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The Ambient Rambler's Book of Journey - Various Rambles


This is a log of visits to various sites from a number of Ambient Rambles over the years, with a number of people. Mostly around the Yorkshire Dales and the Scottish Highlands.


The Witch's Pool and Glen Elg Brocks

On a trip into the Highlands with Scott and Shaun in May 1998, we'd stayed with a guy called Geordie who was building his own house near Drumnadrochit, overlooking Loch Ness and were now making our way over west for a couple of nights in the Bothy at Glen Torridon.

Near Loch Arkaig we came across a waterfall near an old bridge, down what is known as the 'Dark Mile' that seemed like an ideal place to have a poke around. Shaun and I climbed the path at the side of the waterfall and found a wonderful spot at the top. The hillside stream enters a natural rock basin where the water bubbles and boils as if in a deep green cauldron. The water then tumbles over a short ledge and on to a big waterfall into the pool below. The rock around the basin has an amazing swirly, almost psychedelic stratification. Not a megalithic site as such, but I can't imagine that this place went unnoticed and it must have had some pretty powerful associations in pre-history.

The folklore of the site tells that it got it's name after the Camerons once chased a witch, in the form of a cat, over these falls to her death. But I suspect that the name originates from the time of Christianisation of Scotland and reflects it's older pagan associations.

Carrying on northwards we took a diversion over Bealach Mam Ratagan with it's stunning views over the Five Sisters of Kintail, down into Glen Elg. Near the old Red Coat Barracks and the ferry to Skye are two magnificently preserved Iron Age Brocks, Dun Telve and further down the glen, Dun Troddan.

Both brochs retain about a half of their walls up to about 25ft high and many of the steps and galleries within the walls. Dun Telve still has its entrance intact, which is pretty megalithic looking. They must have been pretty forbidding when they were complete and inhabited with people defending it!


Clava Cairns

Later the same year I returned to Geordie's, this time with my old friend Carol and her two young lads. Before we made our way over to Glen Torridon, we went for an Ambient Ramble around Loch Ness. After appeasing the young 'uns with a visit to Urquhart Castle (nice loch, nice ruins, but clipped and pruned to death and crawling with punters) we headed out to more remote areas to seek out the local pre-history.

Trundling along we spotted signs for Corrimony Cairn in Glen Urquhart. A beautiful example of a Clava type cairn with a surrounding stone circle. When excavated in the 1950's, many of the stones were found to be replacements and the outline of a crouched burial was found. There is also a cup marked slab which may have been part of the cist cover.

Onwards over to the eastern side of Loch Ness for a trundle over the higher moors. Skirting the edge of a plantation near Inverness, I spied a very obvious standing stone in the field. Gask is a Ring Cairn with most of the kerbstones still intact. Three standing stones remain from it's circle, the largest being the one I had seen from the road, which is a massive flat slab about three meters high and the same wide. I liked this site as it hadn't been trimmed or prettied up for visitors at all.

Next stop, the Balnuaran of Clava. Three of the many cairns in this area, situated in a wooded glade, with attendant stone circles. A beautiful spot, but we didn't get long here as a coach-full of huge American tourists turned up and began to squeeze through the entrance, shattering the ambience of the place (I've never seen so much hardware in my life - video cameras, dicta-phones.... bet the BBC aren't as well equipped as this lot!).

Also worth a visit just around the corner (while your there) is the Culloden Battlefield. Again, not a prehistoric site, but interesting non-the-less to see where it all came to an end. A very poignant place.


Ilkley Moor

Managed to fit a couple of trips onto the moor in with a couple of Ambient Rambles around the Dales, staying with friends at the study centre on Malham Tarn. The first being in Autumn 2000, my first time back on the moor for nine years, with a quick stomp up to the Twelve Apostles. I was disappointed to find that a couple of stones had fallen since my last visit. A thin pointed stone at the north eastern point of the circle that had leaned perilously a few years ago, had now completely fallen and lays partially embedded on the ground. Also, a low, flat stone that had stood on it's longest edge had fallen and been re-erected nearby on it's short edge. Many of the stones that had lain loose had been propped up with small rocks.

Upon leaving the circle and making our way back down the boardwalk, a plane circling Leeds/Bradford Airport skimmed low over the top of the moor and turned up into sky above us. Quite a sight!!

We returned to the dales the next spring, this time with Shaun along too, and fitted a day on Ilkley Moor in. I did my usual route over the moor - Cow n' Calf, Haystack, Backstone Beck, Twelve Apostles, The Grubstones, Little Skirtfull, Idol Stone and the Pancake Stone.

While we approached the Grubstones, I notice some folk on a quadbike tearing up n' down the moor. "Rich kids from Ilkley" I thought at first. We reached the gamekeeper's hut and found the small path through the heather down to the Grubstones. No sooner had we reached the circle than I saw the quadbike twatting across the heather towards us. It was the flaming Gamekeeper!

"What you doin' here" he shouted at us.

"Just looking at the circle mate" I replied.

"Keep t'fooking path. You're disturbing the grouse".

I pointed out that we'd quietly walked down a path disturbing nothing, whilst he'd just torn up about 20 yards of open heather with his four big wheels.... it didn't go down well.

"If it were up to me I wouldn't let no fookin' c*nt up here"

"Good job it isn't then!.... hang on a minute, you've just called us f*cking c*nts!"

And so it carried on until we walked off n' left him to it. He got back on his bike with his two square-headed kids and rode off to find someone else to take a pop at. Sure enough, he was back ten minutes later to see if he could catch us in the circle! He became the winner of our first 'Ambient Rambler's Monumental Twat of the Week Award'!

So a word of warning to those who like to frequent Ikley Moor... if you see someone on a quadbike, avoid him n' wait for him to sod off before you wander off the path.


Appletreewick

A bit of a flying visit this one as we were passing through Grassington. A hop over a rickety old dry-stone wall, scamper uphill a while and a bit of a search over scrubby, boulder strewn ground. A very small, low circle, not obvious until you're right on top of it.... lots of sheep shit too.

Appletreewick — Images

01.10.03ce
<b>Appletreewick</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

ce

ce

Corrimony — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Corrimony</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Corrimony</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Mains of Gask — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Mains of Gask</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Dun Troddan — Images

01.10.03ce
<b>Dun Troddan</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Dun Troddan</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Raven Family — Links

01.10.03ce
This is a log of visits to various sites from a number of Ambient Rambles over the years, with a number of people. Mostly around the Yorkshire Dales and the Scottish Highlands.


The Witch's Pool and Glen Elg Brocks

On a trip into the Highlands with Scott and Shaun in May 1998, we'd stayed with a guy called Geordie who was building his own house near Drumnadrochit, overlooking Loch Ness and were now making our way over west for a couple of nights in the Bothy at Glen Torridon.

Near Loch Arkaig we came across a waterfall near an old bridge, down what is known as the 'Dark Mile' that seemed like an ideal place to have a poke around. Shaun and I climbed the path at the side of the waterfall and found a wonderful spot at the top. The hillside stream enters a natural rock basin where the water bubbles and boils as if in a deep green cauldron. The water then tumbles over a short ledge and on to a big waterfall into the pool below. The rock around the basin has an amazing swirly, almost psychedelic stratification. Not a megalithic site as such, but I can't imagine that this place went unnoticed and it must have had some pretty powerful associations in pre-history.

The folklore of the site tells that it got it's name after the Camerons once chased a witch, in the form of a cat, over these falls to her death. But I suspect that the name originates from the time of Christianisation of Scotland and reflects it's older pagan associations.

Carrying on northwards we took a diversion over Bealach Mam Ratagan with it's stunning views over the Five Sisters of Kintail, down into Glen Elg. Near the old Red Coat Barracks and the ferry to Skye are two magnificently preserved Iron Age Brocks, Dun Telve and further down the glen, Dun Troddan.

Both brochs retain about a half of their walls up to about 25ft high and many of the steps and galleries within the walls. Dun Telve still has its entrance intact, which is pretty megalithic looking. They must have been pretty forbidding when they were complete and inhabited with people defending it!


Clava Cairns

Later the same year I returned to Geordie's, this time with my old friend Carol and her two young lads. Before we made our way over to Glen Torridon, we went for an Ambient Ramble around Loch Ness. After appeasing the young 'uns with a visit to Urquhart Castle (nice loch, nice ruins, but clipped and pruned to death and crawling with punters) we headed out to more remote areas to seek out the local pre-history.

Trundling along we spotted signs for Corrimony Cairn in Glen Urquhart. A beautiful example of a Clava type cairn with a surrounding stone circle. When excavated in the 1950's, many of the stones were found to be replacements and the outline of a crouched burial was found. There is also a cup marked slab which may have been part of the cist cover.

