more different, unless I was a spy, super hero or astronaut.
A brilliant fort this one sadly overlooked by all except the attentive.

I am a believer in Penbedw stone circle.

Whilst en route to another Clwydian hill fort I decided to take another look at this place, there is a lay-by on the road almost opposite the stones. Sciatic leg strangely not giving me any jip so I carefully leapt the fence and made my way over to perhaps the oddest of Clwyd’s ancient sites.
Coflein says it has five stones and eight trees, and isn’t mentioned before the 18th century. But today I could only see four stones and four trees and a stump, perhaps the other trees were carted off for road or wall building. The trees are big and old, one more so than the others, perhaps a botanist could estimate it’s age, which could give us a clue about the circle as the trees are supposed to occupy the place of missing stones.
Despite Coflein and Aubrey’s doubts, it felt real to me. The whole site is on a slightly raised platform, the bigger of the four stones looks like it was chosen for it’s odd shape, as so many circle builders did, there is an outlier about 250 meters west, in the next field is a kosher barrow, and an ancient track way runs by very closely, but where I do not know. All positive points in my opinion.
I leave the circle and creep over to the outlier, playing hide and seek with a tractor, keep a tree between you, handy things trees.
Burl is suspicious of this stone too, but if I were lord of the manor and asked for a standing stone, and got this, I’d want me money back, that’s a stone lump not standing stone., and I wouldn’t really want it right next to the track up to the big house where any unobservant toff could crash into it.
It is maybe five feet tall, grey, and made of a rocky substance. Most helpful i’m sure. The red leafed trees either side of the track are particularly fetching.
Now it’s time to go, but before I do I try to get a closer look at the barrow, but tractor man and some big brown cows dissuade me. Johnako presumes a brownish patch to be an old entrance or possibly the excavation scar from 1860, it is almost certainly neither, grass would have covered the scar by now, it’s been 150 years and grass grows well in Wales and barrows don’t have entrances. Most likely it is rabbits.

I wasnt sure about this site last time I came, but now i’m a little bit more sure , but still not certainly sure though.
For goodness sake get it dug.

I parked the car to the north of the fort, right next to a footpath that seemed to go in the right direction, I could see the hill with the fort on top from the car so off I went.
I’ve got to say this end of the footpath was just about the weirdest ive ever been on. It weaved between two houses, fences either side of me, the path was maybe two feet wide, I had to duck under a leaning fence. Then a river blocked the way, the path along its side was less than two feet wide. But now i’m on a track that goes up the side of the hill. Up I go.
Past a house or two, the track is now a muddy footpath and forks in two, the fort is up the left path, so of course I go up the right hand one. It took me up to the Eyarth rocks nature preserve, a very nice place with wondrous views east to the Clwydian range of hills, brimming with iron age forts. Also, limestone paving can be found here, rare for this part of Britain, but no hill fort, I’ve convinced myself that some vague linear bumps are all that’s left of this fort. So I photograph them, without enthusiasm, and start the walk back. As im passing under the cliffs to my right, I realise my blunder, and decide to take the other left hand fork to see if it’s up there.

It was only a short walk from the path forking before I found the first sign of any earthworks.
The disappointment I felt at Pen y Gaer now swung proportionally in the other direction, these were large earthworks.
I scrambled up the bank and found it to be at least eight feet tall, and found myself near the northern terminus of the high bank. Right at the end of the bank it falls dramatically away over some cliffs. Cliffs play a large part of this fort, the western end of the fort has no defences, just vertical cliffs. The interior of the fort is split in two, by cliffs, a higher and lower fort, Brucie would love it here.
So I head east on the high and wide northern bank, interesting features abound here, two entrances, one large the other much smaller. The bank is so wide that structures have been made in them , whether they are original I much doubt.
There is no ditch, or if there was it is now all filled in. So I keep walking.
The vegetation is thick in places and I have to fight through brush to follow the high bank, now in placers it must be ten feet high. Views now and again open out, I can see my car down on the road, Pen y Gaer looking useless and unloved up on its windy hilltop, and out east to the hills and forts, and right below me limestone paving, just like in Yorkshire, but not as extensive. I note that the high bank i’m traversing, sometimes being more like a high mountain ridge, is made up of smashed limestone blocks, wonder where that came from.
By now i’m at the southern end of the fort, here it takes on a more usual form, there’s three banks here, the high one and two lower banks. Moving on, I come to the northern terminus of the bank, again, here it goes right up to the edge of the cliffs. But right at the end the bank separates from the whole, and finshes off with a cairn like structure, it even has a small capstone in it. But it is surely just the end of the defensive bank.
Walking back, I’m now in the fort with the bare rocky cliffs to my left and more cliffs to my right, that seperate the higher and lower part of the fort. This has been a really good one, sure in places the undergrowth obscures what were here to see, but, what is left is a minor wonder to behold, I circuited the whole fort with hushed tones and held breath. Smashing place.
Unfortunately the whole day was marred horribly by my sciatic leg, now so bad that an MRI scan has prompted a trip to see a neurosurgeon next week. Aaaargh! when driving.

There are many hill forts in North Wales, they can be broken down into three types, there are those that i’ve been to, and those that I’ve not , and there are those that I don’t yet know about. This Pen Y Gaer and it’s near neighbour Craig Adwy Wynt fall into the latter category. It’s always nice to make new friends.
It’s barely a ten minute drive south from the nearby town of Ruthin, take second right in Pwll-glas, then left again and the fort, such as is left of it, is above you and to the right. Park in the wide entrance to the farm, you wont be long, i’m sure.

Walk past the farm, the fort is now directly above and to the right, when the track turns 90 degrees left, it’s time for a light trespass. Pass like a ghost over the fence and into the field, I had to do this as a herd of cowlets was guarding what looked like the easiest way in. It is here that the
“presently fossilised in field boundaries” comes into play, the field i’m in is six feet or so lower than the field next to it, any defenses the fort had are kinda gone, leaving only an oval high ground. At a place out of sight of the cowlets and ease of egress I crossed over the fence and into the fort. There really isn’t much left at all, I followed the high/low ground to a gap in the oval, it’s presently used by the farmer, but this is in all probability whats left of the entrance, it is found at the south east corner of the fort and seeing as it faces, more or less, the other fort across the slight valley the probabilities are reasonably high.

From the south east entrance I walk along the south wall, it is all gone, there is nothing at all to give away the forts location, nothing fossilised in field boundaries, nothing, at the bottom of the hill is a pond, a small one, with several large boulders. There is another big stone at the south west corner, it is here that it begins to look like a fort. There is a noticeable bank running from the south west corner, ovals don’t have corners I know, but lets go with it, running up the west side of the fort, for about a hundred yards, maybe, I couldn’t get any closer because of the veal, they just had to congregate around the only part of the fort that survives, and as soon as they saw me appearing through the bushes they ran over and greeted me in the time honoured way, snorts, sniffs, shy glances and loosened bowels. Endearing.
I hobbled down the hill to the pool and examined the boulders mentioned earlier, they were definitely made of some kind of stone. I hopped over the fence and and walked back to the car.
I hoped the other fort on my itinerary would be more engaging, less cowy, but more engaging.

