The Modern Antiquarian

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the celebrated stone circle called the Dawns Men, the Dance Stones, or, popularly, the Merry Maidens. This is a very perfect circle of nineteen stones which average about three feet and a-half in height above the ground, the circle itself being nearly seventy feet in diameter. After just three days of the dig, which is open to the public, and a foot of top soil there is evidence of life from 50-100 years ago as well as the unearthing of pottery which is 200 years old.

It is said that many of them were broken up to build Shap Abbey in 1158, which is, in its turn, dismantled to build paltry houses. Part of the steeple, with trees upon it that have withered with age, and cells under the once body of the abbey, are the only remains of this ruin: it has been shamefully dismantled. A fine stream runs near it, and the ground produces sweet grass, and hay that is all fragrance! Some of the 75 square barrows – burial chambers – contained personal possessions such as jewellery and weapons. Archaeologists have also discovered a skeleton with a shield.

To be fair, owners of the 1:25k map will note that three of the linear alignment of monuments are named... so perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised, but there you are. This, the 'Yellow Cairn' crowning 1,070ft Pen-crug-melyn at the eastern extremity, is pleasingly bathed in an orangey/yellow(ish) glow as the sun briefly reasserts its dominance following a couple of hours of intense downpour. So, needless to say, the locals know where they're at. As usual.

More than 2,000 finds were made in our 2012 test pits and Big Dig trench, covering a wide variety of objects dating to all ages.Rodney Castleden (1990) ''The Knossos Labyrinth: A New View of the 'Palace of Minos' at Knosos'', Routledge ISBN 0415033152 Cope is also a recognised authority on Neolithic culture, an outspoken political and cultural activist, and a fierce critic of contemporary Western society (with a noted and public interest in occultism, paganism and Goddess worship). Interesting in itself but not part of this blog. Now whether this earlier monument had anything to do with the settlement at Springfield Lyons is a matter of conjecture. Cornwall is a special place - we're not like a big city, we have a different way of life completely. Cornwall has all these old stones, cultures and ways. The ways have never died out and the people around who know how to make the magic work." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/archaeology-anicent-british-chieftain-shaman-burial-ritual-a9480321.html

The repair work will utilise 60 tonnes of organic soil and the number of hessian sandbags used equals approximately one sandbag for each year of the hillfort’s life. In addition to the quote given by A.L. Lewis in Rhiannon's post below, the missing part of Stukeley's description can be found in his Iter. Boreal of 1725:- If our traditions may be relied on, there was also in Treen a large one, around which a market was held in days of yore...

Cornwall's Arch Druid Ed Prynn believes it's possible to be both a Christian and a Druid. He told BBC Cornwall what his faith means to him. Our ancient Irish ancestors carved images of an ancient eclipse into giant stones over 5,000 years ago, on November 30, 3340 BC to be exact. This is the oldest known recorded solar eclipse in history. The findings are being announced later on the first day of the British Science Festival being held at the University of Bradford. Fourth, Gop Hill itself is the head of a recumbent figure. Viewed from the Clwyd valley near Abergele, Gop Hill is her head, Moel Hirradug ot the right of it is her pregnant belly, and the hill to the right of that is her knees. The cave of Achadh-Aldai (Newgrange); the cave of Cnoghba (Knowth); the cave of the grave of Bodan over Dubadh (Dowth); and the cave of the wife of Gobhan at Drochat-atha (Drogheda) were broken and plundered by these same gaill."