Onwards over to the eastern side of Loch Ness for a trundle over the higher moors. Skirting the edge of a plantation near Inverness, I spied a very obvious standing stone in the field. Gask is a Ring Cairn with most of the kerbstones still intact. Three standing stones remain from it's circle, the largest being the one I had seen from the road, which is a massive flat slab about three meters high and the same wide. I liked this site as it hadn't been trimmed or prettied up for visitors at all.

Next stop, the Balnuaran of Clava. Three of the many cairns in this area, situated in a wooded glade, with attendant stone circles. A beautiful spot, but we didn't get long here as a coach-full of huge American tourists turned up and began to squeeze through the entrance, shattering the ambience of the place (I've never seen so much hardware in my life - video cameras, dicta-phones.... bet the BBC aren't as well equipped as this lot!).

Also worth a visit just around the corner (while your there) is the Culloden Battlefield. Again, not a prehistoric site, but interesting non-the-less to see where it all came to an end. A very poignant place.


Ilkley Moor

Managed to fit a couple of trips onto the moor in with a couple of Ambient Rambles around the Dales, staying with friends at the study centre on Malham Tarn. The first being in Autumn 2000, my first time back on the moor for nine years, with a quick stomp up to the Twelve Apostles. I was disappointed to find that a couple of stones had fallen since my last visit. A thin pointed stone at the north eastern point of the circle that had leaned perilously a few years ago, had now completely fallen and lays partially embedded on the ground. Also, a low, flat stone that had stood on it's longest edge had fallen and been re-erected nearby on it's short edge. Many of the stones that had lain loose had been propped up with small rocks.

Upon leaving the circle and making our way back down the boardwalk, a plane circling Leeds/Bradford Airport skimmed low over the top of the moor and turned up into sky above us. Quite a sight!!

We returned to the dales the next spring, this time with Shaun along too, and fitted a day on Ilkley Moor in. I did my usual route over the moor - Cow n' Calf, Haystack, Backstone Beck, Twelve Apostles, The Grubstones, Little Skirtfull, Idol Stone and the Pancake Stone.

While we approached the Grubstones, I notice some folk on a quadbike tearing up n' down the moor. "Rich kids from Ilkley" I thought at first. We reached the gamekeeper's hut and found the small path through the heather down to the Grubstones. No sooner had we reached the circle than I saw the quadbike twatting across the heather towards us. It was the flaming Gamekeeper!

"What you doin' here" he shouted at us.

"Just looking at the circle mate" I replied.

"Keep t'fooking path. You're disturbing the grouse".

I pointed out that we'd quietly walked down a path disturbing nothing, whilst he'd just torn up about 20 yards of open heather with his four big wheels.... it didn't go down well.

"If it were up to me I wouldn't let no fookin' c*nt up here"

"Good job it isn't then!.... hang on a minute, you've just called us f*cking c*nts!"

And so it carried on until we walked off n' left him to it. He got back on his bike with his two square-headed kids and rode off to find someone else to take a pop at. Sure enough, he was back ten minutes later to see if he could catch us in the circle! He became the winner of our first 'Ambient Rambler's Monumental Twat of the Week Award'!

So a word of warning to those who like to frequent Ikley Moor... if you see someone on a quadbike, avoid him n' wait for him to sod off before you wander off the path.


Appletreewick

A bit of a flying visit this one as we were passing through Grassington. A hop over a rickety old dry-stone wall, scamper uphill a while and a bit of a search over scrubby, boulder strewn ground. A very small, low circle, not obvious until you're right on top of it.... lots of sheep shit too.

VBT — Links

01.10.03ce
This is a log of visits to various sites from a number of Ambient Rambles over the years, with a number of people. Mostly around the Yorkshire Dales and the Scottish Highlands.


The Witch's Pool and Glen Elg Brocks

On a trip into the Highlands with Scott and Shaun in May 1998, we'd stayed with a guy called Geordie who was building his own house near Drumnadrochit, overlooking Loch Ness and were now making our way over west for a couple of nights in the Bothy at Glen Torridon.

Near Loch Arkaig we came across a waterfall near an old bridge, down what is known as the 'Dark Mile' that seemed like an ideal place to have a poke around. Shaun and I climbed the path at the side of the waterfall and found a wonderful spot at the top. The hillside stream enters a natural rock basin where the water bubbles and boils as if in a deep green cauldron. The water then tumbles over a short ledge and on to a big waterfall into the pool below. The rock around the basin has an amazing swirly, almost psychedelic stratification. Not a megalithic site as such, but I can't imagine that this place went unnoticed and it must have had some pretty powerful associations in pre-history.

The folklore of the site tells that it got it's name after the Camerons once chased a witch, in the form of a cat, over these falls to her death. But I suspect that the name originates from the time of Christianisation of Scotland and reflects it's older pagan associations.

Carrying on northwards we took a diversion over Bealach Mam Ratagan with it's stunning views over the Five Sisters of Kintail, down into Glen Elg. Near the old Red Coat Barracks and the ferry to Skye are two magnificently preserved Iron Age Brocks, Dun Telve and further down the glen, Dun Troddan.

Both brochs retain about a half of their walls up to about 25ft high and many of the steps and galleries within the walls. Dun Telve still has its entrance intact, which is pretty megalithic looking. They must have been pretty forbidding when they were complete and inhabited with people defending it!


Clava Cairns

Later the same year I returned to Geordie's, this time with my old friend Carol and her two young lads. Before we made our way over to Glen Torridon, we went for an Ambient Ramble around Loch Ness. After appeasing the young 'uns with a visit to Urquhart Castle (nice loch, nice ruins, but clipped and pruned to death and crawling with punters) we headed out to more remote areas to seek out the local pre-history.

Trundling along we spotted signs for Corrimony Cairn in Glen Urquhart. A beautiful example of a Clava type cairn with a surrounding stone circle. When excavated in the 1950's, many of the stones were found to be replacements and the outline of a crouched burial was found. There is also a cup marked slab which may have been part of the cist cover.

Onwards over to the eastern side of Loch Ness for a trundle over the higher moors. Skirting the edge of a plantation near Inverness, I spied a very obvious standing stone in the field. Gask is a Ring Cairn with most of the kerbstones still intact. Three standing stones remain from it's circle, the largest being the one I had seen from the road, which is a massive flat slab about three meters high and the same wide. I liked this site as it hadn't been trimmed or prettied up for visitors at all.

Next stop, the Balnuaran of Clava. Three of the many cairns in this area, situated in a wooded glade, with attendant stone circles. A beautiful spot, but we didn't get long here as a coach-full of huge American tourists turned up and began to squeeze through the entrance, shattering the ambience of the place (I've never seen so much hardware in my life - video cameras, dicta-phones.... bet the BBC aren't as well equipped as this lot!).

Also worth a visit just around the corner (while your there) is the Culloden Battlefield. Again, not a prehistoric site, but interesting non-the-less to see where it all came to an end. A very poignant place.


Ilkley Moor

Managed to fit a couple of trips onto the moor in with a couple of Ambient Rambles around the Dales, staying with friends at the study centre on Malham Tarn. The first being in Autumn 2000, my first time back on the moor for nine years, with a quick stomp up to the Twelve Apostles. I was disappointed to find that a couple of stones had fallen since my last visit. A thin pointed stone at the north eastern point of the circle that had leaned perilously a few years ago, had now completely fallen and lays partially embedded on the ground. Also, a low, flat stone that had stood on it's longest edge had fallen and been re-erected nearby on it's short edge. Many of the stones that had lain loose had been propped up with small rocks.

Upon leaving the circle and making our way back down the boardwalk, a plane circling Leeds/Bradford Airport skimmed low over the top of the moor and turned up into sky above us. Quite a sight!!

We returned to the dales the next spring, this time with Shaun along too, and fitted a day on Ilkley Moor in. I did my usual route over the moor - Cow n' Calf, Haystack, Backstone Beck, Twelve Apostles, The Grubstones, Little Skirtfull, Idol Stone and the Pancake Stone.

While we approached the Grubstones, I notice some folk on a quadbike tearing up n' down the moor. "Rich kids from Ilkley" I thought at first. We reached the gamekeeper's hut and found the small path through the heather down to the Grubstones. No sooner had we reached the circle than I saw the quadbike twatting across the heather towards us. It was the flaming Gamekeeper!

"What you doin' here" he shouted at us.

"Just looking at the circle mate" I replied.

"Keep t'fooking path. You're disturbing the grouse".