The biggest hill fort in South East Wales, and probably the best fort in South Wales, this one is a stunner.
Circlemaster said he couldn’t believe how few posts there were of this place, and neither can I.
It’s been on my list for a few years now, so, if I throw together a few separated but easy to get to sites I can have my two most wanted Welsh sites in one day, brilliant !
There is a large car park, purpose made for the site, I cant remember the last time I saw a car park for a hill fort, there cant be many, with an information board too.
There are many many good points about this ancient site, the first is, that there are two forts here, it’s a two for the price of none, it’s all free, as free as the air and the rain. The two forts, Y Gaer Fach and Y Gaer Fawr, are separated by a small gully and are no more than 180 meters apart, one could shout over to your mate in the other fort.
The walk up to the first and smaller of the two forts starts at a large modern standing stone, the Gwynfor Evans (Politician) memorial stone. Y Gaer Fawr is a hundred yards up the hill.
Oval in shape, we pass over two lines of old fort walls, they tend to fade out a bit as you move away from the south west corner, but in the north east corner a well defined entrance is found, it just happens to not only face gentler sloping ground but also faces the larger higher fort Y Gaer Fach. We proceed on up to the high.
ground

The first thing we come to is the frankly massive, nay, titanic, front wall, from the outside it looks to be at least twelve feet high, on the inside half that. At the southern end of the wall is the main entrance but we don’t see that until were on our way out. We enter the fort at the south west corner and head north east along the wall. Until it forks, the left wall goes down hill the right fork carries on in the same direction, we go that way.
Nearly half way along this higher wall inside the fort on the highest ground is Y Gaer Fawr’s party piece, a giant cairn.
The giant cairn is 3m high 55m long and 20m wide, it’s a monster cairn. Cairns this size usually have chambers in them, but then cairns like this, ie; a long cairn, aren’t usually in this kind of position.
Coflein freely admits it’s an anomaly, it could be neolithic, either way it’s huge, and a perfect example of a later culture living along side monuments from a bygone age.
We cross from the giant cairn over to the east side of the fort, missing in the process a possible low standing stone and posterns, small entrances to the fort, a good picture of one is found on the coflein site. Oh well, i’ll have to go back now wont I, perhaps on a sunnier day. From the east wall you can see annexes below, and if you look up to the hill to your east, Tricrug, then turn round and look at the giant cairn in profile, the two are a perfect match, it looks very much like the cairn builders were imitating the long bump on the hill, which has subsequently accrued some time in the bronze age it’s own cairn.
The match is quite uncanny.
We then head south and to the front wall, which has a very good looking entrance in it, but coflein assure us it is not an original feature the entrance actual is buried under slippage amid the massive front wall somewhere. And then we walk away, well, Eric’s been gone for some time now, some king of huff apparently, at my taking to many pictures. Me?
It’s hard not to, there’s so many features, I could stay here all afternoon, but we’re a long way from home, and the car aint gonna drive itself.

I had a go at finding this one eight years ago and failed miserably, not having nearly a clue as to it’s whereabouts I had to give up, maybe I’d never get to see it, it’s a shame too, as its three meters high.
But, in the last eight years i have done much snooping about on the Portal, Coflein, Google earth,
etc and now I’m pretty sure where to look.
I parked on a grass verge near a gate into a field, the stone is several fields east from here, in a hedge nearer to the farm.
I had decided upon a no nonsense go see the stone strategy, walk there, walk back, in and out.
The first field had sheep and lambs in, we tried to skirt round the edge of the field but a couple of the lambs came over to us, bleating, cute, the idea of never eating one ever again did cross my mind, but only fleetingly, sure your cute, but you taste sooo yummy.
Leaving the sheep behind we climb over two gates and end up on a farm track, we turn right. Follow it up hill then turn left again in the far left corner is a gap in the hedge this is where the stone is hidden in an adjoining hedge.
But we cant get a good look at it from this side we need to be on the other side of the hedge, there’s a gate fifty feet away, but it lets you into the field that is right next to the farm house. We could be easily seen from here, so I scurry up to the stone say “hi, i’m Chris, I’ll be your TMA’er for the day, what do you mean i’m the first?”
I give the stone a light fondling, take some pictures and were off. Returning uneventfully back the same way we came.
As a mission it was a complete success, We saw and touched the stone, got photos and all without having to bother the lord of the land.
However, the stone is so very close to the farm that if I’d have just driven to the house and asked I could maybe have saved over a quarter of an hour, we wouldn’t have been so on our guard, and maybe I’d have been able to cut back a few out of place hedge branches.
I did feel a bit guilty, but only fleetingly.

We first came here to Carreg Cennen castle at least eight years ago, but strangely I have no photos of the place, good excuse to come back then, plus were on our way to a simply splendid hill fort, so, no excuses.
Adults:- 4.00 quid, Children 3.50, Family 12.00
Open 364 Days of the year.
Summer Opening 9.30 – last admission 17.30
Winter Opening 9.30 – last admission 16.00
The whole site is closed and the car park is locked at 18.30 daily.

It’s not a bit on the cheap side, and it’s not exactly the kind of place you can sneak into ( though I have sneaked into castles before), but if you only see one castle in South Wales make it this one (or maybe Pembroke). Perched right on the edge of the very epitome of precipitous cliffs Carreg Cennen has a secret, in fact it has nine.
Nine caves, an ennead of tight twisting slippy caves.
But as far as I know only one is visible or accessible.
As you enter the castle, right in front of you is a stone doorway tucked away in a corner, go through this doorway and down some steps, beware they are slippery and steep, and whilst there is a wall separating you from a long drop to certain death, vertigo will pop it’s head round the corner, ignore it and pass through another stone doorway. Don’t know why I’m pointing out the stoniness of the doorway, it’s a castle.
There is now a long walkway, punctuated with openings out into the world, it feels like a perambulatory in an old abbey or something. Imagine what it would be like if the castle wasnt there, I’m sure it would be a right bugger to get to. At the end of the corridor, there are modern steps that go down, they will take you into the cave. The original entrance is blocked up, and turned into a Dovecote, sans Doves.

