Contributory members are able to log private notes and comments about each site
Sites Anne T has logged on trip number: 125 (View all trips)
View this log as a table or view the most recent logs from everyone
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
West Howden Hill submitted by Anne T on 25th Apr 2019. The south western corner of this Romano British settlement, looking north west towards the small forested area to the north of Grindon farm. This large farm can be seen just above centre-left of the photo.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
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
Howden Hill 1 submitted by Anne T on 24th Apr 2019. Howden Hill panels 1 and 2 together. Howden Hill 1 is the northern most panel, shown towards the bottom middle-left of the photograph, mostly covered in turf.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
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
Howden Hill 2 submitted by Anne T on 24th Apr 2019. Howden Hill panels 1 and 2 shown together. Howden Hill 2 is the top-most panel in the photograph, probably less than 1 metre to the south of Howden Hill 1. We thought they were possibly part of the same outcrop, but looking at the ERA photographs, they are two separate stones, possibly the original cists covers of the nearby cists.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
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".
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
Howden Hill Cists submitted by Anne T on 25th Apr 2019. The possible stone lined cist at NY 83104 69692.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
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?
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
Howden Hill Middle Cairn submitted by Anne T on 26th Apr 2019. The middle cairn (middle of the photograph) as taken from the western-most of the three visible cairns at this location (stony foreground, now much levelled).
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
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
Howden Hill 3 submitted by Anne T on 24th Apr 2019. Photo showing the location of the cairn from its north western side, showing the steep slope down to Settlingstone Burn below.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
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.