Epping Forest contains two Iron Age earthworks. It is thought that both Loughton Camp and Ambresbury Banks were built around 500 BC. Used as animal folds in times of attack from another tribe or as look out posts and boundary markers between the Trinovantes and the Catevellauni. In use until after the Roman invasions.
Loughton Camp is located deep in the forest and a good map is required to find it. Never properly excavated, but an Iron Age stone quern was found nearby.
Access is much easier now that there is a well made, but very narrow track from Wellow. The barrow is fantastic and a real must see! Being some distance from the Avebury circus, the interior was free from candles and other new age clutter. How Moth could miss the giant ammonite cast I’ll never know! The setting of the barrow and the surrounding hills is superb.
Accessible from Little Sodbury and Old Sodbury, but don’t try the footpaths from the A46 as they are invisible beneath crops! I parked by Old Sodbury church and took the footpath opposite that goes along the left side of the village school. This is the Cotswold Way and is well marked. Keep to the left as the path skirts a steep hill and then, when a wood is reached, turn right and climb steeply up the hill.
The land towards the A46 is quite flat and the fort is defended by two banks and a ditch. Listed as Iron Age, yet the inner bank is perfectly rectangular with rounded corners. It looks very much like it was re-shaped by the Romans.
The banks of Bury Camp are in dense woodland near Colerne. The interior of the fort is ploughed out and arable. Very difficult to explore.
A small hillfort overlooking the Severn Valley with distant views of Bristol and South Wales. The fort is built high up on an outlying spur of the southern Cotswolds and is best seen from the high ground of Dyrham Park (NT)
A small hillfort near Devizes with two round barrows to the south-west.
Variously called Portingbury Hills and Portingbury Rings, this site is an Iron Age farmstead. It consists of a rectangular mound measuring 100 by 70ft surrounded by a strong ditch up to 35ft wide. Another mound – sausage shaped runs up to it. The ditch of this mound is less well defined. Two zigzag banks to the east form an incomplete enclosure with the Sherborne Brook.
Excavated in 1964, the ditch is V-shaped and was originally 6ft deep. Finds dated to the Iron Age include a small flint blade, four potsherds, animal bones, burnt flint and charcoal. Best seen in winter when the vegetation is lower and the ditches full of water. Easy to find from Post 11 of the NT’s Nature Trail. Walk down the path into Beggar’s Hall Coppice and very soon you will cross the first banks. Very wet area so good boots are a must.
Yet another group of “Seven Hills”. Now only slight traces of four remain, one of which has been excavated and dated to the Bronze Age. Soil marks indicate a ring ditch.
Two burial mounds of unknown date in the grounds of Honington Airfield, Larkhall Heath.
A turf covered bowl barrow measuring 27m across and 1.7m high.Excavated in 1958 when a female skeleton and incense cups were found. Dated to the early Bronze Age 2500-1501BC
A very large Bronze Age barrow with ditch and bank. Steep sided and tree covered, it is much burrowed into by rabbits. Scheduled but not yet excavated.
The stone is located on the green outside Peterborough Museum. The notice indicates that the “Neolithic standing stone was moved from a nearby location and re-erected here”. When I visited, there was a temporary exhibition featuring a life size figure of LaraCroft – Tomb Raider. Strange item for a museum, but I suppose that most archaeological exhibits in museums are from raided tombs!
This Iron Age burial mound dates from around 10 BC and may have contained the body of Addedomaros of the Trinovantes. The grave goods give an insight into the extent of Romanisation of the local aristocracy more than 50 years before the Claudian invasion. There were 17 wine jars, chain mail and a coin of Augustus struck in 17 BC which had been mounted as a portrait medallion. Other items included a statuette of Cupid and figurines of bull, boar and griffin. Trade with Roman Gaul was already influencing fashions among the rich.
The Nag’s Head is a natural rock sculpture on Wingletang Down. (see also Wingletang Cairn Cemetry). This area is fully exposed to the Atlantic and the hard granite has been cut into fantastic shapes by wind and water. The Cornish antiquarian, William Borlase, saw the weird shapes, cup marks and hollows as being “Druidic”. All are natural and Borlase’s “Druids’ chalices and bowls” are not cup and ring marks. This should signal caution to modern antiquarians when looking at similar depressions elsewhere in Britain.
Forty-three cairns have been found in the heather of this exposed moorland. Some are retained by kerbs of granite bouders. Field walls to the north-east connect some of the cairns.
The Isles of Scilly were formerly one island and many archaeological sites now lie beneath the sea. Excavations have only been possible at the lowest tides and there are certain to be more sites permanently under water (there are more than 500 sites above the high water line). Normally submerged sites that have been excavated include: 10 hut circles, 7 cists and graves, 4 field wall enclosures and 12 other occupational sites and partial exposures in eroding cliffs. See marine contour map.
The area around Tregarthen Hill contains 78 mound cairns, some with retaining kerbs. 5 entrance graves are on the south side, 4 being in a line fron NE to SW.
The island of Nornour (SV 944147) is less than four acres in size and is joined to Great Ganilly at low tide. Yet the excavations of the late 60’s and early ‘70’s revealed the remains of a major settlement which was occupied from the middle of the Bronze Age to the Romano-British Iron Age. Nornour clearly reveals the effects of rising sea levels, as this tiny scrap of land could never have supported such a thriving community. Many more houses are doubtless lost beneath the sea and right up until Tudor times, the islands of the Scillies were one island – known then as Ennor. Did the inundation of Ennor give rise to the legend of the Lost Land of Lyonesse? (see Scilly-Lyonesse)
On Nornour, there are eleven circular stone houses each having a main room with a smaller chamber alongside. Later, in the Iron Age, the site became a shrine to the goddess Silina and a number of goddess figurines have been found. The island also housed a workshop for brooches and other items. Over 3000 brooches, 35 bronze rings, 11 bracelets, 24 glass beads and 84 Roman coins have been excavated. The photographs were taken in 1970, soon after wind and waves exposed the site that was previously covered by sand. Since then, the sea has subsequently damaged much of the site. The settlement is still visible, but access is discouraged. All of the finds are displayed in the museum on St Mary’s.
This head was found early last century and then lost. Rediscovered in 1989, it is now cemented to the rock. Often hidden in the bracken and heather, it can be found by searching near the path to the very conspicuous red and white daymark. It seems to be the head of a lost statue and bears a resemblance to those found in the Channel Islands and Brittany. Prehistoric field system, an entrance grave and cairns nearby.
A ruined entrance grave crowns the summit of Gweal Hill with two cairns nearby. One cairn is surrounded by five kerbstones.
This massive cairn site consists of 134 cairns most of which are small circular platforms linked by lines of stones forming rectilinear alignments.
Across the neck of the promontory is a low stone rampart of the cliff fort.
A line of at least four cairns along the crest of the hill.
Accessible on foot from St Martins at low tide. At least five cairns and an entrance grave
A ruined entrance grave incorporating a massive outcrop of natural rock. 50ft in diameter with a chamber 12ft in length. Glass, amber and faience beads found in 1912.
11 Iron Age cists in this cemetry with another 5 nearby. Bronze brooches found
An Iron Age cliff fort with four ramps and ditches. Finds include pottery dated to 300 bce.
Often blind to things on our own doorstep, I revisited our local mystery with a view to seeking opinions from TMA. The Devil’s Hoofprint is carved in clunch (a soft chalky rock) and located in the south porch of St Michael’s, Bishops Stortford. What is it?
Like other churches dedicated to the warrior saint, St Michael’s is a hilltop church built on a pagan site. The church guide is coy about the carving and describes it as “possibly pagan”. Other views maintain that it is the result of someone sharpening their arrows in the porch! Now, I am not one to see vulvas in every megalithic nook and cranny, but this one look pretty explicit to me. Given the church’s pagan association, could it be a fertility symbol? Ignored and unnoticed – I’d love to bring it out of the closet and would welcome your thoughts.
The twin barrows of Trevelgue were where it all began for me. I’ve been tump hunting ever since.
An impressive hillfort with complex defences second only to Maiden Castle. Occupied from the 6th century to the Roman occupation. I have only seen it from the A5, but its at the top of my “must visits”. Surprised the site is not already covered on TMA.
This stone is not on the map so may be modern, but there are no less than four early settlements on this tiny island with numerous hut circles and a promontory fort. RSPB reserve with access by launch from Martins Haven.
I cannot quite remember the exact location as I photographed it while running from a ferocious thunderstorm. Some of the early settlements may be monastic. Local name for this stone is “John’s” stone. Perhaps it is just a cattle scratchpost.
There are four entrance graves on the rocky summit of South Hill with a dozen or more on the North Hill. The two hills of Samson ar very similar to the Paps of Jura in Scotland and the Paps of Anu in Ireland.
This excellent entrance grave is in a mound 26ft in diameter. The entrance passage is no less than 18ft and is roofed with five capstones. Well signposted on the circular footpath around St Mary’s and impossible to miss.
An angled passage of about 16ft leads to the chamber. Two of the six capstones have collapsed leaving the site in a delightfully unrestored state. Excavations revealed a male skeleton, ashes and twelve inverted urns.
This is the largest barrow in Britain and very few people know of it. This Romano-British site at Bartlow is on the Essex/Cambridgeshire border at TL 586453. Originally the largest group in Europe when there were seven enormous barrows here. Then the now disused railway came through and flattened four of them! The largest survivor is 45 feet high and the highest in Britain. The wooden staicase gives access to the top without causing erosion. You can then look down on the other two giants. Many suberb artefacts have been recovered and are now in Colchester Museum (Bartlow was formerly in Essex).
Access is via a footpath, but it is not well marked. Bartlow is a small crossroads hamlet with few houses. Look for the “Three Hills” pub and the path is beyond the entrance to the big house next door. It seems incredible that this magnifent and enormous site is so little valued locally. The largest barrrow is second only in size to Silbury Hill (excluding mottes and castle mounds) and if Bartlow were in Wilts rather than Cambs there would be hundreds of visitors every day. Go there and be amazed!
This stone looks like a palaeolithic venus figure to me and I wonder if it hasn’t been partly shaped by man. Situated opposite the church and at the head of the lane leading to a deep ford, it is garlanded on May Day when the villagers commence a procession and hold their fete in the main street. Very good show every year and worth a visit.
This is my local hillfort, but it is almost impossible to get a decent photograph of it! Situated on a spur overlooking the River Stort, two banks and ditches enclose 12.5 hectares. The ramparts are still over two metres high, but absent where the steep drop to the waterlogged land by the river is a natural defence and still impassable. The fort is huge and must have been a very important defence of the Trinovantes as the territory of the Catuvellauni began across the river.
In private hands as a residential property called “Wallbury Dells”, access is limited.
Very impressive especially as late summer turns to early autumn. This plateau fort is situated on high ground overlooking the Lea Valley. It encloses 4.5 hectares and is watered by a stream which rises inside the fort. The main bank is still more than 2 metres high and the ditch was originally 3 metres deep and nearly 7 metres wide. There are several entrances, but only the one in the west side is original.
Located above the Halangy Downs courtyard house settlement and about 1500 years older, Bants Carn is a round cairn surrounded by a low wall. The entrance passage is 14ft long leading past two portal stones to the central chamber. Very easy to find from the cliff top footpath from Hugh Town.
Located on a steep slope below Bants Carn and overlooking the sea, this settlement is very similar to that at Chysauster. There is one courtyard house and other interconnected oval houses with a likely occupation period of 500 years. Romano British and so much younger than the nearby tomb of Bants Carn. Interesting to speculate on how the residents related to that ancient tomb.
This is the largest and best preserved of a group of eight on Porth Hellick Downs. It is 40ft in diameter with a 12ft passage of leading to a chamber covered with four capstones. Entrance is aligned to the Long Rock Menhir.
Situated in a stunted pine forest on Mcfarland Downs, this stone is not easy to find. Well worth the effort as it is 8 ft tall and most impressive. The branches of the tree behind give it an almost Hindu appearance. Some people clain that there is the vestige of a face carved on the top surface while others see a vulva. I just see one of my favourite standing stones.