Dreva Craig

Trip No.5  Entry No.5  Date Added: 18th Aug 2016
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 10th Aug 2016. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Dreva Craig, hillfort and settlements, Scottish borders: OK, so it rained last year on my birthday. This year, the rain was equally as torrential, so we hopped from site to site. This was our last stop of the day, after (trying to visit) Tinnis Castle/Hillfort and Altarstone. There is a parking space for one or two cars next to the gate to the field, and a stile over the fence, although it proved easier to open the gate. Tramping through the knee high undergrowth, it was easy to reach the rocky outcrop on the ridge leading to the fort itself, but the surface of the rock was so wet it was quite treacherous. Husband would have been happy to continue, but I wimped out when I spotted the huge bull 50 yards away, opting to take a few photographs and retreat to the warmth (and safety) of the car. We plan to come back to this area when the weather is drier. This really looks like a fascinating site, with lumps and bumps on both sides of this minor road. The Canmore record tells me that there is a fort (photographed), defended by two stone walls, alongside three settlements. Had the sun been out, there would have been really fantastic views down to the River Tweed to the south.

Altar Stone, Stobo

Trip No.5  Entry No.4  Date Added: 14th Aug 2016
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 10th Aug 2016. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Altar Stone, near Stobo, Scottish Borders: This stone is clearly marked on the map and features on the Portal, but I can find out nothing about it on Canmore or other web sites.
From Tinnis Castle, driving up the B712 through Drumelzier and Drumelzier Haugh, just past Dawyck Botanic Garden, a small road turns sharp left up through a hamlet called ‘Altarstone’. Opposite the farmhouse, hidden beneath tree branches at the edge of the road is the altar stone Intriguing Need to find out more about this.

Menzion

Trip No.5  Entry No.2  Date Added: 14th Aug 2016
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: Scotland (Scottish Borders)
Visited: Yes on 10th Aug 2016. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Menzion Stones, Tweedsmuir: I confess to being really confused about this site (not too difficult, really!). Whilst the map showed three standing stones in close proximity at the sides of the road (2 at the western side, 1 on the eastern side) we could only find 2, one on either side of the road. Of the photos on the Portal, we couldn’t find the square topped one. Somehow we’d managed to misplace our GPS, so I felt a bit helpless and frustrated at having driven all this way and missed some of what we’d come to see.

According to the Canmore site, the grid references are NT 0952 2397, NT 0949 2398, NT 0953 2399. Getting out of the car into the ‘Scotch Mist’, I walked up and down the grass verges, peering into the tall undergrowth, for a couple of hundred yards trying to find the location of the third stone. We saw the stones at NT 0952 2397 and NT 0949 2398. The latter was almost hidden by a long, low conifer branch.

Had the sun been out, there would have been great views down to the River Tween to the north-west.

Dyke Row

Trip No.5  Entry No.1  Date Added: 14th Aug 2016
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 10th Aug 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 1 Access 4

Log Text: Dyke Row or Three Stanes, Moffat: I have driven this road many times before, but never noticed these three stones at the side of the road. Having come off the A74(M) onto the A701 travelling towards Moffat, travelling at the speed limit of 60 mph, they are difficult to see. The traffic was too heavy and fast to park at the road side, so finding a space for one car at the road junction to Dyke Farm (grid reference NT 08311 03653) we pulled on our anoraks and headed northwards up the A701. Whilst I’ve been to see many standing stones, this is the first time I felt my life was in danger whilst trying to view them. Timber lorries hurtled along the road in the heavy rain in quick succession. To avoid the spray and protect my camera, I had to turn my back to the road and step onto the grass verge as far away from the road as I could go. A quick run across the road to the stones meant taking my life in my hands to avoid the constant stream of cars, lorries and trucks.
The smallest, northern-most stone was completely hidden by the undergrowth, but we gently bent this out of the way to photograph it, then replaced the shrubbery and nettles back over the stones.
According to the Canmore record: "These standing stones are on a straight alignment NNE - SSW. The southernmost measures 1.0m x 0.8m x 1.2m high, is oriented ENE - WSW, and has an O S bench mark cut on its W face. The next measures 0.8m x 0.6m x 1.0m high, and is oriented NNE - SSW. The most northerly measures 0.8m x 0.4m x 0.7m high and is oriented ENE - WSW. The construction of the nearby roads would have destroyed any possible related structures."

