Mossknowe 3

Trip No.127  Entry No.5  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3

Log Text: Mossknowe Cairn 3: Saw this from a distance only, as the light was fading rapidly, the rain was pelting down and we couldn’t open the gate into the first field. Couldn’t get too excited about this, although it looked the most interesting of the three cairns.

Fair Helen's Tombstone

Trip No.127  Entry No.2  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Marker Stone Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Fair Helen's Tombstone: This ‘monument’ is in two parts, the first of which came as a complete surprise, to our west, just off the path in a clearing, just above Kirtle Water.

For the legend of Fair Helen of Kirkconnel see: Fair Helen's Legend and Sir Walter Scott's epic poem.

This was a simple gravestone with a plaque on it, which reads: “In memory of fair Helen of Kirkconnel as well as Richard Bell and Adam Fleming who were involved in the tragedy which took place here. Erected by Clan Bell descendants. Irving Bell. Founder”.

Walking into this small, overgrown but very atmospheric, graveyard, with its tumbled ruins, I struggled to find Fair Helen’s Tombstone, but Andrew pointed it out – right behind a large metal sign announcing this is “Kirkconnel Churchyard”. The sign reads: “In the ballad “Fair Helen of Kirkonnel”, Adam Fleming’s Lover Helen was shot by mistake by a rival in Kirkconnel churchyard. The bullet was meant for Adam, who promptly killed him. Adam was later buried beside Helan and this is his tombstone: Hic Jacet Adam Flemeng. The adjacent uninscribed stone is Helen’s; and the nearby late-medieval cross is called “Fair Helen’s Cross”, marking the site of her death. / The romantic story of the ballad might be an 18th century invention, and the association of the monuments in the churchyard with the ballad’s characters is questionable”.

Hoddom Parish Church

Trip No.127  Entry No.1  Date Added: 6th May 2019
Site Type: Sculptured Stone Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Sculptured Stone at Hoddom Old Parish Church: Our first stop of the day, and a strange place. A church in ruins, boarded up, although with parts of the churchyard really nicely tended – presumably because of the war graves.

Sitting on the southern side of the B725 to the south west of Ecclefechan, we parked in the layby outside the main gates into the churchyard, immediately next to the ruins. It took us ages to find the location of the sculptured stone, and trying to describe its location is a little tricky as the church is built in the shape of a square cross, orientate N-S, E-W. The stone is built into the outside corner of the eastern wall of the southern 'arm' and the south wall of the eastern 'arm'. We were unable to get right up to it because of the proximity of the railed family grave enclosure, although we succeeded in knocking some brambles down from the front of the stone so we could view it.

Fair Helen's Cross (Kirkconnel)

Trip No.127  Entry No.4  Date Added: 5th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Fair Helen's Cross, Kirkconnel Old Church: It was a beautiful walk from the small parking area provided at about NY 25239 74833. We let ourselves through the kissing gate and followed the footpath which ran just to the east of Kirtle Water, and a pasture field with sheep and young lambs to our right. The very dark storm clouds gathering to the north east made a fantastic backdrop to the mature trees in the field.

Along the footpath, we were distracted by a modern tombstone about half way along our route to Old Kirconnel Church. We also stopped to admire the wonderful trees, with all their different colours, from a soft pink of a newly emerging copper beech tree, flowering cherries, silver birches and horse chestnuts. Eventually stumbling upon a very large marble tombstone at the entrance to the old churchyard, we let ourselves in and started exploring.

Having missed, at first, Fair Helen's Tombstone, and having to have it pointed out to me (well, it was hidden by a large metal signpost immediately in front of it), I walked round the ruins of the old church whilst Andrew went to search for the cross. "You'll need a machete", were his words on his return.

Walking through the kissing gate in the far north western corner of the churchyard, we walked 20-30m north along the path until the vague outline of the cross appeared behind the shrubbery. It didn't help that the largest tree next to the cross was a holly - very prickly!

As we arrived at the cross, the rain started to pelt down. Fortunately, the shower didn't last very long, and after taking photographs of this old village cross, we went back to admire and photograph the unusual grave markers in the churchyard.

St Michael's Church (Warden)

Trip No.126  Entry No.3  Date Added: 5th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St Michael and All Saints, Warden: Anglo Saxon Sculptured Stones, including The Warden Man and Hammerhead Churchyard Cross: I last visited this church on 3rd September 2014, when I was almost new to the Portal, and hadn’t yet come across Pastscape, Historic England or the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculpture databases, so taking Andrew back here was a very pleasant surprise, as I learned an awful lot about these stones.

Well worth a repeat visit!

