ancient monuments

Maxey Cursus, Cambridgeshire

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Cursus (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – TF 125 078

Archaeology & History

Much of this site has unfortunately been completely destroyed. Thought by Colin Burgess (2001) to be one of the earliest cursus monuments, it was Paul Devereux (1989) who gave the clearest early description of this site,* telling:

“This site is to be found…between the village of Maxey and the River Welland, south of Market Deeping. When discovered by aerial photography the cursus was already partially destroyed… The northwest segment ‘starts’ almost on the banks of the Welland and goes southeast on a straight course to an obliterated point where a change of alignment occurred, and the cursus continues in a different direction. The total known length is 1930 yards (1.77km), and the width averages 190 feet (58 metres). The ditches themselves display subtly different orientations, but are in straight sections. The investigations of F. Pryor suggests that the northwest length of the cursus was constructed long after the southeast portion, when the latter’s ditches had become silted up (banks do not seem to have been present). The southernmost ditch of the southeastern section bisects two circular sites. Site A is particularly interesting. It occurs just east of the…change in direction, or junction of the two cursuses if such was the case.”

And such is the case, as recent discoveries have found. But before this was known for sure, Devereux wrote, that “a segment of cursus ditch emerges from this vaguely henge-like site, 450 feet in diameter, in the direction of the nearby church” of St. Peter.

The “henge-like site” described here has been defined by Oswald, Dyer and Barber (2001) as one of the enigmatic ’causewayed enclosure’ monuments – out of which emerges the other seperate alignment, the Etton Cursus, heading southeast.

References:

Burgess, Colin, The Age of Stonehenge, Phoenix: London 2001.
Loveday, Colin, Inscribed Across the Landscape, Tempus: Stroud 2006.
Oswald, A., Dyer, C. & Barber, M., The Creation of Monuments, EH: Swindon 2001.
Pennick, N. & Devereux. P., Lines on the Landscape, Hale: London 1989.
Pryor, Francis, Britain BC, Harper-Collins: London 2003.

* The OS-reference for this site is of the northwestern end of the cursus. The southeastern terminal is at TF139063.

Maen Cattwg, Gelligaer, Glamorganshire

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Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – ST 1269 9744

Also Known as:

Gelli-Gaer carving
Maen Catwg

Getting Here

From Gelligaer, take the northernern road up Heol Adam for 2-300 yards, where you’ll see a footpath on your left taking you into the fields. Walk up the path and as it crosses the wall and bends due east, you’ll see the boulder in the middle of the field. That’s it!

Archaeology & History

Across the road from Tir-y-Rhen is this singular flat boulder, measuring about 10ft x 6ft, with at least 33 full cup-markings etched on it. Described briefly in Chris Houlder’s (1974) Welsh Archaeological guide, then more recently in John Sharkey’s (2004) Welsh rock-art book where he told there to be perhaps another seventeen cups on its surface, the Royal Commission (1976) lads gave us the surity of definition in their survey of neolithic sites in the region. A kilometre north of Gelligaer, some 260m above sea level, we find this well-preserved carved rock:

“An approximately rectangular block…much weathered at at the corners…2.6m long NE-SW, by 1.7m wide, and about 0.6m thick. The upper surface is covered with a haphazard series of 33 cup-marks varying from 40 to 115mm in diameter, and from 5 to 60mm deep… There are also 17 more cup-marks which are too weathered for precise measurement, but whose presence is certain. Other may have been completely worn away. Two more slabs of stone are just visible under the west corner of the main stone, suggesting the possibility that the cup-marks were made on the capstone of a cromlech, now collapsed.”

An earlier account by Wheeler (1925) described a number of lines or channels linking some cup-marks to each other, but these are now very difficult to see. I’ll hopefully get some decent images of this carving sometime soon!

References:

Houlder, Chris, Wales: An Archaeological Guide, Faber: London 1974.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Wales, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan – Volume 1: Pre-Norman, Part 1: The Stone and Bronze Ages, HMSO: Cardiff 1976.
Sharkey, John, The Meeting of the Tracks, Gwas carreg gwalch: Llanwrst 2004.
Wheeler, R.E.M., Prehistoric and Roman Wales, Oxford University Press 1925.

Black Hill Long Cairn, Low Bradley, Skipton, North Yorkshire

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Cairn: OS Grid Reference – SE 0092 4756

Also Known as:

Black Hill Long Barrow
Bradley Moor Long Barrow
Bradley Moor Long Cairn
King’s Cairn

Getting Here

Follow the same directions for getting to the Black Hill Round Cairn. It’s less than 100 yards away – you can’t miss it!

