Tag: prehistoric sites

West Agra Plantation (8), Colsterdale, North Yorkshire

megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 14250 81756

Also Known as:

  1. WAP 8 (Brown & Brown)

Getting Here

The ‘West Agra 8’ Stone (after ‘QDanT’)

From Masham, head westwards along the country lanes to Fearby village (passing the old cross on the green), through old Healey village (where once stood four stone circles, seemingly destroyed) and onwards to Gollinglith.  From here, keep going up the winding steep lane until you’re at the top where, on the right-hand side of the road, a footpath takes you diagonally northwest over the uphill fields.  When you hit the walling which leads to the woods, follow it up and, once at the corner of the trees, follow the track back eastwards along the wall edge, keeping your eyes peeled when you pass the second line of walling that runs down the slope.  You’re damn close!

Archaeology & History

One of a cluster of fascinating carvings in this remote region of the upland Dales, this is perhaps the most impressive multiple-ringed carving of the group, known collectively as the West Agra Plantation group.  The carving was rediscovered sometime in 2002 by Emily McIntosh and was described by Brown & Brown (2008) thus:

“This boulder measures 5.5 x 3.1 x 1.28m and has a multiringed motif 50cm in diameter linked by a number of grooves and isolated cups.”

Teddy with his rings! (after ‘QDanT’)
Primary cup-and-multiple-rings (after ‘QDanT’)

But this barely does the stone justice.  The main focus is on the cup with six surrounding rings, intersected by an intrusive double-line from outside the series of rings then running into the central ring itself — though not touching the focal cup at the very centre.  This double line points to the southeast and is somewhat akin to a sliver of light running to or from old solar designs.  It is a little bit like some aspects of the carved stones found on Ilkley’s Panorama Stones (though Ilkley’s carvings are much fainter).  At the end of the intrusive double-line is a small cluster of cup-marks.  There’s also another curious singular carved line running outwards from the third ring, running out of the concentric rings then heading off further down the stone.  More cups and lines scatter other parts of the stone and there may be another faint line running from near the central cup all the way out of the rings close to the main ‘ray’ of lines.

Photo by Geoff Watson

A large standing stone can be seen if you walk a few hundred yards east along the side of the wall.  It’s quite impressive.

Apparently the woodland in which this carving (and its associates) can be found is supposedly ‘private’ and one is supposed to contact some group calling itself Swinton Estates to set foot in the woods.  Not the sort of practice we usually put up with in Yorkshire.  If anyone has their contact details, please add them below in the event that anyone has need to ask ’em about going for a walk here.

References:

  1. Brown, Paul & Barbara, Prehistoric Rock Art in the Northern Dales, Tempus: Stroud 2008.

Links:

  1. Agra Wood Rock Art – more notes & images

Acknowledgements:  For use of their photos, many thanks to Geoff Watson; and QDanT and his Teddy!

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Tooter Hill, Bacup, Lancashire

sunbright57

Settlement:  OS Grid Reference – SD 888 237

Getting Here

From Bacup town centre, take the A681 Sharneyford road for about 1½ miles towards Todmorden.  At Sharneyford village take the footpath south for about 1 mile to Parrock Farm.  At the farm, take the footpath in an easterly direction to Tooter Hill. Upon reaching the hill, head around the southern periphery for about ½-mile, or climb the hill to its height of 430 feet.  Here is the former site of a Neolithic or Bronze-Age settlement. From the top of the hill you get fairly spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.

Archaeology & History

Flints from Tooter Hill

The former (or lost) site of The Tooter Hill prehistoric settlement or enclosure is not marked on any map. It has unfortunately suffered from quarrying on its periphery, but this has long since ceased. There are some small mounds at the southern side of the hill along with traces of earthworks, but I don’t know whether these are part of the former quarry workings.  However, a number of artefacts have been excavated from the peat at this site; these include a tanged and barbed arrowhead with serrated edges — probably from the Neolithic period 4,500BC-2,500BC as well as a Bronze-Age arrow-head 2,500BC-700BC, and also a tranchet-shaped arrow-head of unknown date.  These artefacts are housed in the N.A.T museum in Bacup town centre.  Other finds from Tooter hill on display are some small flint implements such as a flint scraper, flint adze and a flint borer.

References:

  1. Yates, G.C.,  “Stone Implements,” Transactions of the Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 5, 320-331.

