National Museum of Scotland

Trip No.62  Entry No.1  Date Added: 8th Jan 2018
Site Type: Museum Country: Scotland (Midlothian)
Visited: Yes on 19th Dec 2017. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 5

Log Text: Pictish and Early Christian Stones, NMS: The weather prohibited my friends and I from doing much outside, so the National Museum of Scotland seemed like a good place to visits. Neither of us had been before, and as neither of us knew where we were going, asked the lady at the reception desk for the Pictish Stones. She was very helpful, pulling out a guide of the museum and telling us that some of them were in the basement, other in the Kingdom of the Scots exhibition on the first/part floor. She said she would contact one of her colleagues.

She pointed us in the direction of the stairs to the next floor down, and by the time we reached the bottom, a colleague was already waiting to greet us. He walked us round to the start of the exhibition and round to the pod to the side of the ‘early people exhibition’ on the lower ground floor. I spent a very happy couple of hours wandering around the exhibitions and photographing the stones.

The one downside was that not all the signs telling us what the exhibits were could be found. I did try and find someone to ask later in the afternoon, but could find no-one on the museum floor that we were on. I will email or revisit to find out more about the exhibits I'm really interested in.

Belsay Tower Cross (Northumberland)

Trip No.60  Entry No.2  Date Added: 27th Nov 2017
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Belsay Tower Cross, Northumberland: Passing Belsay on the way back from the Bolam Cairn, we decided to try and trace the cross marked on the OS map. Although we’ve been here before, we’d not tried to look for this, as we largely had our small grand daughter with us.

The cross is located (on the map) very close to the Castle, so we walked through the grounds, having received a stern reminder from one of the staff members, that we had to vacate the car park by 4pm, but became thoroughly disorientated. Husband, Andrew, got his compass out and we decided that to reach the cross from the castle, we would have had to jump the ha-ha or scale a fence to get into a field to cross over to it.

In the end, we walked back through the Quarry Gardens to the private road which runs north from the gate at the bottom of the croquet lawn (where the paths from the Hall cross over to Quarry Gardens); after 100 metres it joins the road which runs east-west between the Hall and the Castle. Turning east along this, we walked for around 150 metres, then found a short trackway running through a sparse wooded area, into a field. Through the wooded area, we got our first sight of this cross.

It is on private land, but we took the chance of going through the gate and taking a quick look. It is within 200 metres of the castle, which is to the west, but the land is well fenced off.

In the end, it would have been easier to walk from the car park, past the estate cottages towards the castle, then take the first track on the north side of this minor road into the field with the cross.

It really reminded me of the Shitlington Cross, with its chamfered sides and missing top.

Bolam Round Cairn (Northumberland)

Trip No.61  Entry No.1  Date Added: 27th Nov 2017
Site Type: Round Cairn Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 26th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Bolam Bronze Age Round Cairn, near Belsay, Northumberland: Although the sun was shining and the photos largely make this site look like we’ve seen it on a summer’s day, the temperature was 2 degrees C and removing my glove for a few minutes to take photographs made my normally very warm hands icy cold.

Walking along the footpath (which a notice at the field gate said was blocked at Foulmartlaw), the first thing we noticed was the very prominent ridge and furrow ploughing, which seemed to be the same in all the other fields around the estate.

Approaching the cairn from its eastern side, it seemed like a large bite had been taken out of the middle. A stone was standing in the middle of the ‘bite’. Pastscape and Historic England say this is a gatepost. BUT - if this was a gatepost, there was no evidence of a field system or boundary matching this. And where was it’s matching stone?

There was a second stone at NZ 09356 82201, some 50 metres away, which was lying with its base in a hollow with some packing stones, which indicated it had stood upright at some point. It is not mentioned on either Pastscape or Historic England entries.

A third, smaller boulder, poked its way out of the ground half way between the cairn and this stone. I photographed it just in case it was associated with the cairn.

Newton Reigny Enclosure

Trip No.60  Entry No.2  Date Added: 26th Nov 2017
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 20th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Newton Reigny Enclosure: Having put the wellies in the back of the car, we decided to try and walk along the lanes from the south of Newton Reigny, where traditionally one of the stone rows ran towards Newbeggin. On our last visit, back in February 2017, the lane was ankle deep in water and mud.

