Some successes, and some failures

Torrential rain during the night meant that it wasn't really the right conditions to go tromping across fields, so I picked a few circles that could, in theory, be seen easily from the car. First up was Carrigagrenane. The NE stones apparently aren't that spectacular, and difficult to get to so I plumped for the SE circle for the start of the day.

Another plan shot down at the first hurdle. Despite being on the spot on the map, we couldn't see the stones from the car, so we moved on to the next junction and Maulatanvally. We did spot these, but a couple of fields away from the car, with a stream and hedgerow in the intervening space.

Likewise the next stones at Lettergorman (South). No easy way to get to the stones without getting (at least) ankle deep in mud (on arriving back home later, I re-read Fourwinds' notes on this site. Apparently there's a gate which makes crossing the stream unnecessary. Maybe later in the week).

I had slightly better luck at Lettergorman (North). Parking by a gate and walking up the rise of the hill, I spotted the stones just on the crest. However, just as I broke the crest of the hill I also spotted a few cows in the far corner of the field. I quickly took some snaps from afar of the circle and outlier, before the cows noticed and started to saunter over. After yesterday's events, I have no problem in admitting that I turned tail and ran back to the safety of the car. So, 9:30 in the morning, most of the day's targets already spotted, but no contact with the stones themselves as yet.

Our original plan was to take a slow drive up to Dunmanway, make our way across to Skibbereen for lunch before heading back home again. We actually encountered some reasonable roads today, so decided to pop up to Bantry for lunch instead. Mikki did her usual faultless navigation routine, and spotted a stone circle at Inchybegga, so we turned off onto a small track at Dromore once again to find the stones. Outside Dromore School is a fine standing stone, 6-7 feet tall, but leaning at quite an angle. Carrying on up the lane to Inchybegga, this time I had to ask some locals, who directed us to a house a little further down the lane to ask for directions. They even phoned ahead so the woman was waiting for us as we came around the bend! Her partner not only pointed out the way to the Inchybegga circle, but suggested that I leave seeing the Cullomane stones as they "aren't that great. Baurgorm is better".

Parking in the farmyard, follow the track through the farm, which eventually snakes up the hill (it's marked on the OSI map). The stones are beyond the second gate on the track. I found it difficult to make out the form of the circle, which doesn't seem to follow the Irish RSC pattern. I may just not have seen it, as all the stones are quite low, only about a foot or so high. A nice setting though, even if the stones aren't that great. The map also shows a Standing Stone and Burial Ground close by, but I didn't spot them.

Sadly, I took the landowner at his word and avoided Cullomane, to make my way up to Baurgorm, just off the back road to Bantry. A long walk up a steep lane, then a leap over barbed wire put me into the kind of landscape I'd envisioned in Ireland: boggy ground all around, interspersed with huge stones. I wandered around for a bit, taking care where I trod and not getting too wet, but I couldn't find the circle. I should have tried for Cullomane…

So we set into Bantry for a very nice lunch indeed, at O'Connors fish restaurant on the main square. Well recommended!

Stonechasing done for the day, we just relaxed and took a slow drive back along the N71 through Skibbareen (where Mikki enjoyed an ice cream), stopping to take in the scenery at Glandore before popping into the tourist tat office at Drombeg for some postcards and information leaflets. They've got a nice scale model of the circle complex in there, which made the slight diversion worthwhile.

Back at the cottage, the weather had cleared and I managed to get a clear view of the Reanascreena circle from the upstairs window, only a mile as the crow flies.

Only four days left before we have to head for home again! So much to see and do…

Some Irish stone circles at last!

Up at 1am to book into the ferry port at 2:00, for a 3:15 sailing that didn't sail till nearly 3:30. Three hours rest but no sleep (and the boat was cold) and a small greasy breakfast on the boat saw us hit land at 6:45.

Heading toward Cork, we diverted briefly to take a look at some of the Waterford sites. We found the Whitfield and Powersknock stones, but were unable to spot either the Savagetown stone or tomb despite being in the right spot – the hedgerow was just too thick and high.

We carried on for a spot of lunch in the English Market in Cork, which appears to be where all the road building for the county is concentrated at the moment. It was like driving in London with traffic chaos everywhere you turned.