Copyright © Ray Spencer 2011


Boatbridge Quarry, Thankerton, Lanarkshire

cartomancer

Cists (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NS 981 376

Also Known as:

  1. Tinto Quarry

Archaeology & History

The sites that were once here have long since been destroyed as a result of quarrying operations.  But thankfully this place was given a quick appraisal by those renowned Scottish archaeologists, Anna Ritchie and D.V. Clarke, before final destruction.  They recorded the site in an early edition of Discovery & Excavation in Scotland:

“Two short cists were discovered in November, 1970, during the removal of a long low gravel ridge protruding into the flood plain of the River Clyde.  The two cists were both aligned NE-SW and were 14m apart.  Both employed identical construction techniques.  The side slabs overlapped both end slabs and the N end slab was shorter than the other three slabs, necessitating a building-up of the floor by some 30cm.  Both appear to have had a double layer of capstones although this is uncertain in one case.  The cists contained and adult and child without grave goods on a gravel floor in one, and an adult with a beaker on a ‘crazy-paving’ floor in the other.”

Crazy-paving in prehistoric times sounds good!  The Scots got there first!

References:

  1. Clarke, D.V. & Ritchie, Anna, “Boatbridge Quarry: Short Cists,” in Discovery & Excavation in Scotland, 1971.

© Ian Carr, The Northern Antiquarian 


Acharn, Killin, Perthshire

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 56141 31601

Getting Here

Acharn’s standing stone

This one’s easy as it’s right by the roadside, so making it dead easy for those lazy ones amongst you who don’t like walking!  You can find it just past the turn-off (signed) for Acharn Lodge, a few hundred yards along the A827 road (off the A85 by the garage) from Lix Toll, less than a mile before reaching Killin.

Archaeology & History

This solitary standing stone, not much more than about three feet tall, originally stood in the adjacent field and was moved to the edge of the road sometime ago.  It was described briefly in William Gillies’ Breadalbane (1938) where he said, “Its height is 3 feet 10 inches and its girth at the base 6 feet 2 inches… This solitary stone is possibly the sole survivor of a group that once formed a circle,” though gives no more information to support this idea.  It seems more likely that the stone accompanied a cairn, that was levelled by farming sometime in the 19th century.

References:

  1. Gillies, William A., In Famed Breadalbane, Munro Press: Perth 1938.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Broadbank Earth Circle, Thursden, Burnley, Lancashire.

sunbright57

Enclosure: OS Grid Reference — SD 9024 3522

Also Known as:

  1. Burwains Enclosure
  2. Burwains Camp

Getting There

From Nelson town centre go north east towards Catlow, turning left near the Shooters Arms public house, then turn right again to the Coldwell Activity Centre.  Carry on towards Thursden Valley till you see the World War 2 pillbox on the right.  Here turn right and after 300 yards a picnic site and carparking area is reached along the Briercliffe road. On the opposite side of the road over a wall and barbed wire is Broadbank Earth Circle, though unfortunately there is not much to see there today. 

Archaeology

First excavated in 1950 by the Archaeology Department of Liverpool University and again in the 1960s, the earthworks here stand at 1,147 feet above sea-level (350m). The site comprises of an earth circle 150 feet (46m) in diameter which encloses an inner ditch 1 foot (30.5cm) deep and 10 inches (25.4cm) across. The bank was composed of boulder clay thrown out from the ditch. A hearth was found below the bank at the eastern end.  Some rough flint and chert flakes were also found together with a stone axe of Langdale origin. This is four-and-half inches or 11.4cm wide.  It has a curved cutting edge and a thin rounded head. Its surface is ground smooth but there is no evidence of polishing.

The earthworks at Broadbank have suffered through farming activity over many centuries and the earthen circle is now difficult to see at ground level, though the inner ditch is still visible. The low hillside or, what look like ramparts, at the northern end by the pillbox are probably not in any way connected, though this low bank may have added to the building of the bank. Archaeologists consider the site to be of Iron Age origin.

References:

  1. Liverpool University Archeology Department, Report and pamphlet, 1950.
  2. Powell, J.G.E., “Excavations of a Circular Enclosure at Broadbank, Briercliffe, Lancs,” in Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire & Cheshire, 104, 145-151.

