Kilpeck church

Trip No.168  Entry No.3  Date Added: 28th Jul 2021
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: England (Herefordshire)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2021. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Kilpeck Church and Castle: Our second church of the day, and I was delighted to find this open. Again, there was a steady stream of visitors, many of whom had a quick look in the church then walked round the outside to look at the corbels and gargoyles.

I bought a book about the church, largely aimed at children, called "From Big Bang to Beasties and Beyond" by Diana Thomas, which is very informative, with lots of information.

After taking photographs inside and out (including all the corbels and most of the gargoyles), we wandered over to the motte and bailey site - much, much larger and more interesting than we thought, and spent a happy half hour enjoying the sunshine. Only one other couple wandered over to look at the castle whilst we were there.

King Arthur's Round Table

Trip No.68  Entry No.8  Date Added: 7th Apr 2018
Site Type: Henge Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 5th Apr 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: King Arthur's Round Table Henge, Eamont Bridge: We tried to stop here on the way down to Langwathby, but the traffic was so dense and moving in so many different directions at the traffic lights, we decided to try when it was quieter. Thankfully, we managed to park in the layby opposite on the way back and let ourselves in through the kissing gate by the western side of the A66.

The scale of this monument is huge, and we walked all around its outer bank, trying to photograph the whole. Well worth stopping off and taking a look.

I didn't realise until I got home and was looking up information that there is a Little Round Table henge at NY 52387 28180.

King Arthur's Well (Walltown Gap)

Trip No.143  Entry No.2  Date Added: 12th Jul 2019
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jul 2019. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: King Arthur's Well, Walltown Crags: Whilst this well may now be destroyed or lost, the scenery here is fantastic, and it was well worth coming out to look.
We were unable to find this holy well, despite having the GPS to guide us to the spot. However, we did see signs of reeds and tall grasses where the water might have pooled and flowed.

On the way up to the nick in the crags where the well is located, there is water emerging from the hillside at NY 68041 66551, which runs in a small stream down the slope, feeding two drinking troughs in the field below. We did visit after a period of prolonged dry weather, so wondered if the water emerges from higher up the hill after wet weather.

King Edward's Monument

Trip No.40  Entry No.7  Date Added: 22nd Aug 2017
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 20th Aug 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: King Edward's Monument, Burgh-by-Sands: After having visited Beaumont, I was reluctant to go home without seeing something of the Solway, and looking across to Dumfries & Galloway, where we spent 12 years. When we last visited in February 2014 we were unable to get down the lane because it was so waterlogged (we got about one third of the way down and had to abandon the visit, having seen the monument only from afar). This time, the lane looked dry, so we parked by the little triangle of grass and could see the monument on the marshland below.

Appearances were certainly deceptive – parts of the lane were ankle deep in mud, and we picked our way from the track to the marshy grass land next to it, to dry stones and boulders where we could. Eventually we came to the stile over a small stream at NY 32773 60897, which led immediately down to a small wooden bridge and onto another stile. The other side of this stile was deep in water, but thankfully previous walkers had moved ‘stepping stones’ into the water. Once onto Burgh Marshes, the mounds left by ridge and furrow ploughing kept our feet dry until we got to the monument. Parts by the brick wall/metal railings surrounding the monument looked as if it was surrounded by a small moat!

What a place to have waited to cross the Solway. I think I would have preferred to have seen the original cairn rather than this Victorian monstrosity. The chimneys of Chapelcross, the decommissioned nuclear power plant, could be seen across the estuary, together with the flattened hilltop of Burnwark hillfort.

At the time of our visit, the tide was out, but I could imagine the shimmering water of the Solway to the west. A fitting end to a nice afternoon out.

King's Norton

Trip No.78  Entry No.3  Date Added: 25th Jun 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Leicestershire and Rutland)
Visited: Yes on 24th Jun 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Well, St John The Baptist, King's Norton: This is a very posh village, with very large houses. We parked by the tiny little village green just to the west of the church, almost next to the well, which is low down in the western churchyard wall.

Someone has been refurbishing the well, and recently, as there is a fresh footprint or two in the sand now forming the bottom of the well pool.

The church is relatively modern, a plaque next to the gate describing it as ‘Georgian Gothic’. The churchyard is relatively small, and not much to see in it, apart from a huge memorial right up against the exterior eastern wall. The church itself was locked, although a name/phone number was given to collect the keys from, but we weren’t interested enough to go inside.

Pastscape describes this well as a ‘horsetrough’. Whilst the well was very dry at the time of our visit, there is no sign within the churchyard (or the neighbouring house) as to where the source of the water comes from, although the top of the ground is at least 2m higher behind the well.