Bones of two adults and a child, and a perforated horse tooth were found in the cave’s stalagmite deposits. Three human teeth were found, the remains are dated to the Upper Palaeolithic, now that’s ancient.
The caves entrance is quite large but it doesn’t take long for it to get tighter and smaller. The walls of the cave are in places seemingly worn smooth, perhaps by the fumbling hands of stumbling pin depositors. For at the end of the cave is the sacred well, or at least it used to be, and it is here that people would deposit pins into the collecting waters, perhaps in hope of the invention of the nappy ? Who can fathom the mind of the superstitious.
Eric me and the dogs went about as far as we could before we had to get down on hands and knees, that is usually far enough for me , but one day i’d really like to go really far into a cave. They are a place of a very singular nature, no two are the same but they always illicit the same feelings with in me, the feeling of being somewhere very special, deep within our great mother, hidden from the fiery ball in the sky, does one really exist when one is safely ensconced with in the earth, presumably so, but I couldn’t swear to it.
I love ancient places, I love castles and caves, this is a good one.

I couldn’t see the stone from the road, the hedge is on top of an earthen bank, like what they get in Cornwall, but some nifty map reading took me to the gate mentioned elsewhere, and thar she blows.

She is as lovely a standing stone as you could hope to wish for, she never gets in trouble, always home on time, erm, I mean she’s tall and shapely, and very colourfully attired, and like most women there is two sides to her, why do I mostly see them as female. They’re not are they ? it must be me.

Very very sadly my 1:50,000 map does not show the other two stones down the road, B and C, so I did not know of their existence. Next time.
Also, I’ve heard it said that these stones are part of an avenue between two now long gone stone circles. Any information anyone.

This is such a megalith drenched area that the occasional drizzle and misty conditions did nothing to dampen my ardor for the place, big hills, rocky summits, no people, and more stones than you can shake a 1:50,000 map at. This is my kind of place no matter what the weather, some sun would be nice for sure, but right now i’m just happy to be here.

From the Rhos Fach stone pair, near the Waldo stone (modern) and the Cystic Fibrosis stone (I kid you not, modern) go west. It’s probably best to park on the actual car park on the left hand corner, no more than a minute from the two unlikely named stones. Then walk further down the road and then turn right onto an uneven farm track, signed as “Access only Cwm Garw”. Well we want access, access to the stones, the stone pair are off to the left of the track, unmissable.

What a fine pair of standing stones these are, the stones of the sons of Arthur, the bigger of the two is rectangular in section whilst the smaller one is thin on edge. Both stones are copiously covered in lichens and mosses, as would be expected from stones that don’t roll, ever.
Ease of access, the size of the stones, and their amiable surroundings all make this a terrific site to sit and play in the mud for a while, or maybe pondering life’s mysteries is more your cup of tea, either way you can do them both here.

Kammer said that this feature was sadly unsung and i’m inclined to agree, but whilst this is not a song, feel free to add some music of your own choice, nothing pretentious mind.
Carn Menyn chambered cairn has been at the top of my Welsh hit list for a while now, it isn’t too dissimilar from many other cairns, though being able to see and squeeze under the capstone is in my opinion a big bonus for a cairn. But the thing that sets it apart from any other, the thing that really makes it a must see is..... The stone river.

The stone river is made of small to medium sized boulders, stretching in an unbroken line for over half a mile, it does look like a river, winding it’s way down hill, only it’s made of stone.
Following the river up hill will inevitably bring one to the cairn, the river seems to erupt from under the cairn, spring like.
Or perhaps the river is a dragon with the cairn as it’s head.
Maybe not.
But this is certainly a feature of a certain oneness, ive not heard of one before, how is it made ? what did the cairn raisers think of it ?
To find such a good cairn, in such lovely surroundings, with such a mad feature attached, how can this place remain unsung.

If I dont think about it too much then this site is probably #1 on my most wanted list.
Everything came together at the right time so Eric me and the dogs were leaving for the stones at 2am, it’s a long way and I wanted to be on site early, hence our ridiculously early start.
Five hours later.
We parked by the telephone box on the road south east of the cairn. We should have walked up the road a bit and entered the wilds just after the house called Glanrhyd, but we didn’t, we went up through the forestry place. It was hard going, especially when we left the track, trees had fallen down and now and then our way was blocked by ten foot high root balls, a solid wall of earth, root, rock and small bits of crashed UFO’s.

On the lower slopes, below the outcrops, the ground can get very boggy off the path (on the path too for that matter), progress was all right, only it went on too long, as Mr Thurber say.
Eventually we let the dogs pull us up to the top, mush, and once more I stand a top a Preseli Carn. But which is it, there’s quite a few clustered together and they’ve all got there own names.
Carn Gwr has two cairns by it, but today I only have eyes for chambered cairns, I could easily spend the whole sunlit part of the day exploring these hills, there is much to see.
But I must stick to the plan or I wont be able to see #2 on my must see list, just a couple of standing stones more and then were outta there.
We hop from rock to rock, I knew the cairn was next to a big rock stack, we’d gone through them
all and were down to our last one, there’s a lot of stone around here it has to be said, it took some time to find it, but in the end it was right where I thought it would be. With my usual alacrity I took us up the long way.

It was a touch on the misty drizzly side when we got on site, but it didn’t detract from the place at all, it lent an ethereal beauty to the place, we couldn’t see down to the road, the only distant places we could see was the other hill tops.
It is mostly like any other cairn, it’s round-ish, and is a stony hump in the landscape. But right in the middle of the stony mass is a whopper capstone nigh on three meters square, it isn’t square.
Under the capstone can be seen the fallen orthostats of the collapsed chamber, coflein suggests a Neolithic or maybe early bronze age date.
But most freaky of all is the stone river, a long curving line of boulders and assorted rubble maybe a mile long, I thought it was near or maybe next to the chambered cairn , but it’s much better than that the stone river erupts right out of the side of the cairn. What a place to put your cairn, genius, absolute genius, on Dartmoor they erect stone rows for the same purpose, what ever that is. But here the earth itself, time or glaciers does the work for you. Sublime.
Cant recommend the place enough, i’m extremely perplexed as to why only Kammer has posted on it.