I spotted this enclosure on the map, and keen to see something other than possible (non-existent) standing stones, was keen to see something of historic value. There were road works immediately opposite the field this enclosure was in, and the workmen, who were partly blocking the road waved us through. We, however, didn't want to be waved on, so my husband drove just past where they were working and I hopped out with the camera, much to the amusement of the workmen who must have wondered what we were looking at.

There were the outlines of low banks and a deeper ditch criss-crossing the field. Not a huge amount to look at, but worth stopping to look at. On looking at the information available on Pastscape and Historic England, this is a scheduled site. It is just to the east of the church of St. John in the village

Mossthorn Long Cairn 2

Trip No.60  Entry No.4  Date Added: 24th Nov 2017
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 20th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Mossthorn Long Cairn 2, Copt Howe, Newton Reigny: See the visit report for Mossthorn Long Cairn 1 for more details. This is the side of the long cairn (or natural feature, as Pastscape says?) we couldn’t see from the road on our last visit on 12th February 2017. This time, we could only see it from the field boundary near the southern end of Mossthorn Long Cairn 1. From this angle, it does look like a natural hummock, although more like a cairn from the main road.

Mossthorn Long Cairn 1

Trip No.60  Entry No.3  Date Added: 24th Nov 2017
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 20th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Mossthorn Long Cairn, Copt Howe, Newton Reigny: We wrote to Mossthorn Farm immediately after our last visit here in February 2017, but our letter was ignored and we didn’t get a reply. A local historian, who we’d made contact with to find out more about the standing stones / stone row said he had contacts who would give permission for us to visit, but nothing.

In our latest visit to Newbeggin, we went armed with wellington boots and socks and trudged down the lanes from the southern side of Newton Reigny. Whilst the lane is gated, it looks to be frequently used by walkers, so we followed the footpath to Copt Howe at NY 48258 30770. The gate into the field was wide open and a large dung heap had been placed near the field gate. As the rest of the field was pasture, we decided to walk quickly over to the long cairn and take a closer look. The field was very boggy and I was glad of my wellies.

Strangely, I noticed lots of quartz stones scattered around the perimeter of the cairn, shining white in the drizzle amongst the brown-red earth. This cairn had plenty of stones down its length.

We saw the side of Mossthorn Long Cairn 2 that we hadn’t seen before from the eastern hedge line of the field but didn’t want to incur the wrath of the farmer, who was working on his tractor in the field nearby.

Snuff Mill (Stainton)

Trip No.60  Entry No.1  Date Added: 24th Nov 2017
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 20th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Snuff Mill Standing (?) Stone: On the way back from Pooley Bridge to Stainton and Newbeggin, I saw a standing stone by the side of the road (A592) so Andrew turned around and we parked in the driveway of Snuff Mill Water Treatment Centre. The stone was just passed a corner of this busy little road, and it felt quite dangerous as none of the cars moved very far out of the way for us walkers.

The dry stone wall had been ‘kinked’ to go around the stone. It was heavily covered in moss.

I can’t find anything about it on Pastscape or Historic England, so will email Mark Brennand at Cumbria County Council.

Thompson's Rock

Trip No.59  Entry No.2  Date Added: 19th Nov 2017
Site Type: Holed Stone Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 12th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Thompson's Rock, Simonside: This was the coldest, windiest day of the year so far,, and I thought we were going to a much more sheltered spot, so I wasn't dressed for the weather. Ashamed to say I sent husband off with the camera, as he was fully equipped for this moorland. He reported the rock was well worth going to see.

St Edwin's (High Coniscliffe)

Trip No.58  Entry No.3  Date Added: 10th Nov 2017
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 8th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Anglo Saxon Fragments, High Coniscliffe: This was a most unexpected location, as my perception was that the church should be within a quiet little village, but the reality was it was just off the main road, the A67 to Bishop Auckland. We parked by the footpath at NZ 22567 15316, and had to walk past the front of the Old Rectory to get to the lych gate.

There were so many stones in the walls of this church. So many of them were greatly weathered sandstone, and looked like any of them could have been carved then worn down. The walls of the church were a real patchwork of colours – light, medium, dark and red sandstone.