King's Park Cup and Rings

Trip No.108  Entry No.4  Date Added: 10th Nov 2018
Site Type: Rock Art Country: Scotland (Stirling)
Visited: Yes on 30th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: King's Park Cup and Rings, Sterling: From Stirling, we headed off to south end of King’s Park which lies south of the A811 Dumbarton Road. The rock art panel is located at the southern end, near the golf course.

We parked on Douglas Terrace and used the little cut-through to the park at the eastern end of the row of terraced houses before its junction with Park Place. We then turned west along the footpath that ran along the bottom of the cliffs, but had to double back and use the footpath and steps up to the golf course, just to the right of the cut-through. From here, we turned west along the footpath. The grid reference is spot on, and the rock had had the turf cleared from it. The low light at this time of the afternoon helped to pick out the motifs.

I wondered what other motifs there might be around here, as the footpath here runs along the top of some small cliffs, but these were heavily wooded.

Kinnerton

Trip No.168  Entry No.5  Date Added: 4th Aug 2021
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: Wales (Powys)
Visited: Yes on 14th Jul 2021. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Kinnerton Court Standing Stones: We'd walked up into the village first, to see if we could locate the old village wells, but were unsuccessful, as they seemed to have been incorporated into the modern water supply or dried up and disappeared. We did walk up to the Kinnerton Castle Mound, which is actually on private land, but can be seen (and photographed) from various vantage points in the village.

The first stone (the recumbent one) we had difficulty spotting as it was buried in tall grass and weeds, but did spot it reasonably quickly. The other is on the opposite side of the road, in a lush field of pasture, and a very pretty spot.

We thought we were on the footpath as we walked up to the stone, but walking back to the field gate, found the sign actually pointed along the field boundary/hedge-line to the west of the still standing stone. Whoops - sorry.

Kintraw (Kilmartin)

Trip No.88  Entry No.2  Date Added: 31st Jul 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Kintraw Standing Stones and Cairns: This standing stone, when we spotted it on the evening of 17th July looked magnificent, but we couldn’t find anywhere to park; approaching this stone from the direction of Ardfern, there was a gateway to the field to pull into, which gave us just room to pull off this busy, fast road.

What a complex site. And what beautiful weather we had to enjoy it.The standing stone first catches your eye, but then the large cairn, with its huge pile of stones, grabs the attention, and then to the north east, with a smaller one by your feet almost next to the gate. Walking closer, we became aware of a ring cairn (?) just to the south east of the standing stone., at first view this looked like a ‘court’ cairn, made up of a ring of small upright stones – all with views over Loch Craignish from this perch on the hillside. Brilliant.

There were also traces of another, flattened cairn, to the north of the ring cairn-standing stone-larger cairn alignment.

To the east-south-east of the larger cairn was what looked like an old stone farm building, which I didn’t photograph as I thought this was modern. According to the OS map which I’m looking at now, it is noted as a ‘fort’.

This is my new ‘favourite spot’. Can I come back soon, please?

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.

Kirkdale Sundial

Date Added: 13th Oct 2014
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 10th Oct 2014. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 5

Log Text: Anglo Saxon Crosses, St. Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale, North Yorkshire (Kirkdale Sundial): Because the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Sculpture catalogue for Yorkshire cost £145, and my budget won’t currently run to buying it (!) I typed in ‘Anglo Saxon Sculptures’ into the internet and the search came up with both St. Gregory’s Minster and St. Andrew’s at Middleton. Good choice, Google! Thank you.

We arrived just after 11 o’clock to find two other cars in the car park. It turned out that one belonged to a florist setting up flowers for a wedding in the church that afternoon (she also said there was another wedding tomorrow, but they didn’t want to share the flowers) and one belonging to an elderly gentleman who, as we watched, hung his jacket on the church gate and picked up a brush and rake. He greeted us and asked us if we were going into the church and if we’d been before. On answering ‘no’, he told us to be careful of the step down into the church.

St. Gregory’s Minster is in a beautiful location, and is an even more beautiful building. It is clearly ancient and sits easily within the landscape.

The sundial above the main door into the church is breathtaking in its completeness. There are “Early Medieval carved stones built into the church include two early 9th century crosses; an early 10th century shaft/ slab fragment and a worn piece of late 9th century interlacing. Two grave slabs, early 8th century and 11th century two cross heads and a 10th-11th century shaft fragment are kept inside the church”.

Because there were so many flowers around the church, it was difficult to get a good photo of the cross heads inside the church. But outside it was spectacular and I was surprised to find only one other family wandering around looking at the fabric of the church, but not the cross-shafts.