St Michael's Church (Warden)

Date Added: 5th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 3rd Sep 2014. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: St Michael's Church, Warden, Northumberland: On the way back from Robin Hoods' Holy Well at Colwell, I detoured via Warden, a church we’ve visited before whilst visiting the Roman enclosure on the hill above Warden, but not really seen. On this last visit, on approaching St Michael’s, we heard a saxophone being played nearby – the same tune repeated over and over (and very badly (sorry, player!)). As we were going into the church, another couple were coming out. The noise of the saxophone got louder and louder, and a man appeared to serenade us. He proved a bit of a nuisance, so we escaped to the Boat pub for a drink, only to be closely followed by the saxophone and it’s player who then sat next to us.

The current church is 18th century, but built on much older foundations, originally thought to be the site of the oratory of the Anglo-Saxon saint St. John of Beverley.

On today's visit, I met a lady going into the church with some leaflets, and got chatting to her. She told me the same man still lives in the village, and she’d just come from his house. She also told me the Parish had just had the church restored and how proud they were of it now, pointing out the 7th century cross at the south side of the tower, by the porch.

The lady didn’t know anything about the Warden Man, so as we went into the porch, I spotted it and pointed it out. “Perhaps we should scrape the moss of it”, she exclaimed. I gulped loudly. “I think you should leave it as it is – you need to ask a professional before doing that”.

There are some fascinating features within the church – the 11th century arch at the base of the tower includes a roman stone, and the Saxon gravestone which is on the floor in the chancel (northern wall, next to the choir stalls, just before the altar rails).

The Saxon gravestone, in the right light, shows tegulations (a word I hadn’t heard of before I picked up the guide book for the church! – “use light and shade to create a distinctive appearance”) to look like a tiled roof. Outside, there is the 7th century cross (which the Keys To The Past record says is 7th to 11th century), gravestones with iron hoops over them to prevent body-snatchers taking the bodies and a Saxon tower.

In the porch, opposite the Warden Man, is a collection of grave stones. There was a really interesting small roundel, with what looked like knot-work on it. I was unable to find out any more about the date of these.

Warden Hill Hillfort

Trip No.126  Entry No.1  Date Added: 5th May 2019
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Warden Hill Hillfort: Homer’s Lane is very narrow, so we struggled to park the car. We eventually ended up bumped up on the verge at the wide entrance to a farm house at NY 91187 67190, ensuring there was plenty of room for tractors, trailers and other traffic to get past.

Walking back to the start of the footpath at NY 91217 67247, we used the kissing gate and walked up hill, turning left onto the well-marked path, zig-zagging through what is virtually a small village at High Warden (there are so many signposts and ‘private’ signs’ people must have become fed up with walkers). We ended up on a small woodland path leading northwards along the edge of a field towards the telecoms mast just below the summit of Warden Hill. By the mast, the track dog-legs slightly westwards, with the path running north up-hill through the centre of a field of pasture.

Towards the top of the hill there is a trig point, immediately to the east of the gate into the next field. Going through the gate, there is an interesting series of low banks which are medieval/post medieval in date. Walking 10-15m further onto the hill, the outer banks of the hill fort become clear.

We spent ages walking around the outside and inside of the hillfort. We’d taken the printed HE and Pastscape records with us, determined to understand all the features. We particularly looked for the Roman signal station, and identified a small, square structure where the grid reference said it should have been. From here, running eastwards, a line of stones poked up intermittently out of the grass.

There are brilliant views in most directions, although the endless noise of the A69 became a little tedious.

Homers Lane (Warden)

Trip No.126  Entry No.2  Date Added: 1st May 2019
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Couldn't find on 1st May 2019. My rating: Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Homers Lane, Warden, Rock Art Panel: Having visited Warden Hill Hillfort, we decided to drive the 1.15km to try and find this rock art panel, as it was so close. Driving north up the almost single track lane we managed to park next to the gate into the field with the rock art panel in, at NY 91110 68391, and walked back south the 50m or so towards the grid reference where the panel was located.

I'd gone armed with the ERA information and their photographs, and the GPS took us to within 9m of the previously recorded location of the panel. We leaned over the very ivy covered dry stone wall and tried to identify the boulder, but could not see it.

The field was planted with wheat, but with a large, long pile of fertiliser combined with a wide grassy edge to the field, we thought if we trod very carefully, we could let ourselves in through the gate and walk back to the piles of boulders. This was easy enough to do, although I wish there was someone I could have asked permission from first!

Using the GPS, we got to within 3m of the recorded grid reference, but still could not find a boulder the right size and shape. With the ERA photos in hand, I identified the two trees in one of the their photos, lined them up, but there were no boulders at that location. It looked as if they had been rolled further downhill, towards the drystone wall, to make room for the huge pile of fertiliser.

Andrew very bravely balanced on the boulders, trying to locate the panel, but after a reasonably through search, had to give up. Disappointing, but the NADRAP survey photos were dated 2008 - some 11 years ago.

Howden Hill Middle Cairn

Trip No.125  Entry No.5  Date Added: 26th Apr 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Howden Hill Middle Cairn: From the rock art panels, it is only just over 150m to walk to this cairn, which is the most prominent of the two on this side of the ridge above Settlingstones Burn.

In a very lovely spot, the make up of the cairn from stones and earth becomes evident. It is around 9m in diameter and about 1m (perhaps slightly higher) above the surrounding ground level.

With its proximity to Hadrian’s Wall, the location of this cairn cemetery with its rock art, cists and cairns is intriguing. Sewingshields Crags is visible on the skyline to the south east.

Howden Hill 3

Trip No.125  Entry No.7  Date Added: 25th Apr 2019
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Howden Hill/Settlingstone Burn 3: Standing at the Howden Hill Rock Art Panels 1 and 2, two large stones and a large erratic were prominent on the skyline a couple of hundred metres to the east. They looked well worth investigating, so we followed the tractor trail up to the them. Wow. The location is lovely.

What a setting for the remains of this cairn, which sits high above Settlingstone Burn, at the top of a steep slope. The rock art panel within it is the most prominent of the stones within the cairn with its almost luminescent yellow/green lichen which served to highlight the cup marks. Whilst NADRAP/ERA says the cups may be caused by erosion, we thought they were pretty convincing, the outer cups being seemingly arranged in lines. If this was the original cist cover, it has been overturned at some time in the distant past.

Howden Hill Cist

Trip No.125  Entry No.4  Date Added: 25th Apr 2019
Site Type: Cist Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Possible stone lined cist and stone setting on Howden Hill: Getting to the sheepfold near the two cairns and the rock art panels was a little challenging, as we had to cross electric fences, cross a number of field drains, boggy areas, and avoid the deep tufts and holes in some parts of the access land.

Thank goodness for the GPS. We headed for the centre of the southern side of the prominent sheepfold at NY 83080 69696, before min on trying to find the rock art panels to the east of the sheepfold.

Surprisingly, we found ourselves looking around in awe, as we found ourselves in the middle of what looked like a stone setting with a possible small standing stone and small lumps and bumps on the ground with stones protruding, which could be other cairns.

Walking towards the rock art panels, I stumbled across what I thought were two cairns and called Andrew and Jennifer back to take a look. We later found out at home that one of the cists (stone-lined trough) is only mentioned on the HE and ERA-1414 entries.

Just to the SW of the cists was a small standing stone at NY 83082 69685, which might be marking part of another cist/dolmen?

West Howden Hill

Trip No.125  Entry No.1  Date Added: 25th Apr 2019
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: West Howden Hill RB Settlement: Unusually, our daughter joined us for this trip, as it was on her way to our house from Scotland, and we met outside the Old Repeater Station on the Old Military Road (B6318) and took one car the 1.4km down to the gate with the path leading to the access land on Howden Hill/Brown Moor.

This settlement straddles the marked track from North Road which runs from the Old Military Road and Old Repeater Station , past a large farm called Grindon, to reach the access land. We parked on the grass verge next to the gate into the field at NY 82336 69216 and made our way through the fields towards the location of the rock art.

There is no entry for this settlement on HE, but it is marked on their map as an enclosure.

I didn’t see this settlement until we were almost upon it. The outer ditches and banks are very clear, with an entrance half way along its eastern side. I also stopped to take photos on the way back, together with some large erratic boulders which lay next to the footpath. The site is gently sloping towards the south east and there are prominent boulders protruding from its central platform, although we could make out no discernible structures.

Howden Hill 1

Trip No.125  Entry No.2  Date Added: 24th Apr 2019
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Howden Hill 1: Rock Art panel within Bronze Age Stone setting, not far to the south of Hadrian's Wall. Setting is quite fascinating, comprising cists, cairns, low banks and rock art. We had not expected to see this cists, so this came as a nice surprise. Whilst we could see quite deep cups on this rock, most of it was covered by turf, so we left it alone to preserve it.

Immediately to the east of the easternmost of the two cists we saw, Historic England List ID 1418656 says: "The first and most northerly panel (ERA 1415) is roughly triangular in shape and dips steeply into the ground from an uncovered high point on its south edge; it is about 0.8m by 0.5m and is oriented east to west. There are about thirty cup marks scattered across the boulder and some appear to form slightly curved or straight lines".

Howden Hill 2

Trip No.125  Entry No.3  Date Added: 24th Apr 2019
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Howden Hill 2: Literally 1m to the north of Howden Hill 1, and has most visible. It is clear that both rocks continue under the turf, but not wishing to cause any damage, viewed them as they were. Having seen Andy Curtis's photograph on Geograph beforehand, I'd expected both panels to be covered in turf, and was surprised to find the cups that were above ground were very visible in the strong sunlight. Both panels are to the east of the sheepfold and the two cists that we saw and went back to examine after photographing what was visible of these two RA panels.

Recorded as HE 1418656 and ERA-1414: "The second panel (ERA 1414) lies immediately to the south of the first, and is a rounded boulder about 0.9m across. there are more than fifty cup marks, again some forming prominent lines, curved arcs or more scattered groups; the latter are particularly clustered on the south and west sides. It is possible that the panels represent a broken, decorated cist cover".

Wamphray Place

Trip No.124  Entry No.5  Date Added: 11th Apr 2019
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Wamphray Place Motte & Bailey: Continuing down the hill (north west) from Wamphray Church, past the mill and over the narrow bridge, as we climbed the hill at the other side of the river, we spotted this small, compact motte and bailey and stopped to take a few quick photos. Wish we’d had more time to explore and photograph this site from the river, but we wanted to try and find the cairn cemetery at Pumplaburn before heading off to meet our daughter at Annandale Water services.

Pumplaburn

Trip No.124  Entry No.6  Date Added: 11th Apr 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Pumplaburn Cairns: Making our way back towards Annandale Water, we went under the smallest railway bridge we’d ever travelled under – 7ft tall and 7ft wide! We didn’t find these cairns, despite wandering up and down the road. Looks like they may have been buried by the large hardstanding for tractors next to Pumplaburn Steading. From plotting the ngrs on UK Grid Reference Finder, the cairn at NY 1191 9650 may still be there, but we only saw it from a distance.

St Cuthbert's Church (Wamphray)

Trip No.124  Entry No.4  Date Added: 5th Apr 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Anglo Scandinavian Cross Slab, St Cuthbert's Church, Wamphray: This seemed far too modern a church to incorporate any old stones, but I was to be surprised. The churchyard was quite spectacular, with a large walled mausoleum and two very large monuments, one being a replica of a churchyard cross.

We found the stone over the west door of the church. It was an interesting exercise to photograph this, as the ground sloped down very steeply to the river. The stone was carved on its wide face, and also some interlacing on its underside, next to the door.

Sadly, the church was very firmly padlocked and doors locked, so we were unable to get to see the reverse side of the slab. There was a modern, recreation of a churchyard cross at the south side of the church, near the gate into the churchyard.

Poldean menhir

Trip No.124  Entry No.3  Date Added: 5th Apr 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Poldean Standing Stone: The third stop of the day with this stone easily visible just to the west of the road, towards the eastern edge of a large field of pasture.

We let ourselves in through the gate NY 10424 99981, walking over a small stream, again with the River Annan to its west and the busy A754(M) in the distance.

The eastern side of the stone is very craggy, as if bedding planes have been worn/broken away. There appears to have been a cup low down on its western side, but this could be a solution hole, if the stone had been lying flat for some considerable time in the past.

Chapman's Stone

Trip No.124  Entry No.2  Date Added: 5th Apr 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Chapman's Stone: Our second stop of the day, and easy to stop alongside the road where it widens slightly, at NY 10746 99049 and walked back the short way to the stone. The stone has a fence built right over the middle of it (it looks like it could be used as a stile). It’s eastern side looks as if it has been knocked and broken by farm equipment. Looking at where the stone is placed in the landscape, it is along an old drover’s road, with the River Annan to its western side; to the NE, there are two flat topped hills in the distance.

Skip Knowe

Trip No.124  Entry No.1  Date Added: 4th Apr 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 4th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Skip Knowe Standing Stone: Our first stop of the day, which nearly wasn’t, as we got caught in a SSE convoy putting up new poles and wires. We stopped by what looked like a community hall and I asked permission to park there for 10 minutes whilst we walked back 100m to look at the standing stone. We were told that was OK, but we needed to move within half an hour otherwise they would be stringing a cable over our car. No sooner had we spoken to one helpful worker, than another appeared and we went through the same exercise!

We were quickly able to walk back to the stone, hop over the fence into the field, take a few photos and back to the car just as a new pole was being craned into position in front of the neighbouring house.

This is a huge standing stone, just opposite Skip Cottage, with the River Annan just to the west. There were no discernible features on the stone that we could see, and we had a good look around. There were a couple of large boulders in the bank just to the west of the stone, but these looked like just part of the bank, but the Canmore entry from 1906 mentions a possible second stone.