New boots, new car, new hill fort.
I saw this on the map once but all it was described as was enclosure, I secretly hoped it was a henge, it looked very circular on google earth, it was still a long shot for sure, coflein crushed my hopes and gave me something to go for at the same time, it wasn’t a henge, but it was a defended enclosure or hill fort. I like hill forts, especially ones in North Wales.
Coflein describe it thus.....Remains of a large Iron Age defended enclosure, comprising a double banked sub-circular enclosure, c.76m in diameter, c.114m overall diameter. Probably ploughed-out on the east side leaving the semicircular earthworks which survive today.
We parked at the south west of the fort, by a T junction. The first of four stiles takes us from the road to the first field, the fourth stile takes you to a bridge over a stream in a gorge, where courting Buzzards circle overhead. Then take the overgrowing path up the other side of the gorge, until you com,e next to a wide green field, jump the fence and go up the hill, the fort is inevitably at the top.
Upon reaching the top the first part of the fort we get to is the southern end of the great C, I call it the great C in effigy of The U of Stemster, the fort is ploughed out and away on the east side leaving the large C shaped earthworks we have with us today. The Great C of Bontuchel, will it catch on do you think.
We enter the ditch, over a very low earthwork that shores up this end of the fort, is it original or just part of the destruction, it’s a nasty term destruction, but if they laid a bypass through your kitchen it would feel pretty destroyed.
But what is left is a pleasure to behold, two banks and ditches, both high and low, best preserved at the south west. The trees lend an airy atmosphere, and hide you from prying farmers eyes, for they all have such eyes, and they shout too much.
At the west end of the great C is a very slight entrance, cant tell if it’s modern or not though. Also an old low wall runs right by right up against the fort, making it look like an additional bank of the fort.
Reaching the end of the fort, at the top, it just runs out and is replaced by a hedge, fade to grey.
I quickly march over to the other end of the field for a wider shot of the whole place, it looks good framed against the Clwydian range and all it’s hill forts.

Fab place.

This place is one of the oldest voices in my head, mental ? me ? maybe, the name Broomrigg has been in the old noggin for well over a decade, places I haven’t been too, things I haven’t seen, press on me, they play on my mind, the only way to quell the clamour of sites demanding my attention is to go there. To find a site, requires many things to come together all at once, this was that day, this equinox day out ticks many boxes, and butters many parsnips. Start with sunrise at Mayburgh henge, the entrance faces east, then King Arthur’s round table, then north to here, Broomrigg, and then on to Grey Yauds. A three in one (Holme head standing stone being a bonus site) day out, calm please, I’ll get round to you all eventually, I wonder if the ancients, or anyone nowadays feels they have a one to one relationship with a site, it’s like finding a long lost relative, you’d go a long way to get there, and be sad to leave, and it might even be just a once in a lifetime event. You’ve still got to go.

I parked in the wide entrance to the forest, leaving my eldest on her i wotsit, Eric, his mate Luke and myself entered the Broomrigg plantation. We followed the path until we could see the wall, immediately before it is a small kerb circle, Burls Broomrigg B. One large stone coerces three smaller stones into a curve, only half the circle survives.
Then following the wall north, Broomrigg A appears amid the trees on our left, well I say our, the kids are off exploring this new playground and i’m left to find, count and photograph the five or six stones, , it’s all part of the ritual of meeting new kin. Photography was hard all day though, I might have got the camera a tad wet when I went Wales earlier in the week now it wont auto focus.
But miraculously it’s now fixed itself so I’m a happy bunny again.
Back to where the path and wall meet, and on the other side of the wall, south of the path, I was looking for Burls Broomrigg D, The Wallmoor ring. I did find some stones, large and vaguely circular, I wasn’t totally convinced until rereading Burls description when I got home.
Back to the path once more, back to Broomrigg B. Across the path from B and on a bit is a fallen standing stone, apparently. But further south into the trees brings one to a clearing, within it is the remains of a large cairn circle, Broomrigg C, in my mind a very ruinous version of Glassonby.
This was my favorite site in the forest, the sun shone down, the noisy boys had returned to the car, the stones, oooh, could be as many as ten, were large and obvious and it was altogether more to with it than the other circles.
The only thing I didn’t find was the henge, I didn’t bring Burls “indispensable” guide book, nor did I bring my compass even if I did know which way to go. One is often ill prepared to meet long lost ageing family. Bless.

I liked it here, it is a good place, despite forest interiors having no views.

From Newbiggin, head west on a dead straight road and park at the T junction, there’s enough room for a couple of cars to squeeze onto a grass verge.
From this vantage point you cant see the stone, but if you can see the field with a small quarry at the bottom of it, then this is the field you want to be in as you get to the top of the hill.
As I climb the hill, i’m acutely aware that this isn’t following a footpath, so I try and get out of plain site as quick as I can, At the top of the hill a field wall bars the way a gate in the left corner is open so here is my point of entry. The stone and myself are now in the same field but because of it’s being in the far corner I still cant see it. I’m almost on top of it now, but still nowt, I begin to wonder if ive got my wires crossed somehow. Then right there before me, in the bottom of a natural dip in the landscape is the stone, King Harry’s stone.

Cows from the next field come over for a bit of a moo at me over the wall, I sit down on the other side of the stone and they soon lose interest.
A bit of a strange place this, the land is lifted in the air so it cant be seen from below, but further east and the ground rises further still, Thack moor has a sprinkle of snow upon its crown. But why in this dip here, almost invisible from just twenty yards away. But then this is no solitary standing stone, it’s an outlier to a now lost stone circle, not one stone remains, except this outlying stone, King Harry’s stone. One wonders where exactly in relation to this remainder was the circle, my guess would be south of it, there’s a big open space, but so to is there one to the north, just not east or west.

What a shame it’s all gone, but then this one remainder is still worth the fifteen minute walk up hill. Come, and feel sorry for it, but, applaud it’s survival.

This standing stone is very close to the road, there’s just enough room between the road and stone to squeeze a railway track in, so they did. How rude.
So I had to turn round and park near the bend in the road by Kitchenhill bridge. Fifty yards back up the road and there is an antenna/aerial/substation type thingy. Through the gate into the enclosure and over the barbed wire topped fence, we’re now in the same field as the stone and forty odd sheep.
The stone is a hundred yards away by a tall tree on the side of a mound next to the railway track.

The stone is tall, over seven feet, and wide in girth, no slender loris this one, no hidden by grasses or gorse, big bright and beautiful. A stone of many colours, lichens of white, yellow and bright green cover a surface grey with tinges of orange and brown. The tall gnarled tree next to it isn’t too close and sets the old stone off well, the tree looks old, but the stone is older.

Good stone,
pity about the track.

I don’t know how this little blighter passed me by, I first saw it on Coflein and then found that Rhiannon had already added it as a site here. Good isn’t she.
It’s been on the list for about three months.

When travelling west on the B4500 you come into Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog ( or Llanarmon DC for short ) a sharp left hand turn takes you over an old bridge, just before the road takes you left turn right up a steep narrow lane.
Pass Penybryn farm house, and keep going until the road leaves tarmac behind, I parked on a grass verge well out of the way and the fort visible on the hill top. Walk up the track til your just about east of the fort and a large boundary (?) stone is by a fence. Go through/over the gate and walk up hill to the trees, aptly or not called Roman camp wood. Apt or not coflein assures us the fort is definitely iron age.
I skirt along the south side of the trees and shortly arrive at the eastern extreme of the fort, it’s in the trees to my right as well but i’ll look in there on my way out.
I start the obligatory circumambulation round the fort, at its south east corner the ramparts are fairly slight and mellow. Oddly there are many large boulders in and next to the ditch, some are in lines and may be instructive in how to build an iron age fort, a chunk of the bank has eroded away exposing the interior, definitely instructive.

