The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Summerhouse Hill

Round Cairn

Fieldnotes

A frustrating one this.

I had read two extremely vague references to this site, on one of my trawls for sites on the web, both saying this was a Stone Circle. I could find absolutely no reference to this site in any of Burl's books however, which had alarm bells ringing for me. I jotted the site's grid ref. down anyway, along with a load of others, before setting off with MrsIM for a day out. We were in the Carnforth area, after visiting Heysham Head and so decided we may as well visit. We wandered round the field a few times, using my GPS as a guide (which was playing up). No joy. I was however very excited by the sight of five huge stones, similar to the nearby Three Brothers. We soon came across a mound, which on further inspection we realised gave this site it's name because on it's top are the remains of a brick summer-house. The mound itseld however looked suspiciously like a huge cairn, right down to the retaining kerb of large stones. I decided this couldn't be it - no way could you mistake this for a stone circle. Another frustrating twenty minutes led to no further discoveries - other than the remains of an old lime-kiln at the far end of the field. We decided our time hadn't been wasted when we walked past the field edge and saw the view out across Morecambe Bay - it's quite something. We were even able to make out the rough location of The Druid's Circle of Ulverston.

On the way back to the car we made another inspection of the summerhouse, and I decided that this must be the site in question, and that the references I'd come across were just plain wrong. The five stones which had me excited earlier, when viewed from the top of the mound formed a semi-circle with the mound itself roughly in the centre. I took some photos as the rain started to pour heavier and heavier, then our rumbling stomachs got the better of us and we decided to get to Lancaster for some grub in The Water Witch.

Looking at the maps again, I'm sure I've missed the actual site - a cairn seems to be marked off at the opposite end of the field on MultiMap and on my Explorer map the location of the 'cairn' is very confusing. I'll try and clear this up as soon as possible!
IronMan Posted by IronMan
10th March 2003ce
Edited 11th March 2003ce

Comments (0)

You must be logged in to add a comment