Howden Hill 2

Trip No.125  Entry No.3  Date Added: 24th Apr 2019
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Howden Hill 2: Literally 1m to the north of Howden Hill 1, and has most visible. It is clear that both rocks continue under the turf, but not wishing to cause any damage, viewed them as they were. Having seen Andy Curtis's photograph on Geograph beforehand, I'd expected both panels to be covered in turf, and was surprised to find the cups that were above ground were very visible in the strong sunlight. Both panels are to the east of the sheepfold and the two cists that we saw and went back to examine after photographing what was visible of these two RA panels.

Recorded as HE 1418656 and ERA-1414: "The second panel (ERA 1414) lies immediately to the south of the first, and is a rounded boulder about 0.9m across. there are more than fifty cup marks, again some forming prominent lines, curved arcs or more scattered groups; the latter are particularly clustered on the south and west sides. It is possible that the panels represent a broken, decorated cist cover".

West Howden Hill

Trip No.125  Entry No.1  Date Added: 25th Apr 2019
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: West Howden Hill RB Settlement: Unusually, our daughter joined us for this trip, as it was on her way to our house from Scotland, and we met outside the Old Repeater Station on the Old Military Road (B6318) and took one car the 1.4km down to the gate with the path leading to the access land on Howden Hill/Brown Moor.

This settlement straddles the marked track from North Road which runs from the Old Military Road and Old Repeater Station , past a large farm called Grindon, to reach the access land. We parked on the grass verge next to the gate into the field at NY 82336 69216 and made our way through the fields towards the location of the rock art.

There is no entry for this settlement on HE, but it is marked on their map as an enclosure.

I didn’t see this settlement until we were almost upon it. The outer ditches and banks are very clear, with an entrance half way along its eastern side. I also stopped to take photos on the way back, together with some large erratic boulders which lay next to the footpath. The site is gently sloping towards the south east and there are prominent boulders protruding from its central platform, although we could make out no discernible structures.

Howden Hill Cist

Trip No.125  Entry No.4  Date Added: 25th Apr 2019
Site Type: Cist Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Possible stone lined cist and stone setting on Howden Hill: Getting to the sheepfold near the two cairns and the rock art panels was a little challenging, as we had to cross electric fences, cross a number of field drains, boggy areas, and avoid the deep tufts and holes in some parts of the access land.

Thank goodness for the GPS. We headed for the centre of the southern side of the prominent sheepfold at NY 83080 69696, before min on trying to find the rock art panels to the east of the sheepfold.

Surprisingly, we found ourselves looking around in awe, as we found ourselves in the middle of what looked like a stone setting with a possible small standing stone and small lumps and bumps on the ground with stones protruding, which could be other cairns.

Walking towards the rock art panels, I stumbled across what I thought were two cairns and called Andrew and Jennifer back to take a look. We later found out at home that one of the cists (stone-lined trough) is only mentioned on the HE and ERA-1414 entries.

Just to the SW of the cists was a small standing stone at NY 83082 69685, which might be marking part of another cist/dolmen?

Howden Hill Middle Cairn

Trip No.125  Entry No.5  Date Added: 26th Apr 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 20th Apr 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Howden Hill Middle Cairn: From the rock art panels, it is only just over 150m to walk to this cairn, which is the most prominent of the two on this side of the ridge above Settlingstones Burn.

In a very lovely spot, the make up of the cairn from stones and earth becomes evident. It is around 9m in diameter and about 1m (perhaps slightly higher) above the surrounding ground level.

With its proximity to Hadrian’s Wall, the location of this cairn cemetery with its rock art, cists and cairns is intriguing. Sewingshields Crags is visible on the skyline to the south east.

Homers Lane (Warden)

Trip No.126  Entry No.2  Date Added: 1st May 2019
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Couldn't find on 1st May 2019. My rating: Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Homers Lane, Warden, Rock Art Panel: Having visited Warden Hill Hillfort, we decided to drive the 1.15km to try and find this rock art panel, as it was so close. Driving north up the almost single track lane we managed to park next to the gate into the field with the rock art panel in, at NY 91110 68391, and walked back south the 50m or so towards the grid reference where the panel was located.

I'd gone armed with the ERA information and their photographs, and the GPS took us to within 9m of the previously recorded location of the panel. We leaned over the very ivy covered dry stone wall and tried to identify the boulder, but could not see it.

The field was planted with wheat, but with a large, long pile of fertiliser combined with a wide grassy edge to the field, we thought if we trod very carefully, we could let ourselves in through the gate and walk back to the piles of boulders. This was easy enough to do, although I wish there was someone I could have asked permission from first!

Using the GPS, we got to within 3m of the recorded grid reference, but still could not find a boulder the right size and shape. With the ERA photos in hand, I identified the two trees in one of the their photos, lined them up, but there were no boulders at that location. It looked as if they had been rolled further downhill, towards the drystone wall, to make room for the huge pile of fertiliser.

Andrew very bravely balanced on the boulders, trying to locate the panel, but after a reasonably through search, had to give up. Disappointing, but the NADRAP survey photos were dated 2008 - some 11 years ago.

Warden Hill Hillfort

Trip No.126  Entry No.1  Date Added: 5th May 2019
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Warden Hill Hillfort: Homer’s Lane is very narrow, so we struggled to park the car. We eventually ended up bumped up on the verge at the wide entrance to a farm house at NY 91187 67190, ensuring there was plenty of room for tractors, trailers and other traffic to get past.

Walking back to the start of the footpath at NY 91217 67247, we used the kissing gate and walked up hill, turning left onto the well-marked path, zig-zagging through what is virtually a small village at High Warden (there are so many signposts and ‘private’ signs’ people must have become fed up with walkers). We ended up on a small woodland path leading northwards along the edge of a field towards the telecoms mast just below the summit of Warden Hill. By the mast, the track dog-legs slightly westwards, with the path running north up-hill through the centre of a field of pasture.

Towards the top of the hill there is a trig point, immediately to the east of the gate into the next field. Going through the gate, there is an interesting series of low banks which are medieval/post medieval in date. Walking 10-15m further onto the hill, the outer banks of the hill fort become clear.

We spent ages walking around the outside and inside of the hillfort. We’d taken the printed HE and Pastscape records with us, determined to understand all the features. We particularly looked for the Roman signal station, and identified a small, square structure where the grid reference said it should have been. From here, running eastwards, a line of stones poked up intermittently out of the grass.

There are brilliant views in most directions, although the endless noise of the A69 became a little tedious.

St Michael's Church (Warden)

Trip No.126  Entry No.3  Date Added: 5th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St Michael and All Saints, Warden: Anglo Saxon Sculptured Stones, including The Warden Man and Hammerhead Churchyard Cross: I last visited this church on 3rd September 2014, when I was almost new to the Portal, and hadn’t yet come across Pastscape, Historic England or the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculpture databases, so taking Andrew back here was a very pleasant surprise, as I learned an awful lot about these stones.

Well worth a repeat visit!

Fair Helen's Cross (Kirkconnel)

Trip No.127  Entry No.4  Date Added: 5th May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Fair Helen's Cross, Kirkconnel Old Church: It was a beautiful walk from the small parking area provided at about NY 25239 74833. We let ourselves through the kissing gate and followed the footpath which ran just to the east of Kirtle Water, and a pasture field with sheep and young lambs to our right. The very dark storm clouds gathering to the north east made a fantastic backdrop to the mature trees in the field.

Along the footpath, we were distracted by a modern tombstone about half way along our route to Old Kirconnel Church. We also stopped to admire the wonderful trees, with all their different colours, from a soft pink of a newly emerging copper beech tree, flowering cherries, silver birches and horse chestnuts. Eventually stumbling upon a very large marble tombstone at the entrance to the old churchyard, we let ourselves in and started exploring.

Having missed, at first, Fair Helen's Tombstone, and having to have it pointed out to me (well, it was hidden by a large metal signpost immediately in front of it), I walked round the ruins of the old church whilst Andrew went to search for the cross. "You'll need a machete", were his words on his return.

Walking through the kissing gate in the far north western corner of the churchyard, we walked 20-30m north along the path until the vague outline of the cross appeared behind the shrubbery. It didn't help that the largest tree next to the cross was a holly - very prickly!

As we arrived at the cross, the rain started to pelt down. Fortunately, the shower didn't last very long, and after taking photographs of this old village cross, we went back to admire and photograph the unusual grave markers in the churchyard.

Hoddom Parish Church

Trip No.127  Entry No.1  Date Added: 6th May 2019
Site Type: Sculptured Stone Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Sculptured Stone at Hoddom Old Parish Church: Our first stop of the day, and a strange place. A church in ruins, boarded up, although with parts of the churchyard really nicely tended – presumably because of the war graves.

Sitting on the southern side of the B725 to the south west of Ecclefechan, we parked in the layby outside the main gates into the churchyard, immediately next to the ruins. It took us ages to find the location of the sculptured stone, and trying to describe its location is a little tricky as the church is built in the shape of a square cross, orientate N-S, E-W. The stone is built into the outside corner of the eastern wall of the southern 'arm' and the south wall of the eastern 'arm'. We were unable to get right up to it because of the proximity of the railed family grave enclosure, although we succeeded in knocking some brambles down from the front of the stone so we could view it.

