Aescia Roman Fort

Trip No.140  Entry No.1  Date Added: 25th Jun 2019
Site Type: Stone Fort or Dun Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 23rd Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Aesica (Great Chesters) Roman Fort: In a repeat of our last visit in November 2016 (when we came here to see where the Roman aqueduct finished) we parked just off the small, gated road at NY 70421 66432, by the track leading up to Modern Farm and the Hadrian’s Wall Path.

Whilst I was photographing the inside of the fort, Andrew hopped over the stile at NY 70443 66807 and walked down the slope. As well as seeing a large stone with carved edging embedded in the dry stone wall, he identified the site of the bath house, previously earthed over by English Heritage to preserve it, as some stone were sticking out of the dry earth. Just down the slope was a piped spring which emerged into a modern cattle trough. Was this the spring that served the bath house?

The bath house, visible on UK Grid Finder, is centred on NY 70473 66733; the spring emerges at NY 70473 66698.

The Sill

Trip No.140  Entry No.3  Date Added: 25th Jun 2019
Site Type: Museum Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 23rd Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: The Sill, Once Brewed: After visiting Great Chesters/Aesica, we popped over to the Sill for a cup of tea and a bowl of soup. It took three attempts to get our (simple) order correct, although as the Sill was popular with walkers, it meant queuing up each time to get the correct items.

I was curious to see if Tynedale North of the Wall Archaeology Group had their display about their surveys at Edges Green and Cleughfoot. We walked round the very small exhibition, which included a piece of rock art (on loan from the Great North Museum) and an inscribed Roman stone, but could see nothing from the group.

It was difficult to know if the display was aimed at adults or children; having wandered around it, most of it seemed aimed at the younger age group.

A pleasant place for a rest and refreshments, but I had expected more of a museum.

Knock and Maize

Trip No.137  Entry No.1  Date Added: 27th Jun 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Knock & Maize Standing Stone: Lovely views of the sea, but the view of the stone was a little spoilt by its proximity to the telegraph poles. It was only when we got into the field and I was photographing the stone that we realised there was a large herd of bullocks down the bottom end of the field. Half of them stood up, but thankfully they were too lazy to come over and take a closer look.

There were lots of smaller boulders around this stone – field clearance or where the stone has been fractured over the years? There are certainly lots of fracture lines and ‘dings’ on the stone. Perhaps the stones are both.

Mid Gleniron Stony Mounds

Trip No.137  Entry No.3  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron Stony Mounds: I found these stony mounds as fascinating as the chambered cairns just north of these mounds, so took a few photographs (just in case they were recorded cairns) and grid references. If they are field clearance stones, why place them in different mounds in the same field? And why so many smaller stones? The larger stones are most likely field clearance, but the make up of the mounds is similar to Gleniron 1 to Gleniron 5 inclusive.

There are two mounds on the eastern side of the farm track and another four on the western side.

Mid Gleniron 2

Trip No.137  Entry No.5  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron 2: Photos taken from NX 18753 60931, I photographed a mound approximately 20 metres to east (right) of track as walked uphill, with a cattle feeder virtually on top.

I wasn’t sure that this was a cairn at all, although Andrew was certain. In fact Canmore shows there are the remains of two cairns here, one at NX 1877 6093,the other at NX 1876 6092. With the cattle feeder placed virtually on top of the cairn at NX 1876 6092 and numerous, very curious cattle in the field, I photographed these from the gate into the field.

Mid Gleniron 3

Trip No.137  Entry No.4  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron 3: OK, the GPS led me to this spot, but there wasn’t much to see. Had it not been for the sheer number of cows and their calves in the field, I would have gone for a closer look, but bottled out. I photographed this feature by leaning over the dry stone wall.

Mid Gleniron 4

Trip No.137  Entry No.6  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron 4: This is the large bell cairn at the top of the hill, near the farmhouse, which dominates the view as you walk up the track towards the farmhouse.

Access into the field is easy, and it’s possible to walk all the way round the cairn to see its structure and enjoy the views.

Mid Gleniron 5

Trip No.137  Entry No.7  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron 5: This cairn lies west of track to the farmhouse, south east of the oval cairn, and is very distinct in the field and on the aerial photographs.

The mound of the cairn stood out particularly today as the farmer was spreading the lines of harvested grass to dry as we walked across the field, and he had gone round this cairn with the tractor.

Mid Gleniron 1

Trip No.137  Entry No.8  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron 1: I was really impressed with this now oval-shaped cairn with its burial chambers and spent ages walking round it and over it. The photographs don’t really do it justice.

Culroy Cairn 1

Trip No.137  Entry No.10  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Culroy Cairn 1: On the way back from Culroy White Cairn, we had intended to stop and photograph another 4 cairns along this road, but the road was far to narrow to park on, and with large tractors and other traffic coming along, I hopped out of the car and photographed this cairn as best I could.

