Megalithic and Prehistoric Sites

[Voley]

Blatant plug for my Twitter thread on the stuff round my way.

Thread by @JamieAshle: #PrehistoryOfPenwith: A Thread The end of #Cornwall where I live, #Penwith, is incredibly rich in prehistory. I know very little about our s…

Thread by @JamieAshle: #PrehistoryOfPenwith: A Thread The end of #Cornwall where I live, #Penwith, is incredibly rich in prehistory. I know ve about our standing stones/circles and fogous so this thread's here for me to learn a bit more and share my phot…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[Voley]

Been doing that thread for a year now and I've barely scratched the surface. We've a fair bit of it down here

 

[brogdale]

Been doing that thread for a year now and I've barely scratched the surface. View attachment 225168We've a fair bit of it down here

Great stuff

That's inspired me to dig out my copy of Cooke's Journey to the Stones



Reminds me of a happy, trippy student camping trip to Zennor when we dived through a stone with a hole in it.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Would this pond have been decorative or functional when it was first dug? Or is that one of those things that are lost to time?

We have no way of knowing. It is at the top of a hill so I guess it was to ensure a supply of water, but we always tend to think of Iron Age folk just toiling away with the task of survival when they must have devoted time to fun too, could have been a filthy sex pond, forerunner to the modern day jacuzzi...

 

[Voley]

Great stuff

That's inspired me to dig out my copy of Cooke's Journey to the Stones

View attachment 225173

Reminds me of a happy, trippy student camping trip to Zennor when we dived through a stone with a hole in it.

The Men-An-Tol by the sounds of it.



That bit out the back of Zennor's astonishing. Stone circles, settlements, the inscribed stone on the cover of that book, barrows, quoits, a tor enclosure etc etc.

 

[Voley]

Still discovering new things out there even now.

Propped stones are interesting. Relatively recent discovery but for reasons unknown our ancestors liked to arrange megaliths to frame rock outcrops / cairns / other important features. There's a good one that you can climb into that's a sort of viewing station looking at Carn Galver, the tor enclosure I mentioned. My friend Carolyn, an astrophysicist, worked out that it probably aligned with the Equinox sunset so we went out to have a look and got treated to this:

 

[brogdale]

The Men-An-Tol by the sounds of it.

View attachment 225188

That bit out the back of Zennor's astonishing. Stone circles, settlements, the inscribed stone on the cover of that book, barrows, quoits, a tor enclosure etc etc.

That looks like it.
And we went to a bakery shop to buy a pasty and the lady checked in a ledger before deciding she could sell us any. I presume they were for the miners? Best pasty I've ever had.
Amazing area; loved the trip...even if it pissed down loads.

 

[ska invita]

The Men-An-Tol by the sounds of it.

View attachment 225188

That bit out the back of Zennor's astonishing. Stone circles, settlements, the inscribed stone on the cover of that book, barrows, quoits, a tor enclosure etc etc.

Yes! Went there a couple of weeks back, have been meaning to post about it.

Men-an-Tol is cool but what was amazing was the general plateaux it sits on. Up the hill a bit is a single stone which points towards a tor with human stones on its cap. There's a well. But then around the bend is a stone circle..the nine something or other? From this zone you can see the sea on the north coast, a sliver out west, to the south and to the south east near Penzance.

The sun was shining, the sky open, and the whole setting one of the most beautiful places I've been, in a subtle way. Not jaw dropping, just perfect. Megalithic Portal gives it full marks for ambience

Then down hill there's a tomb jobby and another well... I'll post my pics later but there's little point as the magic is in the being there.

 

[Voley]

Yes! Went there a couple of weeks back, have been meaning to post about it.

Men-a-Tol is cool but what was amazing was the general plateaux it sits on. Up the hill a bit is a single stone which points towards a tor with human stones on its cap. There's a well. But then around the bend is a stone circle..the nine something or other? From this zone you can see the sea on the north coast, a sliver out west, to the south and to the south east near Penzance.

The sun was shining, the sky open, and the whole setting one of the most beautiful places I've been, in a subtle way. Not jaw dropping, just perfect. Megalithic Portal gives it full marks for ambience

Then down hill there's a tomb jobby and another well... I'll post my pics later but there's little point as the magic is in the being there.