Walking west along the southern ramparts i’m sure I came across the worn down entrance, then twenty yards on another one. Then a fence cuts the fort in two, on this side of the fence it’s all farmy and agricultered, but on the other side it’s more wild, rough and more Welsh, I skip the fence with glee (I wasn’t singing).
The banks here are higher, the ditch is deeper and there’s no boulders in the ditch, I follow the rampart north. The rain is now coming at me sideways, blown into a near explosive force.
I make for the quartz outcrops on top of the hill but outside the fort, they make an adequate windbreak and the position affords a great view of the fort and all the quartz running across its summit, i haven’t seen anything like this much quartz since Duloe or Henblas, there is more here.
I cross back over the well preserved western ramparts and make for the quartz crown at the top of the fort, it’s still raining, so I sit among the giant white boulders and regard the northern aspect, the ramparts run by in front of me from left to right, and the hills beyond rise up to Vivod mountain. Back out into the stingy sideways rain (ably deflected by my new coat ‘n boots) I follow the earthworks east, they are still high and defendable here. But now ive come back to the trees, so it’s over the fence once more and a short snoop later and ive detected a good section of ramparts, though coflein says there is another entrance nearby. I think it must have been back near where I started, about twenty yards from where I finished.

So this was a little gem of a fort, and i’m non plussed as to its obscurity, even without all the tons of quartz it would still be high on your list of North Walean hill forts.
Come on a warm summers eve though ay?

I parked right at the end of the thinning road near the farm Swch-Cae-rhiw, there is room for maybe two cars. The footpath starts here, going north up hill through the farm. It was steep and tiring, I wondered whether anyone at the farm saw me struggling to get up, new boots, that’s my excuse.
The path follows the river on its western side, map says there are water falls but they are further up, and the path is taking us away from them, up and over the top of the first hill, it is here that Coflein says are two cairns and an associated standing stone.
The Berwyn mountains supply the high ground that takes up all the western horizon, south east looks down the Ceiriog valley, it’s high ground all round really except for the river valley, and in that direction I can see the hill with a fort Cerrig Gwynion. In fact the whole placement of the cairn, the position of the fort, it’s almost identical to Craig ty Glas and Craig Rhiwarth.
themodernantiquarian.com/site/14474/craig_tyglas.html
The cairn, Coflein says, is nine meters across, it is very easy to find. A small walkers cairn has grown upon it, whilst elsewhere large stones betray the vestiges of the cist, especially one long on edge stone.
But there are two cairns here, however, I don’t know which one i’m at, the northern one or the southern one, so in case it’s the former I have a look around down hill until the ground falls away too steeply to seriously expect a cairn to be there. Then back up hill scrubbing around in all the bunches of thick reedy grass, but nothing, no other cairn. I couldn’t fathom it, so I just kept on going until I found what must be the standing stone that Coflein says is associated with the TWO cairns.
It was in the right direction from the cairn, compass agreed, it was also the right size, 0.8 meters. But then they fail to mention the smaller stone next to it, this other stone is almost certainly part of the same, now, broken stone. They even neglect to mention the thick quartz whiter than white stripes running through it. Tsk.
The crosses on my map said that the still to find cairn should be smack on line in the middle of this stone and the other cairn, so off I stride confident that if it’s there I couldn’t but help to at least stumble across it.
Nope, nothing, its not there. 5 x 0.3 meters across and high. Couldn’t find it.
Great views though, nice place.
Windy.

North west of Cerrig Cynant stone circle is the last of this hillsides ancient delights, another ring cairn. Coflein gives the same name to both ring cairns, Bryn Poeth Uchaf (or Isaf) but calls one a cairn and the other a ring cairn, this is apparently the ring cairn, but they both are really. Aren’t they?
The ring cairn is not on top of the hill, it’s positioning when compared with it’s sibling over there is more normal. Perhaps it was meant to be seen from the south by the farm house maybe. The ring is mostly just lumpy ground surface, I had to circle it entirely to make sure it was what we were looking for, and discovered it to be much more together at it’s southern end, I guess that’s what you’d expect if that was the direction from which you were looking up the hill.
That horrid reedy grass has taken over the inside of the circle but amid all this precious wild life habitat I saw a bigger stone perhaps a foot and a half long ???
So that was that, it took three years but I had to see it, I had to get there, you know, I just had to. The day was now drawing to an end, the sun was low and by the time we got back to Carreg Garn Fawr it was most definitely home time.
Sciatic leg saw to it that the drive was nothing short of torture, the prices we pay sometimes far exceed money.

After having just been to Bryn Poeth Uchaf ring cairn and been partly blown away by the site and the views, we headed optimistically in a north north west kind of direction. Running across our path was a linear earthwork, an old wall or dyke or something, anyway, from on top of it I saw a stone, a standing up one.
This is it, I knew this was it, a kind of euphoria spread through me, having failed to find it last time I came, by what I could now see was a mere couple of hundred yards. Drat.
We set about uncovering all the stones, a big one lay on it’s side on the eastern side, the tall pointy one I’d seen on the dyke was at the south end, smaller stones had to have grass pulled away to recover them. The ring is perhaps two thirds complete, Alken counted ten stones I think. On it’s northern arc it seems to have gone completely unless that is where the smallest stone are, and are now all underground. Tony, go and get your mates, oh yes, how sad.
The views were more set back into the immediate landscape, so although the view south was long it didn’t have the impact as from the first ring cairn.
One more ring cairn to find, north west of Cerrig Cynant stone circle.

There’s no easy way to get to this trio of sites, you either drive or walk through the forest immediately west of the sites or walk in from the south, having just seen Carreg Garn Fawr. I’ve tried the forest route once before, but having got onto the hillsides cold and wet children’s feet got us sent back to the car early. Very disappointed.

This time turned out to be considerably more rewarding. We leave the cairn and quartz stone behind and follow the path that skirts along the tree line, until a farm track takes us right and down towards the farm house that is I think also called Bryn Poeth Uchaf. This wasn’t the right way, initially,
The man who’d seen us through his kitchen window came out and asked us something, we didn’t quite catch what he said but we went over to tell him of our plan. He explained that a woman from Cadoo (Cadw) had come over not long ago, pointed across the valley and said that the bump on top of that hill was suspected by her of being something ( how she didn’t know it was already on Coflein I don’t know), oh, and he was from Cardiff originally.
He didn’t know there was a stone circle up there somewhere, and I don’t think he knew what a ring cairn was. He was however kind enough to point out the easy way over the small river and we had the run of the hillside, run being an expression obviously.
Having crossed the river we didn’t run up the hill side and not knowing really where to start we headed for the pointed out hill top bump. Getting nearer we could see a few tantalising somethings poking up out of the bump.
At the bottom of the hills hill top was a small squadron of large stones, clearance most likely. Then were up and on top of the bump and the somethings are indeed stones, one of them is very much like a stone circle stone, not one you’d expect of a ring cairn.

