Tag: neolithic
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Fingal’s Cauldron Seat
Giants do get around a bit. In Yorkshire, Wade performed huge landscaping feats. But Wades attempts were nothing compared to Fionn mac Cumhaill, or Fingal in its anglicized form. He built a causeway bridging Northern Ireland with Scotland only to have it destroyed by a rival giant. He pops on Staffa island where a cave…
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Castlerigg Stone Circle
My early morning run took in the Castlerigg Stone Circle, a 4,500 year old monument built by the earliest farming communities who took advantage of the fertile lands of the valley bottoms. Castlerigg is particularly impressive, giving a 360° panorama of the surrounding fells. This is a view south up the tiny Naddle valley. It’s…
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Scarth Wood Moor – a Neolithic village?
I’ve run across Scarth Wood Moor near Osmotherley many times in orienteering races but I can’t honestly remember encountering this boulder field. This is not surprising as, looking back at the 2019 map, I see nothing on the orienteering map, any exposed boulders were not considered significant enough to have been mapped. The boulders have…
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Stones of Stenness
A day spent exploring the Neolithic landscape of Orkney. The Stones of Stenness and The Ring of Brodgar. A third site in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, Maeshowe, could unfortunately only be seen from a distant as it was still closed due to the Covid restrictions. The sites are fascinating and not…
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Clach na Carraig
I stumbled across this massive standing stone on my morning run. Well, I tell a lie, I was carrying a map and was attracted to the Gothic font which is a giveaway of something interesting. It is truly a monolith, 12½ feet tall, made of granite, and 13 feet in girth. Probably erected by Neolithic…
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Chambered Cairn, Great Ayton Moor
It was only when someone asked me over the Christmas holidays the whereabouts the chambered cairn on Great Ayton Moor, having failed to find it, I realised it had been a few years since I had last visited. So on a cold, damp, overcast morning, I figured it was as good a time as any…
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Pointer Stone
Pamperdale Moor seems to be randomly scattered with sandstone boulders of various shapes and sizes. In the middle of an area denoted as a Bronze Age field system on the OS map is a triangular stone propped up on another boulder. Apparently, it has a tapered cup mark on it, rock art. It has been…