I pointed out that we'd quietly walked down a path disturbing nothing, whilst he'd just torn up about 20 yards of open heather with his four big wheels.... it didn't go down well.

"If it were up to me I wouldn't let no fookin' c*nt up here"

"Good job it isn't then!.... hang on a minute, you've just called us f*cking c*nts!"

And so it carried on until we walked off n' left him to it. He got back on his bike with his two square-headed kids and rode off to find someone else to take a pop at. Sure enough, he was back ten minutes later to see if he could catch us in the circle! He became the winner of our first 'Ambient Rambler's Monumental Twat of the Week Award'!

So a word of warning to those who like to frequent Ikley Moor... if you see someone on a quadbike, avoid him n' wait for him to sod off before you wander off the path.


Appletreewick

A bit of a flying visit this one as we were passing through Grassington. A hop over a rickety old dry-stone wall, scamper uphill a while and a bit of a search over scrubby, boulder strewn ground. A very small, low circle, not obvious until you're right on top of it.... lots of sheep shit too.

Stone Pages — Links

01.10.03ce
This is a log of visits to various sites from a number of Ambient Rambles over the years, with a number of people. Mostly around the Yorkshire Dales and the Scottish Highlands.


The Witch's Pool and Glen Elg Brocks

On a trip into the Highlands with Scott and Shaun in May 1998, we'd stayed with a guy called Geordie who was building his own house near Drumnadrochit, overlooking Loch Ness and were now making our way over west for a couple of nights in the Bothy at Glen Torridon.

Near Loch Arkaig we came across a waterfall near an old bridge, down what is known as the 'Dark Mile' that seemed like an ideal place to have a poke around. Shaun and I climbed the path at the side of the waterfall and found a wonderful spot at the top. The hillside stream enters a natural rock basin where the water bubbles and boils as if in a deep green cauldron. The water then tumbles over a short ledge and on to a big waterfall into the pool below. The rock around the basin has an amazing swirly, almost psychedelic stratification. Not a megalithic site as such, but I can't imagine that this place went unnoticed and it must have had some pretty powerful associations in pre-history.

The folklore of the site tells that it got it's name after the Camerons once chased a witch, in the form of a cat, over these falls to her death. But I suspect that the name originates from the time of Christianisation of Scotland and reflects it's older pagan associations.

Carrying on northwards we took a diversion over Bealach Mam Ratagan with it's stunning views over the Five Sisters of Kintail, down into Glen Elg. Near the old Red Coat Barracks and the ferry to Skye are two magnificently preserved Iron Age Brocks, Dun Telve and further down the glen, Dun Troddan.

Both brochs retain about a half of their walls up to about 25ft high and many of the steps and galleries within the walls. Dun Telve still has its entrance intact, which is pretty megalithic looking. They must have been pretty forbidding when they were complete and inhabited with people defending it!


Clava Cairns

Later the same year I returned to Geordie's, this time with my old friend Carol and her two young lads. Before we made our way over to Glen Torridon, we went for an Ambient Ramble around Loch Ness. After appeasing the young 'uns with a visit to Urquhart Castle (nice loch, nice ruins, but clipped and pruned to death and crawling with punters) we headed out to more remote areas to seek out the local pre-history.

Trundling along we spotted signs for Corrimony Cairn in Glen Urquhart. A beautiful example of a Clava type cairn with a surrounding stone circle. When excavated in the 1950's, many of the stones were found to be replacements and the outline of a crouched burial was found. There is also a cup marked slab which may have been part of the cist cover.

Onwards over to the eastern side of Loch Ness for a trundle over the higher moors. Skirting the edge of a plantation near Inverness, I spied a very obvious standing stone in the field. Gask is a Ring Cairn with most of the kerbstones still intact. Three standing stones remain from it's circle, the largest being the one I had seen from the road, which is a massive flat slab about three meters high and the same wide. I liked this site as it hadn't been trimmed or prettied up for visitors at all.

Next stop, the Balnuaran of Clava. Three of the many cairns in this area, situated in a wooded glade, with attendant stone circles. A beautiful spot, but we didn't get long here as a coach-full of huge American tourists turned up and began to squeeze through the entrance, shattering the ambience of the place (I've never seen so much hardware in my life - video cameras, dicta-phones.... bet the BBC aren't as well equipped as this lot!).

Also worth a visit just around the corner (while your there) is the Culloden Battlefield. Again, not a prehistoric site, but interesting non-the-less to see where it all came to an end. A very poignant place.


Ilkley Moor

Managed to fit a couple of trips onto the moor in with a couple of Ambient Rambles around the Dales, staying with friends at the study centre on Malham Tarn. The first being in Autumn 2000, my first time back on the moor for nine years, with a quick stomp up to the Twelve Apostles. I was disappointed to find that a couple of stones had fallen since my last visit. A thin pointed stone at the north eastern point of the circle that had leaned perilously a few years ago, had now completely fallen and lays partially embedded on the ground. Also, a low, flat stone that had stood on it's longest edge had fallen and been re-erected nearby on it's short edge. Many of the stones that had lain loose had been propped up with small rocks.

Upon leaving the circle and making our way back down the boardwalk, a plane circling Leeds/Bradford Airport skimmed low over the top of the moor and turned up into sky above us. Quite a sight!!

We returned to the dales the next spring, this time with Shaun along too, and fitted a day on Ilkley Moor in. I did my usual route over the moor - Cow n' Calf, Haystack, Backstone Beck, Twelve Apostles, The Grubstones, Little Skirtfull, Idol Stone and the Pancake Stone.

While we approached the Grubstones, I notice some folk on a quadbike tearing up n' down the moor. "Rich kids from Ilkley" I thought at first. We reached the gamekeeper's hut and found the small path through the heather down to the Grubstones. No sooner had we reached the circle than I saw the quadbike twatting across the heather towards us. It was the flaming Gamekeeper!

"What you doin' here" he shouted at us.

"Just looking at the circle mate" I replied.

"Keep t'fooking path. You're disturbing the grouse".

I pointed out that we'd quietly walked down a path disturbing nothing, whilst he'd just torn up about 20 yards of open heather with his four big wheels.... it didn't go down well.

"If it were up to me I wouldn't let no fookin' c*nt up here"

"Good job it isn't then!.... hang on a minute, you've just called us f*cking c*nts!"

And so it carried on until we walked off n' left him to it. He got back on his bike with his two square-headed kids and rode off to find someone else to take a pop at. Sure enough, he was back ten minutes later to see if he could catch us in the circle! He became the winner of our first 'Ambient Rambler's Monumental Twat of the Week Award'!

So a word of warning to those who like to frequent Ikley Moor... if you see someone on a quadbike, avoid him n' wait for him to sod off before you wander off the path.


Appletreewick

A bit of a flying visit this one as we were passing through Grassington. A hop over a rickety old dry-stone wall, scamper uphill a while and a bit of a search over scrubby, boulder strewn ground. A very small, low circle, not obvious until you're right on top of it.... lots of sheep shit too.

Weblog

The Ambient Rambler's Book of Journey - Stonehenge - Summer Solstice 1989/90/91


The Great Salisbury Plain Hide and Seek Championships

Our 1989 jaunt to Stonehenge began approaching lunchtime on June 20th, with my friend Tim and I stumbling towards a hitching spot on the A11 southbound out of Norwich.

After about an hour, a car pulled up and a couple beckoned us to climb in. These kind people turned out to be the parents of a guy I would later befriend at Norwich School of Art, but at that time all our thoughts were focused on getting to Wiltshire.

We were dropped off at the exit for Wymondham, said our thanks and waved as the couple drove of into the town. We picked our way down the roadside verges of the bypass. A little while later as we passed the other side of Wymondham, the very same couple picked us up again and took us to Newark! Kozmik Ken was on our side that day.

As the afternoon was getting on by now, we decided to catch a coach from Newark to London, get ourselves onto the M3 by public transport and start hitching again from there.

After a short walk we found the bus station and were about to go into the ticket office when a young chap in a smart suit, looking very much like a yuppie of the time strolled up to us and asked, "are you going to Stonehenge?"

Tim and I exchanged quizzical glances and hesitantly replied, "yes" expecting the guy to be a copper (these were suspicious times).

"I'm going past there and can give you a lift all the way" he said and began to lead us towards his brand spanky new, bright red XR5. I climbed into the front passenger seat, still not quite sure what to make of him, glanced down at his selection of tapes and noticed a number of Gong and Hawkwind albums. "Perhaps he's not so bad after all" I thought to myself.