We finally arrived at the cottage (between Rosscarbery and Leap) around 3 in the afternoon. The cottage is very nice indeed. After a spot of tea, I sat down to sketch out these notes so far, and make a preliminary plan for tomorrow before getting some well-earned rest. If I had known the roads in Ireland were 'B' standard at best, I might have had second thoughts about the trip. And the speed limits! 20mph when driving through the smallest villages, from a national maximum of 60mph. I can only take my hat off to Tom Fourwinds and the mileage he covers in an average weekend…

Arrival in Ireland

Up at 1am to book into the ferry port at 2:00, for a 3:15 sailing that didn't sail till nearly 3:30. Three hours rest but no sleep (and the boat was cold) and a small greasy breakfast on the boat saw us hit land at 6:45.

Heading toward Cork, we diverted briefly to take a look at some of the Waterford sites. We found the Whitfield and Powersknock stones, but were unable to spot either the Savagetown stone or tomb despite being in the right spot – the hedgerow was just too thick and high.

We carried on for a spot of lunch in the English Market in Cork, which appears to be where all the road building for the county is concentrated at the moment. It was like driving in London with traffic chaos everywhere you turned.

We finally arrived at the cottage (between Rosscarbery and Leap) around 3 in the afternoon. The cottage is very nice indeed. After a spot of tea, I sat down to sketch out these notes so far, and make a preliminary plan for tomorrow before getting some well-earned rest. If I had known the roads in Ireland were 'B' standard at best, I might have had second thoughts about the trip. And the speed limits! 20mph when driving through the smallest villages, from a national maximum of 60mph. I can only take my hat off to Tom Fourwinds and the mileage he covers in an average weekend…

Ireland - The Journey Begins (Wales)

A week in Ireland, prefixed with a day in Wales, so I'll split this weblog into a few parts...

4am. Approximately 23 hours before our ferry sails from Fishguard. Are we mad? Probably, yes.

Anyway, an early start from London meant that we missed the Friday morning rush hour traffic. So much so that we found ourselves just outside Cardiff by 6:45 unable to get breakfast because the motorway services hadn't yet opened. At all. The attendant arrived to open up the building as we were sitting perplexed in the car park. Obviously we weren't about to get a decent meal here, so we carried on for a couple of junctions and the next service station, where we managed to down a hearty meal of cholesterol.

What is it about Wales that it hates the English so much? What had started as a glorious day with the sun rising behind us, turned to torrential rain as we crossed the Severn Bridge. The rain wasn't to stop until we reached Carmarthen. Anyway, checking our progress on the map, I noticed that we were very near to St. Lythans so we took a quick detour off the motorway. We initially missed the turn off for St Lythans and ended up driving around Cardiff for a short while, but with the help of the GPS soon got back on track.

St Lythans is a wonderful site, and provided good shelter from the rain, which had eased off briefly. As Tinkinswood was just up the road, that was our next stop. I was seriously impressed with the size of this thing. The area for the barrow is massive, much wider than I'd expect it needed to be. I spent a while here in the rain before returning to the car.

Llangynog burial chamber was next on my list of off-route possibles, but I couldn't locate it. There's an information board at the edge of the village that mentions it, but no way to get to where the map suggests it might be; behind a row of houses. There was no path anywhere to be seen, and I asked a local postman but he wasn't aware of it.

We continued on, and a little way past Carmarthen, just north of Whitland I'd spotted a couple of sites close together on the OS map which merited further investigation: St Canna's Chair (SN177187) and Henllan inscribed stone (SN177198). We found the St Canna's Church, but the only sight of a stone was a low, small stone in an adjoining field. Could this be it? As for Henllan, high hedgerows and nowhere to stop meant we could investigate no further. There was an upside though. We spotted a sign to Pemberton's Chocolate Farm, which sounded intruiging (chocolate trees?), and stopped off to fill up with essential supplies. We would have stayed for the demonstration, but a coachload of schoolkids arrived, so we beat a hasty retreat. Looks interesting for a future visit however, and well worth dropping in if you're in the area and feel a deep need for some hand made chocolates!

As we approached Fishguard around lunchtime, we took a detour up to Ffynnion Druidion and saw both the 'JCB' stone and the real Ffynion Druidion stone. Continuing slightly further north and parking near SM 921371, I also spotted a possible 'JCB2' – quite a smooth stone, which may just have been a scratching post. I didn't enter the field to look closer.

We then moved on to our hotel for the night, the plan being to get to sleep as early as possible as we had to be up by 1:30 to catch the ferry. We lunched in our room, Mikki having prepared a picnic in anticipation of better weather. The hotel was the pits. Expensive for 2 stars, given that we would only be using the room for a few hours at most, so we felt no guilt in taking our own food in rather than use the restaurant.

Suitably refreshed, we popped out for a couple of hours stonechasing in the afternoon. Sites visited briefly included Ty Meini behind the 'school railings', Parc Cerrig Hirion, although only seen from afar. At least I think that was what I saw. There's a bridle path up past public loos next to a school, The path turns to the left at a signpost. 50 yds down this path, I spotted the stone through the hedge to the south. Except that the bridle path isn't shown on the Landranger map…

Cerrig y Gof – having scaled the gate to get to the stones, they looked different from every angle! A truly incredible site. I'd parked about 100yds east and walked back to the stones.

Carreg Coetan Arthur – so pretty in the sunlight! I drove the car up to the gate so Mikki could see. Her excited comment was "Imagine living with that next door!"

I then finished off a long, busy day of driving and stones at Pentre Ifan. A fitting end, and I even had some time there alone, which I understand is uncommon as its usually so busy. The views from here are wonderful. The capstone sits, looking like some futuristic airship briefly docked on the uprights. My imagination was playing overtime just standing staring at it...

The hotel was truly dire. In bed by 6pm, and felt I slept fitfully with all the noise of the hotel bar, restaurant and take-away chippie(!) going on, but Mikki said I was dead to the world for the duration. Fully awake at 1am for the next day's adventure.

Thornborough and the Devil's Jumpstone

We've not been too active for the past couple of weeks, being too busy planning the trip to Ireland which starts very soon now!

We took a gentle drive out to Buckingham today, via Watford and Aylesbury, to take a look at the Thornborough Mounds, which I'd missed on a previous trip out this way.

Driving out through Wendover (where we stopped for a bite of lunch) to Aylesbury and up to Winslow brought back memories, as I worked in Aylesbury for a few years and got to know the surrounding villages (and their pubs!) reasonably well. We took a slight diversion from the main route so I could show Mikki the Stepford that is Watermead...

I was disappointed to read on the Thornborough information board that the burial mounds have been dated to only 200AD and are R*m*n in origin - surely much too recent to merit inclusion here? Never mind, they were quite impressive as they stand now.

We decided that we had time to take the long way home, so I took another stab at finding the Devil's Jump Stone in Marston Mortaine over toward Bedford. This time, I headed toward the church, but still had no luck in locating the stone. I did ask an elderly couple if they knew of the stone. They had heard of it, but had never seen it themselves. I think it will need a winter visit when the foliage has died back in order to finally nail this one.

The heat and humidity finally got to us - it was very humid today - so we headed south on the M1 for home. The day was not to be over though, as traffic conspired against us all the way, to make a very tiring journey home in the heat.

MK and Environs

Yesterday, after ordering a new car in the morning (yay!), we took a quick spin up and around the hell that is Milton Keynes. First stop was shopping over near Sandy, then back through Bedford to the Devil's Jump Stone. Sadly, despite parking on the dot according to the GPS, I failed to find this stone. It either needs a more accurate reference, or detailed instructions of where to find the stone.

There's a footpath leading behind the houses, but nothing to be seen there, and a footpath on the open ground on the other side of the road. I drew a blank. Any specific directions to find the stone would be useful (unless the grid ref is actually wrong).

We had to pop into the centre of Milton Keynes for some retail therapy, which caused problems in trying to get out again in the right direction! I hate this place!

Finally getting our bearings, I headed up toward the Stony Stratford Stone. I'm not sure about this one. The stone(s) seem to be placed on the ground, rather than 'embedded', and don't feel that old.

Lying within a nature conservation area, the walk alongside the river is well maintained, and it's possible to see that the stones are resting on the surface rather than being embedded in the ground. That suggests to me that the stones are not that old, but I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

On the way back, I spotted a possible standing stone at the GalleyHill Roundabout (SP797396). This may have been an old milestone, it's hard to say - there were no marks on the stone, but it was right by the road on the roundabout. This whole area would have been a building site during the development of the area so I'm doubtful that it is genuine.

Having not had much luck, and with the weather being unbearably hot and humid, the car decided it didn't like the idea of being replaced and the aircon decided to stop working, so we headed straight for home.