The ring is at one point about a foot high but on it’s opposite side it fades away into the ground, it is at the higher part of the ring that the two or three stones poke out of.
The ring is on a narrow north-south ridge, gentle slopes on the west but steeper on the east. An unusual place for a ring cairn, and a decent ring cairn it is too. But the view is surely what brought the cairns builders here, an uninterrupted view of the big mountains of the Brecon Beacons, those in the know will know their names but I’d only be guessing. Snow has fallen on their tops, sun shine is falling them now and some low clouds make them look like a distant heaven.
After having wondered at the ring cairn and its mesmerizing view we depart, and wander up the ridge and to the west looking for the star of this hillside Cerrig Cynant stone circle.

The cairn is easy to spot, but no stones protrude at all, it is entirely grassed over. Carl has unfortunately mistaken a small jumble of stones immediately over the fence for the cairn, the cairn is further off in to the field, seeing as his coflein description states the cairn to be about a meter high with a tail of spoil to the NE, I cant see why he was mistaken. He should probably take a Sweetcheat with him, he’s very handy to have around, and then some.
Views are seriously curtailed by trees except to the east off down into the Usk valley, and the north up hill eventually to Y Pygwn.
A nice little cairn, if a little battered. What with all the other juicy sites around here I’d probably only come here if you’ve got time, or you’ve a certain level of obsession.

Just got time for one more site before we leave the area for pastures new, it’s relatively straight forward to find, Carl’s directions are spot on.
Coflein gives it’s dimensions as 1.4m by 0.6m by 0.9m, but does not say which one of these numbers goes with it’s height. As the stone is longer than it is high my guess would be 1.4m long, 0.6m wide and 0.9m high. They wont even commit to a date or even if it is a standing stone, but rather an earthfast boulder. But with all the other antiquities around here it almost certainly is a standing stone. All be it a rather tidgy one. On the other side of the fence is a small collection of large stones, which I think Carl mistook for the nearby cairn, but that is further off into the field. So what are these stones ? Coflein says nothing about them, they seem to be the same kind of stone as the mini menhir, perhaps it was all one stone but got broken up and dragged away but that was as far they got. Probably not though.
The stone enjoys good views across the Usk reservoir to the mountains of the Brecon Beacons.

Carl’s directions are spot on, almost, I would just add park by the trees and hop over the fence. This cairn is bigger and less despoiled than its near neighbor to the west, Pant Madog, and there’s no trig point to get in the way. According to Coflein it is a meter higher than Carl’s approximation, which accords well with what we saw. But neither of them mention the wondrous views north and east over Trecastle and Sennybridge. Trees once more obscure views to the distant Brecon Beacon mountains.
A good cairn apparently undisturbed, if there were no stone circles round here this would be my sitting and pondering place
The Cairn is not visible from the road.

Parking is still easy, if a trifle muddy, and apparently it still has the same dimensions, and a trig point too.
But settling for a view from the road is never going to be enough for me, so I deftly skip over the barbed wire fence, Alken wasn’t so deft, but here we are circling this neat little cairn. From here another cairn should be visible down the lane but trees obscure the view of it and the mountains.
Farming techniques have gone right up to the edge of the cairn which is grass covered leaving a square shape to it.
Good cairn, good place, crap OS.

Carl ! you’ve spelled Pygwn wrong twice, two different ways.

Cairn 2 is very similar in size to cairn 1, only without the stones for a cist, though it still has the obligatory scoop taken out of it’s top. Tremendous mountain views from here, and you can see the forest that has engulfed the Pant Meddygon stones.
If the cairn were a few feet higher you might just be able to see the near by stone circles from it’s top.
Not much else can be said about this grassy mound other than it is part of a bigger complex including another cairn, two stone circles, a fallen menhir,and assorted mystery stones. If you come here make sure you see it all.

Coflein says this about cairn 1..............A cairn 9.0m in diameter and o.9m high. A hollow in the center reveals what may be part of a cist. Two cairns were opened in this vicinity c.1824, one produced two cinerary urns, the other a boconical pygmy cup.........
However they don’t mention how much of a bugger it is to find nor does it mention the long but glorious views of the Brecon Beacons, today they are snow capped and low clouds swirl endlessly about.
It should have been easy enough to find, but we’re both getting old and I at least am easily confused, it didn’t help with all the recent tile stone quarries here either.
But having found it, it is quite a good cairn, mostly grassed over,a small bush grows out of it’s side and the cist remnants are still clear and obvious.
Cairn 2 is very visible from here and above at the Roman camps, so we go there.

It’s been quite some time since my first time here, and I think it would have been another quite some time if not for Evergreen dazed insisting he had to go right away. Unfortunately his misses was ill (or he didn’t like the weather reports) so it was just thesweetcheat and I.
It rained nearly all the way here, and with my sciatic leg urging me to crash the car and die, it wasn’t perfect, otherwise another nice drive down the A49. It had stopped raining by the time we got there, and started to snow instead. Weather proofing donned we set off down the track, which is wholly unpassable to all except for tractors and tanks. With snow coming down sideways we struck off the track and headed for the stones, they are below the hill with the Roman forts and as such unmissable. Eventually, it’s always further than you think, we arrive at the stooones, miffed with the crappy weather, but pleased to find such a wonderful site.
We wander fairly haphazardly, photographing this and that, The bigger of the two circles is pretty much intact, it’s two most striking stones are a flat topped loaf like stone and the other a chair shaped stone, could these two prominent stones frame an entrance ?
The smaller ring only has four stones to it, all leaning, where Carl saw his fallen stone I don’t know, perhaps Alken saw it.
Where stones are missing there are holes filled with water.
This is a great site, but it’s not till now that I realised just how complex it is.
We decide to go off looking for the two nearby cairns, the one nearer to the Roman forts proved harder to find, namely due to looking in the wrong place. But from that cairn we could easily see the other cairn, the one which Carl stumbled across.
Both cairns have good distant views of the Brecon Beacons, which today have snow upon their higher reaches. From this cairn there is a big boulder nearby,we mosey on over (it’s stopped snowing now).It is a big stone next to some excavated pool like area, it would serve as a good point to leave the track and head over to the stone circles via the more obvious of the two Y Pygwn cairns.
From the cairn that is No 2 we head for the fallen monolith, half way there we come across two stones,one could be the outlier that Carl found, but five yards from it is a lower stone, prehistoric goal posts or an obvious boundary between the living and the dead,(sniggers).
The big fallen stone would have marked the winter solstice sunrise from the center of the bigger circle, and it would have been the biggest stone here. But now it lies broken amid that thick horrible grass that likes to hide stones. From the fallen stone to the ring half way is another prostrate stone with a weird worn groove upon it, a line drawn through both fallen stones would also touch the western arc of the big circle.
From the smaller circle we spotted a possible stone row, possible or not it leads to cairn 2.
So.... to completely “get” this place more than one trip is advised and have a really good walk around, I cant say that all we saw was part of the plan, but I think we saw all there was to see, making it a very complex complex.