We couldn’t get into the porch. A notice on the gate of the church said keys were available at houses nearby, but none of them had lights on, so we headed home, but not before I’d spotted the view from the south western end of the churchyard down to the River Tees below. Great!

St Cuthbert's Church (Billingham)

Trip No.58  Entry No.1  Date Added: 9th Nov 2017
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 8th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Anglo Saxon Stones, St. Cuthbert's Billingham: We’d arranged to meet the verger, at the church at 12 noon. We arrived 10 minutes early, and found the south door didn’t have a keyhole, so wondered how we’d get in. It turns out there’s an entrance from the north side of the church. We wandered around the tower looking for the Anglo Saxon cross pieces built into the church tower. Some of these took some spotting, then we heard the verger calling us in.

The church is large, a fusion of 11th century and 1930s extension. The churchyard is huge – a surprise for somewhere so industrial as Billingham, but then this is Billingham Green.

I much enjoyed this visit. The verger spent over an hour taking us round, and took delight in showing us the stones, even one hidden behind a noticeboard against the west wall.

All Saints (Crathorne)

Trip No.58  Entry No.2  Date Added: 9th Nov 2017
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 8th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Anglo Saxon Fragments and Hogbacks, All Saints, Crathorne: We’d arranged to meet Robert, the curate, at 2pm. He was a few minutes late but by the time I’d walked round the back of the church, he’d opened up the door and turned the lights on. He seemed really shy, asked us how long we’d be, could we turn the lights off when we left and shut the door; he was going for a little walk.

Whilst not huge, this is a very pleasant little church, with the delightful smell of lilies greeting us as we walked through the door.

Most of the fragments are in the south and north walls of the tower, apart from one cemented onto a window sill in the north wall of the nave, and two broken pieces being used to prop up an effigy behind the font. Naturally, we moved the candles and chairs out of the way to try and get photographs of the pieces.

Behind the stone on the window-sill is a mirror. I stood on the nearest pew to try and get photos of the man carved on its rear side. This was an unusual shape – described as a ‘collared shaft’

Dacre Church

Date Added: 6th Nov 2017
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 5th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: St Andrew's Church, Dacre: Anglo Saxon Cross Fragments: We'd visited this church back in early 2014, before I joined the Portal, to photograph the bears; the church was firmly locked on the day of our visit. This time, the door was open, and we walked into this lovely church, parts of which are extremely old. The smell of the nave was reminiscent of the church where I used to sing in the choir when I was 10/11 years old - it's been a long time since I was reminded of those ancient days!

I'd called up the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculpture website, which showed four recorded stones for Dacre. We could only find 3 (2 of them combined in the Dacre entry), Dacre 3 having been removed to Lancaster University. Despite an intensive hunt, Dacre 1 was also not to be found.

Dacre 4, in the exterior south wall of the chancel took some finding; to my very untrained eye, the motif could have been weathering. Glad I have the Corpus image to refer to, and then it took two of us well over five minutes to find it!

Weston Moor

Date Added: 1st Nov 2017
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 25th Mar 2015. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Needs moving to new site page: Weston Moor (Greystone Rock, Boughey & Vickerman 541)) Rock Art: We had fun and games getting to this site from Otley, as the road over the River Wharfe had been shut for roadworks, then the Weston Moor Road was also closed. We managed to park by the stile over the stone wall close to where Moor Road meets Weston Moor Road. The ground was very boggy indeed. We did have to stray a little way from the footpath to find this stone, but a dog walker was already in the field with his golden labrador.
Following the footpath west, we went in search of 'The Spectacles' at SE 1843 4965 but even with a 10 digit grid reference and after almost an hour of walking around the same spot, came to the conclusion it was buried too deeply under the turf, and we weren't going to dig around to find it.
Just north of the footpath from the spot where The Spectacles was supposed to be located, both husband and I thought we spotted what might be a cairn rising some 20 to 30 cms in a circle above the surrounding landscape. Given the number of boulders in the surrounding landscape (most part of larger outcrops) it is probable this might be a clearance cairn. The evening light helped this feature to stand out, and I enjoyed trying to photograph it.

St Cuthbert's Church (Darlington)

Trip No.57  Entry No.1  Date Added: 25th Oct 2017
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 25th Oct 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Ancient crosses, Saxon sundials and a hogback in Darlington: Originally due to go out for the whole day, we suddenly found ourselves having to rush back for an engineer arriving at our house after lunch. As we had an appointment to be at the church for 10.30am, to look round whilst there was a service in the chancel, we decided there was time enough to get to Darlington and back.

We met the church wardens we'd been liaising with very briefly to say ‘hello and thanks’ to. It was amusing as at least 3 people came into the church wanting to know where the church office was, so I pointed them in the general direction. It was odd wandering around the church with a communion service taking place in the chancel and sanctuary, and I was careful not to use the flash on the camera, although parts of the church were very dark, especially around the hogback.

We couldn’t find a couple of the catalogued items from the Corpus, and I struggled to identify which of the three cross heads we were seeing against those the Corpus lists. I looked through the Information for Guides folder and found an Architectural Assessment by Petr F. Ryder, Historic Buildings Consultant, dated 1997, part of which read:

“Pre Conquest Sculpture: Six pieces of Pre-Conquest sculpture are listed by Cramp (1984, 62-3). Of these one cross head, with the top of the shaft, dated to the late 10th or early 11th century, and an incomplete cross head of the early 11th century, are displayed in the nave, against the second pier of the south arcade; in a corresponding position on the opposite side of the nave is a supposedly Saxon sundial. In the north transept aumbry is part of a hogback, seen as a ‘crude copying of a type more elegantly represented at Brompton, Yorkshire’, and dated to the second quarter of the 10th century. Another fragment, seen as part of a large recumbent slab of the second half of the 10th century, lies in the south transept along with medieval cross slabs. A fifth stone which formerly lay outside the south transept, seen as possibly part of a dedication or ‘station’ slab from within the church, is now lost.”

All Saints (Rudby-in-Cleveland)

Trip No.56  Entry No.3  Date Added: 16th Oct 2017
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 15th Oct 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: All Saints Church, Rudby-in-Cleveland: We’d spent so much time walking round Castle Hill, that by this time of day the sun was very low in the sky and dusk was going to fall pretty quickly, pretty soon.

Parking opposite the church at NZ 47133 06667, just off Rudby Bank in a small paved area which apparently used to be used for the main benefactor’s horse and carriage, we walked into the churchyard.

Much to our surprise, the church was open, so we let ourselves in. Parts of this building are really old. There is also an Elizabethan pulpit and a memorial slab to a 14th century monk holding a chalice.

We also found some old pieces of stone, not mentioned in the church guide, but one portion of which was on the AS Corpus.

Whilst I explored the church, Andrew went in search of the moat, and found it running round the northern part of the churchyard. It is very weird – just a large ditch, most of which is largely dry.

The eastern (modern) part of the graveyard contains the grave of Sir Rex Hunt, Governor of the Falkland Islands when Argentina invaded in 1982.

In the west wall of the vestry, this is also a very strange headless statue, which has been inserted into the wall using part of an old tombstone as a shelf.

Castle Hill (Bishopton)

Trip No.56  Entry No.2  Date Added: 16th Oct 2017
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 15th Oct 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Castle Hill, Bishoptop: This monument is literally just within sight of the church, just over 420 metres to the north west, at the south eastern edge of the village, opposite the pub and next to a garage.

There is a public footpath which runs through the field in which this motte and bailey is sited, accessible by a rather tumbledown stile. There is also an information board, although this had cracked and fallen off its plinth. We pieced it back together to have a quick read, although the text was so faded we couldn’t really make it out.

The site is really well preserved, and I’ve not seen another quite like this. It is as if someone has built a large hillfort in a flat piece of land and put a round mound towards one end. There are also extensive earthworks leading off this.

The motte itself has been fenced off, presumably to stop the sheep and cattle from damaging it, although there is a gate in the south western part of the fence, with a very steep path leading up to the top of the motte.

We walked around the exterior twice, marvelling at the deep ditches and banks.

St Peter's Church (Bishopton)

Trip No.56  Entry No.1  Date Added: 16th Oct 2017
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (County Durham)
Visited: Yes on 15th Oct 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Medieval Cross in St. Peter's Churchyard, Bishopton: Driving into Bishopton, I realised looking at the cottages and houses that this was a very old village, and had it not been for all the parked cars, it would have been very picturesque.

The church was locked so we couldn’t go in, but the remains of this cross was visible near the edge of the churchyard. It was easier to photograph it from the road, looking over the wall.

I didn’t photograph the replacement village cross, in the very small village green, near the wall memorial, as I thought it was modern, and we didn’t stop after looking at the earthworks nearby.

Fasset Hill (Sourhope)

Trip No.55  Entry No.2  Date Added: 12th Oct 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 8th Oct 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Fasset Hill Scooped Settlement, Sourhope: It was probably a silly time of year to look at this settlement, as the bracken was very tall, and probably also too late in the evening, as dusk was falling. But, hey ho, we were nearby and decided to walk back down to Sourhope Farm, and follow the track up Fasset Hill.

From Sourhope hillfort we walked back down the track to the farmhouse near the junction of the Sourhope and Kaim Burns, turned north east and walked over the wooden bridge at NT 84588 20250. From there we followed the metalled road up past a dump/quarry area, where the metalled road turns left/west and a stony track continues east. The Fasset Hill settlement is around the sheepfold on the hill just to the north of the track just past the ‘dump’.

The photographs don’t really do this site justice, as it was easier to see with the naked eye rather than catch it on photographs – the area was well defined on the ground. The sheepfold now occupies just west of centre, and what look to be the foundations of buildings can be found in its south east corner. The site looks like a building platform scooped out of the hillside. Canmore says it was probably constructed in Romano British times, and later reoccupied in the medieval.

There were a couple of other settlements nearby, but it was getting so dark, it was getting silly. We decided to walk swiftly back to the car and head home.

Sourhope Hillfort

Trip No.55  Entry No.1  Date Added: 12th Oct 2017
Site Type: Hillfort Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 8th Oct 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Sourhope Hillfort, Scottish Borders: Well, this morning was a surprise, as rain had been forecast, but we woke up to a blue and cloudy sky, with little wind, so we decided to make the most of the nice weather before the clocks go back at the end of the month.

We used an ‘unusual’ (twisty/windy) route to reach this site. We drove up using the A68 past Carter’s Bar, then taking the first turning right and following the minor roads up through Hownam towards Yetholm, turning right and heading back down south at Primsidemill.

We followed the Bowmont Water Valley along to where the Sourhope Burn joins it, then headed north east up the dead end road to Sourhope Farm. Just past the cattle grid by the barns to the south west end of SouthopeFarm, there is room to park the car on the verge. We then headed up past the farm, turning right and going through two gates by a barn at NT 84596 20177, then following the path uphill towards Park Law Fort, then turning south west at NT 85047 19886 and following a quad bike up a relatively steep part of the hill, to approach the fort from its eastern side, entering at NT 84858 19793 on the south eastern side.

The outlines of the fort can be clearly seen on UK Grid Reference Finder. From below, we could see what looked like telegraph poles on top of the fort; getting closer, there are two television aerials on the western side of the fortifications!

There were great view from the top of this hillfort. We’d printed off the Canmore plan and description before we went, but even so, it was difficult to tie the words up with what we were trying to make out on the ground. The structures and hut circles on the eastern side of the fort were the easiest to interpret.

It was a nice walk, and exploring the hillfort was really thought-provoking, thinking what it would have been like for the occupants of this fort.

Craigmailing Boundary Marker (Torphichen)

Trip No.54  Entry No.5  Date Added: 12th Oct 2017
Site Type: Marker Stone Country: Scotland (West Lothian)
Visited: Yes on 30th Sep 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Craigmailing/Witchcraigs Boundary Stone: To find this stone, we parked near to the Little Criagmailling cross base found earlier this week and followed a little-used footpath through the woodland. This footpath joined another wider one, crossing a stile into a little tree-lined lane which followed a trickling stream to our left hand side.

This, very unexpectedly, opened up into an area of grass/heath with a viewpoint. As soon as you sight the viewpoint with its dry stone wall and information boards, the refuge stone is to your right hand side. This is a really rather special place. And being named Witch Crag made it much more atmospheric!

The refuge stone is no longer in the wall, but has been sited at 90 degrees to it.