He later told us that he was in fact a druid and was on his way to a solstice gathering in Devon. He'd spotted us walking through the town and had turned back especially to pick us up.

So with Kozmik Ken smoothing our way and a fair wind behind us, we breezed towards Wiltshire enjoying the (by now) late afternoon sunshine.

Once we had passed Andover, the police checkpoints began to appear. But in the Dapper Druid's shiny new car, we were waved through with a doff of the cap and a cheery "very well sir".

We were dropped off at the heel stone - much to the amusement of the police - and the best dressed druid I'd ever seen continued on to Devon. No sooner had we begun to admire the view of the stones, the copper were on us to move on. It was early evening now and they we getting keen to clear people out of the area. So we walked on a while onto the A303 and sat watching the sun beginning to hang low over Stonehenge. The big sundial still marking the passage of time 4000 years on.

Here we met a law student from Leicester Poly, who had come along to challenge the validity of the exclusion zone. By nine o'clock, the police where getting very insistent that we disappear all together. A van full of them boiled up to us and began making it very clear that we would be arrested if we didn't leave immediately.

"Two or more people together inside the exclusion zone form an illegal procession" we were told as we were handed leaflets showing the excluded area.

"Well, how about if we stand away from each other" piped up the law student. This was not well received!

"How about if two of us go and one stays" he continued.

The coppers were starting to get pissed off now, but personally, I thought it was a sound bit of logic!

"Fuck off or we'll arrest you" replied the copper with the leaflets. It seemed that faced with that stark choice, our legal challenge was over. A bit of a negative point in a day that had been so positive up to now. We'd have to fall back on plan B... hide!

Tim and I made our farewells to the law student, who seemed to still be up for arguing his case, and made our way down a track across the plain. Once out of sight, we sat down next to a barrow and ate our sarnies watching the sunset. As the darkness began to draw in, we noticed a number of lights in the sky. Not an advanced race from another galaxy come to rescue Stonehenge from the dark powers of Thatcherite ignorance, but Wiltshire Constabulary in their flying machines.

We watched the helicopters whirling around in the increasing darkness until it became apparent that one of them was coming our way, right down the track that we were on. It's searchlight illuminating the path and surrounding fields. We scurried into a nearby bush and pulled our dark coloured sleeping bags around ourselves.

What happened next is something I will remember for the rest of my life! The helicopter got closer and closer until it was hovering probably no more than twenty feet directly above us. The down draft from the rotor blades was whipping the bush up and the noise was deafening. The helicopter moved into the field next to us and hovered, scouring the ground with it's searchlight. My sleeping bag was over my head and I was peering out of the smallest gap I dared to make.

I'd seen the helicopter scene at the beginning of Apocalypse Now, and films such as Escape from Colditz where escapees are hunted down by uniformed authoritarians, but this was real. And they were looking for us! The whole incident probably lasted no longer than about thirty seconds, but it had a dream like quality that seemed to last an age.

Eventually, it rose back up into the sky and continued its path across Salisbury Plain. I turned to Tim and said, "Fucking hell! They really mean this don't they?"

Having a huge, whirring lump of state machinery nearly land on your head can do much to damage your resolve. Our plan to make a break for the stones at daybreak didn't seem quite as attractive anymore. We both felt pretty freaked out and we began to pick our way across the dark plain.

Every so often we'd meet with people heading to the stones and stop and chat. But by then we'd decided that we'd like to watch the solstice sunrise from a slightly less forbidding spot and we did just that from the barrows at Winterbourne Stoke.

We never found a festival, and after sunrise we began to make our way back to Norwich. We both walked the ten miles or so to Salisbury. On the way through Salisbury, I spotted the actor Windsor Davis and was amazed by the redness of his face! Tim decided to hitch, I decided to get the coach and slept the whole way to London Victoria.

While waiting for the Norwich coach to come in, a couple of coppers decided that I looked like a bit of a 'stop me and buy one', and I was forced to endure the indignity of a search in the middle of the coach station. But after that nights events, it felt a little bit like getting off lightly!

After 1989, I went again in 1990 with a mate called Bob the Beard (impressive facial hair).... remember hitching down n' getting a lift with a bloke going to Glastonbury and landing up in Amesbury.

We dossed in the woods by the river and hung around the Friar Tuck Cafe quite a bit. We met up with a few other folk in there and ended up with a bit of a posse.... including a couple of girls from Widnes and a girl who'd travelled all the way from Switzerland to see the solstice at Stonehenge. She hadn't reckoned on exclusion zones and police harassment, a got quite upset. Especially when she dropped a tab and fell into a bunch of stinging nettles.... poor girl had expected a big festival full of mysticism and earth magic.... and found something akin to the Berlin Wall!

Bob and I got on TV when a local news crew filmed us walking towards the stones!

Next year in 1991, Bob and I went along to the Spring Equinox, which consisted of standing on the road by the Heel Stone with floodlights pointed at us, and a ring of security guards around the stones. The odd brave soul would dare to jump the fence and run towards the stones. Only to be very roughly handled out again. Still, I got to hold Arthur Pendragon's sword and mumbled along to a service held by Rollo Mauphlin.

For Summer Solstice 1991, four of us hitched down there in 2 groups. I took a mate from Art College called Ed, and Bob took a lad called Paddy.

We got the lift of a lifetime when two lads from Stevenage (called Nick and Steve I think) picked us up in a lovely old J2 camper and drove us to a festi at a place called the 'Rat Run' near Andover.

It was a long, thin festival down a bridle path with a big dance tent in the middle. By now Ravers had started to appear at free festis, and there seemed to be a fair bit of friction between the city kids and the travellers. Dub rigs were being replaced by House music and there was a lot of bits of pink bog roll lying around. Pissing the travellers off, 'cos their dogs ate the human shit and died of distemper. So the whole festi had a bit of an edgy air to it.

The chaps in the J2 slung a tarp off the side for us to kip in, and we stayed for five days. I had a couple of dodgy Strawberry blotters which were a bit up n' down all the time, so I went for a laydown. I could feel every beat of my heart like a cannon shot and convinced myself that I was dying! As I laid there I became aware of a presence right in front of me. I opened my eyes not to find the Angel of Death, but a huge dog with it's nose pressed against mine... I jumped up n' chased it off, to find that the fucker had eaten all my sarnies n' had to spend the rest of the week cadging food!

Our best hitch ever continued when the J2 lads offered to drive us home to Norwich. On the way we stopped off at the stones and a few of us jumped the fence at the Heel Stone. Security gave chase while a bunch of tourists cheered and clapped us on. One lad made it into the stones and was filmed by a bunch of Japanese tourists as he was frog marched out again. We ambled on to Avebury where things were a little more chilled.

The next year, I gave Stonehenge a miss and stayed in Norfolk for a solstice party at Wymondham. I fancied spending my solstice eve celebrating rather than hiding... which is exactly what they wanted of course! I didn't go back to Stonehenge again for 11 years, when we stopped off on our way to Glastonbury in 2002..... I noticed that they've made the fence at the Heel Stone higher!

Weblog

The Ambient Rambler's Book of Journey - Ilkley Moor - April 2003


The very name Ilkley Moor conjures up images in my mind's eye of seas of heather, weathered rocks and utter peace. Needless to say, it is one of my favourite places on earth! I have trod the paths around the moor since I was a teenager and for me, it has never lost it's magic.

When I lived around Huddersfield and Leeds in the 1980's, I'd often get the train over to Ilkley, make the trudge up to the Cow n' Calf rocks and disappear into the moor, sometimes for days on end. I was never happier than sitting on a rock with my sketch pad, watching the light change over the landscape and poking around in heather to find cup and ring marks.

When I moved away to attend Norwich School of Art, I'd often spend much of my summer holidays back on the moor. Unfortunately, since I left art school in 1991 and was forced kicking and screaming into full time employment, opportunities to return to the moor have been few and far between. I'd only managed a couple of day visits during Ambient Rambles into the dales - a quick circuit around my favourite places and off again. So when my girlfriend suggested going away for a week around Easter, "Ilkley Moor" sprang out of my mouth before she had finished the sentence!

Ilkley Moor isn't the most comfortable place to pitch a tent... in bad weather it can be an unforgiving place! So after a quick search on the internet, I found a B&B right under the Cow n' Calf rocks. Sorted! A week on my favourite moor with access to a bathroom and fluffy towels!

On arriving in Ilkley on Saturday 19th April, I reacquainted myself with the Midland Hotel. How many hours and pints I'd whiled away waiting for trains in there... and the struggle up the hill with backpacks on brought a few memories back too.

