Snuff Mill (Stainton)

Trip No.60  Entry No.1  Date Added: 24th Nov 2017
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 20th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Snuff Mill Standing (?) Stone: On the way back from Pooley Bridge to Stainton and Newbeggin, I saw a standing stone by the side of the road (A592) so Andrew turned around and we parked in the driveway of Snuff Mill Water Treatment Centre. The stone was just passed a corner of this busy little road, and it felt quite dangerous as none of the cars moved very far out of the way for us walkers.

The dry stone wall had been ‘kinked’ to go around the stone. It was heavily covered in moss.

I can’t find anything about it on Pastscape or Historic England, so will email Mark Brennand at Cumbria County Council.

Newton Reigny Enclosure

Trip No.60  Entry No.2  Date Added: 26th Nov 2017
Site Type: Misc. Earthwork Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 20th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Newton Reigny Enclosure: Having put the wellies in the back of the car, we decided to try and walk along the lanes from the south of Newton Reigny, where traditionally one of the stone rows ran towards Newbeggin. On our last visit, back in February 2017, the lane was ankle deep in water and mud.

I spotted this enclosure on the map, and keen to see something other than possible (non-existent) standing stones, was keen to see something of historic value. There were road works immediately opposite the field this enclosure was in, and the workmen, who were partly blocking the road waved us through. We, however, didn't want to be waved on, so my husband drove just past where they were working and I hopped out with the camera, much to the amusement of the workmen who must have wondered what we were looking at.

There were the outlines of low banks and a deeper ditch criss-crossing the field. Not a huge amount to look at, but worth stopping to look at. On looking at the information available on Pastscape and Historic England, this is a scheduled site. It is just to the east of the church of St. John in the village

Belsay Tower Cross (Northumberland)

Trip No.60  Entry No.2  Date Added: 27th Nov 2017
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Belsay Tower Cross, Northumberland: Passing Belsay on the way back from the Bolam Cairn, we decided to try and trace the cross marked on the OS map. Although we’ve been here before, we’d not tried to look for this, as we largely had our small grand daughter with us.

The cross is located (on the map) very close to the Castle, so we walked through the grounds, having received a stern reminder from one of the staff members, that we had to vacate the car park by 4pm, but became thoroughly disorientated. Husband, Andrew, got his compass out and we decided that to reach the cross from the castle, we would have had to jump the ha-ha or scale a fence to get into a field to cross over to it.

In the end, we walked back through the Quarry Gardens to the private road which runs north from the gate at the bottom of the croquet lawn (where the paths from the Hall cross over to Quarry Gardens); after 100 metres it joins the road which runs east-west between the Hall and the Castle. Turning east along this, we walked for around 150 metres, then found a short trackway running through a sparse wooded area, into a field. Through the wooded area, we got our first sight of this cross.

It is on private land, but we took the chance of going through the gate and taking a quick look. It is within 200 metres of the castle, which is to the west, but the land is well fenced off.

In the end, it would have been easier to walk from the car park, past the estate cottages towards the castle, then take the first track on the north side of this minor road into the field with the cross.

It really reminded me of the Shitlington Cross, with its chamfered sides and missing top.

Mossthorn Long Cairn 1

Trip No.60  Entry No.3  Date Added: 24th Nov 2017
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 20th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Mossthorn Long Cairn, Copt Howe, Newton Reigny: We wrote to Mossthorn Farm immediately after our last visit here in February 2017, but our letter was ignored and we didn’t get a reply. A local historian, who we’d made contact with to find out more about the standing stones / stone row said he had contacts who would give permission for us to visit, but nothing.

In our latest visit to Newbeggin, we went armed with wellington boots and socks and trudged down the lanes from the southern side of Newton Reigny. Whilst the lane is gated, it looks to be frequently used by walkers, so we followed the footpath to Copt Howe at NY 48258 30770. The gate into the field was wide open and a large dung heap had been placed near the field gate. As the rest of the field was pasture, we decided to walk quickly over to the long cairn and take a closer look. The field was very boggy and I was glad of my wellies.

