Contributory members are able to log private notes and comments about each site
Sites wildtalents has logged. View this log as a table or view the most recent logs from everyone
Arthur's Stone
Date Added: 20th May 2024
Site Type: Chambered Tomb
Country: England (Herefordshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jul 2001. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 5
Arthur's Stone submitted by wildtalents on 17th May 2024. More than twenty years ago I uploaded an image to the site before becoming a member later on. This photo was from the same reel of film... yup, remember those? The little lad on the right is a dad himself these days. And that's me on the left.
We were renting a cottage somewhere near Leominster, together with sister and brother in law and their young son. Arthur's Stone was a nice day out for us.
A day or two later I picked up a good copy of The Old Straight Track in Hay. It was great...
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: After a bit of a struggle with map reading, we fluked finding the site, and could park just yards away on the layby. It's a marvellous place and the cracked capstone adds to the marvellousness, in an odd way. Fantastic views across the Golden Valley and definitely a site I'd like to return to.
There's a clearly defined passageway/crawl-space to one side leading to the dolmen.
Old Sarum
Date Added: 11th May 2024
Site Type: Hillfort
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Aug 2001. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4
Old Sarum submitted by AngieLake on 2nd Jan 2007. The footbridge to the fort at Old Sarum spans the 'new' Salisbury Cathedral's spire in the distance.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Lots to see on the outer edges of the site where there are well-preserved (or restored) foundations of structures that surrounded the original cathedral. Cross the footbridge and climb the bank (an impressive gradient) for more ruins and spectacular views. Unless my memory is playing tricks on me there is a small airfield/gliding club very nearby and on a fine day the take-offs and landings can be very frequent and unsettling.
Avebury - The Cove
Date Added: 15th May 2024
Site Type: Standing Stones
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Aug 2001. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 4
Avebury - The Cove submitted by wildtalents on 14th May 2024. I can't remember when this photo was taken but it was some years before the last time the Cove stones were caged off for stability works, early 2000s? These two stones can look so radically different from various angles and depending on the light, or time of year. Such mighty boulders!
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: On one of our visits to the village, in August 2001, the Cove was caged within some Heras fence or something of the type as works to stabilise the stones was being carried out. Or had been carried out. I think on at least one other visit a similar structure was in place too. So I chose a photograph taken in, I think, 2004. The mighty Cove stones are a monument in themselves. I might be dreaming this but I'm sure someone had a chicken run or a barn built up against one of the stones, maybe even as recently as Keiller's 'renovation'. (I'm moving house soon and my books are all packed in cartons but seem to remember there's a sketch, one of Stukeley's I think, in one of them. When the dust settles I'll see if I can find it.)
Much as I love Avebury as a whole, and the Cove in particular, my favourite part of the monument is the so-called Z feature, that fairly straight row of stones near the old Methodist church. How I wish the Obelisk stone was still there, not that vile concrete marker.
The Sanctuary.
Date Added: 14th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 5th Aug 2001. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5
The Sanctuary. submitted by Humbucker on 31st Oct 2020. Western section of The Sanctuary. Not the easiest of sites to photograph, hopefully shadows from the late afternoon sunshine help the markers stand out a bit.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: I feel a little fraudulent rating The Sanctuary 4 for Ambience: it's essentially a complex of stone markers with no real vestige of what may have stood at this site. (Excarnation complex, for example?) But for all it's forlorn air, and the constant roar-hiss of the cars speeding close by, when seen and respected as part of the whole sacred Avebury landscape it still has a distinct atmosphere all it's own.
If you know where to look you can see elements of the rest of the landscape, Avenue stones for example.
Stukeley's sketch of the site - which was already being ruined at that very time (I seem to remember he names the guilty farmer) - captures something of what was once here. But not necessarily what was always here. I think it has probably been through many iterations and sad though the current one is I would still recommend a visit to any serious megalithomane. It's a way of making a connection to the distant generations who revered this place.
Uffington White Horse
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Hill Figure or Geoglyph
Country: England (Oxfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jul 2002. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 2 Access 4
Uffington White Horse submitted by SteveC on 15th Jun 2020. Unable to be seen in it's entirety from the ground, this is an image taken from a drone.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: You don't get much of an impression of the horse, if it is a horse, when you're up close, especially on a mid-summer day when the site is absolutely crawling with visitors, ice-cream vans etc. As you approach the site the figure is much more distinct though and it's very worth the trip, especially if you follow the footpath along the Ridgeway to Wayland's Smithy. Liable to be very busy too. Not long after we visited some arseholes from the Countryside Alliance or some similar bunch of Tarquins created a red-coated 'rider' as some kind of celebration of fox hunting. Turds.
Wayland's Smithy
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Long Barrow
Country: England (Oxfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jul 2002. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 2
Wayland's Smithy submitted by StoneLee on 11th Jun 2015. Wayland's Smithy
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Absolutely crawling with visitors on the day we walked along the Ridgway to see this marvellous tomb. If there had been maybe one-third as many kids hooting and yelling as they clambered all over the monument it might have been bearable, but their simian behaviour seemed calculated to annoy. Despite that it was possible to appreciate the tomb for what it is, substantially reconstructed I should think, and to hope for a repeat visit on some colder day outside of the school holidays!