Fair Helen's Tombstone

Trip No.127  Entry No.2  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Marker Stone Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Fair Helen's Tombstone: This ‘monument’ is in two parts, the first of which came as a complete surprise, to our west, just off the path in a clearing, just above Kirtle Water.

For the legend of Fair Helen of Kirkconnel see: Fair Helen's Legend and Sir Walter Scott's epic poem.

This was a simple gravestone with a plaque on it, which reads: “In memory of fair Helen of Kirkconnel as well as Richard Bell and Adam Fleming who were involved in the tragedy which took place here. Erected by Clan Bell descendants. Irving Bell. Founder”.

Walking into this small, overgrown but very atmospheric, graveyard, with its tumbled ruins, I struggled to find Fair Helen’s Tombstone, but Andrew pointed it out – right behind a large metal sign announcing this is “Kirkconnel Churchyard”. The sign reads: “In the ballad “Fair Helen of Kirkonnel”, Adam Fleming’s Lover Helen was shot by mistake by a rival in Kirkconnel churchyard. The bullet was meant for Adam, who promptly killed him. Adam was later buried beside Helan and this is his tombstone: Hic Jacet Adam Flemeng. The adjacent uninscribed stone is Helen’s; and the nearby late-medieval cross is called “Fair Helen’s Cross”, marking the site of her death. / The romantic story of the ballad might be an 18th century invention, and the association of the monuments in the churchyard with the ballad’s characters is questionable”.

Mossknowe Tumulus

Trip No.127  Entry No.6  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Mossknowe Cairn 1/ Belten Mound: We stopped outside the cottage to the west of the minor road at NY 27846 69513, but could not see much. Carrying on to where the road bends at NY 28117 69281, the only gate into the field from the road here is at NY 28067 69222 and hadn't been opened in such a long time, the hawthorn hedge had grown round the edges. With the rain starting to pelt down, and with evening rapidly falling, we decided to cut our loses, quickly photograph the cairns from a distance and go home.

Mossknowe 2

Trip No.127  Entry No.3  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Mossknowe Cairn: the cairn nearest to the bend in the road, south east of the cottage which has Mossknowe Tumulus in its garden. Nothing special, but another site ticked off the list.

Mossknowe 3

Trip No.127  Entry No.5  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 2nd May 2019. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3

Log Text: Mossknowe Cairn 3: Saw this from a distance only, as the light was fading rapidly, the rain was pelting down and we couldn’t open the gate into the first field. Couldn’t get too excited about this, although it looked the most interesting of the three cairns.

St George's Well (Minsteracres)

Trip No.128  Entry No.1  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 6th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St George's Well, Minsteracres: Minsteracres had an open day today between 11am and 4pm, so we decided to drive up and see if we could find the well. I understood that it was located near to the chapel, but this was mistaken, as we found out on arrival.

Driving up the private road from the A68, we parked just past the cattle grid about 200m away from the main buildings, parked on the grass alongside the vegetable garden to our north, and walked back to The Shrubbery, a woodland with specimen and ornamental trees and two signposted walks.

With only a rough grid reference to guide us, but with the OS map in hand, it quickly became apparent that the well wasn’t in The Shrubbery, so we made our way back to the road and walked a little back towards the A68, heading north-north-east. In a small wood to our right hand side, the well became quickly apparent. I quickly recorded the waypoint on our GPS.

Whilst there was water in the pool, there was no water bubbling into the well pool. The well had a fairly large ditch running from it, so there appears to still be a fair flow of water from it at certain times.

Someone had recently been clearing away weeds and shrubs from the area. Scrapping away some of the leaves at the base of the steps into the well basin, water quickly flowed in to fill up the space where the leaves had been, although there was no evidence of flow.

The Hanging Stone (Haydon)

Trip No.128  Entry No.2  Date Added: 7th May 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 6th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The Hanging Stone, south of Haydon Bridge: We tried to find the Treacle Well (Traking Well) in Slaley, but despite an old footpath opposite the church being shown on the OS map, we couldn’t find our way through the houses to see it, so headed off through Hexham and off west on the B6305 to find The Hanging Stone.

This is marked on the OS map; Andrew found it on the 1860 map of the area, so it has been there a long time. There are no references to it on HE (although it is marked on their map), and only the briefest of mentions on Pastscape.

This stone wasn’t what I was expecting. I half thought that we’d see a flat stone marking the site of a gallows, not a standing stone! But it is very definitely a standing stone, and one that seems to have been here for some considerable time.

The road was very busy and the cars very fast. We did manage to bump up onto the soft verge, but for safety should have pulled up on the driveway up to the farm. The entrance to the field is at NY 88081 61695. After photographing the stone over the stone wall, I didn’t fancy trekking all the way up to the farm house in the distance, so took a chance and let myself into the field.

The stone is located in a dip, below current ground level, and has stones packed around its base. To its north east a rounded channel runs off to join a stream or modern field drain, as if the stone marked the start of a spring at some point.

Rolleston Cross

Trip No.129  Entry No.1  Date Added: 21st May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Nottinghamshire)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Rolleston Cross: This was our first stop on our way down to Dartmoor. Having stopped off in Newark for a very early breakfast, we arrived in Rolleston at 08:30, only to find (not surprisingly!) that the church had not yet been opened. After having photographed the sun dial in the churchyard of Holy Trinity, we walked up to find this old village cross, which I completely missed the first time round, as it blended in with the surrounding pavement and benches!

The very sad remains of an old village cross, but another site to have ticked off the list. By the time we'd photographed this cross stump, we walked back to Holy Trinity to find it now open.

Holy Trinity (Rolleston)

Trip No.129  Entry No.2  Date Added: 21st May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Nottinghamshire)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Cross Shaft Fragments and Cross Slabs, Holy Trinity, Rolleston: By the time we’d photographed the sundial in the churchyard then walked up to the village cross, the church had been opened (thankfully) and we let ourselves in. The cross shaft was immediately opposite the south door into the church, although in a really difficult position to photograph (between a heavy wooden desk with information leaflets and a fire extinguisher). The most ornate section of the cross was to its western side, so after Andrew had moved the chairs, I virtually had to squeeze myself in next to the desk and squat down as best I could to capture the carvings – not the most elegant of positions!

It wasn’t until after I had photographed the cross and was making my way towards the fragments in the eastern wall of the northern aisle that I realised the chairs in the church had been set up in a labyrinth pattern. We did have to move some of the chairs to access several parts of the church, but made sure we put the chairs back exactly where we found them.

Thank goodness I had my printouts with Peter Ryder’s drawings and descriptions, as we would have missed a lot here! We’d spotted one or two of the most obvious carved stones built into the external fabric. However, now knowing how much was on the external walls, we went round the outside again and spotted so much more.

Beetor Cross

Trip No.129  Entry No.3  Date Added: 22nd May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Beetor Wayside Cross, North Bovey: Our first trip out on the evening we arrived in Devon and having unpacked our things at the barn. This cross was less than a mile from the barn we were staying in.

I was really confused when I read the entries for this cross at first, not realising that it had been moved from its original spot just round the corner, opposite a crossroads. That original spot is now marked by a boundary marker.

This cross is very overgrown with ivy. It is in part of a private garden, used as part playground, part rubbish dump, but with no-one around, we opened the gate to see if there was a better view of the cross from the side opposite the road, but in fact because the cross was at the top of the bank and there was so much shrubbery around it, the view was worse.

Having worked out the original location of the cross and the significance of the nearby boundary marker, we made the boundary marker our first stop the next morning.

Hele Cross

Trip No.129  Entry No.4  Date Added: 23rd May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Hele Cross, Devon: This cross is not far from the Beetor Cross – some 850m to the east, measured from UK Grid Reference Finder. The lane was narrow and a little windy, but a good introduction to the driving around this part of the world. There were few places to park, so we bumped up on the verge next to the farm, at about SX 72084 84153, where they had already parked one of their vehicles.

This area was heavily shaded by trees, with a (narrower) lane running east from the cross (eventually joining up with Yard Hill), and to the south a drop down to a stream.

The cross was again raised up above the road and was clearly visible once we’d walked onto the road junction. A tractor track up to a field gate allowed us to walk up ‘behind’ the cross and take photos. The socket stone was completely covered in ivy and brambles, so we didn’t really see this at all. (Later research using Crossing's Ancient Stone Crosses of Dartmoor (1902) says the chapel was by the stream).

North Bovey

Trip No.129  Entry No.5  Date Added: 23rd May 2019
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Devon)
Visited: Yes on 10th May 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: North Bovey Wayside Cross: We’d booked into the local hostelry, The Ring O Bells, for supper, but arrived a little early. As well as seeing the cross on the village green, we wanted to see the local church, St John The Baptist. However, the church (given the time of the evening!) was firmly locked.

I was somewhat dismayed to find how close all the cars parked to the cross on the village green, but then there is so little parking in the village with narrow lanes and a small public car park, that I guess this is the easiest option for residents and visitors alike.

The different socket stone and shaft are clear, as is in the inserted piece of granite at the base of the shaft, inserted after the cross was knocked down by a vehicle in 1951 to help it fit the base better.

I almost had to sit on the bonnet of the car next to the cross to get a decent photo of the ‘front’ of the grass, facing back across the village green. On the green there is also a village pump, which attracted the numerous children playing on the green.