By this time of the afternoon, I was getting twitchy and impatient to get to Whithorn and the museum, with their fantastic collection of cross slabs, cross heads and other early Christian stones, so finding an entrance into the field was pretty low priority!

Whitefield Loch Crannog

Trip No.137  Entry No.11  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Crannog Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Dorman's Island/Loch Whitefield Crannog (east): We went seeking Dorman’s Island crannog at the eastern side of the loch. Having missed the fisherman's road, and the road being too narrow to turn round, we ended up parking in the fisherman's car park at NX 23531 54887 and walked down the angler’s slipway but the tree cover was too dense to really make out anything. We could just about see round the small headland to our eastern side, and took a couple of photographs and may have just caught the crannog.

Looking at the Canmore map there is also a Tree Island crannog to the western end of the loch.

Kirkcolm Cross

Trip No.137  Entry No.2  Date Added: 27th Jun 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Kirkcolm Cross: From the Knock & Maize standing stone we followed the minor roads across this peninsula until we reached the western shores of Loch Ryan, then drove north to Kirkcolm.

This cross slab has quite a complicated history of being sited in different locations (read the Canmore details below). The town has lovely views over Loch Ryan and Cairnryan ferry terminal.

The cross slab is now located in the external western corner of the south transept (although the building it stands next to looks more like an outhouse).

In the churchyard is an amazing statue of a woman with child clutching her. It looks as if she is a fisherwoman waiting for her man to come home. I guess she would have had views over Loch Ryan but the church building is in the way.

We did go in search of the original site of Kilmore Chapel and St Mary’s Well, to the south of Kirkcolm, but these appear to either be in a field next to a private house, now ploughed out, or partly in their very gated and (rightly so) private garden.

Culroy White Cairn

Trip No.138  Entry No.9  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Culroy White Cairn: The intention was to drive down this minor road, stopping to photograph three cairns to the south of the road on our way to Crouse. However, the road was very, very narrow with no marked passing places (just field entrances and the occasional driveway) and the stone walls were too tall to see over. All we could see in the end was one of these cairns and we could find no entrance/gate into the field, wo we contented ourselves with photographing the ones we could find.

We drove to where the minor road forks, just to the north west of a farm called Culroy. Taking the northern (left hand) fork, we parked on the short grass. This cairn is at the end of a quarried knoll, and not really obvious until you get up close to it, when the piles of white stones are clearly different from the quarried area around it.

We visited just after a period of dry weather; the ground in front of the cairn was covered in marsh grass, some areas still with small puddles, so wellies would be recommended after a rainy day or two (although you can always approach from the north if needed).

Kirkmaiden Old Church

Trip No.137  Entry No.12  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Visited (still working on) on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Kirkmaiden Old Church: A very lovely drive along the coast road (A747) through Port William to the golf course. We had difficulty finding the grassy track down to the church, but eventually stumbled upon it using the GPS.

Down a steep cliff on its eastern side, and with steps down to the beach to the west, this is a lovely spot. Whilst we could hear the sea, we couldn’t see it for the trees. The site comprises two very small churches – the old one to the west of the site, and the new church to the east. The old church really is just a ruin, but almost buried under ivy, it is very atmospheric.

The three cross slabs mentioned in Canmore we could not find– if there was a slab in the fenced enclosure, there were too many weeds to see. Another two are recorded as being in the church, which is padlocked with a huge chain. The padlock seemed so rusty, I’m not sure when it had last been opened.

With time pressing, I really wanted to get to Whithorn, so we went back to the car and drove on.

White Cairn (Crouse)

Trip No.137  Entry No.16  Date Added: 29th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: White Cairn, Crouse: Our very last stop of this visit, and not a hugely dramatic one. The cairn has been used for field clearance, and there were lumps of concrete, barbed wire and old fence posts dumped at its western side.

Whilst I was photographing the holed stone, I got an excited cry from Andrew, to say; “You can see through the holed stone from the cairn”, so I wandered through the gate between the two fields and walked onto the cairn. Yes, he was right – there was a glimmer of light through the hole, although what it was sighted on, I’m not sure.

Little Balsmith

Trip No.137  Entry No.14  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Little Balsmith/Stairfield Standing Stone: I was very reluctant to tear myself away from Whithorn Museum and Priory, but with it closing at 5pm, we didn’t really have a choice. I popped back into the visitor centre to buy some postcards, then we headed off down the street to buy an Italian Ice Cream, complete with chocolate flake – delicious!

This standing stone is not far out of Whithorn; take the road which heads east past the school, the B7063, and continue for 2.7km.

