Showing 1-50 of 507 posts. Most recent first | Next 50 
Wild Auroch hunting near the site of Stonehenge.
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Walked up Beacon Hill to the hillfort today. Was in Hampshire with a friend to visit the Sandham Memorial Chapel (which for me was a deeply affecting experience) and the walk up Beacon Hill afterwards somehow seemed totally fitting.
The car park is just off the A34, my first thought was that the noise from the traffic would detract from the enjoyment of the place. Its a long way up though and the noise soon receded - by the time we reached the hillfort at the top the A34 had diminished and could no longer be heard. As we walked round the ramparts a red kite glided by below us. There is a very big sky up there - wonderful cloud formations today and, needless to say, amazing views. Highclere Castle can be clearly seen and the grave of the Fifth Earl of Carnavon aka George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert (Adventurer, Explorer, Archaeologist) who with Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun - is on the edge of the hillfort surrounded by railings.
An amazing place!
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Archaeology walk with Dr Nick Snashall on 8th May
Was over at WK long barrow today when I bumped into a rather large but very well behaved group of people (inside the barrow). Dr Nick Snashall was leading a 'walking through the landscape' guided walk on behalf of the National Trust. The little bit of the talk I caught about WKLB sounded informative and, yes, I did learn something in a few short minutes.
Dr Snashall told me there is another such walk on 8th May (see her blog).
http://www.nicolaford.com/events.html
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Taken from the Coate Water Country Park FB page:
"Coate boasts a host of Bronze Age, Romano-British and Medieval history that spans a period of up to about 3000 years. The oldest known ancient monuments at Coate are the Neolithic Stone Circle and the Bronze age burial mound along Day House Lane. However, no less than six Stone Circles have been recorded in the Coate area linked up, in part, by avenues of large Sarsen stones. The remains of one of the stone circles probably still lies at the bottom of the lake at Coate Water whilst other ancient finds are dotted around the area that include evidence of Medieval settlements."
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Josh Pollard talks about new National Trust research at Avebury.
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Ochre and iron ore mined here for thousands of years.
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Imbolc today, my favourite day of the year and the winter sun was shining in the promise of spring. Met up with my friend (who owns a car) and we headed off into the Cotswolds to Avening (passing through that parallel universe of Tetbury where no-one is poor, disabled, or in any way dishevelled).
Following the directions of thesweetcheat, Carl and Baza, we found the private road easily (about 200 metres past the local school) on the other side of the road. We quickly spotted the place where others have scrambled down the bank under the barbed wire - a bit steep but we went carefully. What a great surprise these two little chambered tombs are - the remains of a third also visible. Set into the bank they reminded me of some of the Irish wedge tombs in size. I've since learnt they had been moved from their original site - see Rhiannon's notes.
Seeing them for the first time without being aware that this was not their original location I have to say they seemed very 'settled' into the steep bankside, well camouflaged as they are by fallen leaves, soil and moss. A lovely spot overlooking what today was a fast flowing river.
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A short video of the scanning technology revolutionising archaeology,
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Today, with an interlude of winter sun for about an hour.
A circular (triangular) walk from Upper Lambourn using OS map 170. Set off late morning along a surprisingly unmuddy byway as far as Postdown’s Farm from where we had to do some road walking. Clear signs of recent flooding, the adjacent fields were lake-like in places – we passed a couple of large round barrows on our left as we walked towards Seven Barrows Nature Reserve. The road was badly flooded by the entrance to the nature reserve and the entrance impassable on foot without wellies, fast flowing water running off into a nearby field (must be springs around here to cause to the water to flow such). We managed to jump across a water filled ditch and scramble under some blackthorn hedging to get a better look at the seven (possibly eight) barrows.
The landscape is astonishing – apparently 26 barrows in all dating back to 2200BC. We didn’t actually count the ones we saw besides the seven in the nature reserve but there were several. The sense of walking through an important Bronze Age cemetery was tangible.
We continued on foot along the road past Seven Barrows House and took the track towards Uffington to look for the long barrow shown on the OS map. Not much left and it would be easy to walk past if you didn’t know it was there as absorbed into a beech plantation – two fine stones remain though.
Picked up another muddy byway back to Upper Lambourn and happily came across the Hangman’s Stone just before the track back down to the village. A small standing stone approximately a metre high – probably a boundary stone.
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These stones are mentioned by Sara Maitland in her book "Gossip From The Forest - The Tangled Roots of Our Forests and Fairytales" in her chapter on Purgatory Wood. She relates their dark history as a a non-native spruce plantation and associations with Pugatory Burn which marked the western boundary of a nearby leper colony.
"The track I took into the Purgatory Wood meets the Southern Upland Way as it climbs up from New Luce, and a single path crossed the Purgatory Burn and runs eastward to Laggangairn ... and then beyond it to the Laggangairn standing stones - the last vestiges of a Bronze Age stone circle, carved with eighth century christian graffiti left by the pilgrims to St Ninians shrine at Whithorn"
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"The Giants of Wessex ..."
Interesting article in December's edition of Antiquity "The Giants of Wessex: the chronology of the three largest mounds in Wiltshire, UK" - by Jim Leary and Peter Marshall
http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/leary334/
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Some useful information and folklore about Hangman's Stones.
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Out walking yesterday - one of those November days that feels like a gift. Sunday, the rain lashed down. Monday, the sun came back and warmed the sodden earth. Had arranged to walk with my Gloucestershire walking friend who picked out a route that stuck to green paths where possible. We set off at from the little village of Yanworth (near Chedworth Roman villa) and walked to the village of Hampnett. Hangman's Stone is marked on the OS map about halfway between the two villages, just off the Salt Way and on the Macmillan Way. The stone itself lies on its side and is well camouflaged by the Cotswold stone wall behind it. Now in two parts with a hole through what looks like the top half. (Just read tsc's post which indicates the stone has always been two stones - to me it looked like one standing stone that had split naturally through weathering)
Curious this one - came upon it by chance and it doesn't really want to be seen.
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I omitted to add this when I wrote up my fieldnotes on Gower. This atmospheric cairn is about 30 metres from Maen Ceti and the two sites seem connected. I don't know if there is any archaeological data concerning this cairn - it just seems to be in the right place. Stopped here for bit to enjoy the estuary view towards Llanelli. Anyone visiting Maen Ceti would feel naturally drawn to walk over to it.
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Sunday 21st October 2012
The day started overcast but quickly turned into an amazing day full of blue sky and sea. Rhossili soon became very busy because of the lovely weather (surfers out in droves). Fortunately we had made an early start so avoided the crowds until later in the day. The plan was to walk to Hillend from Rhossili along the top of Rhossili Down and return along the beach (which I believe is the largest in the UK). Sweyne Howes burial chambers came into view at about the half way point of the walk - one is ruined with the stones scattered. The larger and more intact chamber is reminiscent of some of the wedge tombs I saw in Ireland. Unlike the wedge tombs, however, these two are hidden from the sea view being well below the high ridge of the Down.
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Saturday 20th October 2012
Starting from Penmaen, three miles along the Gower Way - the walk along the top of Cefn Bryn made the visit to this astonishing site all the more memorable. It was a beautiful mid October morning - the sea visible on both sides. So much to see and enjoy, not least the free range Welsh ponies which galloped across the brown bracken.
Maen Ceti is astonishing - a massive capstone standing on several small stone 'legs' with a scatter of smaller stones around. The legs stand in water and the surrounding ground is boggy in places - I believe there are a few springs nearby. Close by too, is a large stone cairn (which felt related).
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