Archaeology & History

This is a superb archaeological site — and it’s bloody huge! It’s big and it’s long and it sticks out a bit – which is pretty unique in this part of the Pennines, as most other giant cairns tend to be of the large round variety. Although the site was originally defined by Arthur Raistrick (1931) as a long barrow, J.J. Keighley (1981) told how, “it was found to be a round cairn imposed on a long cairn.” And it’s an old one aswell…

bradley-moor-long-cairn04 — Near the SE end of the giant cairn

bradley-moor-long-cairn05 — Close-up of the main cist

More than 220 feet long and 80 feet in diameter at its widest southeastern end, as we walk along the length of the cairn to its northwestern edge, its main body averages (only!) 45 feet in diameter. Made up of tens of thousands of rocks and reported by Butterfield (1939) to have had an upright stone along its major axis, the “height varies from 4-8ft, but the cairn has been much despoiled and disturbed,” said Cowling in 1946. He also told how,

“Excavation revealed that almost in the centre of the mound were the remains of a cist made of roughly dressed stone flags and dry walling, covered by a large stone. Under a stone slab, laid on the floor of the cist, were fragments of (burnt and unburnt) bone and a small flint chipping.”

This is a very impressive site and deserving of more modern analysis. The alignment of the tomb, SE-NW, was of obvious importance to the builders, believed to be late-neolithic in character. The tomb aligns to two large hills in the far distance in the Forest of Bowland which we were unable to identity for certain. If anyone knows their names, please let us know!

Folklore

The older folk of Bradley village below here, tell of the danger of disturbing this old tomb. In a tale well-known to folklorists, it was said that when the first people went up to open this tomb for the very first time, it was a lovely day. But despite being warned, as the archaeologists began their dig, a great storm of thunder, lightning and hailstones erupted from a previously peaceful sky and disturbed them that much that they took off and left the old tomb alone. (I must check this up in the archaeo-records to see if owt’s mentioned about it.)

References:

Ashbee, Paul, The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain, Geo Books: Norwick 1984.
Butterfield, A., ‘Structural Details of a Long Barrow on Black Hill, Bradley Moor,’ in YAJ 34, 1939.
Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Keighley, J.J., ‘The Prehistoric Period,’ in Faull & Moorhouse’s West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Survey, I, WYMCC: Wakefield 1981.
Raistrick, Arthur, ‘Prehistoric Burials at Waddington and Bradley,’ in YAJ 30, 1931.

Black Hill Round Cairn, Low Bradley Moor, Skipton, North Yorkshire

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Cairn: OS Grid Reference – SE 0087 4753

Also Known as:

Black Hill Cairn
Bradley Moor Round Cairn
Queen’s Cairn

The Black Hill Round Cairn, Bradley Moor - looking north — The Black Hill Round Cairn, Bradley Moor – looking north

Getting Here

Various ways here. Best is probably taking the footpath onto Farnhill Moor a few hundred yards east of Kildwick Hall. Head for the cross-bearing Jubilee Tower (supposedly built upon an ancient cairn), NW, keep going past it uphill until you reach the walling 350 yards north, where a seat let’s you have a rest. Climb over the wall! Alternatively, walk eastwards and up through the steep but gorgeous birch-wooded slopes of Farnhill Wood; and as the moortop opens up before you, the great pile of rocks surmounts the skyline ahead. You can’t miss it! (NB: the spot cited on the OS-map as the cairn is in fact another site, 100 yards NW)

Archaeology & History

Its an awesome place in an awesome setting. You can see 360-degrees all round from this giant mass of rocks — something which was of obvious importance to the people who built it. If it had been placed 20-30 yards either side of here, that characteristic would not occur. Indeed, this is the only place anywhere on these moors where such a great view was possible. Important geomancy, as they say (or whatever modern term they give it these days).

Bradley Moor Cairn - looking down to the Long Cairn — Bradley Moor Cairn – looking down to the Long Cairn

bradley-moor-round-cairn02 — Small section of the old cairn

Although the tomb is still of considerable size (at least 100 feet across) and made up of thousands of stones, it has been severely robbed of stone in years passed, for walling and other building materials. A number of other small cairns scatter the heathlands a few hundred yards roundabout this central giant (though are hard to find in the deep heather); and there is a distinct cairn circle about 100 yards to the northwest, which has yet to be excavated. This cairn circle can be made out quite easily if you stand on the ridge about 30 yards west of here, looking down the slope. An then of course we have the equally huge Black Hill Long Cairn, less than 100 away, aligned northwest-southeast, which obviously had an important archaeological relationship with this giant round cairn. Also around this and the adjacent long cairn, numerous flints and scrapers have been found, showing humans have been here since at least the early neolithic period. And recently, what seems to be a fallen standing stone has been found laying in the heather, 168 yards to the north.

This site in particular gives me the distinct impression that it was the most important of the various sites upon these moors. It’s got a distinctly female flavour to it – and it’s old name of the Queen’s Cairn seems just right. Maybe it’s the fact that when I first visited the place, a great thunderstorm broke through the previously perfect skies, scattering lightning bolts all round for perhaps thirty minutes — so I stripped myself naked and reached my arms out-stretched, cruciform, screaming to the skies in the pouring rain! Thereafter, no clouds appeared in the skies for the rest of the day. It was a brilliant welcome to the place!

References:

Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Keighley, J.J., ‘The Prehistoric Period,’ in Faull & Moorhouse’s West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Survey, I, WYMCC: Wakefield 1981.
Raistrick, Arthur, ‘Prehistoric Burials at Waddington and Bradley,’ in YAJ 119, 1936.

Long Bredy Cursus, Dorset

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Cursus: OS Grid Reference – SY 5718 9115

Also Known as:

Martin’s Down Cursus

Archaeology & History

Although very little of this cursus can be discerned on the ground, the scar of the monument is clearly visible from the air (as the GoogleEarth image shows, below). In 1989 the great archaeo-geomancer, Paul Devereux, visited the place hoping to see the monument, but said that no remains were visible at ground level, although noted how its western end is marked by the Long Bredy burial mound. Sitting amidst a mass of later neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial remains, this old cursus aligned SE to NW. Devereux told how,

“the extended axis of the cursus…to the east, goes through a group of round barrows on the crest of a ridge on Black Down about a mile away. If diagrammatic material published by an investigating archaeologist is accurate, the alignment continues to the Nine Stones circle…immediately by the roadside a short distance west of Winterbourne Abbas.”

The monument has been measured at be at least 130 yards (100m) long and 28 yards in diameter at its greatest point.

References:

Pennick, Nigel & Devereux, Paul, Lines on the Landscape, Robert Hale: London 1989.

Lechlade Cursus, Gloucestershire

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Cursus: OS Grid Reference – SP 2125 0046

Archaeology & History

In Pennick & Devereux’s (1989) early assessment of our enigmatic cursus monuments, he wrote the following brief notes of this particular site:

“The crop marks of another fragmentary cursus were found in Gloucestershire immediately north of Lechlade, to the west of the River Leach. The crop marks aligned northwest-southeast for 174 yards (160 metres) and were 160 feet (50 metres) wide. Only the square northwest end is known. Excavations were carried out in 1965 in advance of gravel workings. No finds were reported, but two out of three cuttings revealed a post-hole on the inside of the ditch.”

References:

Pennick, Nigel & Devereux, Paul, Lines on the Landscape, Hale: London 1989.

Langbar Stone, Langbar Moor, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 11180 52052

Also Known as:

Carving no.41 (Feather)
Carving no.459 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Langbar Moor carving - with extra ring — Langbar Moor carving © Richard Stroud

Various ways to get here (being in the middle of the moor n’ all). I s’ppose the best way is to go from Langbar village, up hill to The Old Pike giant cairn, then follow the footpath on about 100 yards before dropping down the slope to your right, south (NOT the other way!). You’ll notice some walling and an old path near the bottom of the slope SE from you – head in that direction, but before you get there, a coupla hundred yards before, stop and look around. Good luck!

Archaeology & History

Found halfway up the southern slope beneath The Old Pike giant cairn, we find this large, flat earthfast stone, on which are the very faded remains of archetypal cup-and-ring motifs. At the top-end of the stone are slightly more pronounced cup-markings – seemingly more than is shown on the drawing, with the multiple-rings halfway along the stone. On the southeastern part of the stone, Richard Stroud found another previously unseen aspect of the carving, consisting of one large ring, with perhaps a line running out to the east. This can be seen in the water-highlighted photo.

Langbar Stone, with small single circle not noticed by archaeologists — Langbar Stone, with extra single ring not previously noted

If you visit this carving, try and get to the Middleton Moor CR-482 stone half-a-mile southwest – where I for one got the distinct impression that whoever carved that stone, also carved this one! Barmy p’raps — but if we don’t allow subjective interface here and there, we never learn a damn thing!

Listed as stone 459 in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) survey, they erroneously ascribe Eric Cowling to have found it in Rombald’s Way (1946), whereas the first mention of it appears to have been by Stuart Feather in 1966 (though Cowling does mention a ‘Langbar Stone’, but illustrates another one nearby).

References:

Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Feather, Stuart, ‘Mid-Wharfedale Cup-and-Ring Markings. No.41, Langbar Moor, Ilkley,’ in Bradford Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 11, 1966.

Knotties Stone, Otley Chevin, West Yorkshire

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