Whiteholme Rig

Trip No.4  Entry No.3  Date Added: 7th Aug 2016
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 31st Jul 2016. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 3

Log Text: Seven Brethren Stone Circle, near Lockerbie: I was surprised to find this was so near where we used to live at Corrie. But when we lived here, with three young children, we didn't have the same interests as we do now, so (although the kids say we traumatised them by taking them to so many monuments) we never visited. We parked by the gate to the disused quarry near Standburn farm, hopped over the gate and followed the track up to Whiteholm Rigg. At present, along the top of this low ridge, a row of trees follows the trackway. Right at the end, motorway barriers have been erected to form a large, robust enclosure, gated at both ends, which looks as if it's used as a stock enclosure. Beyond the gate at the eastern end, cows and their calves grazed in the lush grass on the hillside below. Walking along the edge of the field, small toppled stones could be seen in the grass, which had been left to grow long and untended around the stones, but mown in the area beyond. Walking around the tussocks we spotted the remains of 6 stones, but how unimpressive this site is. If we hadn't have known that this was a stone circle, we would have thought these were just a few outcrops in the grass. Such a shame.
A funny (now) moment occurred at the end of our visit. Going back to clamber over the gates into the enclosure, the bulls in the field (of which there were several, excitable!) came to investigate. One stood pawing the ground with its front hoof. Husband climbed the 8 ft tall motorway barrier, which left me stuck in the stone circle field. However, husband managed to distract the cattle whilst I climbed over two gates to get back to safety!

Burnswark Hill Cairn

Trip No.4  Entry No.2  Date Added: 7th Aug 2016
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 31st Jul 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Cairn at Burnswark Hill, near Ecclefechan: After walking around the hill fort, we spotted this cairn on the next hill top to the north east and followed the tracks over. There were great views down to the Roman fortifications on the north western side of the fort. Whilst Romans usually leave me cold, the juxtaposition between the hillfort, the fortifications and the cairn, together with the views of the Solway Firth, Criffel and Helvelyn in the Lake District beyond, were stunning. A great afternoon, and well worth the visit.

Burnswark Hillfort

Trip No.4  Entry No.1  Date Added: 7th Aug 2016
Site Type: Hillfort Country: Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway)
Visited: Yes on 31st Jul 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Burnswark Hill Fort, Dumfries & Galloway: A week of being stuck in the house contemplating on, and preparing for, the building work to come I was glad to escape the house for a walk in open countryside with few people around. Considering we’ve lived in this area for 10 years, we never visited this impressive and enigmatic hill fort. It was as good as (if not better than) Edlingham Castle, and in my view, more interesting. There was such a lot to see. Exiting the A74(M) at Ecclefechan, we headed off up the narrow one track rock up past farms called ‘Paulsland’ and ‘Relief’. There is a small parking area just before the gate to Burnwark Farm at grid reference NY 18788 78332. We then plunged into the darkness through a track through the forest, to emerge onto a grassy hillside filled with large sheep. It was strange and nice to make the transition from English ‘stick to the footpaths’ to the Scottish ‘responsible right to roam’; different rules for only a few miles apart.

From the forest track, a trackway follows the hillside upwards to the hillfort. The first things to come into views were ‘the three bretheren’, which we took to be burial mounds surrounded by ditches, although the Canmore record below describes them as possible Roman artillery positions for attacking the fort.

On top of the plateau, there were huge views around 360 degrees, including the sun shining off the Solway Firth. Neither Andrew or I have ever been at a point where it’s been possible to see both Criffel and the Lake District (Helvelyn was the tallest peak) at the same time. There are also the grassed over remains of structures, although I found it impossible to interpret what they were.

Having walked over to the north-western side of the fort to see the Roman fortifications below, we made our way over to the nearby cairn on the next hilltop.

Clifton Stones

Trip No.3  Entry No.2  Date Added: 4th Jul 2016
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 3rd Jul 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Clifton Stones, near Penrith, Cumbria: These standing stones are only a short distance from Trainford Brow Long Barrow. There is a side road opposite Mount Clifton farm which allows for parking of one car on the grass verge. It was interesting crossing the A6 as cars sped along in both directions; however, sight lines were good. We followed the footpath through Mount Clifton farm (heavily mired with fresh cow dung). This path was gated, as they had a huge (but placid) bull in the barn yard with his ladies. The mire gave onto a tarmacked pathway leading to Tinkler’s Lane Bridge over the M6. It was then easy walking down to the field containing these two standing stones.

With a brilliant view of the North Pennines to the east and the Lake District (complete with notch in the hills) to the west, these stones sit next to the very busy M6 with a view of Penrith to the north. Because of the acoustics on the day, the traffic noise was a distant buzz in the background.

I was a little disappointed as the smaller stone had obviously fallen over in the past and been cemented into the ground.