Copyright © Ray Spencer, The Northern Antiquarian 2011


Ivy Chimneys, Witham, Essex

megalithix

Settlement (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – TL 811 136

Archaeology & History

Sadly this site has been built over, as happens so much down south it seems (regional archaeo’s, architects, councillors and businesses are very much in each other pockets – even those who allege ‘pagan’ allegiances to ancient sites – hence the demise of ancient sites). Which is a pity, as it sounded a decent spot!  Essex county council employee, Robin Turner, forwarded a summary of the findings from the site to The Prehistoric Society following an assessment prior to its destruction at the end of the 1970s.  The brief account of what was there told:

“A small area of the site contained part of an Iron Age settlement, probably of village proportions.  Three hut circles, two possible hut circles and two square four-post structures were found, as well as a number of ditched enclosures.  The main settlement area was enclosed by a multi-phased series of associated palisades and ditches, the earliest of which had a causeway and external protective fence, which may have served as a defended entrance.  One of the four-post structures, c.3m square, lay immediately inside the gap, and may have been a gatehouse or lookout.  Three main areas were enclosed outside the settlement and are thought to have represented a stock enclosure, a working area and a field.  Some evidence of pottery production, weaving, thatching and metalworking was found.  The presence of unusually large quantities of deer and dog remains may have had some religious significance which carried on into the Roman period.”

Turner and his team “hoped to investigate the insdie of the settlement area more thoroughly in 1980,”but I aint been able to get a copy of the report.  There was also found remains of a Roman temple here, including artifacts that were thought to have been offerings to the gods or local spirits.

References:

  1. Champion, T.C., (ed.), “Summary Excavation Reports,” in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, volume 46, 1980.
  2. Turner, Robin, “Excavations of an Iron Age Settlement and Roman Religious Complex at Ivy Chimneys, Witham, Essex, 1978-83,” East Anglian Archaeology Monograph no. 88, 1999.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Rudston Monolith, East Yorkshire

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Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – TA 09803 67740

Getting Here

Rudston’s monolith (photo by ‘QDanT’)

To get to the monolith travel along the B1253 road to the west of Bridlington for about 5 miles or from York take the A166 in an easterly direction then onto the B1251 and at Fridaythorpe take the B1253 east again toward Bridlington. The huge stone cannot be missed from the road and from the surrounding area. It stands within the graveyard of All Saints’ church at the north-eastern side of Rudston village.

Archaeology & History

Located in the graveyard of All Saints’ church, this huge and mighty monolith or menhir stands at 25 foot 9 inches high (7.7 metres), and is the tallest prehistoric standing stone in Britain. It is estimated to weigh 40 tons, and it is thought to be the same in height below ground as what it is above the ground, though I don’t know whether anyone has ever checked that theory out. It probably dates from the Bronze-Age about 1,600 BC. Because of vandalism and erosion the top of the stone now has a lead cap, so it is said the stone could have originally been 28 feet high. So where has the top part gone to, I wonder. We are told that the stone was dragged, or rolled on logs, all the way from an outcrop at Cayton Bay some 10 miles as the crow flies to the north.

Royston’s 1873 drawing
Rudson Monolith (Louise Hutchinson 1988)

Rudston monolith stands at the end of at least one cursus monument on an old prehistoric alignment (see the Rudston B Cursus entry).  It would appear to have played an important ingredient in a huge ceremonial landscape on the Gypsey Race.  Also in the churchyard (north-east corner) there is a large slab-stone cist which was removed from a nearby round barrow and also a gritstone. At Breeze Farm about one mile to the south-west of the village is the site of a Roman villa.

Folklore

The folklore elements tell us that this is, in fact, a phallic stone and in pagan times some form of ritual was held around the monolith, but then the Christian church was built around it in the Dark Ages – it was a case of Christianity adopting the pagan religion and allowing the stone to stay where it was, but what else could they do because the stone was to big to move, so a lot of tolerance was in order here. The present church of All Saints’ dates from the Norman period. In any case the stone had stood here for a good 2,000 years or more before any church was established in the village. According to the legend, the devil hurled the huge stone at the first Christian church on the site, but as usual he just missed – doesn’t he always!

References:

  1. Bord, Janet & Colin, Ancient Mysteries of Britain, Diamond Books: London 1991.
  2. Anderton, Bill, Guide To Ancient Britain, Foulsham: London 1991.
  3. Darvill, Timothy, AA Glovebox Guide – Ancient Britain, AA Publishing Division: Basingstoke 1988.
  4. Royston, Peter, Rudston: A Sketch of its History and Antiquities, George Furby: Bridlington 1873.

© Ray Spencer, The Northern Antiquarian 2011


Great Stone of Fourstones, Lowgill, North Yorkshire

megalithix

Legendary Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SD 66972 66292

Also Known as:

  1. Big Stone
  2. Four Stones

Getting Here

The Great Stone of Fourstones

From near the middle of the large village (or small town!) of High Bentham, go down Station Road, over the river — where the road becomes known as Thickrash Brow! — and keep going for about a mile.  The landscape opens up into the hills and there, on the left-hand side of the road, is a car-parking spot with a footpath taking you straight up to the large boulder a 100 yards on: that’s our Great Stone!  You can’t really miss it.