Yep, the Nine Maidens, Lanyon Quoit, Bosiliack Barrow, Men Scyfa, the propped stones I just mentioned, and loads loads more all within a few miles walking. I love it up there.

I get the open top bus out there in the Summer then walk back home. 10 miles in distance but thousands of years in time.

 

[Voley]

Have a scroll through my thread ska invita . Most of the places you mention are on it. You'll recognise some of it, definitely.

 

[ska invita]

Yep, the Nine Maidens, Lanyon Quoit, Bosiliack Barrow, Men Scyfa, the propped stones I just mentioned, and loads loads more all within a few miles walking. I love it up there.

I get the open top bus out there in the Summer then walk back home. 10 miles in distance but thousands of years in time.

Saw that open top bus, we just didn't have time unfortunately, but this is definitely a part of the world id like to return to and hang around in.


some pics

 

[ska invita]

Voleys pics are better

 

[ska invita]

Just reading your thread Voley

" The skyline on the moors behind Zennor is dominated by the twin-peaked tor enclosure of Carn Galver. There are some remains of a settlement on it but there's also a school of thought that thinks Carn Galver the objective of an ancient processional route. " < funny because thats exactly what i imagined along there, towards the circle...everything just seems to point to things on that plateau

Blatant plug for my Twitter thread on the stuff round my way.

Thread by @JamieAshle: #PrehistoryOfPenwith: A Thread The end of #Cornwall where I live, #Penwith, is incredibly rich in prehistory. I know very little about our s…

Thread by @JamieAshle: #PrehistoryOfPenwith: A Thread The end of #Cornwall where I live, #Penwith, is incredibly rich in prehistory. I know ve about our standing stones/circles and fogous so this thread's here for me to learn a bit more and share my phot…

threadreaderapp.com

enjoyed reading that very much, nice one

 

[Voley]

Just reading your thread Voley

" The skyline on the moors behind Zennor is dominated by the twin-peaked tor enclosure of Carn Galver. There are some remains of a settlement on it but there's also a school of thought that thinks Carn Galver the objective of an ancient processional route. " < funny because thats exactly what i imagined along there, towards the circle...everything just seems to point to things on that plateau

Yep. And the Equinox sunset goes down right behind it when you climb into those propped stones.



Carn Galver and that moorland was clearly very important to our ancestors, for whatever reason. Fantastic place. I love it.

 

[Voley]

Saw that open top bus, we just didn't have time unfortunately, but this is definitely a part of the world id like to return to and hang around in.


some pics

View attachment 225195

View attachment 225196

View attachment 225198

View attachment 225197

1st pic Mên Scryfa - a prehistoric standing stone inscribed at a later (possibly medieval) date referencing 'Rialobrani Cunovali fili' which may mean 'Son of The Royal Raven' or something along those lines. All very mysterious. Tor enclosure of Carn Galver in the background. It feels like the stone is pointing at it - you really got that in the photo.
2nd pic. The Nine Maidens. Women turned to stone for dancing on The Sabbath obvs.
3rd Lanyon Quoit. Our most famous dolmen but ALL WRONG as it fell down in a storm and had to be re-erected differently. Capstone is something like 14 tons or something nuts.
4th. National Trust viewed with some ambivalence around these parts. English Heritage too.

 

[ska invita]

It feels like the stone is pointing at it - you really got that in the photo.

it took a few goes
also that stone ( Mên Scryfa ) can be seen from both Lanyon Quoit and the Maidens...handy

 

[Mordi]

I hold true to the tradition that all family holidays must involve old stones in fields. I was getting anxious after a visit to the Goseck solar observatory whose henge might predate Stonehenge as the oldest known solar observatory but sadly doesn't meet my criteria having been constructed out of wood. Luckily nearby there's a chamber tomb that was built with an earlier existing carved Menhir for its capstone. The original is in the -excellent- Prehistoric Museum in Halle but they've erected a copy which had recently been given some fresh harvest offerings.

A few pictures I've stolen from elsewhere;

 

[brogdale]

Third of my local, lockdown ancient site explorations...

