High Willhays kerb cairn

Date Added: 19th Aug 2024
Site Type: Ring Cairn Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 2nd Aug 2024. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 2

Log Text: From Fordsland Ledge its relatively easy going up to High Willhays, but in a bit of a mist at times which makes me slightly concerned about navigation further on when there will be no obvious trackway. Hard to figure out what exactly this is. There are several side set slabs standing proud just to the east of the top outcrop with its marker cairn on top. It is hard to tell whether these are the remains of a large kerb, or perhaps an internal structure, as in some views it looks to be two parallel rows of slabs.

Fordsland Ledge Chambered cairn

Date Added: 19th Aug 2024
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 2nd Aug 2024. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 2

Log Text: A walk up to the top of southern England, I park at Meldon reservoir and head over the dam then around the lake and up the West Okement river to an area of woodland and waterfalls, at which point I head up towards the top of the ridge north of Black Tor. I almost instantly regret this decision, as it is very hard going in very steep rough and wet ground, and I have a couple of falls, in the meantime seeing several other people descending much further upstream below the tor outcrop. Once up to Black Tor, and extremely weary, I have a serious talk to myself about heading directly back to the car along the track via Longstone Hill, as the weather is worsening and I am really starting to ache. However, after eating a sticky bun I feel the worst is over and decide to carry on up to Fordsland Ledge with its army huts and nice cairn with large stones protruding, seeing heavy rainshowers passing around, but none on me.

Pierre des Quatre Curés

Trip No.204  Entry No.182  Date Added: 10th Jul 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Auvergne:Puy-de-Dôme (63))
Visited: Yes on 23rd Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This crystalline basalt menhir has served as a boundary stone between four parishes since the middle ages, hence it's name. It's not much more than 2 metres high, and looks like it has been mended from broken at some point, but I cant be sure. I was hoping for a bit more from this. On the map it looks spectacularly positioned overlooking the Sancy mountains one way, and the valley of the river Dordogne the other. In practice, it really only overlooks the fields around it. It can be found a couple of fields to the south of the busy D.922 road, with a track and footpath almost right to it, and there is room to park.

Dolmens de Bignon

Trip No.203  Entry No.231  Date Added: 10th Jul 2024
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Aquitaine:Gironde (33))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 3rd Jun 2005

Log Text: I knew things were going too well this morning. I found Frontenac, and from there I eventually found Bignon, but after much searching and some very difficult to understand directions from an old lady living near the farm (they are very big, and only 800 metres away) I could find no signs of the three dolmens here. Supposedly there is one large allée-couverte and two simple dolmens to be found, and I must have spent over an hour looking along all tracks and in all fields. Perhaps they are deep in some woods beside the stream.

Red Rocks

Date Added: 4th Jul 2024
Site Type: Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry Country: England (Merseyside)
Visited: Yes on 11th Sep 2023. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Visit to Hilbre Point and a walk out to the Red Rocks

Warham Camp

Date Added: 22nd Jun 2024
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (Norfolk)
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2024. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: A recommended visit from the bar lady at the Binham pub, to occupy a loose hour. Its really impressive in its scale and completeness. Lots of orchids are flowering on the banks in the sunshine.

Seahenge

Date Added: 21st Jun 2024
Site Type: Timber Circle Country: England (Norfolk)
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2024. My rating: Condition -1 Ambience 4 Access 2

Log Text: After many years, and a fair bit of planning, I got to visit the site of Seahange. I started from the pay car park at Holme, near the golf course, and followed the well marked and made coast path to the north then east, through the marshes and sand dunes. Whern I got to near where I thought the site was, I started looking for the signboard, but it had been knocked over so was not easy to find. I then tried to get down onto the beach, which was not easy with cliffs in the dunes and fences, so I retraced my steps back for a fair old way until I could get down onto the beach, before heading back east to the area of the site. After a fair bit of searching around, near to where it is marked on our map, I first saw a pole and stump sticking up, but nothing else. I wondered whether this was a marker for the site of the original Seahenge now removed.

Holme II

Date Added: 21st Jun 2024
Site Type: Timber Circle Country: England (Norfolk)
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2024. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 2

Log Text: After many years, and a fair bit of planning, I got to visit the site of Seahange. It needed a significantly low tide, and a long walk with no features to aim for. It was also a complete unknown as to whether any of the timbers would still be there, and not covered by the sands and mud. I started from the pay car park at Holme, near the golf course, and followed the well marked and made coast path to the north then east, through the marshes and sand dunes. Whern I got to near where I thought the site was, I started looking for the signboard, but it had been knocked over so was not easy to find. I then tried to get down onto the beach, which was not easy with cliffs in the dunes and fences, so I retraced my steps back for a fair old way until I could get down onto the beach, before heading back east to the area of the site. After a fair bit of searching around, near to where it is marked on our map, I first saw a pole and stump sticking up, but nothing else. I wondered whether this was a marker for the site of the original Seahenge now removed. Walking in the wet mud and sand further to the east, I some dark shapes. Is this it? I walked over, and indeed it was a sector of timber stumps poking above the water. Further looking, and there were some more sectors, generally under pools, with a few other stumps showing above the sands, which would have made a circle about 15 metres diameter. Fantastic, and well worth the effort. I noticed that there were a few large timbers on their sides nearby, and many other odd stumps. Nearby were a couple of places with arrangements of stumps showing above the sands, are these remnants of other structures. There are a couple of much more modern linear timber structures heading directly towards the sea from the shore, arranged in pairs, and when speaking to a local, he told me that these were constructed by the army and used as devices to move targets up and down the beach, for training the gunners and tanks that were there at the time. These can be used to give a good indication of where the site is.

Kings Lynn Museum

Date Added: 21st Jun 2024
Site Type: Museum Country: England (Norfolk)
Visited: Yes on 11th Jun 2024

Log Text: A visit to the Lynn museum in Kings Lynn, hopefully to see the remains of Seahenge, removed from Holme beach and displayed here. I had seen online that the gallery in the museum was closed for building work, stating that it would reopen in "early June". It is now the 11th June, so not expecting to be able to see it, I was hoping! Upon getting to the museum, the people at the reception told me that the building work was over running, it was not open, but they were now hopeful for some time in July 2024. No good to me.

Tinkinswood

Date Added: 26th Apr 2024
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: Wales (South Glamorgan)
Visited: Yes on 25th Apr 2024. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Time for another visit to Tinkinswood burial chamber, where I sit and eat my lunch with lots of birdsong. Since my last time here, there has been a lot of fencing off of the eastern and southern fields, making it impossible to see the other chamber or quarry area. What I remember as a possible avenue to the south seems to have all been ripped up and dumped in a heap. To the north, and taking up most of the parking area, there is a lot of road building going on, presumably to a farm on the north side. So overall, very much not improved.

Tinkinswood

Date Added: 26th Apr 2024
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: Wales (South Glamorgan)
Visited: Yes on 11th Jul 2004. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: While visiting Tinkinswood with my Dad in 2004, we could hardly fail to be impressed with the size of the capstone. What a lovely tomb this is. But more intriguing were the other rocks and stones in the vicinity. I knew the layout of the main chamber before I visited, but was surprised to find so many other stones and what looked like structures there were in the area. Since my visit, and before I got round to posting this, Sem has also commented on this, and added a few pictures. After visiting the main site, we spent some time looking at the other stones in the area. The first to be noted, while walking across the fields to the chamber from the little parking area, were some large stones in the field on the left (to the south). Closer inspection of this and it looked like this was the remains of another burial chamber, with a fallen dolmen type of structure, with other stones making out what could have been other chamber stones, or some sort of entrance. Looking carefully and the remains of a mound can be made out. Further on towards the main chamber, and again to the left of the pathway, and there are some large stones in a sort of pile in the hedgerow. All around in this region is an outcropping of a thick slab like rock, which has been used to make the structures. It is possible that these stones have just been moved and dumped into the hedgerow as part of a field clearance. However, it is also possible to my eyes, that these are the remains of some sort of tomb. Still further towards the main tomb, at the gateway used to get from one field into that which the main chamber lives in, are a couple of fairly large standing stones. These also look fairly ancient. Is it possible that they some ancient stone remains, or are they simple the remains of an old stile? In the field to the south of here (the main tomb is to the north) I was intrigued by some rock outcrops which seemed to have some form other than just the natural. Investigating this, and I could not fail to notice what seemed like a stone avenue which lead towards the two large standing stones at the stile. The alignment of this avenue would have been directly to the entrance and main forecourt of the main tomb. It is possible that this is not actually a stone avenue, but perhaps a trackway cut into the bedrock (the 2 foot thick slabstone) with what looks like stone uprights being remnants of the slab. But why would anyone do this ? In the wooded area surrounding the main chamber, there appear to be many more stones, either standing or fallen. Some of these are more clearly seen from the fields around the outside of the fenced region of the large barrow remains. One of the more fascinating things I found is in a little wooded copse to the southeast of the main chamber, between the "avenue" field, and the "dolmen" field. Inside this dark little wood, the natural rock outcrop can be seen clearly at the surface of the ground, as about a two foot thick slab, horizontally positioned on the surface. The real interesting thing here is that this slab has been quarried at some time in the distant past, perhaps by being burrowed underneath before breaking large slabs off. Well by now I might have been imagining things, but I would have put money on one large bit of the slab that was removed being a match for the massive Tinkinswood capstone. It seems that not only the size and shape were a good match, but also the thickness. Had I found the quarry from where the massive stones of the chamber were taken. It was lovely to think so. The area Tinkinswood chamber is obviously so much more than just the large barrow and tombs. Perhaps the entire local landscape is of monumental importance. It would be nice to know if anything else is known.

St Lythans

Date Added: 26th Apr 2024
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: Wales (South Glamorgan)
Visited: Yes on 25th Apr 2024. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Time for another visit to St Lythams and Tinkinswood. Very nice in the lush springtime

St Lythans

Date Added: 26th Apr 2024
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: Wales (South Glamorgan)
Visited: Yes on 11th Jul 2004. My rating: Access 4

Log Text: None

Graig Lwyd Cairns

Date Added: 7th Nov 2023
Site Type: Cairn Country: Wales (Conwy)
Visited: Yes on 13th Sep 2023. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 2

Log Text: Last on my itinerary for today are the Graig Lwyd Cairns. There is the one large cairn within the open access land which looks like a cartoon volcano, conical, steep sides and a crater in the top. Viewed with Moelfre and the other mountains behind it, it reminds me very much of the chains of volcanoes in the Auvergne. The other cairns are in the walled and fenced off fields to the north, and I have no way through to have a close look. However from a low point in the wall, I can make out a couple of places where there are stones standing proud of the ground, possibly a bit like Circle 275. Time to get back down to Penmaenmawr, I have been up here much longer than I initially intended, but then again it has been glorious up here and I am in no real rush other than to get a pint before the pubs shut. The path down is a killer on the knees, so steep and long, I can hardly walk by the time I get back to the car. In need of a pint, time to check what might be open using the useful WhatPub link on the Portal's sitepages. Disappointingly, if its correct, the Fairy Glen will be closed, but the Gladstone in nearby Dwygyfylchi is open, where I have a nice sit outside in the sunshine with a pleasant pint of Facer's, a new brewery to me.

Battery Point

Date Added: 6th Nov 2023
Site Type: Modern Stone Circle etc Country: England (Somerset)
Visited: Yes on 3rd Mar 2016. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: A nice stone with many fossilised shells to be seen within it, stands strategically at Battery Point, Portishead, as the Seafarers Memorial Stone, a memorial to seafarers of the west country. The stone monument marks the closest place on a UK coast which large ships pass. The dedication is to the seafarers of the West Country who, “since the Middle Ages, on voyages of discovery in times of peace and war, have passed this point, some never to return.”

Eastwood Fort, Portishead

Date Added: 6th Nov 2023
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (Somerset)
Visited: Yes on 3rd Mar 2016. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Ancient woodland covered limestone hill, now a nature reserve, to the north of Portishead, beside the shipping channel into Portbury and Avonmouth docks, and the river Avon up to Bristol. As such has been an important strategic place since history began. There's a lot of history to the area - the remains of an Iron Age fort can be seen above the path on the north side of the Wood. The Romans also arrived at some point. World War 2 gun emplacements were sited at Battery Point and a military presence has been here as far back as the Civil War when a fort on the site was stormed by parlimentarians.

Blaise Castle

Date Added: 6th Nov 2023
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (Gloucestershire)
Visited: Yes on 29th Aug 2011. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: None

Burwalls Camp

Date Added: 6th Nov 2023
Site Type: Promontory Fort / Cliff Castle Country: England (Somerset)
Visited: Yes on 28th Aug 2011. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: The Burwalls Camp hillfort is one of three iron age forts here probably guarding a ford crossing of the river Avon at the bottom of the Avon Gorge, below where is now the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Now mostly destroyed, with the western end of the Clifton Bridge and massive houses built all over it, a few remnants of the original ramparts can still be seen among the gardens of Burwalls. The neighbouring forts are Stokeleigh camp, just across Nightingale Valley, also on the western side of the Avon Gorge, and Clifton Down Camp on the eastern, Clifton side.

Stokeleigh Camp

Date Added: 6th Nov 2023
Site Type: Promontory Fort / Cliff Castle Country: England (Somerset)
Visited: Yes on 28th Aug 2011. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Iron age promontary hillfort on a spur overlooking the Avon Gorge from the high plateau at the western side of the Gorge, now a part of the large Leigh Woods nature reserve. This is one of three iron age forts here probably guarding a ford crossing of the river Avon at the bottom of the Avon Gorge, below where is now the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The promontary points towards the east, with the steep sided Nightingale valley marking the southern edge, where the hillside has been sculpted, with another smaller steep sided valley making the northeastern edges of the camp. The camp is completed around its northwestern sides by a double arc of massive ditch and bank ramparts, both once topped with stone walling. The main entrance was probably at the northern edge of the plateau, beside the steep cliff edge, where there is a third row of ditch and bank to help gaurd. I decided on a walk round Leigh Woods and to take in Stokeleigh Camp, on a showery bank holiday afternoon. Several things took my notice since my last visit here many years ago, firstly that it has all been tidied up by National Trust and much of the woodland cleared around the ramparts, making them very visible (I wasn't expecting to really be able to see them or get any decent pictures at all). I was most impressed with the massive size of the main ramparts, the inner bank being about 5 metres above the ground level inside, while the ditch outside must be almost of equal depth, making a top to bottom height of between 8 and 10 metres! Massive! Outside the inner bank and ditch is a second ring of bank and ditch, this time the relative heights and depth being about +/- 2 metres. At places around the top of the major rampart, there are places where stretches of vertical stone walling can be seen. In order to keep the vegetation down, NT and English Nature have decided to graze half a dozen Devon Red cattle around the camp.

King's Weston Hill barrow cemetary

Date Added: 6th Nov 2023
Site Type: Barrow Cemetery Country: England (Gloucestershire)
Visited: Yes on 29th Aug 2011. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Walk several hundred metres west along the hilltop ridge from the Kings Weston Hillfort, past the large circular earthwork, across the roman road and its earthwork bank, and the open grassland of the hilltop now has several bushy clumps dotted around. Some of these clumps hide the remains of several bronze age burial mounds. The burial mounds are not in the best of condition, but are thought to date back to almost 2000BC. It is a very pleasant spot up on this hilltop, surrounded by the northwestern suburbs of Bristol, but you would hardly know it, and can easily get taken back in time while up here.