Archaeology & History

Great Stone on 1847 map

A meeting place of local tribes in more ancient days, the moorland plain upon which the Great Stone sits, beckons to a vast landscape on all quarters (north, south, east and west) calling the elders from their lands for annual rites and decisions to befit the health of the land and the people.  The stone rests on the ancient boundary of Yorkshire and Lancashire, just on the Yorkshire side, and was visited annually in more later centuries during the beating of the bounds, to define the edges of the local township.

Graffiti & cup-marks on the top

First described in a Yorkshire inquisition account from 1307, this Big Stone was visited by Harry Speight (1892) who described it as measuring 30 feet round and 12 feet high.  I came here for the first time in the 1980s when I was hitch-hiking into the Scottish mountains, but a good old “local” (from the Yorkshire side) took a detour to show me the place!  Once here, I climbed up the very worn “steps” which were carved into the side of the boulder several centuries back and it didn’t surprise me to find a number of cup-markings (no discernible rings) on its top surface.  When I came here again with Michala Potts and Paul Hornby yesterday, I couldn’t believe how many people had carved their names on top of the Great Stone in the intervening years — it’s almost covered in modern graffiti and the old cup-markings were much harder to see.  Taylor (1906) mentions them briefly in his holy wells survey, saying how,

“This great boulder is ascended on its eastern side by fourteen steps, and on the top are two circular holes about two inches deep and two inches in diameter.”

There used to be three others boulders very close to this one (hence its title), making a natural stone circle, but they were “broken up for sharpening scythes” a couple of hundred years back.  A much wider archaeological survey of this region is long overdue.

Folklore

Great Stone, looking east

Harry Speight (1892) told how the (original) Four Stones were the creation of our old friend the Devil, long ago, who dropped them in one his many megalithic travels across our land. The stones were also the meeting place of ancient councils, from the tribes either side of the Yorkshire-Lancashire border. Their presence here also had mythic relationship with the Queen of the Fairies Chair, about a mile southeast, along the same boundary line.

Weird how folklore changes. Whilst old Mr Speight told how the devil created the once great four stones that were here, many years later Jessica Lofthouse (1976) told how the three missing stones – which had been here “since the world began” – were actually taken from here by Old Nick. Carrying them over the land,

“His load he dropped on Casterton Fell, where the rocks he discarded, the Devil’s Apronful, are still lying around. He selected the most suitable, dressed them and carried them in panniers down to the (River) Lune”

— and built the legendary Devil’s Bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale – which itself has strange tales to tell.  Another creation myth about the Great Stone is told on the plaque near the stone, alongside the footpath, which tells:

“Legend has it that it is a small part of the debris hurled by the giant Finn McCool across the Irish Sea in a fit of anger.”

It’s very obvious that a lotta mythic landscape material has been neglected and overlooked around this site.  Something we need to remedy, if we can, in the coming years…

References:

  1. Lofthouse, J., North Country Folklore, Hale: London 1976.
  2. Speight, Harry, The Craven and Northwest Yorkshire Highlands, Elliott Stock: London 1892.
  3. Taylor, Henry, The Ancient Crosses and Holy Wells of Lancashire, Sherratt & Hughes: Manchester 1906.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 


Solar Stone, Askwith Moor, North Yorkshire

megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 17738 51003

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.567 (Boughey & Vickerman)
  2. TV Stone

Getting Here

Stone at cairn edge

From the scruffy Askwith Moor lay-by car-park, along Askwith Moor road, follow the fence north up along the roadside until you reach the gate on your right.  Go thru this and head due west into the moor, towards the small cluster of other carved stones (carvings 581, 582, etc), particularly the Small Rings Stone (carving 579).  Around here, you’ll notice a cluster of about 10 mounds in the heather, which seem to be prehistoric cairns, and this particular stone rest against the northwestern side of one of them, about 30 yards west of carving 579.  If you’re patient, you’ll find it! (if you fancy a look at all these on the moor, gimme a shout & I’ll take you straight to ’em – but you need to make a booking!)

Archaeology & History

This carving takes a bitta finding amidst the mass of deep heather and open moorland and is probably only gonna be of interest to real cup-and-ring fanatics.  But it’s the setting which makes it more intriguing — for me anyhow!

Trying to highlight the internal CnR
Solar Stone carving

Like other carvings on this moorland, we find it in direct association with a prehistoric tomb (though it aint been excavated), resting up against the edge of one.  However, it seems to have been moved from its original position and may, perhaps, have actually faced the other way at some time in the past.  We might never know.  However, some student in the recent past saw fit to name this small carving the ‘TV Stone’, thanks to the slightly cronky outline of an old television screen, with its small half-cup-and-ring near the bottom corner of the rock.  You can see where they were coming from!