Coldrum
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Chambered Tomb
Country: England (Kent)
Visited: Yes on 1st Jun 2003. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3
Coldrum submitted by Eric Jones on 16th Jun 2002. View of remains of Coldrum neolithic burial chamber, Kent. Shame there's no crop circle in the background to finish the pic off.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: An amazing site: a really steeply banked mound with the chambered tomb about two-thirds the way up - I've never seen anything quite like it. There are a number of decent sized kerb stones around the front part of the mound which a nearby sign describes as a stone circle. The mound kind of merges with the landscape at the back so you can walk around the gentler slope to the left and sit up top looking down upon the tomb.
Longstone Cove
Date Added: 14th May 2024
Site Type: Standing Stones
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2004. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3
Longstone Cove submitted by Humbucker on 5th Jan 2019. Longstones Cove basking in the sunlight on one of the last bright days of late Autumn 2018. The Ridgeway looms if the background.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: In 2004 we rented a cottage in Avebury village for a week and one evening when the boys weren't complaining too much about tired legs we walked the putative route of the Beckhampton Avenue. There really are a lot of sarsens at the sides of the road, incorporated into walls, half-buried at the side of the road and so on, as well as some very swanky houses. We ended the walk near the duck pond with a fairly distant view of the Longstones, Adam and Eve, isolated in their field about two hundred yards away. By then the kids were all walked out so it seemed reasonable to turn around and leave the trespass onto the site itself for another time. They're an impressive pair of stones, on a par with the Avebury Cove stones.
Arbor Low 1
Date Added: 10th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Derbyshire)
Visited: Yes on 18th Oct 2011. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 3
Arbor Low 1 submitted by wildtalents on 9th May 2024. On a freezing Peak District morning, blowing a gale, the clouds finally parted and there on the horizon was the faint beginnings of a rainbow. Arbor Low is beautiful and that really was the cherry on the cake.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Oh this is a magnificent place, for scenery it is second only to Castlerigg I would say. The day I visited was blowing an absolute gale but just as I was deciding to abandon ship, completely chilled to the bone, a gap appeared in the clouds and a rainbow on the horizon. I absolutely have to go back, in better weather, and explore properly.
Bryn Celli Ddu
Date Added: 15th May 2024
Site Type: Passage Grave
Country: Wales (Anglesey)
Visited: Yes on 3rd Apr 2013. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 4
Bryn Celli Ddu submitted by wildtalents on 14th May 2024. I've plenty of better shots (somewhere) but the wonderful ziggyzag pattern on the stone in front of the portal is captured fairly well here.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: A few miles away the Snowdonia peaks were still covered in snow and the lake at the foot of Snowdon was still frozen... but the first signs of a belated spring were all over Anglesey. Which made it a perfect day to visit and appreciate Bryn Celli Ddu, an absolutely perfect chambered tomb that you have to see.
Rollright Stones
Date Added: 14th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Oxfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 6th Apr 2013. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 5
Rollright Stones submitted by wildtalents on 12th May 2024. The gnarly King's Men tolerate the steady flow of gawkers, day after day, year after year. They're glorious.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Although it can get quite busy (but deservedly so: this is a place of great magic) the Rollrights have to be seen if you're in any way serious as a megalithomane.
It's quite easy to park alongside and then it's a very easy walk to the stone circle. The boulders have a unique gnarly quality and are bunched up close, apart from some gaps here and there. One or two of these are by design I'm sure.
The other two monuments are relatively close by (logged separately)
Whispering Knights
Date Added: 14th May 2024
Site Type: Portal Tomb
Country: England (Oxfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 6th Apr 2013. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4
Whispering Knights submitted by wildtalents on 12th May 2024. Huddled conspiratorially in their cage the Whispering Knights hold their peace during the daytime as the visitors ebb and flow. Later on they gossip: "...did you see that bloke in the Modern Antiquarian t-shirt!? Could do with some slimming down!"
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Hemmed in by the iron railings, the Whispering Knights are composed of the same gnarly rock as the Rollrights across the way.
King Stone at the Rollrights
Date Added: 14th May 2024
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Country: England (Oxfordshire)
Visited: Yes on 6th Apr 2013. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 3
King Stone at the Rollrights submitted by wildtalents on 12th May 2024. Ringed with iron railings, the King Stone has a bit of a room for a crafty stretch when no one is watching. This hefty chunk has seen them all come and go over the long centuries but still holds his head up high. A characterful outlier to the magical Rollrights.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Although caged with the same iron railings as the Whispering Knights, the King Stone has a bit more room for a crafty stretch of a lonely midnight when no one is watching. He's a hefty old chunk and has seen many tos and fros over the long centuries but still holds his head up high. A characterful outlier to the magical Rollrights.
West Kennet Avenue
Date Added: 17th May 2024
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 3rd Jun 2014. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 3
West Kennet Avenue submitted by wildtalents on 14th May 2024. A goodnight hug for a West Kennet Avenue stone in August 2002. I think a car headlight must have hit the menhir at an opportune moment which suggests it's one of the first ones after you cross the road. Most of the others are not at the right angle for this.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: I don't remember when I first visited the Avenue but it wasn't on the first time I went to Avebury, which was pretty stupid. I think we were in a hurry to quaff a beer at the Red Lion and to be swarmed by the local wasps. And then to get the buses home, which was a way convoluted trip from Warminster.
The next time, equipped with a driving license, we took a proper walk up and down the Avenue and it was really supernatural. None of the photos came out. Which may have been spooky but more likely simple incompetence. We saw many figures and faces in the stones, this was before Terence Meaden's book came out btw.
In 2014 we rented School Cottage for a week (this is opposite the church's tithe gate). We had the opportunity to explore all of the site many times, at different times of day. I forget which day of the week, but think it was Wednesday, a long procession of bikers streamed into the Red Lion car park as we walked the Avenue in the twilight. That was pretty cool.
Silbury Hill
Date Added: 10th May 2024
Site Type: Artificial Mound
Country: England (Wiltshire)
Visited: Yes on 4th Jun 2014. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5
Silbury Hill submitted by MikeyB on 26th Nov 2012. Reflections of Silbury Hill
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Passed by many times, stopped for a while quite a few, dating back to the 1960s. Silbury is timeless, commanding the landscape. I like that it is so enigmatic, I love how at certain points within the southern circle at Avebury the very top of Silbury is just visible above the henge bank. At moments like those it is easier to imagine yourself back in the distant past when some sudden flash of a mirror in the sun, or a fire on the twilight horizon, alerts you to a world beyond the ceremonial complex, yet a part of it.
Stanton Drew
Date Added: 17th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: England (Somerset)
Visited: Yes on 10th Jul 2015. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3
Stanton Drew submitted by wildtalents on 15th May 2024. Stanton Drew doesn't do half-measures... some of the mighty boulders at this complex and fascinating site.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: I really hadn't appreciated how vast the main circle is and this can be a tricky site to make sense of. A few stones here and there suggestive of an avenue, smaller circles off over yonder, lots of prone or semi-prone boulders, weird clusters of stones that might have been a dolmen, or even a deliberate rectangular setting like the one at Casterigg. (Not forgetting the cove stones over by the pub.) Stanton Drew has to be seen to be believed and I think I will look out for a guided tour, if there is such a thing, to grasp the real context. I can't quite put my finger on it but the individual boulders are very distinctive with their grey-red hue.
Housesteads Roman Fort
Date Added: 9th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Fort or Dun
Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2015. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 2
Housesteads Roman Fort submitted by jeffrep on 6th Apr 2020. Housesteads was a Roman auxiliary fort on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland near the border with Scotland constructed around 124 A.D.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Last stop in England on my way up to Orkney, and well worth it. It's not a long walk from the car park but it's pretty steep. Terribly scenic, and quite well preserved, and I enjoyed the "beware of the ferrets" sign. Apparently they are quite rife and apt to bite. Didn't see any though.
If I had known at the time about the Sycamore Gap, not far away, I'd've made the trek for sure... but too late now.
Stenness
Date Added: 8th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: Scotland (Orkney)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2015. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4
Stenness submitted by Runemage on 15th Jul 2005. Ethereal and numinous.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: In the summer of 2015 I drove from Kent to Orkney in two or three long hops, staying several nights at the Standing Stone Hotel which is (was?) about a mile from the Stones of Stenness. I'd wanted to visit here for soooo long, in particular these stones, ever since seeing them on that Julian Cope album. I can't remember the name right now. Impressive stones, even though the site is probably a shadow of what it once was.
Ring of Brodgar
Date Added: 12th May 2024
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: Scotland (Orkney)
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2015. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4
Ring of Brodgar submitted by wildtalents on 10th May 2024. There were at least two other photographers doing sunset shots at Brodgar on this evening. I was happy enough with how this one turned out.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: As I was staying nearby I took the opportunity to visit this magnificent monument several times, at different times of day. The first visit was the best: the sun was beginning to set (but it stays low on the horizon a long time at this time of year on Orkney) and the stones cast the most almighty shadows. How the henge ditch was dug in this very solid rocky landscape I can only imagine. The people who built the monuments at Stenness definitely made no half measures.
Barnhouse Settlement
Date Added: 17th May 2024
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: Scotland (Orkney)
Visited: Yes on 14th Jul 2015. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4
Barnhouse Settlement submitted by wildtalents on 10th May 2024. One of the Barnhouse houses. The settlement is a stone's throw from the Stones of the Stenness and has a direct view of Maes Howe
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: A short ramble from the Stones of Stenness, there are several recognisable structures at ground level, with hearths and other characteristic features. Can't hold a candle to Skara Brae, but then what sites can?