We found the B&B and it seemed OK, the people were friendly but I got a chintz induced headache when we were shown to our room. Every available inch was covered in floral wallpaper, floral bedspread, floral curtains, a disgraceful Louis XIV plastic reproduction mirror and hoards of little ornaments to knock over and break! But, there was a saving grace in that the Cow n' Calf rocks could be seen out of the window.

With flowery patterns spinning before our eyes, a trip up to the Cow n' Calf Hotel bar seemed a pretty sound idea. Sitting outside with a pint in my hand looking towards the rocks soon calmed my florally agitated mind. As the sun began to sink I couldn't resist a quick skip up to the Hangingstones. A rock outcrop with some of the strangest variations on cup and ring marks to be found anywhere. This used to be a favourite haunt of mine, sitting on the outcrop staring at the carvings performing lysergically enhanced shimmers over the rock. Back here in 2003, watching the sun set at the western end of Wharfedale, it felt like something of a homecoming.

Sunday

After a restless night in the floral palace, we were out on the moor early! Thought I'd do my usual circuit today around the bits of the moor I knew the best. A mere scamper from our back door up to the Cow n' Calf rocks and up onto Pancake Ridge to the 'Haystack Rock'. A large glacial deposit boulder with a number of cup and ring marks on the top. Nearby is the Planets, a low boulder bearing cup, ring and groove marks.

Just up the trackway is a large enclosed area at Backstone Beck. The walling is late Bronze Age, but it is known to have been the site of a settlement for at least 2000 years before that. A section of the site was excavated in the late 1980's to reveal hut circles and a section of the walling was rebuilt, before that, the wall was ruinous and covered by peat and heather. The parts of wall with crossed the path could also be seen as a foot worn jumble. This area also encloses three largish cup and ring/groove marked rocks. One of which is sometimes known as the 'Second Idol Stone'.

We paused here and ate our sarnies. This is a well chosen and sheltered spot, nestled behind the landmass of Green Crag and commanding good views of the hills above Wharfedale. This is the thing I love about this part of Ilkley Moor. It is a complete Prehistoric Landscape that retains not only the monuments these people built to their gods and ancestors, but also where they lived and farmed. The area is small enough to convey a real sense of personal scale without being dominated by a Stonehenge or Castle Rigg type site. All of the sites here are within a short walk of each other and are very obviously interconnected. The people who built the stone circles and created the rock carvings here are quite likely to be the people who's bone's still lie under the cairns to the east on Green Crag Slack and Woofa Bank.

Onto the next stop, the Twelve Apostle's Stone Circle at the top of the moor. This is my old local! Whenever I approach this circle it's very much like visiting an old mate. Sounds a bit soppy, but I love this place (man)! A small circle surrounded by a low bank next to the main cross-moor path. If reports I've heard are true, very few of the stones are in their original positions. The western end of the circle has been a bit of a mess for as long as I can remember. Many of the stones that are now propped up by smaller stones, laid fallen on the ground during the 1980's. The eastern end of the circle has always seemed fairly sound to me. Unfortunately, a stone on the north eastern side of the circle that leaned dramatically, has now fallen and lays mostly buried. The area enclosed by the circle is also increasingly footworn.

From here we took the path to the east over to the Grubstones. A tight cluster of stones hidden in the heather that is the possible kerbstones of a robbed cairn. To find this site head for the outcrop of rocks visible from the north and west. The stones are to be found down a small path in the heather about 10 yards or so south of the gamekeeper's hut. Watch for the gamekeeper here - I've had a run in with him here on a past visit.

Headed back north with a quick stop at the Little Skirtful of Stones cairn and over Green Crag. The large boundary stone on the edge of Green Crag is a good place to stop for a while and take in a view of the moor. A natural glacial deposit boulder with a number of weathered bowls (cup marks?) on the top and a large 18th century inscription carved into it.

Nearby, on the eastern side of path below is the Idol Stone. A small rock bearing cup marks grouped together with grooves. This lies a couple of yards north of the prominent pointed Idol Rock. Opposite on the western side of the path is a large cup and ring marked boulder. I have heard of prehistoric walling here in this area (but have not seen it myself), which could possibly mark a boundary between the western part of Green Crag Slack which contains dwelling places, and the eastern section which is a cairn field. A division between the land of the living and of the dead (ref: Paul Bennett). This area of the moor is home to over 200 rock carvings out of the 600+ in the area of Wharfedale, Airedale and the Nidd. The other large concentration is on the south side of the moor at Rivock Edge.

The final stop of the day was the Pancake Stone. Precariously perched on the edge of the moor overhanging the Cow n' Calf hotel, and visible from all over the valley below. This weathered outcrop has a number of cup n' ring marks carved in it's top surface, but are now badly worn. From here, it's just a short scramble down to the pub below!


Monday

Today was the day for a good long trek along the western edge of the moor. I'd been to the Swastika Stone a few times before, but not really explored this area in any great detail in the past. With a newly purchased walking guide in hand, we ascended the moor edge, crossed Backstone Beck, took the path through Ilkley Crags and on towards White Wells.

The hillside around White Wells has a number of cup n' ring marked rocks clustered around the hillside spring that emerges at Willy Hall's Spout and continues through Ilkley (under what is still called Brooke Street) into the River Wharfe. Near here is the Pepperpot Rock, Willy Hall's Wood Stone and the Barmishaw Stone which is only one of two rocks (the Panorama Stone being the other) to bear the famous 'Ilkley Ladder' motif. Carry on up the hill and you eventually come to the Badger Stone.

The path continues westwards on along the edge of the moor. There is a cup n' ring marked rock in a private garden at Overdale and the path leads past the Panorama Reservoir, which was the original location of the Panorama Stone before development in the 1890's. Eventually, you cross Herber's Ghyll and on an outcrop surrounded by Victorian railings is the Swastika Stone (the stone at the front is a modern reproduction - look on the outcrop behind for the real thing).

This carving stands apart from all the others in this area, in design, execution and most likely the period it dates from. The symbol itself was widely used in Iron Age Celtic cultures throughout Europe and into Asia. So it seems reasonable to suppose that this carving is somewhat younger than the others on the moor. The carving itself seems shallower and finer than much of the older rock art too, which could be the result of using metal tools to incise the rock, rather than the older method of pecking with stone tools. However, it does employ the same components in that the design is made of cup and groove marks.

Continue westwards on the path and nearby lies a cup n' ring marked rock that has been shaped into a gatepost. Further on through a gap in the wall is the Anvil Stone, a boulder bearing several worn cup marks. Beyond this is the Sepultura Stone, a large boulder with a number of peculiar geological folds and a worn cup and ring on the top. Further still is the Piper's Crag Stone. An outcrop with a number of deep cup, ring and groove marks.

From here it is possible to continue on to the Doubler Stones, but we decided to turn up onto the moor in search of the Badger Stone. Up onto the ridge and beyond the Swastika Stone visible in it's railings below is the Neb Stone. A large upended boulder bearing possible cup marks, although it is possible that they are natural rock features. However, there is no doubt about the cup marks on the rocks behind the stone, over which a section of drystone walling has been built.

I'd made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to find the Badger Stone in the past, only to be thwarted by time, bad map reading or the complete lack of any map at all. So this time I was determined to find it! As it happened, it was easy once on the right path. From the Neb Stone we followed the path over the Kiethley Road, around the spring heads and on eastwards. On the moorland ahead, I could see a single boulder bobbing in and out of view as the path dipped and rose. There it was, the Badger Stone in it's full glory!

The southern face of the rock is covered with cup n' ring marks, little channels leading down the rock, and there appears to be a possible unfinished, crude attempt at a swastika motif, which could hint at a later attempt to re-use the rock. This is one of the few panels of rock art on the moor which has not been executed on a flat surface and it's proximity to spring heads speaks of water to my mind. The Neb Stone is visible to the west and the Weary Hill Stone is also nearby.

Slightly to the north is a small boulder bearing and strange motif. On the north face of the rock is central cup n' ring, bordered on the right by loops that resemble flower petals and on the left, at least four grooves which flow around the ring and down to the ground. Again, this rock is notable in that the carving is on a sloping and not horizontal panel. If you head down hill from this rock, you come to the aforementioned Barmishaw Stone, Willy Hall's Wood Stone and the Pepperpot Rock, near the stream and Willy Hall's Spout. The lines on the rock do appear to reflect the stream and mimic it's course down the hill.

From here we headed back around the top of Backstone Beck and on to another evening in the nearby pub (anything not to have to stare at those floral walls!).


Tuesday

Today I was on another mission to another site I'd never made it to before. The Horncliffe Circle towards the southern edge of the moor.

We climbed up onto the Cow n' Calf rocks, the top of which is worth a visit if only to see the hundreds of Victorian carvings which carpet the top of the 'Cow' outcrop. The term Ilkley Moor Baht 'at (without a hat) originates from the Victorian Choral gatherings that took place here. Apparently, if you attended without a hat, it meant that you were looking for a suitor.

I've always found it a little strange that as the most prominent landmark for miles around, the Cow n' Calf didn't bear any cup n' ring marks as they can be found both to the left and the right of the outcrop. It is possible that any that may have been on the rock could have been lost under the onslaught of Victorian graffiti or the wear of thousands of pairs of feet every year.

It is thought that the Cow n' Calf name originates not from it's appearance, but from a tradition of lighting beacons on the rocks.
"The larger rock was once known as the 'Inglestone Cow'... The Scottish dialect word, ingle, 'fire burning on a hearth', may come from the Gaelic aingeal, meaning 'fire' or 'light'.

"There is strong evidence of an old calendar custom in the British Isles, around Beltaine or springtime in general, where the old fires are extinguished and new ones are lit. Cattle are then driven between two fires to divinely protect them from disease. 'Imbolc' means 'purification'. Inglestone Cow... Fire-stone Cow."

Gyrus - Verbeia: Goddess of Wharfedale

From here, we took the path over Green Crag, onto the Grubstones and down to Horncliffe Well. Climb over the style in the wall, past the well and ruins of modernish huts, cross the narrow stream and rising before you in a jumble of rocks is the Horncliffe Circle. This consists of a large outer ring of stones set together in a kerb and a small inner setting, which could either be a hearth or a cist. It is likely that this was a cairn circle, or maybe a hut circle (or maybe even both!).

Returning northwards on the path to the Twelve Apostles, we took the opportunity to tarry a while in the sunlight and laze in the circle. I've always enjoyed spending time here. To just lie still and listed to the sounds of the moor is an absolute pleasure. An hour passed in no time at all. We then wondered onto the triangulation cairn at summit of the moor.


Wednesday

The major part of today was to be spent on a visit to see my parents, sister, nephews and niece over in Huddersfield. But there was time to stop off at the Panorama Stones over the road from St Margaret's Church on the way to the train station.

The stone lies in three pieces surrounded by Victorian iron railings (which I find always add to a site!). All three sections have carvings, but it is the largest stone which bears the famous 'Ilkley Ladder' motif. The carvings are very worn and faint, and if something is not done to halt the erosion soon, these important, unique carvings will be lost forever. As these rocks have already been moved from their original location, I think there is a good case for moving them to the Manor House Museum in Ilkley. These rock art panels are just too important to lose.


Thursday

We thought we'd tackle the other side of the valley today and take a trip up to Middleton Moor, as there was a number of cup n' ring marked stones noted on the OS map. So we descended into Ilkley and spent a little while by the river behind the museum, which stands on the site of the old Roman fort.

Middleton Woods is a bit of an uphill slog and we got lost on the winding paths a couple of times. We eventually found a style over into a field of horses, past Middleton Hall an on to the tarmac road leading up to a farm track and eventually the moor.

Lots of wildlife here (Ilkley Moor can be a little barren besides Grouse and the odd small flock of Sheep), rabbits, lapwings and loads of lambs all frolicking around like some forest scene from Bambi! The view across Wharfedale to the Cow n' Calf rocks was truly wonderful.

The first carving we found was a beauty! Three cup n' ring marks on a small boulder, the largest with at least five rings at Dryas Dyke. Nearby on Foldshaw Ridge is the Lattice Rock, another small boulder set in a slight rise under the path. The area a round here has a number of marked rocks, but these are well hidden in heather and bracken and require a bit of searching.

From here take the path west until you reach an old milestone, turn left and follow the hill downwards, over a boggy stream and just beyond are a number of small boulders set low, which bear faint cup, ring and groove marks.

The weather had been fantastic until now. As we reached this cluster of rocks, the heavens opened and we got drenched on the long walk back down to Ilkley. We were forced into a number of pubs to find the warmest place to dry off in!


Friday

Woke up today to a good steady rain and could see mist up by the Cow n' Calf. But today is our last full day n' we weren't gonna let a bit of water put us off.... just one last visit to the Twelve Apostles before we leave!!

I love the moors in the mist! They can be bleak even on a sunny day, but the mist gives the moors an eerie Hound of the Baskervilles quality that I find invigorating! Rocks loom out of the mist... all very atmospheric!

No grubbing around in the heather trying to find rock art today, just stick to the paths I know as visibility was down to about 20/30 feet, so none of the usual landmarks could be used. It would be quite easy to wander off the path and get utterly lost. As we reached the top of the moor near the stone circle, the rain got heavier and heavier and I got the feeling that the moors didn't want visitors today. However, on the way back down the side of Backstone Beck, came across a wonderful cup, ring and groove marked rock set into the path.

Oh well, another drying off session in the pub then!


Saturday

Got our gear packed away and set off back down into town. We were quite pleased to be leaving the floral palace behind. The landlady's (well intentioned) question and answer sessions whenever we returned were getting a little irritating and we'd find ourselves creeping upstairs and trying to avoid what had become a familiar mantra of, "'Ello Andy, where've you been today then" from the kitchen as we crept past holding our boots! She was only being friendly bless her, but it had begun to remind me a little of trying not to be pissed around my parents as a teenager!

We had a little time before our train and fitted in a visit the the Manor House Museum, which I remembered (correctly) as being small! And time for another lig by the river while my lunch got fed to the ducks!


Conclusion

Rock art has always attracted a wide spectrum of interpretations and suspected meanings and so is a bit of a minefield. To truly understand their meanings, we would have to return to the societies that created them and live the lives, believe the beliefs and experience the world of their creators. Something that is so far removed from us now in both time and culture. The truth of the matter is that we don't know... and probably never will.

What we can piece together from the evidence available is scant. But we do know that cup and ring marks were included in tombs that can be dated and so most likely have connections to funerary rites and possibly a belief in an after-life and ancestor worship. To these ends, they are most likely the symbolic embodyment of a belief.

The art that is sited in the open air was intended to be seen and convey a message to those who saw it. A method of communication. Those in tombs may have a different purpose such as protection or guidance for the dead.

My own conjectural thoughts (based on observation and reading) are that they had multiple meanings and relevance to the people that created them. I've always found it fascinating that such a simple form of symbolism can produce a huge variety of designs.

Many tribal societies or cultures without written languages record past deeds or parables in story form and I have always been struck between the similarities between some of the carvings on the moor and the sand stories of the Australian Aborigines, all though of course similarity in appearance doesn't necessarily mean duality of purpose. However, I do find it quite reasonable to suspect that the carvings were once coloured by pigments and may have once been used during rites/festivities to recount stories or legends regarding ancestors or the surrounding landscape, maybe accompanied by music and ritual movements.

They could well also be connected to fertility rites, as Paul Bennett recounts...
A Scottish minister at the turn of the century told the great folklorist and mystic Walter Evans-Wentz how cup-marked stones were the rocks of the faerie folk. "An elder in my church," said the minister, "knew a woman who was accustomed, in milking her cows, to offer libations to the fairies. The woman was later converted to Christ and gave up the practice, and as a result one of her cows was taken by the fairies. Then she revived the practice."


Many of the art panels in the Ilkley Moor area are situated on outcrops along the edge of the moor, or on landfast boulders set back a little from the edge. Apart from the down/uphill course followed by the Badger Stone 'group' near While Wells, which appears to cluster around the hillside spring. Here it seems reasonable to deduce that the marked rocks along the ridge may mark some kind of boundary or route over the moor and could denote a course of procession or statement of identity. The exceptions here are those carving which are set further back into the moor such as those at the living enclosure at Backstone Beck and the Idol Stone, which all have cup marks enclosed in groups by grooves. These rocks could have an entirely different purpose and almost look like some form of counting device or even gaming boards!

I find the likely hood that the stones had a number of multiple meanings entirely plausible. The same symbol in different setting could have entirely different meanings speaking of life and fertility, water, air, fire, death, spirits, legends, the people and their connection to their land.