3. The Newe Ditch(es) of Riddlesdown:

Location: (in pink oval & start of the last Mere Bank walk shown with pink X)



The deep ditch running along the north-western boundary of Riddlesdown is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England, and hints at early human activity on the site. Old trackways, causeways, depressions and even possible traces of Iron Age fields, led Croydon Council to designate the whole of Riddlesdown as an Archaeological Priority Zone. Newe Ditch runs in a south-west to north-east direction across the north-western edge of Riddlesdown. The scheduled area covers the bank and ditch between Riddlesdown Road and Famet Close, a length of approximately 200 metres. However, the scheduled area should not be regarded as the limit of the ditch’s extent since it continues beyond Riddlesdown Road into Coombes Wood; I've certainly seen evidence of the earthworks in area (a) stretching all the way down the valley side to the very bottom, the A23. Though I've not had so much success in area (b) in Coombes wood.



Here are some pics from May:

1. From approx Downs Court road looking NE along the ditch:



2. From roughly same spot looking down (SW) with footpath down in ditch:



3. From further down that path, looking SW down the valley towards the A23:



4. More earthworks, looking SE, further downslope:



Don't know too much about this feature, but intuitively it does suggest some sort of boundary marker part way along the valley, but who knows whether or not it may have had ritualistic significance; there's certainly been plenty of evidence of Iron age farming & burial on the down.

Lovely walking up there.

 

[ska invita]

i was just looking at Avebury online - never been - the main site looks a bit shit though, the way its been built on and has a road running through it

that local area seems to have a lot of ciricles and stone...can anyone recommend the best to go to?

 

[platinumsage]

i was just looking at Avebury online - never been - the main site looks a bit shit though, the way its been built on and has a road running through it

that local area seems to have a lot of ciricles and stone...can anyone recommend the best to go to?

I wouldn’t call it a bit shit. It might in fact be closer to what many stone circles were like when they were built, with major routes passing by and people living around them, perhaps not quite in this way, but at least it feels part of a living community rather than forgotten about behind a hedge. I certainly felt more connected to the history of the landscape there than in other places. The sound of cricket on the village green, the saxon church and the tourists all add to the sense of place.

 

[ska invita]

I wouldn’t call it a bit shit. It might in fact be closer to what many stone circles were like when they were built, with major routes passing by and people living around them, perhaps not quite in this way, but at least it feels part of a living community rather than forgotten about behind a hedge. I certainly felt more connected to the history of the landscape there than in other places. The sound of cricket on the village green, the saxon church and the tourists all add to the sense of place.

hmm maybe
a road with loads of cars through is shit though for sure

 

[platinumsage]

hmm maybe
a road with loads of cars through is shit though for sure

It is what it is. I certainly wouldn’t avoid it if I was visiting the area and had never been before.

 

[brogdale]

hmm maybe
a road with loads of cars through is shit though for sure

Seriously, it's quite magnificent when you're there with the added bonus of being to get up close and personal with the stones. The avenue is also awesome and, for me, it was the West Kennett long-barrow where it all started...I've been obsessed ever since.

 

[Flavour]

And Scotland has perhaps the most extraordinary thing on earth, Skara Brae.

wouldn't go that far

 

[ska invita]

wouldn't go that far

it is a long way tbf

 

[kebabking]

wouldn't go that far

it is a long way tbf

2 hours in the Audi - and that's with a burger at Scotch Corner....

 

[Lucy Fur]

wouldn't go that far

Central heating via sea water being channels under a central fire stone and then out to cavity walls, way before those pesky Romans arrived.

 

[Flavour]

Central heating via sea water being channels under a central fire stone and then out to cavity walls, way before those pesky Romans arrived.

pyramids

 

[Lucy Fur]

pyramids

Care to expand a little...maybe?

 

[Flavour]

I get it that Skara Brae is a little bit older than the Pyramids of Egypt and had loads of impressive features as you've mentioned. But to call them (as you didn't, but Bahnhof Strasse did) "perhaps the most extraordinary thing on earth" is a little excessive. I don't think I need to explain why the Pyramids are stronger contenders for "the most extraordinary thing on earth" prize, at least in the "Built by humans" category.