Boughey & Vickerman (2003) made only a brief note of the stone, seeing only the cup-and-half-ring here; but there seems to be a faint cup-marking near the middle of their TV screen, along with faded evidence of an incomplete ring around it.  You can just about make it out in the poor photos we took of it. (sadly, we were without water when we visited it, which would have highlighted the additional cup-and-slight ring more clearly)

Close-up of cup-and-half-ring

We gave this stone the title ‘Solar Stone’* as it seems more appropriate and would certainly have more mythic relevance to the people who carved this.  The curious natural ring, or TV outline, running round most of the stone (with the faded cup-and-part-ring near its centre) may have been attached with more animistic attributes than us moderns tend to give things — children notwithstanding!  Circular forms in Nature have universal tendencies in more traditional cultures with such heavenly bodies as sun or moon, which might have been relevant here with the stones association with a tomb.

…Again, we might never know…

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Wakefield 2003.

* though did debate in somewhat primitive northern lingo: “Ugh – errr…solar? lunar? Ey? — Solar? Lunar?” uttering the same queried mantra numerous times between ourselves till we got tired and stuck with ‘solar’, as seems common these days (though I preferred ‘lunar’, it’s gotta be told!).

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

 


Monzie Carving, Crieff, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 88161 24176

Getting Here

Andy Finlayson’s original piece

From Gilmerton village, take the A822 Dunkeld road north.  Go for about 200 yards and take the little road to Monzie; watching carefully another 200 yards on for the dirt-track on the left taking you across the fields.  Go along the track, watching out for the small stones in the field on your right less than 200 yards along.  You can’t really miss ’em!  This small ring of stones is the Monzie Cairn Circle.  The carving is just in front of it!

Archaeology & History

Although we know this brilliant carved stone has some relationship with the Monzie cairn circle only five yards away (it was linked via a man-made stone causeway, running between the circle and the carving), the stone itself is very much deserving of its own entry here — and at the same time I can give Andrew Finlayson’s (2010) excellent book a decent plug aswell! (the superb drawings of the stone, top & bottom, are from Andy’s work)

Allen’s 1882 drawing
Carving & proximity of circle

First mentioned (I think) in Simpson’s (1867) early survey, the carving was described soon after by J. Romilly Allen (1882), who gave us an early drawing of the stone.  Thought by some to have originally stood upright, the carving was described by Aubrey Burl (2000) as being, “decorated with forty-six cupmarks, cup-and-rings, nine double, one triple, there are grooves and a pair of joined cups.”  It’s certainly an impressive carving!

Although the carving has been posited by some archaeologists as an outlier to the Monzie circle, it’s probable that the circle emerged from the carving — a concept that some may find difficult to understand.  I’m not aware of any modern excavations here (the last, I think, was in 1938), but my guess would be that the stone causeway laid between the cup-and-ring stone and the circle ran towards the circle from the carving, and not the other way round.  The carving is probably older than the stone ring — though of course, without excavation, my idea could be utter bullshit! (there are also some cup-marked stones in the circle aswell – though none as impressive as this)

The carving in shadow (© Andrew Finlayson)

One of my truly favourite megalith fanatics (despite some of his alignments being out), Alexander Thom, came here and thought this old carving “coincided with a rough stellar alignment from the centre-point of the cairn” (Hadingham 1974); though his notes in Megalithic Rings (1980) tell that,

“from the cupmarked stone beside the circle, the midsummer sun sets above an outlier some 800ft distant.”

The “outlier” that Thom mentions is known as the Witches’ Stone of Monzie, which Simpson (1867) appears to have mistakenly thought was the name of this very carving.

References:

  1. Allen, J. Romilly, “Notes on some Undescribed Stones with Cup Markings in Scotland,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, volume 16, 1882.
  2. Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.
  3. Finlayson, Andrew, The Stones of Strathearn, One Tree Island: Comrie 2010.
  4. Hadingham, Evan, Ancient Carvings in Britain, Garnstone: London 1974.
  5. Simpson, James, Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, etc., Upon Stones and Rocks in Scotland, England and other Countries, Edmonston & Douglas: Edinburgh 1867.
  6. Thom, Alexander, “Megalithic Astronomy: Indications in Standing Stones,” in Vistas in Astronomy, volume 7, 1966.
  7. Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, H.A.W., Megalithic Rings, BAR: Oxford 1980.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian