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bishop_pam visited on 19th Aug 2017 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4

Anne T visited on 30th Aug 2014 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 3 Access: 4 The Hurl Stone, Newtown, Northumberland. Second visit: Saturday, 30th August 2014. Armed with a letter from the landowner allowing us access, we set off back to the Hurl Stone before the weather turned. The farmer was busy herding sheep down the road to the field next to the Newtown Mill standing stone. He was using an army style buggy and 4 sheep dogs, which was fascinating in itself. Having watched this, we drove the 100 yards further up to farm at Newtown and bumped up onto the grass verge next to the gate leading into the Hurl Stone field. It was a longer walk than it looked, through lush ankle high grass to the top of the slight hill. The tall Hurl Stone commandeered the horizon, but I was only about 20 yards away when I realised it had been concreted in. It looked as if at some time it had toppled and been recently re-erected (but if they’d done this, why let the stone lean, unless it was to give the impression it had indeed been hurled? Sorry, this is me being sceptical). This took a little of the shine off seeing the Hurl Stone, but my goodness, what a 360 degree view, which I’ve tried to represent in the photographs submitted to the Portal. The face of the stone facing the recently built tower (I’m told this is used as a conference centre, but haven’t been able to verify this yet) looks as if it has broken at some time in the past. The quartz crystals within the stone sparkled in the sunlight. There was some, but not much, graffiti carved into it. The landowner, who resides nearby, opens his gardens under the National Garden Scheme, and according to an archived article in the Hexham Courant, our local paper, has a 14th century chapel, a crusader tomb and two grave slabs belonging to Knights Templar, so I’ll be looking out for dates to go and see these other treasures. I’m going to write to thank the landowner for allowing us access. First visit, August 17th 2014: Driving down the road southwards past the hamlet of Newton, we at first only saw the recently built tower in the field to our right. Driving a little further on, we stopped at the standing stone on the opposite side of the road, just below Ewe Hill, to take photographs. When we turned the car and drove back up the road, the Hurl Stone appeared like a sharp needle, just below the top of the hill. It’s proximity to the modern tower seems suspicious (we immediately asked ourselves if the stone had been moved to provide a good view of it from Liliburn Tower, the landowner’s house, as from the maps, the modern tower and the stone seem to be in direct alignment?). There were no public footpaths to the stone, so I stopped at the field gateway and took a photograph. I have since written to the landowner to ask for permission to walk to the stone across the field.



Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3 Ambience: 3.5 Access: 4

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