It’s all yours Simon.

Just how extreme can stone hunting get ?

I came across this site whilst cruising coflein’s blue dots late one night, it can get rather addictive.
I might never have come here if not for Craig Rhiwarth(fort) and Bedd Crynddyn(barrow) across the valley, and over the hill across the valley is Glan Hafon weird cairn, they all exceeded my expectations, and the scenery is very easy upon the eye so I just had come back here one maybe two more times, high above the Tannat valley once more.
I’ve been sat at home the last two days nursing my poor sciatic leg, but sitting down makes it hurt more, the only relief is walking, strange that, it’s like treating obesity with doughnuts, so whats good for work is also good for stone hunting, and this cairn requires some leg work, not as much as I put in, but a long walk all the same.
I parked in a parking for one spot near a big house on a bend where on the map it says Buarth Glas. Map also says there is a footpath entrance round here somewhere but I couldn’t see it, so I walked down the road past the big house ‘till I got to a gate going in the desired direction, up.
Following a line of trees up hill, and followed by a line of curious and tiny sheep I meet up with the north/south path that runs at the bottom of the cliffs, Craig Y Castell, obviously so named because of the well spaced towers of rock jutting out into the valley.
Heading south on the aforementioned path, with Craig Rhiwarth dominating the other side of the valley and once more showing why it was used as a fort in the Iron age, I look up between the rock spires and think I can see an easy way up, then deviate from the path without even giving it much contemplation at all, just having a closer look. Before I know it I’ve gone too far to turn back and keep heading up. It was mostly easy enough except for the last fifty yards, it took as long to traverse that last bit as it did the whole walk, grabbing handfuls of heather to help haul myself up, sitting out of breath every ten vertical yards, slipping, and watching two farmers talking blocking the road far below, are they watching me, to see if I fall, if i do, I wont be driving home,it’s very steep, so I don’t give them the satisfaction and eeeeeeventually I get to the top. I throw my self onto the soft sodden
flat hill top, reveling in it’s flatness.

After what felt like longer than it probably was, it seemed I wasn’t going to have a heart attack after all, and my thoughts turned back into stone hunter mode, I stood and looked across the barren moorland hill top and saw with childish glee that my shortcut had at least taken me straight to the cairn, it sat not fifty yards from me, I walked slowly over.
Coflein states that the cairn is 7.5 meters across and half a meter high, sounds about right, and “showing elements of a cist” but that sounds to me as if it’s totally knackered and only a couple of telltale stones still exist, enough to say “elements of a cist”. But I was pleasantly pleased to find exactly half of it left, a large rectangular box three to four feet long sunk into the ground with two side stones still in place. About six feet east of the cist is a large flat stone, after I’d liberated it from it’s mossy confines I could see that it would not cover the cist, but, two would do it nicely, but there aren’t two, was the other broken, or is it just a flat stone after all, or an out of place kerb stone. Talking of kerb stones the cairn still boasts some kerbing on it’s north to west arc. So, it’s not the biggest of cairns, but it’s above the grass line, it has a big cist and even some kerbing, that’s a good cairn that is. And I wont go into the views much, only to say that they are good, especially to the south, and even on a dull but rainless day.

Needless to say I didn’t go back the way I came, I’d give you some directions but then i’m clearly hopeless at finding the easy way. Stay on the path.

I’ve been to nearly all the hill top cairns around the upper Dove valley now, on some fool hardy mission to try and find some reason why so many cairns and burial caves are to be found in such close proximity.
Some hair brained scheme to figure out a macrocosm of the whole, and what have I discovered about this under valued part of the South Peak district, well, it’s very pretty, that’s a given, and all the cairns that cluster around the two well defined peaks of Parkhouse and Chrome hills, are all inter visible, from any one cairn or cave mouth at least two others are visible on a different hill somewhere. Not much of a bombshell is it ?
So it’s pretty here, and all the occupants of the cairns wanted a view down onto the valley between the hills. Why ? who can say, not me.

The cairn on Hitter hill was ransacked/excavated in the 1840’s and 4 rock cut graves and 4 cists were found, one wonders if such things were found at the Hatch a way cairn on the next hill over, they are much the same size and shape.
Finding out the exact burial circumstances of each of the participating cairns would undoubtedly shed light on the........ dare I say it .......mystery.

When I was on Parkhouse hill I could look over to Hitter hill and try as I might I couldn’t see the cairn, but now I know what it is i’m looking for ive seen it on many of my photos, including two ive already put on here.
I cant really agree with Stubob about this cairn though, he says it’s battered and not really worth the climb up, yes it isn’t the most pristine example of the genre, and some leg work is involved in attaining the height, but ive gone much further afield for lesser cairns than this, it’s still a meter high, some cairn material is visible on its western arc, and it’s definitely facing the two prominent hills. But his descriptive word for the view is much the same as my own, only I would add John Cleese saying it in a French accent...oouutrageous !

I parked the car on the forest track south west of the cairns, right by a junction of forest tracks, I couldn’t get all the way down it as there is a barrier blocking the way. So off for a walk I go, sciatic leg not problemising the route at all. The track should terminate in a turn around/parking area but impatient as I am I strike out off piste up the tree covered hill. Immediately out of the trees I start coming across cairn like features, are they the southern most of the cairns, without my compass I’m not at all sure so I keep going up. Passing a ring feature on route, what it is I am unsure, it’s not on the map or coflein.
I can see the two summit cairns on top of the hill but pass them by in favour of the north west pair of cairns. But the compass is still in my other coat at home and I’ve somehow totally lost my bearings, i’m not looking in the right place at all, darn it.
I mosey on over to the two summit cairns, they aren’t particularly impressive. The lesser of the two is just a large bump with some stone poking through the short grass. But the other is bigger, not higher, but bigger, and more stone, a large boulder and a stone that could have been a cist cover. But the most featuring feature is the tall modern cairn with a statue on top, from a distance I thought some wally was stood on top of it, but I was the wally, partially lost and failing eyesight.
God I’m old.
But who built this modern cairn here ? is that legal ? and who is it a statue of ? the female figure carries two water jugs, is it a rain bringing fetish, if so tear it down now, Wales has enough rain.
The views are extensive, who knows which way I was looking but I reckon I might have been able to see the Berwyns and the Arenigs.

After, back home I can see where I went wrong, now I know I only saw two of the seven cairns, but is it worth going back to complete the job ?
Maybe.

I parked the ailing car right next to the footpath sign on the grassy verge, out of the way.
Taking the path north, slightly up hill, it snakes along in a dip views to the left and right are curtailed. I decided to cut across a field going left, as I got to the edge I could see the cairn looking striking up on it’s hill top. Over the fence was a curious bank and ditch affair running straight north/south, I took a couple of pictures and hobbled up the slope to the cairn.
Coflein succinctly describes the cairn, but mutilated is a bit strong, yes it’s been dug into, without much respect apparently, but, it’s still all together, not much spreadage, a steep sided high cairn with much cairn material showing. I was quite taken with it, mutilated or not.
Selattyn hill and it’s ring cairn was quite visible and close on the western skyline, north I could see the grassy balding hill of Graig Wea and it’s cairn cemetery.
Just twenty yards from Orsedd Wen cairn is an old quarry, now used in several places as a rubbish dump, it is a blot on the landscape and unsightly to the eye.
Good cairn though.
It wasn’t until I was on my way over to Selattyn hill that I realised what the long linear earthwork was, it was only Offas dyke, the best preserved section ive ever seen, but i haven’t seen much, though I know man who has.

I approached from the west from Orsedd Wen cairn, it wasn’t until the second time I crossed the strange linear earthen bank and ditch that I realised what it was, the best section of Offa’s dyke that ive yet seen, silly me, well I never did, foot of our stairs and so on.
It was only a ten to fifteen minute walk from Orsedd Wen to Selattyn hill ring cairn, so while i’m here I thought I might as well, other wise I’d probably not have bothered to have come here.
The heather covered remains have never really appealed to me, the tower dumped in the middle of it, the forestry all round it, half the ring gone, all this persuaded me to give it a miss, but, I am close by so here I am.
Glad of that I am too, it was better than I thought, hidden from the outside world, hanging on in there and delighting even those that didnt really want to come. Sure, Mr Crewe’s tower isn’t easy to ignore, in fact it should be torn down. But half the trees have come down opening up views across Shropshire and Cheshire, unfortunately more have been planted and are now shooting up.

The ring cairn survives to about two thirds of it’s circumference, and is still about a meter high.
The heather is slowly going to cover the cairn material utterly, seeing the difference between thesweetcheats pictures and mine (3 years) is a bit disheartening, the place is about as visitable as it’s ever going to get, which isn’t much, another three years and it’ll be gone again.

Really not very far from the weird Glan Hafon cairn and it’s big central boulder, in fact I blundered across these cairns while looking for the weird one. They are on flat ground in between the big steep hill side and theyre just below the rocky cliffs from which they take their name.
They are next to a footpath but it’s a long way up,
There are three cairns, two are clearance cairns but one could be of the funerary persuasion in cofleins words..... This cairn would appear to have a funerary function as there looks to be a possible cist in a central depression. However, it is very close to the other cairns........
Cairns with a stunner view near lots of other more substantial ancient places, who could want for more.

The drive into Wales was mostly sunny and I was thinking it would be a very nice day indeed, plus the chance to walk off the sciatic pain in my leg was a bonus. I parked down the road from where I parked last time when I was here for Glan Hafon cairn a few weeks ago, that trip inspired this one. I set off up hill in good spirits and very little pain.
The river had much more water in it than last time and on the way here sandbags were piled up outside houses and shops, flood warnings very much in effect. I carried on.
I finally reached the old shepherds hut at the bottom of the waterfalls immediately north of the bulk of Craig Rhiwarth, from here on in the up would be much steeper and much harder going, take that Sciatica. I followed the small but very pretty waterfalls up hill then broke out across rougher ground. It is times like these that I feel my age and wonder how long I can last on this lush rock we call Earth.
Eventually I reach the long front wall that stuck out so much last time I was up here. It is a long straight wall running west to east cutting off the higher ground on Craig Rhiwarth from the rest of the southern Berwyn mountains. About half way along the wall is a fairly well preserved entrance that opens onto a steep bit of hill but the track through the entry curves round to the left avoiding the steepness. A hundred feet west from the main entrance is a smaller less well preserved entrance, for foot traffic perhaps.
From the wall I staggered manfully up to the summit cairn just as the drizzle set in, but as I reached the top the drizzle turned into hail and the wind which was as ferocious as I’ve ever seen it whipped the hail hard against me, trying to stop the hundred mile an hour hail from hitting me in the face became an all consuming game.
The cairn is mostly flush with the ground, except for a modern walkers cairn on top of it. It isn’t Wales’ most interesting cairn, but just a few yards down hill are the best preserved round house hut circles, Coflein says there’s a hundred and seventy but I couldn’t see any more than a dozen. But then the wind and the hail were seriously curtailing my searching efforts. I took as many photos as I could, over a hundred in all, but over half were wet and blurry, it was not a good day for hill walking let alone photography.
I sought some out of the wind place to sit and ponder for a bit, I found some near a rectangular Hafod, a farmers summer hilly hideout. I took stock of myself and my stuff, it was wet, me coat aint waterproof anymore nor are my trousers. I tried to take another picture of where I was but the camera said replace the battery, crap, I thought, already dead? that was quick. So I started to make my squelchy way off the mountain. The 532 meter high hill, or is it a mountain, isn’t a uniform flat topped hill its full of nooks and crannies pinnacles and troughs. In better weather I imagine someone in less pain than me would stay up here for longer.
After leaving the summit cairn area on the west of the hill top I didn’t see any more hut circles, why are they all clustered around that area, even the obviously better sheltered areas were free of hut circles or are they buried. There was none on the east side of the hill either.
The way down I took was slightly different from on the way up, steeper harder and more dangerous, but quicker, I really needed to get off this mountain, so I carried on.
Then as I got to the bottom of the hill the wind dropped, the rain and hail subsided and the sun shone down upon me, I looked up to the sky and opined my lot in Wales, really ?
If anyone ever says the weather has no mind and isn’t watching me continuously, well, they’re just wrong.
Back in the car the camera had changed it’s mind and now told me the battery was fully charged. Eh ?
And the day after, the sciatica that has so plagued me all week had now got worse and started on the other leg as well, now that really hurts.

A hundred yards away and across the road from the stone circle is this three stone row. More of less aligned on the winter solstice sunset and summer solstice sunrise. The stones aren’t really big, two to three feet high, with some field clearance in between.
We were here apres sunset on the winter solstice, the sun had gone down and all the clouds to the east were a gorgeous golden colour.
The stone row has a draw all of it’s own but to have such a good stone circle over the road, makes this a must see site, and with all the other stuff nearby, forts, standing stones and other circles, burial chambers and rock art make this whole area a must see place.