Backstone Beck Enclosure — Images

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<b>Backstone Beck Enclosure</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Grubstones — Images

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<b>Grubstones</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Grubstones</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Hanging Stones — Images

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<b>Hanging Stones</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Hanging Stones</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Haystack — Images

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<b>Haystack</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Haystack</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Horncliffe — Images

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<b>Horncliffe</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Little Skirtful of Stones — Images

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<b>Little Skirtful of Stones</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Pancake Rock — Images

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<b>Pancake Rock</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Panorama Stone — Images

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<b>Panorama Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Panorama Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Panorama Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

The Badger Stone — Images

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<b>The Badger Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>The Badger Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

The Idol Stone — Images

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<b>The Idol Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

The Piper Crag Stone — Images

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<b>The Piper Crag Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

The Planets — Images

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<b>The Planets</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

The Swastika Stone — Images

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<b>The Swastika Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>The Swastika Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Little Badger Stone — Images

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<b>Little Badger Stone</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Rombald's Moor — Images

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<b>Rombald's Moor</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken
<b>The Twelve Apostles of Ilkley Moor</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Middleton Moor — Images

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<b>Middleton Moor</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Middleton Moor</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Middleton Moor — Fieldnotes

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We thought we'd tackle the other side of the valley today and take a trip up to Middleton Moor, as there was a number of cup n' ring marked stones noted on the OS map. So we descended into Ilkley and spent a little while by the river behind the museum, which stands on the site of the old Roman fort.

Middleton Woods is a bit of an uphill slog and we got lost on the winding paths a couple of times. We eventually found a style over into a field of horses, past Middleton Hall an on to the tarmac road leading up to a farm track and eventually the moor.

Lots of wildlife here (Ilkley Moor can be a little barren besides Grouse and the odd small flock of Sheep), rabbits, lapwings and loads of lambs all frolicking around like some forest scene from Bambi! The view across Wharfedale to the Cow n' Calf rocks was truly wonderful.

The first carving we found was a beauty! Three cup n' ring marks on a small boulder, the largest with at least five rings at Dryas Dyke. Nearby on Foldshaw Ridge is the Lattice Rock, another small boulder set in a slight rise under the path. The area a round here has a number of marked rocks, but these are well hidden in heather and bracken and require a bit of searching.

From here take the path west until you reach an old milestone, turn left and follow the hill downwards, over a boggy stream and just beyond are a number of small boulders set low, which bear faint cup, ring and groove marks.

The weather had been fantastic until now. As we reached this cluster of rocks, the heavens opened and we got drenched on the long walk back down to Ilkley. We were forced into a number of pubs to find the warmest place to dry off in!

Norlonto — Links

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History of Verbeia: Goddess of Wharfedale by Gyrus (including theories on the Sawstika Stone)

Yorkshire Rock Art — Links

19.09.03ce
Graeme Chappel's Yorkshire Rock Art

Raven's Rambles — Links

19.09.03ce
David Raven's Ilkley Moor page

Ilkley Moor Route Guide — Links

19.09.03ce
Ilkley Moor walking guides

Croftway — Links

19.09.03ce
A few nice pics

Ilkley.org — Links

19.09.03ce
The words to Ilkley Moor Baht 'at

Paul's Stone Circles — Links

22.09.03ce
Pics of Twelve Apostles before a couple of stone-falls

Cus.org.uk — Links

22.09.03ce
Ilkley Moor walking routes and local info

Megalithic Walks: Ilkley Moor — Links

22.09.03ce

Tigh Na Ruaich — Images

26.08.01ce
<b>Tigh Na Ruaich</b>Posted by Chris

Weblog

The Ambient Rambler's Book of Journey - Durness - May 1999


We'd managed to secure a week at a Crofter's Cottage in the small village of Laid, on the banks of Lock Eriboll near Durness (settled during the clearances by people turfed off their land to make way for sheep. A story replayed all over Scotland during the early 19th Century). My old Art College buddy Scott's ex-father in law owned the cottage but rarely used it and so agreed to let us use it for a week, as long as we replenished the peat supply and didn't trail mud through the house.

Ed, Shaun and I first travelled from Norwich up to Scott's gaff at Dalry, between Glasgow and Irvine, stopped the night there, then carried on the next day with Scott up to Durness. The final 50 miles thereabouts were down a single track road. After a quick stop at Dun Dornaigil Broch at the foot of Ben Hope, we continued on to Laid.

The landscape here is blasted and primeval, this really does feel like the ends of the earth. Dominated by mountains and water, human existence seems to cling to thin ribbons of land in long, stretched out villages. The local rock is Lewisian Gneiss, among some of the oldest rocks in the world. It's shattered, worn appearance gives some of the higher planes and almost moonlike appearance. White beaches and turquoise seas in small, rocky bays make this place very close to paradise!

Whilst collecting peat at the cuttings one morning, stacked to dry like little dolmens, I noticed clouds gathering over the double peaks of Cranstackie and Beinn Spionnaidh behind me. I hurried my waterproof on to be faced with a wall of rain advancing down the hillside. I ducked behind the bank and sheltered best as I could against what was a mercifully short shower. When the worst of the shower passed, I stood up and was faced with a vivid double rainbow, the end of which seemed to come down into the loch about 20 yards in front of me. I half expected to see a boat of wee folk rowing to shore!! The magic of this place is entirely enchanting and primeval. As a I wheeled the barrow-full of peat away, the wheel passed over a hillock and cracked down into the bleached ribcage of a sheep skeleton!

We visited Smoo Cave. A huge sea cave that appears like a vast cathedral of rock with a breath taking waterfall booming in a side cavern. Traces of human habitation have been found here stretching back to neolithic times.

Noting on the map that ancient places were nearby, we headed into the hills. First of all finding a cairn. Nothing spectacular, but the views were magnificent. Occasionally, a window would open in the low cloud and offer us spectacular views onto the loch below, or over to the Kyle of Durness. It felt like we were in the seat of the gods.

We headed off across the blasted plateau in search of a Pictish Wheelhouse marked on the OS map. After much crossing of streams (during which Shaun performed the most spectacular of salmon leaps across a burn to land in a crumple heap half in, half out of the water) and upping and downing, we spied an outcrop. Scott reached the top first and let a loud whoop! Upon reaching the top we found ourselves looking down onto the most perfectly preserved wheelhouse I've ever seen. I don't know if it has been restored at any time, I suspect not. The whole thing seems too jumbled to be reconstructed.

The afternoon was wearing on, and as this was the day that Manchester United were to play Bayern Munich in the Champion's League Final, Scott was keen to not only get to the pub to watch it, but to also secure the best seat in the house! We marched back down the hill, following the burn which tumbled down the hillside in a series of mini-waterfalls, back to the croft, no time for a shower but off to the pub stinking of the hills!

This was to be one of the more bizarre evenings of my life! The Sango Sands pub is a peculiar place. Perched on top of the cliffs overlooking the North Atlantic, with a pool table that looks like they made it themselves out of hardboard and egg boxes! All the balls are different sizes and it is underpinned with telephone directories.

Scott perched himself in front of the pub TV, Ed and I played (wonky) pool and Shaun went to watch for whales from the cliff top. Slowly the pub began to fill... with Germans. I realised that all the British people hated Man U and were supporting Bayern, and all the Germans hated Bayern and were supporting Man U! Very bizarre when anyone scored a goal.

We got talking to a guy called Colin, who ran boat trips at Smoo Cave. He sorted the beers and we trooped off to his after closing time. We found ourselves in what could be a council estate street in any part of the country, but at the foot of a big craggy hill on one side and sandy coves on the other.

The next day we took an excursion to Balnakeil Beach, Church and Craft Village. An old army installation that has become an artist's colony. There is also reputedly to be a stone circle near here, but we didn't find it.

On the way back, driving along the Kyle of Durness, we spotted a guy at the roadside watching the sky with a pair of binoculars. Scott pulled over and we looked up to see a Golden Eagle cruising the thermals right above us. A fantastic sight. Back in the car, I took a glance at the map and noticed we were right next to a site marked as stone circles on the map. We found the site over a hillock in the field next to the road.

Know locally as The Ord, the site's entrance appears to be through the remains of three ditches which enclose an area containing groups of stones and a low rubble wall at the rear. The stones appear to be too closely set together to be true stone circles and areas of spoil again seem very small to be the remains of collapsed cairns. I guess their likeliest purpose is hut circles in a settlement site. There is also a low circular, stone enclosure a few yards away, which looks more like a modern sheep pen than anything ancient.

Pics of the Wheelhouse and The Ord can be viewed at http://www.megalithic.co.uk/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=andy_h

Another site nearby that is worth a visit is the ruins of Ardvreck Castle near Inchnadamph. Not a megalithic site, but very romantic and picturesque.

The Ord — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>The Ord</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Laid Wheelhouse — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Laid Wheelhouse</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Laid Wheelhouse</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Laid Wheelhouse</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Smoo Cave — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Smoo Cave</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Smoo Cave</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Smoo Cave — Links

11.09.03ce
A description of all aspects and history of Smoo Cave

Laid Township — Links

11.09.03ce
Village website including a brief history of area

Laid Wheelhouse — Fieldnotes

11.09.03ce
Noting on the map that ancient places were nearby, we headed into the hills. First of all finding a cairn. Nothing spectacular, but the views were magnificent. Occasionally, a window would open in the low cloud and offer us spectacular views onto the loch below, or over to the Kyle of Durness. It felt like we were in the seat of the gods.

We headed off across the blasted plateau in search of a Pictish Wheelhouse marked on the OS map. After much crossing of streams (during which Shaun performed the most spectacular of salmon leaps across a burn to land in a crumple heap half in, half out of the water) and upping and downing, we spied an outcrop. Scott reached the top first and let a loud whoop! Upon reaching the top we found ourselves looking down onto the most perfectly preserved wheelhouse I've ever seen. I don't know if it has been restored at any time, I suspect not. The whole thing seems too jumbled to be reconstructed.

The Ord — Fieldnotes

11.09.03ce
The next day we took an excursion to Balnakeil Beach, Church and Craft Village. An old army installation that has become an artist's colony. There is also reputedly to be a stone circle near here, but we didn't find it.

On the way back, driving along the Kyle of Durness, we spotted a guy at the roadside watching the sky with a pair of binoculars. Scott pulled over and we looked up to see a Golden Eagle cruising the thermals right above us. A fantastic sight. Back in the car, I took a glance at the map and noticed we were right next to a site marked as stone circles on the map. We found the site over a hillock in the field next to the road.

Know locally as The Ord, the site's entrance appears to be through the remains of three ditches which enclose an area containing groups of stones and a low rubble wall at the rear. The stones appear to be too closely set together to be true stone circles and areas of spoil again seem very small to be the remains of collapsed cairns. I guess their likeliest purpose is hut circles in a settlement site. There is also a low circular, stone enclosure a few yards away, which looks more like a modern sheep pen than anything ancient.

The Ord — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>The Ord</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>The Ord</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Weblog

The Ambient Rambler's Book of Journey - Kilmartin Valley - September 2001


A mass pilgrimage to an ancient and beautiful place had been on the cards for some time. A group of about six of us had been talking about a big Ambient Ramble for ages. I'd ranted on about how wonderful the Highlands were for so long, it seemed to have stirred some interest amongst a few of my friends.

A few of us had been involved in the E1 Festival for most of the year and decided that we needed an excursion to chill out after the heat of battle had passed (but that's another story). Eventually six grew to ten people and after much scouring of holiday cottage brochures, we eventually found a place that could take us all at a place called Ford, just a stone's throw from Kilmartin Valley..... perfect!

Eventually ten of us in three cars rolled out of Norwich on the long journey North. Myself and my partner Natalie travelled with Shaun and his partner Samantha. Tim, Gino and Mary in one car and Ed, Asa and Amy in the other. Our car conked out twice on the way and we ended up resorting to smacking the starter motor with a lump of wood to get it going! My careful selection and recording of tapes for the journey was thwarted, as the car's cassette player was knackered too!

After a ten hour journey, we finally reached our home for the week. A fantastic 200 year old Highland house smack bang in the middle of more history than you could shake a stick at.... and more importantly, a huge kitchen table to lay out Asa's map collection and my beer collection!

The next morning I was out the door and on my way to the nearest standing stone before most folk had woken up... a mere couple of hundred yards from the house. The village church bell began to peel and 5,000 years of continuity hit me smack in the face!

Just behind our house stood the hillfort of Dun Dubh. A place that I've heard was the site of local fire festivals up to Victorian times.

Kilmartin Valley and the surrounding area is packed so full of ancient sites that even a week isn't long enough to visit every last one. My old stomping ground of Ilkley Moor is a wonderfully evocative prehistoric ritual landscape, so I was kinda used to finding myself in such environments, but Kilmartin Valley took my breath away. Awe-inspiring doesn't seem to do it justice.

This is where the day to day details become a little blurred. Many of the sites at Kilmartin have been described in pretty good detail elsewhere on this site anyway. What remains with me is the memory of a week long ecstatic feast of daylong hikes to megaliths, cairns and rock art, and nights of drinking beer and whisky around the kitchen table, tokin' bud, communal cooking, pawing over maps and marathon domino games!

The highlight that sticks in my mind the most is a wonderful lost afternoon at the Temple Wood circle. The weather was perfect, a late summer's afternoon with a light breeze and sunlight streaming through the trees. We ligged out on the grass next to the circle, time seemed to become elastic, all that mattered was the moment. Two hours passed in what seemed like minutes!

We visited a number of the local sites, the rock art at Achnabreck, Ballygowan and Kilmichael Glassary, the ceremonial line of Kilmartin Valley following the Netherlargie cairns, the Great X, and Ri Cruin and Dunchraigaig, a big stomp around Crinan Moss and being chased by cows at a settlement site on the banks of Loch Awe.

An attempt to go over to Mull was abandoned when we saw the ferry prices and we diverted ourselves with a tour of the Oban Distillery. Afterwards, I managed to convince a few of our party to take a quick trip to Glen Coe, one of my favourite spots in the Highlands. Nothing really by the way of megalithic remains, but a powerful, brooding place that is steeped in history and folklore. One of the first places I ever visited in the Highlands and I have returned many time since. After my first visit to Glen Coe, I understood why our ancestors believed that gods lived on the tops of mountains. Also, the King's House (an old coaching inn near the Pass of Glen Coe) has the best view I've ever seen from any pub garden!

The Thursday was Nat's Birthday, so we climbed Dun Dubh together and marvelled at the view over the glen and up Lock Awe.

Our final day was spent at Dunadd, the capital of the Celtic Kingdom of Dalriada. An amazingly evocative place that we had all to ourselves. A visit to this powerful site really brings all the legends and folk tales to life. It is said that the mound was surrounded by water during it's heyday, and judging by the lay of the land, and the scars of water movement on the valley floor, this is believable. On the summit is a rock bearing a footprint, ogham script and carved boar. Next to this rock is a carved basin (or possibly a large cup mark) that was reputedly used to anoint the Kings of Scotland.

We left Kilmartin on the Saturday morning. Some were heading back to Norwich, others were heading to Malham Tarn to spend time with friends of ours there. We decided to call in on my old Art College buddy Scott, currently living in Darly in Ayreshire. This was the first day that we hadn't seen the sun and the whole valley was cloaked in mist, boiling down off the corries on the hillsides. Although we'd seen many of the secrets of the valley, it seemed strangely more mysterious at this moment. And all the more poignant in the leaving.

Photos from this trip can be seen at http://www.megalithic.co.uk/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=andy_h

Achnabreck — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Achnabreck</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Ballygowan — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Ballygowan</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Ballymeanoch — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Ballymeanoch</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Ballymeanoch</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Carnasserie — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Carnasserie</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Rowanfield — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Rowanfield</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Kilmichael Glassary — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Kilmichael Glassary</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Dunadd — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Dunadd</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Templewood — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Templewood</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Templewood</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Templewood</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Dunchraigaig Cairn — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Dunchraigaig Cairn</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Nether Largie South — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Nether Largie South</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>Nether Largie South</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

Ri Cruin — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>Ri Cruin</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken

The Great X of Kilmartin — Images

11.09.03ce
<b>The Great X of Kilmartin</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>The Great X of Kilmartin</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken<b>The Great X of Kilmartin</b>Posted by Kozmik_Ken
Showing 1-5 of 6 posts. Most recent first | Next 5
Name: Andy Hemingway

D.O.B: 17.04.66

Occupation: Graphic Artist

Website: http://www.ahgphotography.co.uk

I was born and raised in Huddersfield. I moved to Norwich in 1988 to go to Art School and haven't got it together to leave yet!! My interests are visiting and reading about ancient places, tribal art and society and trying my damnedest to keep as far from the Rat Race as possible! Ambient Rambling is where it's at!

Love music - psychedelic 70's rock, punk, roots n' dub and world/trancy sort of stuff in general!

Also do voluntary work for festivals and have been involved in the Norwich Free Festival in it's various guises for a number of years.

My special area of interest is Ilkley Moor. I don't get the opportunity to go back often these days, but I spent much time on the moors in the 1980's... often for days on end. The Twelve Apostles is an old friend of mine! Although I know the moors fairly well, each journey I make back there is still full of discovery. I always seem to find something I haven't seen before.

NB - Since I wrote this I have in fact gotten away from Norwich and now live in Barnsley.

My TMA Content: