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Yellowmead
Date Added: 18th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 5th Jul 2023. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 2
Yellowmead submitted by wildtalents on 15th May 2024. Part of the concentric circles of stone at Yellowmead.
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Log Text: I wandered fairly randomly towards the circle from a layby at the foot of Sheep Tor. Well, not so much a layby as the point where the road ceased.
The farmer was kind enough not to shoot me, and to direct me properly: "I see you've been using Google maps" he commented. He seemed to be settling in some guests at a holiday cottage.
On the way to the SC, about a ten minute walk from the farmer's gate, I encountered an eviscerated sheep. Or maybe sheep rot away apart from the wool and the horns? That's all that was left in any case. I saw something similar at Merrivale years ago (20+).
It's a little difficult to trace the outer circles at Yellowmead: there are clearly stones missing. That's probably true of the inner circle/s as well but the stones are much tighter together and it doesn't notice so much. I spent a happy half-hour in complete isolation until I saw the clouds crowding in and decided to trudge back before the rain started again.
Whispering Knights
Date Added: 14th May 2024
Site Type: Portal Tomb
Country: England (Oxfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 6th Apr 2013. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4
Whispering Knights submitted by wildtalents on 12th May 2024. Huddled conspiratorially in their cage the Whispering Knights hold their peace during the daytime as the visitors ebb and flow. Later on they gossip: "...did you see that bloke in the Modern Antiquarian t-shirt!? Could do with some slimming down!"
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Log Text: Hemmed in by the iron railings, the Whispering Knights are composed of the same gnarly rock as the Rollrights across the way.
Westbury White Horse
Date Added: 11th May 2024
Site Type: Hill Figure or Geoglyph
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Nov 1986. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 3
Westbury White Horse submitted by dodomad on 26th Jul 2021. Westbury Horse - one of a set of illustrations by Eric Ravilious, featuring hill figures from the south-east and south-west of England, all painted in 1939, and intended to illustrate a children’s book he was working on for Puffin.
Now available as a set of postcards from Rather Good Art.
The book got as far as the mock-up stage by 1942, but sadly never reached completion. Ravilious was recorded as missing in that year (‘death presumed’), after a patrol searching for a missing L...
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Log Text: I grew up in Warminster so the horse was a fairly easy walk away, but rather a more challenging one if you wanted to take a closer look. I remember sitting in the turf eyeball one time. Sitting at the summit of the hill and looking down gives you a real sense of what an immense hill figure this is.
West Kennett Long Barrow
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Long Barrow
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jul 1997. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 2
West Kennett Long Barrow submitted by jackdaw1 on 16th Oct 2007. A shot taken inside West kennet long barrow nr. Avebury on 25 sec exposure at f16-conjuring spooky feels.
A small child called jake was happily playing and respectfully enjoying the atmosphere in there.
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Log Text: The only time we visited the West Kennet Long Barrow we were just about to leave when a bunch of folks turned up and held some kind of a sing-song inside. We hung about a while marvelling at the booming then made our way down the hill just in case some sacrificial rite might be about to unfold.
Prior to that, we'd had about thirty minutes to recover from the uphill walk, have a smoke, and admire the Avebury sacred landscape as it unfolds below you. The view of Silbury Hill from up there is second-to-none. The Barrow itself is reconstructed quite substantially but if you ignore the little bits of mortar here and there it is possible to imagine yourself many many hundreds of years before, literally in the bowels of the Earth. A magic place and I have to visit again.
West Kennet Avenue
Date Added: 17th May 2024
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 3rd Jun 2014. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 3
West Kennet Avenue submitted by wildtalents on 14th May 2024. A goodnight hug for a West Kennet Avenue stone in August 2002. I think a car headlight must have hit the menhir at an opportune moment which suggests it's one of the first ones after you cross the road. Most of the others are not at the right angle for this.
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Log Text: I don't remember when I first visited the Avenue but it wasn't on the first time I went to Avebury, which was pretty stupid. I think we were in a hurry to quaff a beer at the Red Lion and to be swarmed by the local wasps. And then to get the buses home, which was a way convoluted trip from Warminster.
The next time, equipped with a driving license, we took a proper walk up and down the Avenue and it was really supernatural. None of the photos came out. Which may have been spooky but more likely simple incompetence. We saw many figures and faces in the stones, this was before Terence Meaden's book came out btw.
In 2014 we rented School Cottage for a week (this is opposite the church's tithe gate). We had the opportunity to explore all of the site many times, at different times of day. I forget which day of the week, but think it was Wednesday, a long procession of bikers streamed into the Red Lion car park as we walked the Avenue in the twilight. That was pretty cool.
Wayland's Smithy
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Long Barrow
Country: England (Oxfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jul 2002. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 2
Wayland's Smithy submitted by StoneLee on 11th Jun 2015. Wayland's Smithy
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Log Text: Absolutely crawling with visitors on the day we walked along the Ridgway to see this marvellous tomb. If there had been maybe one-third as many kids hooting and yelling as they clambered all over the monument it might have been bearable, but their simian behaviour seemed calculated to annoy. Despite that it was possible to appreciate the tomb for what it is, substantially reconstructed I should think, and to hope for a repeat visit on some colder day outside of the school holidays!
Uffington White Horse
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Hill Figure or Geoglyph
Country: England (Oxfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jul 2002. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 2 Access 4
Uffington White Horse submitted by SteveC on 15th Jun 2020. Unable to be seen in it's entirety from the ground, this is an image taken from a drone.
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Log Text: You don't get much of an impression of the horse, if it is a horse, when you're up close, especially on a mid-summer day when the site is absolutely crawling with visitors, ice-cream vans etc. As you approach the site the figure is much more distinct though and it's very worth the trip, especially if you follow the footpath along the Ridgeway to Wayland's Smithy. Liable to be very busy too. Not long after we visited some arseholes from the Countryside Alliance or some similar bunch of Tarquins created a red-coated 'rider' as some kind of celebration of fox hunting. Turds.
Tot's Four-Poster
Date Added: 15th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Would like to visit
Tot's Four-Poster submitted by David on 26th Jan 2022. Three stones here - the fourth under the adjacent fieldwall.
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Tomb of the Eagles Museum
Date Added: 8th May 2024
Site Type: Museum
Country: Scotland (Orkney)
Visited: Yes on 14th Jul 2015. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5
Log Text: Marvellous museum displaying relics from the Tomb Of the Eagles and one of those rare places that encourages you to handle some of the exhibits. Various stone implements, an eagle's talon, and so on. The inevitable gift shop is not half bad.
Three Kings
Date Added: 31st May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Would like to visit
Three Kings submitted by cosmic on 29th Aug 2004. Three Kings from East
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The Sanctuary.
Date Added: 14th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 5th Aug 2001. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5
The Sanctuary. submitted by Humbucker on 31st Oct 2020. Western section of The Sanctuary. Not the easiest of sites to photograph, hopefully shadows from the late afternoon sunshine help the markers stand out a bit.
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Log Text: I feel a little fraudulent rating The Sanctuary 4 for Ambience: it's essentially a complex of stone markers with no real vestige of what may have stood at this site. (Excarnation complex, for example?) But for all it's forlorn air, and the constant roar-hiss of the cars speeding close by, when seen and respected as part of the whole sacred Avebury landscape it still has a distinct atmosphere all it's own.
If you know where to look you can see elements of the rest of the landscape, Avenue stones for example.
Stukeley's sketch of the site - which was already being ruined at that very time (I seem to remember he names the guilty farmer) - captures something of what was once here. But not necessarily what was always here. I think it has probably been through many iterations and sad though the current one is I would still recommend a visit to any serious megalithomane. It's a way of making a connection to the distant generations who revered this place.
The Long Stone (Minions)
Date Added: 17th May 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Country: England (Cornwall)
Visited: Yes on 4th Jul 2023. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4
The Long Stone (Minions) submitted by wildtalents on 15th May 2024. On a day in Cornwall when it really didn't stop raining until about 6 p.m. I was chuffed to see this Christianised menhir just up the road from The Hurlers. I hadn't heard about it before and it was a kind of compensation for the sites I'd had to forego (Boscawen-Un for example). The carving is quite a lot more distinct than my 'phone photo shows.
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Log Text: I hadn't heard of this menhir before so it was a wonderful surprise to see the stone standing near the edge of the road just before reaching the Hurlers.
It's a colossal stone that has been Christianised and I vaguely recall it marks a pilgrim's way. From where to where else I don't remember... if I didn't imagine it!
The Hurlers landscape is really quite complex but this must surely be considered as a piece with the Pipers and the three SCs and the rest - not forgetting the Cheesewring I guess.
The Hurlers
Date Added: 17th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Cornwall)
Visited: Yes on 4th Jul 2023. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4
The Hurlers submitted by wildtalents on 15th May 2024. One of the more complete sections of a Hurlers stone circle, visited some years ago and then again in 2023.
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Log Text: Had previously visited The Hurlers probably 18-20 years before, and was grateful that the day-long rain finally died down to a mere drizzle by the time I made it to the site. A lot of stones have disappeared but the two main rings are reasonably intact and the Pipers likewise. The enormous radio mast not far away spoils the site but it is what it is.
The Hanging Stone (Haydon)
Date Added: 15th May 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Would like to visit
The Hanging Stone (Haydon) submitted by Anne T on 7th May 2019. Standing just behind the stone looking north east. The stone is in a slight dip in the landscape and a (water?) channel runs almost from the base of the stone to the north east, where it joins another small stream. I wondered if at some point the stone marked the location of a spring, although this is not shown on the early OS maps. From here, it looks as if the top half of the stone is 'hooked'
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The Devil's stone (Kent)
Date Added: 17th May 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Country: England (Kent)
Visited: Yes on 7th May 2024. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5
The Devil's stone (Kent) submitted by wildtalents on 10th May 2024. Despite living just a few miles down the A2 from here, I never knew this little menhir existed until seeing a tweet by Mr Burnham (with vegetable soup offering) in spring 2024. So I whizzed down the road and said hello.
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Log Text: Despite living within 10 miles of this site I had never heard of it until I saw a Twitter/X post in April or May of 2024. I overconfidently set off in utterly the wrong direction at first. Eventually the penny dropped; I'd passed by just yards away on the A2 many times. (If 'nearest town' attributes are calculated as the crow flies then it is certainly possible that Faversham is nearest. But I'd suggest Rainham is quite a bit nearer really, otherwise.
It's a cool little menhir that has stood up to a lot of change over the years, I'm sure. I forgot to check the second stone (or the vege soup can). The boot print looks like it might be an area that was once abutted next to another stone and hence not as weathered as the rest of the surface. But that doesn't explain why it stands proud of the rest of the stone. Maybe that was covered in (for example) lichens and then cleaned rather too eagerly, stripping off some of the surface?
Anyway: now I've seen it.
Stoney Littleton
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Chambered Cairn
Country: England (Somerset)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jun 2001. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 3
Stoney Littleton submitted by TheCaptain on 18th Mar 2005. Stoney Littleton barrow viewed from the west.
Its a cracking little barrow, with the most wonderful passage and chambers inside, and the powers that be have even left a decent sized area around it free of any farming activity. A lovely sunny day, but some of the walk to the barrow was horrendously muddy.
The fields around the barrow had recently been ploughed, a crop of beet of some sort having been the last grown. While walking back after my visit, I found a bit of the lovely golden colou...
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Log Text: Bit of a trek up, along, then up some more, while dodging the cows etc. But worth it, even if those corbelled kerb stones look a bit sus. The ammonite fossil on the left-hand side portal stone is pretty special.
Stonehenge.
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Feb 1987. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 2 Access 3
Stonehenge. submitted by Bladup on 9th Jan 2024. The Heel Stone Quietly Watching The Winter Solstice Setting Sun at Stonehenge, 2023
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Log Text: I haven't been to Stonehenge for a very long time now, the last visit I recall at all clearly was in the company of a newish girlfriend on an absolutely freezing day. But I visited often as a child, in the days when you could wander around anywhere and even - gasp - touch the stones. I believe my ex-wife and I visited with our son (only child, at the time) when we went camping in the area which would have been about 2000-ish. I guess I might go back sometime but to be honest it is always anticlimactic.
Stenness
Date Added: 8th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: Scotland (Orkney)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2015. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4
Stenness submitted by Runemage on 15th Jul 2005. Ethereal and numinous.
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Log Text: In the summer of 2015 I drove from Kent to Orkney in two or three long hops, staying several nights at the Standing Stone Hotel which is (was?) about a mile from the Stones of Stenness. I'd wanted to visit here for soooo long, in particular these stones, ever since seeing them on that Julian Cope album. I can't remember the name right now. Impressive stones, even though the site is probably a shadow of what it once was.
Stanton Drew - The Cove
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Standing Stones
Country: England (Somerset)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 1993. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4
Stanton Drew - The Cove submitted by TimPrevett on 3rd Apr 2009. The Cove 01/04/09
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Log Text: I guess there aren't that many megalithic monuments in pub gardens. Nice to sit in the sun in the shade of the two upright cove stones, especially given that (at the time) the Druids Arms was a right manky dump (smelly).
Stanton Drew
Date Added: 17th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Somerset)
Visited: Yes on 10th Jul 2015. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3
Stanton Drew submitted by wildtalents on 15th May 2024. Stanton Drew doesn't do half-measures... some of the mighty boulders at this complex and fascinating site.
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Log Text: I really hadn't appreciated how vast the main circle is and this can be a tricky site to make sense of. A few stones here and there suggestive of an avenue, smaller circles off over yonder, lots of prone or semi-prone boulders, weird clusters of stones that might have been a dolmen, or even a deliberate rectangular setting like the one at Casterigg. (Not forgetting the cove stones over by the pub.) Stanton Drew has to be seen to be believed and I think I will look out for a guided tour, if there is such a thing, to grasp the real context. I can't quite put my finger on it but the individual boulders are very distinctive with their grey-red hue.