By the time we’d finished wandering around the outside, there were many people coming in and out of the church and wandering around the churchyard. The car park was completely full, so we were glad we’d arrived earlier. The gentleman who’d greeted us on arrival caught us in the churchyard as we were going out. He told us that there had been ‘ladies’ who’d been round and told them they weren’t allowed to mow the back part of the churchyard, as there were over 80 (he spelled out ‘eight-oh’ to emphasise his point) species of wild flower. Walking back up the path with us, he asked if we’d enjoyed our visit, and I replied ‘very much so’. He said that people saying that made keeping the church tidy and clean worth while.

I felt very welcome at this hugely historic church and would go again to spend time and sit when it’s not so busy.

Kirkhaugh Cross

Trip No.94  Entry No.3  Date Added: 1st Sep 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 31st Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Kirkhaugh Cross, Church of the Holy Paraclete: Having seen one of the wells on the opposite side of the road, we turned our attention to finding the cross. This church is virtually hidden behind the trees, with only a portion of its eastern end and a narrow, tall spire peeping out of the trees at its western end.

I thought at first this cross was a modern grave marker, as it sits up a modern plinth, but closer examination showed this cross has been used as a gate post at least once in its past.

Behind the cross is a grave stone which has grown into the side of a large horse chestnut tree and been cracked. With the River South Tyne babbling away just behind the eastern churchyard wall, this is a lovely spot.

Kirkhaugh Wells

Trip No.94  Entry No.2  Date Added: 1st Sep 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 31st Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Kirkhaugh Wells, near Church of the Holy Paraclete: After having spent about 2 hours wandering around Epiacum fort, we left to go for a cup of tea in Alston, where we called to the Top Café for tea and crumpets. As suggested by Alastair Robertson, we called into Local Links/Library at the Town Hall to see if they had a copy of his book/report on the fort, but the librarian knew nothing about it (“he wrote a book, but it’s out of print”), and had no further information. We left, walking across to the church of St. Augustine of Canterbury in Alston; I hadn’t taken my camera, and apart from some 13th century gravestones and architectural fragments, the only thing of note was the Derwentwater Clock, set up in the north west corner of the church. Surprisingly, there were instructions to see it working – remove one of the blocks from under the weights on its right hand side, then set the pendulum in motion. Brilliant to see something so old ticking away. To see the hand made cog wheels turning was amazing.

Driving firstly along the A686 following the River South Tyne northwards out of Alston, on the eastern side of the river, we took the minor, very single track road with no passing places, to Kirkhaugh. Just past the farm building is a small triangle of grass; we parked just past this on the grass verge, and made to walk down what looked like the driveway to the Old Rectory, but is actually the only access to the Holy Paraclete Church – Paraclete being another term for ‘Holy Ghost’. The OS map showed ‘Wells’ marked around this point.

As I looked out of the car window, I saw what at first looked like a ‘doorway into the hillside’ but is a disintegrating well house. I walked up the slope to take photographs, and could see inside the well house which is still full of clear water.

The second well, which I saw walking back up the road from the church, is up a hill opposite the farmhouse; now a ruinous brick and concrete structure, it drains into a trough at the bottom of the slope by the road. Presumably it is then piped into the River South Tyne.

Kirklandhill

Trip No.52  Entry No.3  Date Added: 10th Oct 2017
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (East Lothian)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 27th Sep 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Kirklandhill Standing Stone, East Lothian: From Pencraig Hill Standing Stone, we drove 3.6 kilometres east along the A199 (which runs parallel to the A1) turning left (north) up the A198. The Kirklandhill Standing Stone is in the middle of the field immediately to the right hand side of the A198.

Whilst the Pencraig Hill Stone was in a field of mature cabbages, this field was planted in well established brussel sprout plants, with no room between them, so we could only view it from the road. We tried looking for a gate into the field off the A198 and the A199, but the entrance must be near to the Kirklandhill Farm building.

I had to content myself with photographing this stone from the edge of the field next to the A198, which was very busy with traffic. Next stop on the list were some standing stones near Traprain Law hillfort.

Kirkmadrine Church Stones

Trip No.136  Entry No.14  Date Added: 26th Jun 2019
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Kirkmadrine Old Church & Early Christian Stones: Now this site I was so looking forward to seeing, but in some ways it was the most disappointing.

As we arrived at the foot of the grassy lane to the church, the heavens opened, and my, did it pour. Thankfully, we were sheltered to some extent by the trees on either side of the lane. Eventually, we came to the gate into the churchyard, with the cross on a mound to our right, and the church to our left.

The stones were displayed behind glass at the exterior western end of the church. To even see the stones we had to wipe the rain from the glass with a handkerchief. Unfortunately, raindrops had leaked behind the glass, affecting the clarity of our view of the stones. In addition, the light at this time of evening (around 5pm) was bouncing off the glass, and trying to photograph the most impressive, and oldest, stone at the back left hand side (northern) side of the display proved virtually impossible, despite the UV filter, because the reflections of the trees in the glass were too strong. I tried photographing from various angles, but to no real effect.

I went away really disappointed, as these stones are really impressive and I wanted to see more. I did contact Canmore with a photograph a week ago (today is 26th June) but have had no reply apart from an automatic acknowledgement of receiving my message.

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.

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.

Knock Stone Circle

Trip No.25  Entry No.2  Date Added: 21st May 2017
Site Type: Modern Stone Circle etc Country: Scotland (West Lothian)
Visited: Yes on 18th May 2017. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Knock Modern Stone Circle, West Lothian: Having passed this stone circle on the way to Cairnpapple, it looked impressive and I couldn’t wait to get back for a closer look. “Is this what a real stone circle looks like?” my friend (who is a relatively novice Megalith-hunter) asked. I chuckled as I read out the description from the Portal page which I’d printed off before I left home

It certainly looks as if it’s been here longer than 20 years!

The field was full of enormous sheep. The farmer has kindly built a small stile into the fence by the gate, which allowed us access into the field. We wandered round taking photographs. I really liked the little stone ‘seat’ in the inner ring, which the sheep gathered round.

I walked over to the outlier, which sits on a mound to the north-east of the circle.

On our way out, a car pulled out, parking half an inch from the bumper of our car. Out popped a photographer with a really big lens on his camera. He wandered up and down the road by the fence, taking photographs. We told him he could get into the field, either through the gate or over the stile. He said ‘thanks, but I’m waiting to get photos without the sheep’. As there were around 50 or so sheep in the field, I’m guessing he might have had some time to wait.

We headed off to Torphinchen for a snack and to visit the Preceptory (which was closed, even though the sign said it should have been open).

Lady Well (Bavington)

Trip No.104  Entry No.4  Date Added: 25th Oct 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 24th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Lady Well, Bavington: This is a lovely spot, and well worth the short walk to and from the road to see this well (or what remains of it).

We parked at NY 99286 80701, just off the B6342, and followed the track northwards towards Ladywell Farm. There was a big boulder with lots of cut marks at it at the top of the track, and I worked out it said ‘Ladywell’ on it, although the marks looked more like runes than letters!

There are no records on Pastscape or HE, although the well is marked on the OS map. Ladywell Farmhouse is recorded as Historic England List ID 1044928, although this is largely 17th and 18th century.

The footpath goes right past the right hand side of the farm, then deviates off slightly north east, through a kissing ate. Walking straight ahead, there was a dip in the ground with some marsh grass around it to our right, so we made a beeline for this. There was a heap of pebbles in the dip, with a stream of water emerging from the ground between the stones – no great rush of water, just a gentle flow. Judging by the dressed stones at the southern end of the pile of pebbles, it looks as through there might have been a well house or pool surround at some point.

Oh the wind, which must have been a steady 30mph plus on our walk there and back! My ears and cheeks burned when I got back into the car after this walk, although it was nice to actually walk to a site and back, even though it was a relatively short distance.

Lady Well (Glasgow)

Trip No.107  Entry No.2  Date Added: 7th Nov 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: Scotland (North Lanarkshire)
Visited: Yes on 29th Oct 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Lady Well, Glasgow: To get to this well, we had to walk through the path to the south of the cathedral leading to the Necropolis, then use a gate at the junction of Wishart Street and Ladywell Street, walking east towards the dead end of this street. The well is to the northern side of Ladywell Street, opposite an entrance into Tennent’s Wellpark brewery. It is dry, and now somewhat delapidated, although people have left offerings of money.

As the Canmore entry reads, Lady Well was “anciently a holy well dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was probably one of the sixteen public wells in Glasgow in 1736. It used to flow from the E bank of the Merchants' Park, but when this was converted to the Necropolis, the well became polluted and was closed. The Merchants' House, in 1836, built a niche on the spot to mark the site of its exit from the brae. This was rebuilt in 1874.”

A small brass plaque reads: “The Lady Well. Restored by Tennent Caledonian Breweries Ltd. 1983.”

Lady Well (Kirklington)

Trip No.161  Entry No.1  Date Added: 7th Jun 2021
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 31st May 2021. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Lady Well (Kirklington): our first site, in our first day out for 15 months. What a delightful location, although a shame the well house itself is crumbling and full of rubbish.

With the site of the deserted medieval village of Yarnwick in the same field, and to the north of, the well, it was a delight to be back in the countryside again

I stopped to photograph a second, now capped well, presumably the well supplying the farmhouse, at SE 31634 81303.