Return to the West Country

Rather an unexpected expedition this week.

You may ( or may not) recall a trip several months ago to Bodmin and to see the Hurlers - a stone circle on the moor.

A chance discovery on the web showed an archeological dig going on there this weekend as as we had to be in Okehampton on the Sunday it seemed to be an event we shouldn't pass up.

A Bronze age crystal pavement was being uncovered for the first time since the 1930s. The pavement links the circles on the moor and is believed to be the only one in the UK.  The original records were buried in the archives and forgotton about until accidently ediscovered.

This was a week long project and today was the last day. We got there before the archeologists but they had it well fenced off so it wasn't possible to get close. The stones were muddy  but we were informed that they are white quartz.

They were taking some heavy duty camera equipment on to the site when we left so I guess they'll get far better pictures and probably clean up the stones before the photo shoot.

Not exactly a hive of activity at the moment!

I did get more than enough shots of the Hurlers a few months ago but couldn't resist a few more. It was a very warm still day for late September and other than a few dog waters ( and the odd archeologist of course) it was very quite. Unlike last time when you couldn't take a step without falling over a picnicker!


 So this pavement? What was it's original function? It links two of the three circles but doesn't seem to pass between the stones. Both ends of the pavement align with a stone rather than a "gap"  - unless of course the stones are not in their original positions which is quite possible. 

The Hurlers' original use is still unknown and subject to speculation for example  some believe its alignment mirrors the celestial bodies that make up Orion's Belt . 

Pottering around Pewsey

Well this jaunt got me called sneaky and devious? Me? Never!

 Well I had sort of hoped we might make this detour on the way home, and I just might have printed out a few directions beforehand but sneaky and devious?

OK guilty as charged I  guess!

For once a site that was quick and easy to find - find the co op in Pewsey, walk around the right hand side of the supermarket and follow the path by the stream just over the bridge and you find this....

A row of Sarsen stones which are rather out of place.

 Plenty more dotted around in a nearby park.

One with a hole through it ( shame someone though the black paint was necessary though)

and yet more built into the foundations of the local church.













So where did they come from? One internet site says they are the remains of a stone circle. Other commentators say there was never a stone circle here and they are the remains of an old Saxon church on top of which was built the current one.

Well more research needed I guess and even if they were never part of a circle they certainly look as if they might have been. I guess the truth will never be known unless  some lucky find turns up the right old records should there be any.

And finally  - a snatched photograph of another ancient or not landmark...

The Westbury White Horse. An 18CE addition to the Wiltshire landscape or early. Again no documentary evidence to support an earlier date.

The recent cleaning though has left it a bright sharp white against the background of the Bratton Hill fort - almost a cartoon cut out. It looked a lot softer beforehand.

Back again!

Remember Grey Hill? Yes back again.

I can't help it - I just like the place. I also wanted to take the new camera out for a trial to see how the view from the top turned out.

I haven't got past the auto settings yet! It is far more complicated then my old manual SLR ever was and much heavier than the little Sony Cybershot I've been using so I expect a decent payoff from dragging all that extra weight around!

So - here is the view from the top. It was a rather hazy day but you can see the Severn Crossing and the coast of England across the other side.

Of course I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of the circle again. It was looking a lot better this time. The vegetation has mostly grown back and the circle and the stones are again part of the landscape.

The hazy effect is NOT my camera- just the flower heads on the grasses but they give an interesting softening contract to the stones.

We planned to take another route down this time, one we hadn't done before. It was a nice walk through the old forest even if part of Coed Gwent looked like it had never before seen human footsteps.




Can you spot the path? The bracken was head height down here. After battling through the undergrowth and some serious work with map and compass ( and GPS)  the navigators got us back to the car and off to....

 ....the Greyhound for a well earned drink. We shared the garden with a couple of Viking invaders in full costume. Most surreal but dozing in the sun I forgot to sneak a quick picture.

In the shadow of Cader Idris

After Shetland we thought we'd stay a bit closer to home. Well sort off. To take advantage of the additional public holiday graciously granted to us by virtue of her Maj having been queen for 60 years we thought we'd escape the endless sycophantic TV coverage and diappear to the wild s of Mid Wales and one of our favourite places in the shadow of Cader Idris - Dolgellau.

In the the time honoured tradition of British public holidays and Wales in particular it was a bit wet. OK very very wet but a lot warmer than Shetland.  We were only able to stay for a day or two so our first port of call was a circle just past Barmouth on the way to Harlech

This is a big circle and I couldn't photograph it in its entirity but this shot gives a good idea of the sheer bleakness of the scene.

 Llecheiddor stone circle is not terribly accessible. It is a steep pull up the hillside and the weather was pretty appalling. The days of rain had left it  even wetter underfoot than is usual for Welsh moorland and the circle is in the middle of some pretty boggy ground which would have been wet even in better weather. As it was we were hopping from tussock to tussock and trying not to step in the worst of it. Hard work and tiring with a strong wind and a smattering of rain  doing its best to try and blow you back down again. Very much a case of 3 steps forward and 2 back at times. 

Just above the circle is a long abandoned farmhouse and we joined the long suffering sheep in enjoying the shelter of a drystone wall for a few minutes before pushing on up the hill and circling back to the welcome warmth and dryness of the car.

The next day the weather looked a bit brighter so we headed back to Barmouth and up to a site we had previously visited. This time though rather than visit the circle  we were headed for the woodland - Cae Gwian and the standing stone  which is all that is now readily visible of the complex of circles and stones that once stood there.


This was a much more pleasant expedition and reminded us why we keep returning to this part of the country over and over again.

Our final find of this trip  was this rather nice little burial tomb. It was well hidden behind a barn and snuggled up against the wall and easily overlooked, Worth the search though to find Gwern Einion.

Just a substitute for ...

.... the intended post. If you are reading this then I haven't been able to find an internet connection and I hate posting from the BlackBerry!

As to where I am - well all will be revealed on  my return to  broadband land.

In the meantime some pictures from Mitchell Fold in Shropshire. These were taken a good few years ago  so apologies for the picture quality. They were taken on an old camera phone I think and my photography has improved considerably in the meantime ( I hope!).

This wasn't a planned trip. We were going to stay with some friends at a guest house just over the Welsh border and had made better time than we expected.

As we were early we were in no particular hurry and a sign for a stone circle caught my eye. Well why not? So we followed it. It is a very rough track and I was worried my MX-5 would ground but despite a few hairy moments we made it to the car park.

The top of the hill is open moorland with super 360 degree views. I remember it as being bitingly cold and we weren't disposed to linger.

Looks cold doesn't it! We were the only visitors at the time but someone had left recent offerings of fresh flowers on some of the stones.

There are about 15 stones left but it was too big a circle to photograph in its entirety.







Mitchells Fold is associated with the famous legend of a fairy cow that would give an unlimited amount of milk which was a valuable source of food for the poor. One night however an evil witch milked her into a sieve. The cow promptly disappeared never to be seen again. This was a huge loss to the local population who turned the witch into a pillar of stone  with the other stones set to keep her imprisoned.

Porlock potluck

Time to give the new boots a proper work out  - Exmoor seemed a good idea. It always rains when I visit Exmoor  so where better to check the waterproofing!

First stop was Porlock and up the notorious Porlock Hill  (25% or a 1:4 gradient) to a car park at the top with fabulous views across the channel to Wales. The stones are very easy to find and very close to the car park, less than a minute's walk and quite conspicuous against the backdrop of heather and gorse.

The stones are both prostrate and it has been suggested that they are the remains of a barrow.

Someone has planted daffodils around the stones but it is an exposed spot and they hadn't yet come into bloom.



Tradition has it that they were thrown here by the devil and St Dubricius during a contest. 


Leaving the stones behind we walked on along the road about another 2km to try and find the Porlock circle.

The circle was surprising easy to find at least once we'd gone past it and chanced to look back. Right by the road, hidden by a stone wall but clearly visible from the gate. It might have helped if a passing squall had not chosen that moment to drop water on us and we'd had the map out - not next time remember the map cover!

The stones are small and many of them look as if they have just been placed as marker stones.

Surrounded by sheep it is a very peaceful setting.

 Lunch was taken nearby propped up against a convenient drystone wall in the sun before heading back to the car and further explorations.





This conveniently ignores the second random squall that hit us - this one with the gift of hailstones as well. You are rapidly made aware of just how little shelter is available on the moorland.


The last circle we planned to try and find was Almsworthy. Whether this is actually a circle is debatable. The map calls it a "stone setting",  it has been described as two oval shapes but may just be an alignment. This was probably the most challenging to find. It would be very difficult indeed in summer when the heather is higher.

Certainly many stones are tiny and look as if they have just been placed in the heather.

Spot the stones.....

Stonehenge

There is nothing I can say about Stonehenge that hasn't been said already and a thousand times better than I can.

So just some pictures I took recently. One of the advantages of English Heritage membership is free entry and no need to queue for tickets.

Stonehenge is always busy and this was no exception but I did manage to get some shots that make it look deserted ( trust me it wasn't!). Hope you enjoy them

Cardiff Castle - a monument to Victorian excess

New laptop is now up and working - can receive email but strangely can't send it! Oh well a job for another day.

I've had a few days away with some friends in Cardiff and although I've visited many many times before, the castle is so taken for granted it has probably been 20 years since I've been in. Neither of my friends had ever been so it seemed a good way to pass Sunday morning. Firstly I apologise for the photo quality. This wasn't a planned photo excursion so I didn't have my camera. These were taken on a fairly basic camera phone with no zoom or other refinements.

Firstly ( of course!) the obligatory stone circle. This is  the Gorsedd circle - a modern circle, erected in 1978 in Bute Park right under the walls of the castle. Dreadful picture but the best of a bad bunch!

The Normans reused the old Roman site and build a motte with a moat around it and a Keep on top. Originally wooden it was eventually constructed in stone.






Although the city with all the usual city noises presses up against the walls, the atomosphere inside is curiously peaceful.

 The climb up into the keep is by means of some steep stairs but the view over the mountains of South Wales and the modern city of Cardiff ins well worth it. Mostly now a shell, some medieval graffiti survives as well as a garde robe ( a lavatory which empties directly into the moat from a great height!)

The castle walls ( some Roman parts remaining) are hollow and were used during WW2 as an air raid shelter for the people of Cardiff. Even on a bright sunny day the corridor was cold and dank. Must have been far far worse to be there in the cold and the dark with the fear of bombs dropping.



The old castle is only part of the story. Also part of the complex is a large Gothic mansion built by the Bute family who amassed a huge fortune from the sale of coal and are largely responsible for the emergency of Cardiff as a major city. The house too has been enlarged  over the years and now stands as a magnificent example of the power of money over taste. Everything possible that could be decorated with gold leaf was and it is elaborately painted and carved.

 My camera couldn't possibly do justice to this jaw dropping interior but here are a few interior shots which will give the general idea.

This is the Arab room ceiling. A small octagonal room used as a sitting room or occasionally as a guest bedroom.

This is the over mantle in the library, the oldest part of the house. The central figure is holding a scroll inscribed with runes.

Finally here is some detail of the carving in the small dining room. The carved wooden frieze extends much of the way around the room and each scroll holds an exquistely carved bird. As far as it is possible to see they are all different.

Underneath are hand painted butterflies, again they are beautifully executed.

Ents and Circles on a blustery day

Wet and windy in not so sunny Bristol but the forecast for mid Wales actually doesn't look too bad. Wales it is then and in particular the Pen y Beacon ( Blaen Digedi) circle which is just south of Hay on Wye. This is actually a 2 hour drive for us so we were taking a bit of a risk especially as we wanted to climb the Hay Bluff escarpment and on to Lord Hereford's Knob.

The circle is easy to find. Right by the car park in fact. There isn't however a lot of it left and it was only relatively recently classified as a circle. For many years it was considered a burial site.

 Only one stone now stands proud, the others are  much smaller and well hidden in the  ground. 

 The main stone has been carved by the Ordinance Survey ( why???) but just below the trig mark is what are believed to be cup marks which are very rare in this area.









Yes the car park is that close!







 
As you can see the sun is out but the wind was biting and by the time we'd reached the top of the Bluff, I'd had enough. Lord Hereford's Knob could wait for another day. Instead we headed down into the wooded valley. Although the paths were marked on the map, this proved to be somewhat challenging with missing sign posts and stiles festooned with barbed wire ( nice!) Still we persevered and were rewarded by some magnificent scenery, soaring red kites, bubbling brooks, some spectacular fungus growths and of course.....

.....the Ent. Isn't he magnificent?















ps - If anyone is up the Hay Bluff and finds a small black pearl earring - it's mine!