Strangely, I noticed lots of quartz stones scattered around the perimeter of the cairn, shining white in the drizzle amongst the brown-red earth. This cairn had plenty of stones down its length.

We saw the side of Mossthorn Long Cairn 2 that we hadn’t seen before from the eastern hedge line of the field but didn’t want to incur the wrath of the farmer, who was working on his tractor in the field nearby.

Mossthorn Long Cairn 2

Trip No.60  Entry No.4  Date Added: 24th Nov 2017
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 20th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Mossthorn Long Cairn 2, Copt Howe, Newton Reigny: See the visit report for Mossthorn Long Cairn 1 for more details. This is the side of the long cairn (or natural feature, as Pastscape says?) we couldn’t see from the road on our last visit on 12th February 2017. This time, we could only see it from the field boundary near the southern end of Mossthorn Long Cairn 1. From this angle, it does look like a natural hummock, although more like a cairn from the main road.

Bolam Round Cairn (Northumberland)

Trip No.61  Entry No.1  Date Added: 27th Nov 2017
Site Type: Round Cairn Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 26th Nov 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Bolam Bronze Age Round Cairn, near Belsay, Northumberland: Although the sun was shining and the photos largely make this site look like we’ve seen it on a summer’s day, the temperature was 2 degrees C and removing my glove for a few minutes to take photographs made my normally very warm hands icy cold.

Walking along the footpath (which a notice at the field gate said was blocked at Foulmartlaw), the first thing we noticed was the very prominent ridge and furrow ploughing, which seemed to be the same in all the other fields around the estate.

Approaching the cairn from its eastern side, it seemed like a large bite had been taken out of the middle. A stone was standing in the middle of the ‘bite’. Pastscape and Historic England say this is a gatepost. BUT - if this was a gatepost, there was no evidence of a field system or boundary matching this. And where was it’s matching stone?

There was a second stone at NZ 09356 82201, some 50 metres away, which was lying with its base in a hollow with some packing stones, which indicated it had stood upright at some point. It is not mentioned on either Pastscape or Historic England entries.

A third, smaller boulder, poked its way out of the ground half way between the cairn and this stone. I photographed it just in case it was associated with the cairn.

National Museum of Scotland

Trip No.62  Entry No.1  Date Added: 8th Jan 2018
Site Type: Museum Country: Scotland (Midlothian)
Visited: Yes on 19th Dec 2017. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 5

Log Text: Pictish and Early Christian Stones, NMS: The weather prohibited my friends and I from doing much outside, so the National Museum of Scotland seemed like a good place to visits. Neither of us had been before, and as neither of us knew where we were going, asked the lady at the reception desk for the Pictish Stones. She was very helpful, pulling out a guide of the museum and telling us that some of them were in the basement, other in the Kingdom of the Scots exhibition on the first/part floor. She said she would contact one of her colleagues.

She pointed us in the direction of the stairs to the next floor down, and by the time we reached the bottom, a colleague was already waiting to greet us. He walked us round to the start of the exhibition and round to the pod to the side of the ‘early people exhibition’ on the lower ground floor. I spent a very happy couple of hours wandering around the exhibitions and photographing the stones.

The one downside was that not all the signs telling us what the exhibits were could be found. I did try and find someone to ask later in the afternoon, but could find no-one on the museum floor that we were on. I will email or revisit to find out more about the exhibits I'm really interested in.

Edinburgh Runestone

Trip No.62  Entry No.2  Date Added: 8th Jan 2018
Site Type: Carving Country: Scotland (Midlothian)
Visited: Yes on 19th Dec 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: The Edinburgh Runestone: Getting to this stone was rather precarious! It was easy to walk up the 40 degree slope by clutching onto the nearby railings around the stone. Getting down was more difficult and left my friend with mud all over his walking boots. The stone is obviously in the middle of being moved - it has been strapped up and well protected. I'm glad its going to a much more accessible site. On my next trip up to Edinburgh I'll make a point of going to see this stone in its new location.