We had a very strange encounter driving towards the stone, as we came across a car parked across a farm entrance, with one man sprawled across the bonnet with his hands behind his head, the other was leaning up against the passenger side of the car. There was something really odd about this car – it was missing its rear driver side wheel! We waved at each other as we drove past – they didn’t flag us down and ask for help.

On the way back, another car had joined them and the men were talking animatedly. Wonder what had happened for them to lose the wheel.

The standing stone is in a flat plane here, with Wigtown Bay to the east. The road running past the stone continues to the Isle of Whithorn. Again, this stone is ‘a big boy’. Luckily the crop in the field had just been harvested, so I went in to get some photographs from all sides of the stone.

Crow Stone (Wigtown)

Trip No.137  Entry No.15  Date Added: 29th Jun 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Holed Stone/Crow Stone, Crouse: Coming to these last two sites marked the start of our return journey back to Northumberland, and I wasn’t really ready to go back! This stone stood near the northern edge of a field of grass, just east of the B7052, and south of the White Cairn at Crouse.

The field of grass had just been cut and the farmer and his various tractors and trailers were collecting the grass in the surrounding fields and transporting it back to Crouse farmhouse, just to the south and on the other side of the road. Because of all the traffic on the road, we dumped the car in a wide gated field entrance at NX 36446 55808, ready to run back to the car if we needed to move it. We got into the field with the holed stone through a gate at NX 36533 55647, walking NE towards it; it was further than it looked, having to step over the mounds of cut grass.

A very nice spot, with the Galloway Hills a dark blue/grey in the distance.

Peter Hill Roundhouse (Whithorn)

Trip No.136  Entry No.13  Date Added: 1st Jul 2019
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Peter Hill Roundhouse: Part of the visitor experience at the Whithorn Museum. We arrived just after a small guided tour had started. We asked if we could go round after the tour had finished, but were told we could only get in while there was an official guide there. I cheekily asked if we could join the tour for 10 minutes, and to my surprise, were allowed to go in.

I was really surprised and impressed by the inside of the roundhouse - the compartments for privacy, the central fire pits, and the sheer amount of room within it. Shame we didn't have time for the full tour, but I was so keen to see the early Christian stones in the museum.

Whithorn Museum

Trip No.137  Entry No.13  Date Added: 29th Jun 2019
Site Type: Museum Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Whithorn Visitor Centre, Museum, Priory and Roundhouse: I can honestly say that I have never felt so welcomed anywhere as being here as a visitor to Whithorn. From the moment we stepped into the Visitor Centre café for refreshments before buying our tickets, then looking around the round house, museum and priory, the staff were attentive, welcoming and made sure we were well looked after.

The café had good food at very reasonable prices, and the prices to get into the museum and priory were well below those we'd expected. A small guided tour had just started, but as we wanted to wander round on our own, we elected not to join. However, round at the museum, we learned that we were only able to get into the round house with a guide present, so we were very kindly let into the round house grounds to join the tour for ten minutes or so.

The interior of the round house was much, much bigger and far more practical than I'd ever imagined. The guide spoke with great knowledge about day-to-day living within this space and we had chance to look around the outside at the various tools and farming methods they were using.

We left to go and explore the museum and I was stunned to see the collection of over 60 early Christian stones displayed in this space. I had previously checked with the Whithorn Trust that is was OK to take photographs of the stones for my walk/photo journal, and was told this was OK if it was 'for personal use'. So armed with my camera, I double checked with the guide. The knowledge of the staff member (Ruaridh) and the time he took to talk to us was extraordinary.

After walking round the Priory and trying to recreate some of the photos in the guide book, we returned to the museum for another wander round, but it was closing at 5pm, so we needed to be swift. The one downside was that there was no guide book describing each of the stones, but I was allowed to use the Museum Interactive Display Screen, and to photograph the majority of the screens (a good job, as trying to find the stones on Canmore has proved a little tricky, as many of their entries don't have photographs).

We had time to go back to the Visitor Centre to buy some postcards, and I had my eye on an expensive reference book. With only a few moments to spare before closing, I decided not to buy it, but on getting home regretted my decision. On emailling the team the next day, they organised for me to buy the book, pay over the phone, and arranged for postage. Great customer service!

I also asked for, and received permission, to post a visit report and photographs to the Portal.

I just wish I'd had a whole day to spend here, and would love to return. 150/100 for visitor experience.

Minnigaff Old Church

Trip No.139  Entry No.2  Date Added: 23rd Jun 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Visited (still working on) on 17th Jun 2019

Log Text: Cross Slabs, Minnigaff Old Church: The Canmore record says clearly that these two cross slabs are within the ruins of the old church at Minnigaff. We found these enigmatic ruins easily, within the burial ground of the modern-day church. However, the stones have been moved inside the modern church, and there is an information board just to the north of the west door into the church. I was very disappointed. I have sent Canmore a message, which they've acknowledged, so they can update their webpage for future visitors.