After enjoying the ambience for a while, we tried to see the Cairn Circle at Leacet Plantation. The first forest track we tried had a Lowther Forestry working locking the gate. We then tried at Chatburn Kennels and Cattery, but the fields were cropped and walking through them heavy going. Being late in the day we decided to retreat to go and see the Countess Pillar then home. We got beeped at by the owners of the kennels who had come down to dump their rubbish exactly where we had parked the car.

Thimbleby Nine Stones

Trip No.2  Entry No.1  Date Added: 9th Oct 2019
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: England (Yorkshire (North))
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Nine Stones Stone Row, near Osmotherley, North Yorkshire: Having added a few of the Stone Rows of Great Britain sites on the Portal, and needing to go down to Thirsk it was too much of a temptation to resist visiting one or two of the North Yorkshire sites. With only a 3 hour window before having to travel onto Doncaster, the only one we could reach and explore in time was Nine Stones, just outside Osmotherley.

We’ve been to this area before to look at Anglo Saxon crosses in churches and ended up getting hopelessly lost, but this time we had the OS map and our GPS. With the sun shining down from an almost cloudless sky, we reached the car park at Square Corner easily enough. It never ceases to amaze me that there are so many more people in this part of the world than in Northumberland. There were people picnicking on the side of the road near Solomon's Temple enjoying a wonderful view over Oak Dale valley and the woods of Crabtree Bank and Thimbleby Bank Plantations.

As we pulled up, a number of dog walkers drew up, chattering noisily, and I hoped they weren’t going to follow us and destroy the peace and quiet of the afternoon (I’m definitely getting to be a grumpy old woman!). Fortunately, they followed the Cleveland Way up the hill to the south.

From the car park, we walked the couple of hundred metres to the gate where the footpath west over Thimbleby Moor and the Cleveland Way southwards meet. The GPS told us there was almost 700 metres to walk to Nine Stones, so we set off over the stile over the wall by a second gate to the west. The first couple of hundred yards were easy walking along a stoned footpath leading off to some modern shooting butts to the west. After 200 metres we needed to veer off southwards to follow the dry stone wall westwards. This was all through knee deep heather with the occasional field drain and boggy patch thrown in. After another 200 yards we realised we’d reached a much quarried area; there were deep holes full of water which we could only see when we were almost upon them. I managed to disappear up to my ankles in one, although there were other that looked far deeper.

Whilst the area has many blocks of stone poking up through the heather, towards the top of the slope there suddenly appeared on the horizon two standing stones, looming large, beckoning the walker. Here was (were?) Nine Stones, at last.

This stone row was well worth the trudge through the undergrowth. At the northern tip of the row there are five stones, two tall, two stumpy and one almost buried in the heather. We wondered which were actually part of the stone row. The north-western most stone looked as if there had been an attempt to quarry the top of it in the distant past (comparing the holes to some at Edges Green, near Cawfields) that we’ve seen recently.

Two more tall stones sit close to the stone wall, and a few more stones appear further south in the forested area. The Stone Rows of Great Britain site tell us that this stone row is 60 metres long, but husband, tramping through the forest, thought it might be possible that the row was nearer to 100 metres (but then which are natural stones and which are recumbent standing stones?).

There are so many other features in this area to explore: Miley Pike Tumulus, Robinson’s Cross (remains of), a Holy Well, Faber’s Stone – well worth a repeat visit.

Midstead 1

Trip No.1  Entry No.5  Date Added: 14th May 2016
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 8th May 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: After visiting Jenny's Lantern Hill fort and settlement and Midstead 2 and 3 to the west, we walked eastwards along the top of the crag to find the rock art we'd failed to find on our first trip in 2014. Thank goodness for GPS otherwise we never would have found these. The ground in this rocky field had obviously been very wet at some time in the recent past and been home to some large cattle. Not having rained for some time the ground had hardened, making walking over the tussocks difficult. This stone is the most impressive on the hillside with numerous motifs. Well worth seeing. I'm glad we returned. About 3 metres to the south west of this stone we found another with a cup mark at grid reference NU 12424 15448. Having been sent the HER records for Jenny's Lantern, the Historic England map for this entry (1008839) shows a homestead just above the site of this stone - not marked on the OS maps and not clear on the ground (although not being aware it was there we didn't hunt around).

Midstead 3

Trip No.1  Entry No.4  Date Added: 14th May 2016
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 8th May 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Midstead 3, Rock Art near Edlingham, Northumberland: Also see visit report for Jenny's Lantern Hill Fort and Settlement, Midstead 1 and Midstead 2. This stone is about 3 metres to the west of Midstead 2, although the cups are more difficult to spot. Beautiful views over the Aln Valley and to the listening/radar station at Cloudy Crags across the valley.

Midstead 2

Trip No.1  Entry No.3  Date Added: 14th May 2016
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 8th May 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Midstead 2, Rock Art near Edlingham, Northumberland: Having visited Jenny's Lantern Hill Fort and Settlement, we headed back east with the GPS to find the rock art stones we'd failed to find on our visit back in 2014 (our first trip out to find rock art, without a GPS). This rock sits right on the edge of the crag with great views over the Aln Valley below. The cup marks are a little difficult to spot until your eyes adjust to the lumps and bumps on the rock. The cups are inter-disbursed with natural hollows. There are some cup marks on the vertical face of the rock although it was difficult to get too close because of the 'killer' brambles. Note to self: take garden shears/machete on next visit!

Jenny's Lantern

Trip No.1  Entry No.2  Date Added: 14th May 2016
Site Type: Hillfort Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 8th May 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: From the Lemmington Wood rock art/rune stone, we carried along on the minor roads headings towards the tiny village of Bolton, having gone through the somewhat exciting ford over the River Aln between Abberwick and Bolton Mills, then carried on past Jenny's Lantern Hill to Jenny's Lantern. Despite not having rained for a while, this ford was a lot deeper than it looked!

This site was one of the first we visited at the time we (I) signed up for the Portal. Having tried to find the Midstead Rock Art stones without a GPS, but with many stony outcrops on the hill, we failed, meaning to go back but haven’t until now.

Just east of this hillfort is also a Romano-British settlement, which also includes the remains of an Iron Age defended settlement, with a number of visible hut circles, recorded as HER 4379. The whole site is complex and even with the HER and Historic England records, it is quite difficult to unpick on the ground.

The outer banks and ditches are well preserved. From the road, it’s not easy to see the oval fort at all. There is room for a small car in the gateway to a field to the south, at grid reference NU 12433 15229, overlooking the observatory/listening station at Cloudy Crags to the south east. From the gate in the field opposite, follow the track up the hill then head west almost the field, boundary. On the way to the hillfort you will cross the low banks and ditches of a separate Romano-British settlement. Crossing a stone bank, you will see the eastern outer banks and ditches of the hillfort rising up against the skyline.

The actual Jenny’ Lantern, recorded as HER record 20729 (probably an 18th century’ eye-catcher’ folly) stands north east at the brow of the hill.

The hill fort and settlement sit below the brow of the hill, but there are superb views across to the Aln Valley to the south and west. I'd feel safe living here if I lived in days gone by.

Lemmington Wood

Trip No.1  Entry No.1  Date Added: 14th May 2016
Site Type: Rock Art Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 8th May 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Lemmington Wood Rock Art/Rune Stone, Northumberland: We'd been told about this rock by a member of the Tynedale North of the Wall Archaeology Group who is renowned for visiting many and various rock art sites in Northumberland.

From the A1 North, we turned up on the A697 and drove the almost 16 miles to Edlingham (not to be confused with the nearby village of Eglingham to the north). We arrived in this quiet spot to the sound of a cuckoo in the fields nearby – a sound rarely heard up here these days. Just north of Corby’s Crags, an impressive settlement and rock shelter to the right hand side of the road, there is a turn to the left leading to Lemmington Hall. Just as this side road turns off, there is a small parking area and a memorial bench which looks out over to Edlingham Burn and the Aln Valley.

Whilst these are marked as private woods, there are three trails leading from the entrance gate to the wood. Various signposts say “No Bikes” but doesn’t discourage walkers. The ERA record (see below) says there is open access to this stone. These woods have obviously been decimated by the storms over Christmas and New Year and there are fallen trunks and branches everywhere. The trunks blocking the pathways have largely been chain-sawed to allow access.

A GPS is really needed to find this rock, which sits on the top of a slope, which, if the trees hadn’t been there, would have given great views over the valley beyond. The rock is really hidden in a dip and surrounded by conifers so is difficult to spot.

Someone had been there recently and scrapped off the moss in order to see the rock art and runes more clearly. This was good for us, but not so great for the preservation of these features.

According to the HER records (HER 4471), the runes were only found in 1991 by Ian and Irene Hewitt as they prepared the rock for wax rubbing and photography. The runes and rock art are on the edge and upper face of a 6ft outcrop. Described on the England’s Rock Art site ERA 579.

There is clear evidence on the stone of attempts to quarry it, so what else might have been on a more complete rock?