Mill Knock Settlement (Birtley)

Trip No.63  Entry No.1  Date Added: 10th Jan 2018
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 7th Jan 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Mill Knock Enclosure, Birtley: We didn't realise this settlement was here until we pulled up at the quarry entrance and I studied the OS map more closely. At first, it looked like just outcrops of limestone rock, but as I walked up the gentle slope, the outer banks and ditches became more obvious.

The northern part of the enclosure looked as if it had been used for small scale limestone quarrying, although the outer bank and ditches were relatively in tact.

The Holywell Burn runs past the eastern side of the enclosure - just a waterlogged ditch lined by reeds at this point. The eastern side of the site looks as if it had been ploughed or quarried away.

With all the rock outcrops in the area I spent some time looking for cup marks, but found none.

Mill Knock Chalybeate Well (Birtley)

Trip No.63  Entry No.2  Date Added: 8th Jan 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 7th Jan 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Mill Knock Holy Well: The skies may have been blue and tempting to put on walking boots, but the temperatures were just on freezing and the minor roads around here were just like skating rinks! This well is not marked on the map, but my husband had come across an article on it, and being not too far from our house, decided to drive out to visit.

This is a glorious location (well, if you ignore the quarry). Access into the well field is a bit tricky, as there is no gate near the gorge formed by the gushing spring, but a bit of wooden fence allowed us to hop over to get a closer look.

On the eastern side of the road, the Holywell Burn is just a trickle - like a shallow ditch, but crossing the single track road and looking west over the stone wall, there is a strong gush of clear water which comes tumbling out of the hillside.

From a distance, it looks as if the water comes directly from the face of the large stone which is visible at the head of the gorge, but in fact the water is channelled from the stone wall past the western face of the stone.

Whilst I was waiting at the wooden fence for my husband to do a 'reccy' of the field to see if it was safe to go and look, I glanced down at my feet and what looked like narrow, but well worn rings, shone up at me from a portable stone that looked like it had fallen out of the wall. I photographed it, but am not convinced. However, for a moment, it did look like a new rock art discovery and I was quite excited!

This is another complex landscape, but mixed with lots of rock outcrops, so it was difficult to comprehend exactly what we were seeing until we came back home and looked up the official records on Pastscape (HE had nothing). A site to revisit during warmer weather.

Carry House Enclosure (Birtley Shields)

Trip No.63  Entry No.3  Date Added: 10th Jan 2018
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 7th Jan 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Carry House Settlement, Birtley Shields: Cut by two stone walls and ploughed away at its northern end, but this was a stunning spot, tucked below a hill and with a steep slope down to the River North Tyne Valley below.

In the distance I could hear the farmer on his tractor running animal feed to his Blackies. I said to my husband, "He's going to come over." Five minutes later he drove up on his quad bike and engaged us in conversation, telling how this block of land belonged to the Duke of Northumberland "who didn't like visitors and didn't want them taking photographs" ("What, even though its marked on the OS map and its next to a public highway? Why are there no notices telling us this?" I think he was just winding me up!). Anyway, he was very pleasant and told us about his farm and a brief history of the area.

As the farmer was around, we stuck to walking up to the wall and along the track to take photographs. Shame, as I would have nipped through the gate to look for the cairn.

Piper Lane Standing Stone (Birtley)

Trip No.63  Entry No.4  Date Added: 10th Jan 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 7th Jan 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Piper Lane Stone, Birtley Shields: Spotted this on the way back from Birtley Shields, standing in the middle of the field. There was no easy access into the field and the ground was waterlogged, so passed up on climbing over the stone wall to get a closer look.

It's location is intriguing, as it stands north of the cultivation terraces marked on the OS maps. There are no other rubbing stones in the surrounding fields. Couldn't find anything about it on Pastscape, HE or by doing a general web search.

Robin Hood's Well (Burghwallis)

Trip No.64  Entry No.1  Date Added: 16th Jan 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Yorkshire (South))
Visited: Yes on 15th Jan 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Robin Hood's Well, just off the A1 near Burghwallis: With the rain pounding down on the car and a warning light just appeared on the car dashboard, we were glad to pull off the A1 near Burghwallis. It was easy enough to pull onto the layby (it was a busy place), but difficult to get back onto the A1 and we had to wait quite a long time for a big enough gap in the traffic to appear.

I pulled my coat on and headed off the few metres from the car to the well housing, getting soaked on the way. Having wanted to stop off here for years, but never having succeeded, I confess to being really disappointed. This really is just a recently constructed stone 'well house', with a bit of graffiti inside and a vague hollow for where the well pipe might have been situated. Still, I achieved it and got a few photos, having to wipe the camera down well once I huddled back in the car to warm up.

Little John's Well (Hampole)

Trip No.64  Entry No.2  Date Added: 16th Jan 2018
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Yorkshire (South))
Visited: Yes on 15th Jan 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Little John's Well, Hampole: Please note, when I say disabled access - the site is visible (just) from the road, but there are a few steps up the brambled covered slope (not enough to say 'short walk on a footpath' because there is none). For what seemed to be like a country area with a few little villages around, there was an endless stream of traffic, including huge lorries, but then I guess there is a huge quarry immediately adjacent to this site, plus it sits by the side of the A638, a main road into Doncaster.

With parked on the wide entrance to Hazel Lane (made so because the huge lorries need to be able to swing round) and walked round the corner to the A638 and found the well hidden behind a large clump of brambles.

Not having expected to come here (it wasn’t far off the route and we had half an hour to kill) I wasn’t dressed for clambering up slippery, bramble covered slopes (being attired in long skirt and shoes for scattering my step father’s ashes), but with the help of my husband, I made it up the short slope anyway. There was a further stone structure higher up the slope, and from the Pastscape entry, this appears to be the main spring, which feeds into the well trough below.

There were also stone facings higher up the hill, but Andrew said these were more likely to be there to support the slope. From reading the Pastscape entry this morning, these stone may have been part of the enclosure for the well.

Thornborough Central

Trip No.64  Entry No.3  Date Added: 16th Jan 2018
Site Type: Henge Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 15th Jan 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Thornborough Henge: We stopped off here just before sunset and walked round the henge in the dusk. This time, rather than being here on our own, there were lots of dog walkers around for the first part of our visit. I was horrified by the amount of burrowing that was all around the henge; it seemed to be slowly destroying the banks of the henge. I don't remember there being this much on our last visit. Not sure what to do about it. An email to the local archaeologists?

I took some photographs but need to work out how to produce a panorama from them, as my photostitch software seems to have stopped working.

Holy Stone (North Tyneside)

Trip No.65  Entry No.1  Date Added: 4th Feb 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Tyne and Wear)
Visited: Yes on 3rd Feb 2018. My rating: Condition -1 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Holy Stone Cross Base, North Tyneside: Having been to the industrial estate nearby, we decided to try and track down this stone. Donning wellies, as there had been torrential rain the night before, we followed the footpath from the Holystone Pub/Premier Inn (where there is a car park almost next to the A19, just north east of the pub) towards Holystone Farm, crossing the bridge above a busy railway line. At the recently built Holystone Cottage, another footpath runs north east across the fields towards the A19. The stone is supposed to be located at the junction of the footpath and the front wall of Holystone Cottage.

By chance we met a couple of dog walkers, and I asked them if they knew of this stone. The man said he was brought up locally and remembered playing in the fields at the back of the cottage, where there a three foot high stone they used to gather around. He said the stone had been destroyed some years ago, but the cross base might remain.

He walked us to the spot where he remembered the stone being, but nothing. He did say that there had been recent site investigation in the field, prior to building new houses.

We did find what looked very much like a cross base in the corner of a neighbouring field at NZ 30210 70783. This looked very convincing from the side, but from the top, there was what might have been a long, thin, damaged slot, very unlike the carved slots we've seen in other cross bases.

