Torhousekie Standing Stone

Trip No.136  Entry No.7  Date Added: 25th Jun 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Visited (still working on) on 17th Jun 2019

Log Text: Torhouskie Standing Stone: At the time of our visit, the only route to this stone was either along the very busy minor road then down the farm track (didn't fancy getting run over as sight lines for cars weren't very good) or across the field. With The Huge Bull standing guard, and watching our every move, we had a quick chat with another visitor who was keen to see the stones, we decided we were not brave enough to risk it!

Seeing SumDoood's photographs of this stone on the site page, the size of the stone is very similar in size and shape to the one lying in the field just to the east of the stone circle.

On my list for another visit.

Shovel Down row 4

Trip No.136  Entry No.7  Date Added: 1st Aug 2019
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 16th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Shovel Down Row 4: From Shovel Down Cairn Row 4, this row started just to the north west, the stones ‘marching’ steadily downhill. These stones were similar in size to the Drizzlecombe Stone Rows 1 & 2, but largely hidden in tall grass.

Whilst everyone else walked down to the Fourfold Stone Circle to start a well deserved lunch break, and see the start of Shovel Down Row 2, I paused to take photographs of row 4. The row reminded me more than a little of Standingstone Rigg in Northumberland, with the size of the stones and the steepness of the slope down which the stones ran (not literally!).

Torhousekie East

Trip No.136  Entry No.8  Date Added: 25th Jun 2019
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4

Log Text: Torhouseskie Stone Row: Crossing the road from the layby by the stone circle, we entered this field through the gate at NX 38340 56494. This proved a little tricky, as it was two gates bolted together, then tied with multiple loops of string. Whilst I managed to untie the knots, and Andrew and I between us bolted the gates back together, a later visitor told me he’d had to climb the gate!

Three large boulders with some smaller stones between them. Standing on this small knoll, looking south towards the River Bladnoch, with the stone circle to our south west, and cairns to the west, it felt like a very prehistoric landscape.

Whilst the stone circle was proving very popular with visitors who came and went every five or ten minutes, only one other of the visitors came across to see the stone row.

Torhousekie N

Trip No.136  Entry No.9  Date Added: 25th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Torhousekie N cairn: We had a cairn further up slope recorded to find, together with one by the farmhouse, so it came as a surprise to find this cairn here. I took some photographs on the day (a few before a heavy shower of rain, one after in the sun), and found out about it later.

Recorded as Canmore 62839, it stands just to the north of a milestone which stands out bright white against the side of the road, and just to the west of a dry stone wall. It looks as if it may have been robbed in the middle.

Torhouse North Side Cairn

Trip No.136  Entry No.10  Date Added: 25th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition -1 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Torhouse North Side Cairn: We had the Canmore ID record printed off for this cairn, but we were a little confused. One entry in Canmore said the cairn had been almost entirely removed and the site used as a dump for field clearance stones, but at the grid reference point there was nothing but a ploughed field.

I've marked the location of where the cairn should be with an arrow on the photograph. It is in precisely the location identified by SumDoood, although we could make out nothing on the ground.

Torhouse North Cairn

Trip No.136  Entry No.11  Date Added: 26th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition -1 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Torhouse North Cairn (now destroyed): Being so close to the stone row, the stone circle and other cairns, I was curious to see where this cairn might have been, and what views from it. From the Torhousekie North Side Cairn (to the left/west of the track – see above) we continued up the track for another 100m or so. The site of this cairn can be found at the top of a natural knoll with a view of the stone circle below.

There were no signs of the cairn (we looked around for any humps and hollows and stones at the top of the knoll but were unable to find anything), but took some photos showing where it would have been.

Using the zoom lens I took a couple of photos of the stone circle from just below the top of the knoll (see the Torhousekie Stone Circle entry).

Torhousekie Farm Cairn

Trip No.136  Entry No.12  Date Added: 26th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Torhousekie Farm Cairn: With tea-time fast approaching and cars whizzing up and down the road at high speed, Andrew pulled into a gateway opposite the cairn whilst I hopped out to take some photos.

It was a lot more interesting than it looked, with definite structures on the sides and top. I could only view it from the field to the east, where part of it protruded into the field, cut by a dry stone wall.

Spittal Croft cairn

Trip No.136  Entry No.13  Date Added: 26th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Boreland Cairn: By this time of the afternoon (early evening) I was getting more than a little ‘cairned-out’ having seen, and still trying to make sense of, all those cairns at Torhousekie. But this was a lovely little cairn, complete with sheep warming themselves by the small piles of stones on top of the cairn.

With rain threatening and the dark clouds feeling as if they were virtually overhead, we walked some way up and down both sides of the road, both the B733 and the minor road running between the B733 and the B7052, but could find no gate into the field, so photographed the cairn as best I could from the dry stone wall.

We did go further up the road to find the standing stones and cairn at NX 3522 5808 and NX 3528 5819 (Canmore 62860 and 62849 respectively), but the field was jam-packed full of cattle.

Peter Hill Roundhouse (Whithorn)

Trip No.136  Entry No.13  Date Added: 1st Jul 2019
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Peter Hill Roundhouse: Part of the visitor experience at the Whithorn Museum. We arrived just after a small guided tour had started. We asked if we could go round after the tour had finished, but were told we could only get in while there was an official guide there. I cheekily asked if we could join the tour for 10 minutes, and to my surprise, were allowed to go in.

I was really surprised and impressed by the inside of the roundhouse - the compartments for privacy, the central fire pits, and the sheer amount of room within it. Shame we didn't have time for the full tour, but I was so keen to see the early Christian stones in the museum.

Kirkmadrine Church Stones

Trip No.136  Entry No.14  Date Added: 26th Jun 2019
Site Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Kirkmadrine Old Church & Early Christian Stones: Now this site I was so looking forward to seeing, but in some ways it was the most disappointing.

As we arrived at the foot of the grassy lane to the church, the heavens opened, and my, did it pour. Thankfully, we were sheltered to some extent by the trees on either side of the lane. Eventually, we came to the gate into the churchyard, with the cross on a mound to our right, and the church to our left.

The stones were displayed behind glass at the exterior western end of the church. To even see the stones we had to wipe the rain from the glass with a handkerchief. Unfortunately, raindrops had leaked behind the glass, affecting the clarity of our view of the stones. In addition, the light at this time of evening (around 5pm) was bouncing off the glass, and trying to photograph the most impressive, and oldest, stone at the back left hand side (northern) side of the display proved virtually impossible, despite the UV filter, because the reflections of the trees in the glass were too strong. I tried photographing from various angles, but to no real effect.

I went away really disappointed, as these stones are really impressive and I wanted to see more. I did contact Canmore with a photograph a week ago (today is 26th June) but have had no reply apart from an automatic acknowledgement of receiving my message.

Cairnweil standing stone

Trip No.136  Entry No.15  Date Added: 26th Jun 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: South Carnweil Standing Stone: From Kirkmadrine Church, we travelled back along the road eastwards towards the A716, we stopped off to see this standing stone, by a wall, up a hill, but not quite at the top of the hill. It certainly is a big stone.

The road was narrow, so we bumped right up on the grass blocking a gated entrance to a field, ready to run back if we were causing an obstruction. After such a heavy rainstorm not half an hour before, we got quite wet walking up the hill, but it was worth it.

In some ways, this made up for not being able to see the stones at Kirkmadrine very well.

Knock and Maize

Trip No.137  Entry No.1  Date Added: 27th Jun 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Knock & Maize Standing Stone: Lovely views of the sea, but the view of the stone was a little spoilt by its proximity to the telegraph poles. It was only when we got into the field and I was photographing the stone that we realised there was a large herd of bullocks down the bottom end of the field. Half of them stood up, but thankfully they were too lazy to come over and take a closer look.

There were lots of smaller boulders around this stone – field clearance or where the stone has been fractured over the years? There are certainly lots of fracture lines and ‘dings’ on the stone. Perhaps the stones are both.

Duddo Five Stones

Trip No.137  Entry No.1  Date Added: 12th Jun 2019
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 29th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Duddo Five Stones, Northumberland: We had three tries at reaching this stone circle, until we discovered the actual, relatively new 'permissive path'. Our first attempt was using the footpath to the north of the stones, but the footpath had been ploughed out and we had to retrace our steps. Then we used the marked footpath which ran from NT 93907 42659, through the Duddo Farm cottages onto open land full of wild flowers, to NT 93495 43489, where we could see the stones atop a small rise in the field. Andrew walked further on to see if there was a footpath from the north/north east, but nothing, so we decided to follow the tractor tracks through the wheat field, to NT 93084 43470, where we spotted a line of marked canes and a proper path through the crop to the stones – this was the last part of the permissive footpath, which we followed up to the stones.

Stan Beckensall is certainly right in saying this is a spectacular site – the views all around are amazing, and far-reaching. The stones are very attractive, with their very fluted profiles.

There is an interpretation board (put up by DEFRA, facing away from the stone circle, at NT 92968 43718.

I took my time photographing the stones from different angles, and each individual stone. I did manage to catch the four cup marks on the eastern most stone, but how ERA/NADRAF spotted these amongst the natural features, I’m not sure!

We followed the permissive footpath all the way back down to the road, to the west of the village, running from NT 93221 42619 all the way to the stones. There were a number of cars parked here (there wasn’t when we drove past the first time), together with a small sign saying ‘stone circle’ (which I’d missed) and also a sign explaining about the permissive footpath).

Kirkcolm Cross

Trip No.137  Entry No.2  Date Added: 27th Jun 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Kirkcolm Cross: From the Knock & Maize standing stone we followed the minor roads across this peninsula until we reached the western shores of Loch Ryan, then drove north to Kirkcolm.

This cross slab has quite a complicated history of being sited in different locations (read the Canmore details below). The town has lovely views over Loch Ryan and Cairnryan ferry terminal.

The cross slab is now located in the external western corner of the south transept (although the building it stands next to looks more like an outhouse).

In the churchyard is an amazing statue of a woman with child clutching her. It looks as if she is a fisherwoman waiting for her man to come home. I guess she would have had views over Loch Ryan but the church building is in the way.

We did go in search of the original site of Kilmore Chapel and St Mary’s Well, to the south of Kirkcolm, but these appear to either be in a field next to a private house, now ploughed out, or partly in their very gated and (rightly so) private garden.

St Mary's Well (New Etal)

Trip No.137  Entry No.2  Date Added: 12th Jun 2019
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 29th May 2019. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: St Mary's Well, New Etal: The ford across the river from Etal village was pretty high, so we decided not to chance wading across it, but drove round to New Etal and used the farm tracks to walk back down to the western side of the ford to find the remains of this chantry chapel and well.

No signs of the chantry chapel - the foundations are now mostly under the river. All that remains of the well is a rectangular concrete slab with a modern small drain cover at its western side and an access hole to the side nearest the river.

It is a peaceful spot and worth the walk, even though there wasn't a lot to see.

Mid Gleniron Stony Mounds

Trip No.137  Entry No.3  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron Stony Mounds: I found these stony mounds as fascinating as the chambered cairns just north of these mounds, so took a few photographs (just in case they were recorded cairns) and grid references. If they are field clearance stones, why place them in different mounds in the same field? And why so many smaller stones? The larger stones are most likely field clearance, but the make up of the mounds is similar to Gleniron 1 to Gleniron 5 inclusive.

There are two mounds on the eastern side of the farm track and another four on the western side.

Mid Gleniron 3

Trip No.137  Entry No.4  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron 3: OK, the GPS led me to this spot, but there wasn’t much to see. Had it not been for the sheer number of cows and their calves in the field, I would have gone for a closer look, but bottled out. I photographed this feature by leaning over the dry stone wall.

Mid Gleniron 2

Trip No.137  Entry No.5  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron 2: Photos taken from NX 18753 60931, I photographed a mound approximately 20 metres to east (right) of track as walked uphill, with a cattle feeder virtually on top.

I wasn’t sure that this was a cairn at all, although Andrew was certain. In fact Canmore shows there are the remains of two cairns here, one at NX 1877 6093,the other at NX 1876 6092. With the cattle feeder placed virtually on top of the cairn at NX 1876 6092 and numerous, very curious cattle in the field, I photographed these from the gate into the field.

Mid Gleniron 4

Trip No.137  Entry No.6  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron 4: This is the large bell cairn at the top of the hill, near the farmhouse, which dominates the view as you walk up the track towards the farmhouse.

Access into the field is easy, and it’s possible to walk all the way round the cairn to see its structure and enjoy the views.

Mid Gleniron 5

Trip No.137  Entry No.7  Date Added: 28th Jun 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jun 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Mid Gleniron 5: This cairn lies west of track to the farmhouse, south east of the oval cairn, and is very distinct in the field and on the aerial photographs.

The mound of the cairn stood out particularly today as the farmer was spreading the lines of harvested grass to dry as we walked across the field, and he had gone round this cairn with the tractor.