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27/05/06,
A showery, overcast, windy Whit Saturday saw me visiting a number of old favourites, with a day on th'ill thrown in for good measure.
Parking at Martindale new church, I was heading for The Cockpit on Moor Divock, followed by Swarth Fell stone circle.
Round the back of the church, a grassy path takes you over a low rise, then descends to a well-worn track. Here are the cairns, described as "Bronze Age cairnfield" on the ADS website. They are very overgrown, the only sign being the protruding rocks in an otherwise grassy area. It's not worth visiting for the sake of it, but if you're ever passing it's only five minutes from the car, and in a beautiful setting, and there is a good view of Dunmallard
Hill sitting proud at the northern end of Ullswater. I wonger if anything of interest lies within?
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Rampart find excites historians
A dig near Malmesbury town walls has uncovered a substantial stone-fronted defensive rampart and a deep ditch which could date to the Iron Age.
Archaeologists believe the prehistoric hill fort would have had impressive multiple defences rising above the valley of the River Avon.
English Heritage said the results were very exciting and showed how important the town's defences were.
The work was said to bring a new dimension to the story of Malmesbury.
'Defensive rampart'
A project spokesman said it was the first time that the area outside of the line of defences has been examined archaeologically.
The finds add to discoveries recorded during the previous investigation carried out during November 2005 during restoration work on the walls, that revealed new evidence about the nature of the town's defences.
When the collapsing stone of the wall was removed, substantial clay deposits almost 3m (10ft) high were found. Archaeologists identified these as the upper rampart of the Iron Age hill fort on which Malmesbury was later built.
It is believed the whole of the Eastgate Bastion is an artificially constructed fortified gate (barbican) built to extend the area of the former hill fort and to provide substantial and impressive stone-built defences.
Investigations revealed evidence of a further rampart against the outer face of the lower levels of the town wall.
This consisted of burnt material including a large quantity of slag.
Archaeologists consider that this burnt material is probably Late Saxon and may date from the 8th or 9th Centuries AD.
If confirmed, it would add support to Malmesbury's claim to be the oldest borough in England.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4995232.stm
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Cash boost for new Lakes website
A website featuring thousands of sites of archaeological interest in Cumbria's Lake District is being set up with the help of a £171,000 grant.
The district has more than 6,500 historical attractions including Shap Abbey, Castlerigg Stone Circle and Hardknott Roman Fort.
The Lake District has 275 monuments and 1,740 listed buildings.
The project is being paid for by the Heritage Lottery Fund and run by the Lake District National Park Authority.
Lisa Keys, a former exhibition interpreter at the National Museums Liverpool, who is helping to run the project, said: "At the moment unless you are very interested in archaeology, there isn't a particularly accessible way of finding out more details.
"By the time we've finished there'll be lots of exciting ways to link into the past which everyone from schoolchildren to communities and the area's 12 million visitors can all use.
"Most people don't come to here to delve into history, but we want to share all this fantastic archaeology and see heritage placed on a prominent platform alongside the beautiful scenery."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4996970.stm
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Visited on 06/05/06. It was a warm spring day, with a thunderstorm threatening, but not arriving. Hardly anyone visits this rather uninspiring fell, one of the dullest in the Lakes, just a bit of a grassy wedge. However, on a fresh day, with cloud shadows chasing across the landscape, the views would be worth it without the barrow.
The barrow's nowt to write home about, but if you did it'd go summthing like this: "Saw a Bronze age barrow today. Quite a small barrow, grassy, with a modern cairn on top." It's set on the western edge of the fell, where the ground falls steeply away. To the west the bog of Flaska stretches away to Castlerigg stone circle, north north west to Carrock Fell hillfort, east to The Cockpit and south to the Beckstones rock art. It's probably 15 to 20 feet in diameter and a few feet high.
An easy ascent, with time to spend on top if you've got a spare hour.
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Proposals to recreate Stonehenge.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4753205.stm
An ambitious project to recreate Stonehenge as it would have looked 4,000 years ago is being planned.
Fragments of only three circles remain, but quarry firm Preseli Bluestone wants to build all seven from scratch.
It is hoped the circles will be completed by 2009. The new site would be open to visitors.
An exact location is yet to be decided, but the Cotswold Water Park, which straddles Wiltshire and Gloucs, is one of several sites being considered.
Preseli Bluestone owns the quarry in Wales where the stones for the ancient Wiltshire monument originally came from.
Colin Shearing, from the company, said: "We don't want to replicate Stonehenge as it stands today, but rather as how it would have looked when completed about 4,000 years ago."
The new Stonehenge would be built using both modern and ancient methods which the public would be invited to watch.
The plans are in the very early stages, but the aim is to create a 21st Century 'landmark architectural heritage sculpture' which allows visitors to walk among, and touch, the stones.
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08/04/06
A day of snow showers and bitter winds. The snow that plastered the central and eastern Lakeland mountains was a litte higher around the Buttermere, Crummock, and Loweswater hills, with little around the cairn. The wind was bitter, and snow showers raked the hills all day.
The cairn is set on a low ridge, above boggy ground, on the ridge top, but not on an obviously high point. It is situated on a down slope, above a broad col, on a ridge leading to a low summit. A most unusual place.
The centre looks like it has been dug out, or do I mean excavated. It looks like it's tough shit, no records exist.
It's about 2 to 3 feet high, and about 25 to 30 feet in diameter. Why it was set here is anybodys guess. Is it connected with the Crummock rock art? Westwards, over a high ridge, lies the West Cumberland Plain, where many Bronze Age Settlements have been found.
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Dig Planned for Lakes Beauty Spot
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4795288.stm
Archaeologists hope to unearth Bronze Age treasures after receiving £50,000 to help fund a dig in a Cumbria valley. The three-year project in the Duddon Valley in the south west of the Lake District, will be carried out by professional archaeologists.
Much of the work will focus on the cairn at Seathwaite Tarn - a mound of landmark and burial stones.
The project is costing £133,000 in total and is being supported by the Lake District National Park Authority.
Archaeologists will be helped by university students, volunteers and members of the Duddon Valley History Group.
Park Authority senior archaeologist John Hodgson said: "The valley is a quiet and scenic part of the Lake District National Park.
"However, its quiet character masks a very long history of occupation. A wealth of physical remains exist from this long period, much of which has not been recorded."
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From "The Wind Among the Reeds" 1899, by W. B. Yeats, the exceptional Irish poet.
Quoted from the poem "He Remembers Forgotten Beauty"
"The jewelled crowns that kings have hurled
In shadowy pools, when armies fled;"
Similarities to the King Dunmail legend?
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Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
T.S.Eliot "The Hollow Men"
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