<< Our Photo Pages >> Fontburn B - Rock Art in England in Northumberland
Submitted by SolarMegalith on Sunday, 16 June 2013 Page Views: 1903
Rock ArtSite Name: Fontburn B Alternative Name: ERA-1361; Beckensall 644; SMR/HER N10808Country: England County: Northumberland Type: Rock Art
Nearest Town: Rothbury Nearest Village: Coldrife
Map Ref: NZ0328093376
Latitude: 55.234582N Longitude: 1.949968W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Anne T visited on 5th Sep 2014 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Fontburn B (Rock Art), near Rothbury, Northumberland: Fontburn Reservoir is just over 12 km north of Wallington and 9 km south-south-west of Rothbury. Despite it not being very far from where I live I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it this reservoir, yet it’s clearly very popular with fishermen and has a cafe that’s open at weekends. On the map, there were no clear roads up to the reservoir yet two car parks clearly marked, so this was a little bit of a voyage of discovery. And there it was - a single track road with passing places that wound its way up past Roughlees Farm and the Goats On The Roof cafe to the dam.
Parking at the southern-most end of the car park, as far as we could get past the fishing shack, we walked clockwise around the lake. From the car park, heading southwards, a barrier blocks entry to cars, but the footpath turns and continues westwards along a grassy track, wending through the trees with the reservoir to the right hand side. There are good, solid boardwalks in the boggiest areas and wooden guard rails at some of the edges of the lake (but not always in the steepest places); being someone who hates sheer drops, the height down to the lake wasn’t too bad, and it was an easy path to walk on. About a third of the way around the southern side of the reservoir, the path divides. The small track which follows the edge of the reservoir enters a nature reserve and disappears amongst the trees; the footpath signs turn you left, leading up a slight hill to a gate (with a very heavy spring) which took you onto Access Land (avoiding the nature reserve) where the terrain was much rougher and more difficult to walk with humps and bumps and small streams to cross.
We missed the first stone, Fontburn N02, at grid reference: NZ0395993186, as in the trees along the riverside walk it was difficult to gauge how far we had gone. By the time we came to the access land and orientated ourselves using the fence boundaries and the sheepfolds, we had to walk a fair way back to see NO2, and decided to go back to it on the return journey. But an hour later, the skies were heavy and grey and it felt like thunder, so we returned to the car along the easier footpath to the north of the reservoir.
As an aside, we came upon an unknown Rock (Grid reference: NZ0310993518) just to the left hand side of the path. Just into the access land, we came upon what looked like the remains of a cairn, but couldn’t be sure as field drains had been dug into the field around it, but there was a clear oval shape in the grass, topped by stones. Just after this, we found the said stone sitting alongside the left hand side of the footpath, although it wasn’t clear if there was rock art on it. There was also a smaller stone located alongside with other marks on it. Looking this up on the ERA database and the Portal, there are no references to this rock at all, so the marks are just weathering or perhaps where ploughs have hit it [note: we missed Fontburn N01, which is located between the two halves of the car parks at the eastern end of the reservoir! grid reference: NZ 04897 93466].
Continuing along the footpath, and rounding the right hand turn it takes, Fontburn B came clearly into view to the left of the footpath. It looks like an erratic dropped at the side of the path above the (now) reservoir. It’s impressive in size, although it looks as if the northern edge has been quarried away as there is a sheer, rather than a rounded face on this side.
A few cup marks were visible from the ground, and many more visible by climbing a few metres up the hill to the south. Even better was just to carefully hop up the side of the rock and sit on top of it, just like our ancestors must have done all those thousands of years ago. In the sunshine, it was a remarkable spot, although dominated by the ground rising to the south. In the past, there would have been clear views down to the river below.
We then carried on following the footpath to where it loops back round to the reservoir, and goes back onto the Northumberland Water Board Water Trail and onto Fontburn Four-Poster.
Doing some research on the web since getting home, I’ve discovered that Fontburn B is a published landmark/site to see on the National Trust Greenleighton Moor Walk around the Wallington area.
SolarMegalith visited on 12th Jun 2013 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 3
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3 Ambience: 4 Access: 3
This huge glacial boulder has a fairly flat top surface which is decorated with over 50 cup-marks and cups with single rings.
Beckensall records that this panel stands at the edge of a plantation where hollow ways suggest that it was a route to the stream valley, now a reservoir, and notes 79 cups of various sizes, seven of which have rings, four have penannualrs and two have arcs.
For more information see ERA-1361 Fontburn b, which includes NADRAP's notes, Beckensall's description and archive notes, photographs, photogrammetry, a VRML model and media from the Beckensall Archive. The original Beckensall record can be found at Internet Archive: Beckensall 644 Fontburn b.
Access to this rock art panel is 'Access by Right of Way'.
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