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New Plans for Stonehenge Bypass
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4639116.stm
New plans for Stonehenge bypass
A government transport minister has been outlining possible options for the A303 road around historic Stonehenge.
It follows a decision in July 2005 to review plans - now estimated to cost £510m - to bore a tunnel at the site.
Stephen Ladyman said in addition to the tunnel, the viability of a bypass to the north or south or a 'cut and cover' tunnel would be examined.
He said: "The Government is committed to improving the A303 past the World Heritage Site at Stonehenge."
He added: "I hope that everyone with an interest in this important issue will take this opportunity to contribute to the review process."
David Lammy of the Highways Agency added: "This review is an important stage in our work. We need to find a solution for the A303 past Stonehenge that is right for the setting of the stones and right for the historic landscape which surrounds them."
The public consultation period runs from 23 January to 24 April 2006, with public exhibitions being held in Salisbury on 9-11 February 2006 and in London on 17-18 February 2006.
Alternatives to the underground road tunnel at the site could threaten the recovery of one of Britain's rarest birds - the stone curlew - the RSPB has warned.
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The cairn sits at roughly the highest point of the pass between Grasmere and Thirlmere, called Dunmail Raise.
No bugger visits this. Not surprising really, as it sits in the middle of a dual carriageway. It's sod's Law really. The only place the road diverges is right here, for about 200 yards or so.
Mind you, if it hadn't they might well have destroyed the cairn. There is a record of a stone circle here being destroyed when the road was "improved". I'd like to get me 'ands on the b*stard who planned that.
As for the cairn, well I must have driven past it literally hundreds of times, but I've never stopped to take a closer look. I always take my eyes off the road to have a good look whilst driving past. The hoary old stones give the appearance of being very ancient. The lichens and mosses look like they haven't been disturbed for flippin' ages.
As for remains of the stone circle, many large rocks can be seen around, and your imagination can take over. Try to think logically, otherwise every stone could be a possible remnant.
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The armies of the Saxon King Edmond and the Scottish King Malcolm joined forces to fight Dunmail, the King of Cumberland in AD 945, and won. It is said that Edmond himself killed Dunmail at the place where the cairn now stands.
He ordered his prisoners to collect rocks to pile on Dunmail's body, thus forming the cairn.
As Dunmail lay dying he shouted, "My crown - bear it away; never let the Saxon flaunt it."
A few of his warriors fought their way through the Saxons and bore his crown up the fell to Grisedale Tarn, where they threw it into the depths. They said, "Till Dunmail come again to lead us."
Every year the warriors return to the tarn, retrieve the crown, and carry it down to the cairn on Dunmail Raise.
They hit their spears on the top of the cairn, and a voice issues from inside, saying "Not yet, not yet; wait awhile my warriors."
The other legend of the cairn is that when two armies were about to join in battle each soldier from both sides placed a stone on the spot. Those who survived returned and removed a stone.
And I thought it was Bronze Age.
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Detailed 3-day weather forecast for the Cumbrian mountains, with conditions on the fells.
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Belated fieldnotes.
I arrived at Carrock Fell after a long day on the hills. It had been a bitterly cold day of gale-force winds and sub-zero temperatures on the fell tops.
The final approach, from the E, was over ground that would be boggy in warmer conditions, with the top rising above all else. This was the only direction which didn't involve a steep ascent to gain the fort.
Once there I found the summit rocks to be surrounded by tumble-down stone walls, which were obviously impressive in their time. Entrances exist to the four points of the compass, and the views are extensive in all directions. There is no way this place could have been approached by stealth. The ascent from the valley is strenuous.
Archaeologists are of the opinion that it was never occupied as a fortified enclosure. If that was the case, then why all the effort to construct these very substantial banks of stone?
This is a very beautiful place of great loneliness, with nothing to be heard, save for the wind soughing through the pale grasses and ancient walls, and the song of the lark.
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"A Bronze Age round cairn; a circular mound of stones 10.5m in diameter and up to 0.5m high. The surface of the mound has been partly disturbed by construction of a modern shelter using stones from the cairn." ADS.
This large cairn occupies the summit of selside Pike. We arrived there at the end of a long day on the fells around the head of Mardale. After many hours battling gale-force winds, mist, and horizontal rain, the weather eased off to heavy showers.
We sought sanctuary in the shelter that has sadly been made from the cairn. All around is nothing but grass, so the stones must have been carried up there.
It is a prominent site, with extensive views, including to the shap complex in the E, High Raise and Low Raise cairns to the NW, and the Four Stones Hill standing stones to the NE.
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"A Bronze Age round cairn; a flat-topped oval mound of stones up to 0.8 high with maximum dimensions of 9m by 8m. There is a modern walkers' cairn on the northern edge of the cairn." ADH.
Just a few yards to the east of the route of the High Street R*man road, this cairn on the summit of High Raise is rarely visited. To the ENE the grassy ridge descends to the Bronze Age cairn on Low Raise.
The High Raise cairn is set on a rocky outcrop on a grassy ridge, the outcrops providing the building materials. On the E side a shelter has been constructed by wind-beaten travellers on the fells.
I've been here many times, and it always feels a special place of tranquility, even in times of storm, of which there are many.
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"Remains of a cairn on the summit of Low Raise. 9.0m in diameter and 1.0m high." According to ADS.
I've been on High Raise more times than I'd care to mention for fear of ridicule. I've only been on the ridge down over Low Raise once. I knew about the cairn, but was still surprised to find it in a place where there was nothing but grass. No outcrops, no rock beneath the immediate few feet of surface, just peat.
This is a lonely place, make no mistake, just a faint trace of flattened grass to show that others had trodden there once or twice. Go there when the mists are swirling over the hills, as I did, when it seems that you'll never see more than a few feet of sodden fellside for the rest of the day. The cairn looms out of the mist like a great leviathan out of the depths. It looks like there is a quarry a few feet to the west, but seems too shallow to have excavated that much rock, and anyway, it's all far too rounded and regular.
This is a huge cairn for the area. Even on the surrounding rocky peaks the modern summit cairns are small. High Raise is an exception, and there lies another site.
Descending down to the Iron Age hillfort of Castle Crags, Haweswater is shown to its best, full length.
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Obviously an old cairn, the stones being covered in very old lichen. The centre has been cleared to make a shelter. It is situated to the NNW of Burnmoor Tarn. Is this anything to do with the Burnmoor complex? It's marked on the map as an old cairn.
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Reached here with Pie Eater, just after visiting Brats Hill. We're even more confused, due to the nearness of Brats Hill, plus the strange wall that looks like an enclosure. Also by the two circles. What went on here? Today all was peaceful, and had a nice feeling. But I've been here when the clouds are low on the fells, and a cold rain rakes across Burnmoor (one word, not two), and then the mystery of the place is all pervading, and a sense of doom pervades. Woooooo.
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Reached this from Boot. After hitting the ridge, and not wanting to miss anything, we thought we knew best, me and Pie Eater, knowing these wild places of Cumbria like we do. A wearisome plod though deep tussocks saw us overlooking Brats Hill and White Moss. We descended to Brats Hill and found the path we should've stuck to if we had had any sense, but adventurous souls will always be adventurous souls, untethered by the constrictions of the modern world. Hmmmm. We noticed a few cairns, dug out(?) in the centre. This circle had a good view of White Moss. We were impressed by the number of large stones comprising the circle, all in surroundings of grass. They must've taken some dragging. We were also impressed, as always, by the bulk of Scafell, our next objective, rearing its head in omniprescent steepness to the north. A quiet place. Why here?
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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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