St Luke's Church (Townhead)

Trip No.66  Entry No.1  Date Added: 10th Feb 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 9th Feb 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Ancient cross, St. Luke's Church, Townhead, near Ousby. OK, so the weather was supposed to be better the further west we went, so we took the option of travelling to this site via Alston and the high moors. A bit of a mistake, as there was much more snow here than at home, but it was lovely, if a bit of a slow drive. The roads within Ousby village were quite complex for such a small village, and we managed twice to take the wrong turn, but finally ended up at this very small hamlet.

Parking is available just to the west of the church, where the road widens, although walking to the gate of the church was tricky as it was quite a busy road, with farm traffic and lorries (considering the road is a dead end, I wondered where the traffic went).

No-one had been in the churchyard since the snow had fallen, so we picked our way up to the north door. The church is relatively plain inside, until you walk up to the chancel, where there is the most fantastic carved effigy, made out of wood and now encased in a glass/plastic case to preserve it. Half of this has broken off, but I was glad we'd gone inside the church to see this. There was no church guide, or any notes for visitors, and I haven't been able to find out much about this since.

The cross base and remnant of cross shaft are to the south of the nave/chancel, almost on top of a tall, red sandstone grave stone. We could see no markings or carvings on the cross shaft or base, apart from a shallow carved cross on top of the shaft, with small 'cups' as terminals.

The snowy hills in the background made this quite an atmospheric place.

St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland)

Trip No.66  Entry No.2  Date Added: 10th Feb 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 9th Feb 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Ancient Cross, St Lawrence's Church, Kirkland, Cumbria: The church itself is unremarkable, although a pretty stream runs just outside the southern wall of the churchyard. Parking is available just outside the church, on the grass, although on the day of our visit it was snowy and the ground was boggy, so we parked just over the bridge, just east of the T-junction.

The church was being renovated, so to avoid the scaffolding and a muddy walk right round the churchyard from the gate at the north-western edge of the church, we hopped across the small wire fence, meant for containing the sheep.

The cross is tall and slender, but with broken arms. We observed two channels in the base, where the cross shaft meets the base, from which melting snow water was running. On another cross base near Cairnpapple, Canmore recorded that similar channels were thought to be from the base being used as a drinking trough at some time in its past. Here, the channels seemed to serve as a way of getting rid of water which might run down between the cross shaft and its base.

Certainly a remote spot here, although plenty of farm traffic.

St Cuthbert's Church (Milburn)

Trip No.66  Entry No.3  Date Added: 10th Feb 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 9th Feb 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Ancient cross and pre-Conquest sundial, Milburn, Cumbria: We scouted all around the churchyard for this cross, only to realise it was at the head of the access road from the village, so back-tracked to find it. It sits right by the northern gate post and we had mistaken it for part of the gate/fence structure, then we checked the grid reference and saw the hole in the top of the shaft, presumably either for another section or a smaller cross.

Going back down to the church, I found the pre-Conquest sundial, which is low down on the exterior stone door jamb of the western side of the south door. Thankfully I was able to pull up the Corpus of Anglo Saxon stone sculpture photograph to help me in the growing dusk.

The churchyard is really nicely kept and the Crowdundle Beck/Milburn Beck runs by the western side of the churchyard. A remote, by lovely spot.

St Edmund's Church (Newbeggin)

Trip No.66  Entry No.5  Date Added: 10th Feb 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 9th Feb 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Cross base and remains of cross shaft, St. Edmunds Church, Newbeggin (Culgaith): We arrived here as dusk was dropping fast, so all my photos had to be taken with flash. Surprisingly, the church was still open, so we popped inside, but apart from a reading light near the pulpit, couldn't find any light switches. The church is a lot larger than it looks, and the grave yard is very full, so we had to pick our way over the graves and host of snowdrops to get to the cross.

The sundial nearer to the western churchyard wall was also interesting, although part of its lead gnomon had been pulled off.

It was very heavily encrusted in moss, and not wanting to damage it, left it without seeing if there were any carvings or features on it. Another church next to Crowdundle Burn (as is St. Cuthbert's in Milburn). A pretty spot. By the time we'd finished here, it was almost dark, so reluctantly had to set off back home.