The Journal Of Antiquities

Ancient Sites In Great Britain & Southern Ireland

Monthly Archives: September 2014


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London Stone, Camden, Greater London

London Stone (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

London Stone (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Os grid reference: TQ 3267 8090. Hidden-away in a recess at the front of what was the Bank of China on Canning Street, Camden, London, close to the Cannon Street Underground Station, is the so-called London Stone, a relic perhaps of Roman Londinium. Sometimes also called ‘the Brutus Stone’ or ‘Britto Stone’ after the Celtic leader of the same name who was hailed as king of what would become London, according to The Legend. It is actually a squat round-shaped stone that is now much diminished in size and which may, in fact, have been a 15th century boundary stone? The stone’s location is close to the corner of St Swithins Lane and nearly opposite Bush Lane. St Paul’s Cathedral is 1 mile to the west while the river Thames and London Bridge are about a quarter of a mile to the south of Canning Street.

London Stone and its former stone surround (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

London Stone and its former stone surround (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

At the front of the W.H.Smith building at no.111 Canning Street in a specially designed stone recess stands the curious ‘London Stone’, a round-shaped stone that could be part of a Roman altar that was dedicated to the goddess, Diana, so says Geoffrey Ash in his great work ‘Mythology Of The British Isles’. It was apparently set-up by Brutus, grandson of Aeneas of Troy, a self-styled king of what would become “London”. Brutus is said to have had a palace on the site of the present Guildhall about 1 mile to the south-west, beside the river Thames. The stone is 1 foot 5 inches high by 1 foot 9 inches wide and is made of Limestone that was quarried in Rutland, though it has been suggested that it is Bath stone? It sits securely behind a decorative iron grill, fronted by a very nicely-carved outer recess made of Portland stone, at the top of which there is an information plaque; the inner recess is surrounded by thick glass for extra security.

The stone originally stood at the north-side of Canning Street – where it was set into a niche in the south wall of St Swithin’s Church, close to the Mansion House, according to Janet & Colin Bord ‘Mysterious Britain’. St Swithin’s church was demolished after it suffered from being bombed during the 2nd World War; the stone was moved to the Guildhall museum, then eventually to its present site in Canning Street.

According to documentary evidence the stone was in existence in 1100 and 1188, and in the 16th century it was mentioned again by the antiquary John Stow, who was to describe it as: “a great stone called London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron, and otherwise so stronglie set that if carts do runne against it through negligense the wheeles be broken, and the stone itself unshaken”. In the work ‘Mysterious Britain’ the Bords say that: “Although there is no tradition of it being used as a stone of initiation, the London Stone is of great intiquity and was held in veneration by the citizens who would make binding pacts across it and issue proclamations from it”.

It would appear, therefore, that over many hundreds of years folk, maybe travellers and pilgrims, have been chipping away and breaking pieces off the London Stone to take away as a relic in case it possessed some sort of magical healing power – it may well have done so – and if that be the case it would have originally been a much bigger block of stone, maybe even some sort of pagan altar in the time of the Romans, or maybe from ancient Britain, long before the Romans ever came to Britain but, Brutus who was a Celtic leader – had set his eyes on our shorline! If he did ever come to Britain and reside at London, then it would have been roughly 1100 BC?

The author James MacKillop says in his ‘great tome’ ‘Dictionary Of Celtic Mythology’ says that Brutus was a progenitor of the British people. He was leader of the Trojans and had “dreams” of the Temple of Diana beyond the setting sun. After invading the island [Britain] he defeats the mythical giant Gogmagog and then establishes law upon the land named for him – Britain (Prydain). But actually Gogmagog was killed by being hurled over a cliff by another giant called Corineus of Cornwall who was a champion wrestler of great strength and valor – Reader’s Digest ‘Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain’. Very gruesome-looking stone effigies of Gogmagog and Corineus stand inside the Guildhall in King Street. Geoffrey of Monmouth mentions the legend of Brutus and the giants in his work ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ (1136). More likely than not London Stone was a ‘Milliarium’, a stone that was used to measure road distances in both Roman times, and long after that. And there is the famous saying: ‘So long as the Brutus Stone is safe, so long shall London flourish’.

Sources:

Ash, Geoffrey., Mythology Of The British Isles, Methuen, London, 1993. 

Bord, Janet & Colin., Mysterious Britain, Paladin (Granada Publishing), London, 1984.

MacKillop, James., Dictionary Of Celtic Britain, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998.

Photo Credits:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stone

Reader’s Digest,  Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain, ( Second Edition), Reader’s Digest Association Limited, London, 1977.

The Megalithic Portal:  http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8349


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Winter Hill Stone, Keighley Moor, West Yorkshire

Winter Hill Stone, Keighley Moor.

Winter Hill Stone, Keighley Moor.

Os grid reference: SD 9828 4197. Upon Keighley moor (western side) and overlooking Cowling stands the Winter Hill Stone, a large weather-beaten boulder that has many faint cup-marks at its base and others on top. The stone lies some 630 yards to the north-west of Hitching Stone, on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, which is a huge block of gritstone. It is from Winter Hill Stone that the winter soltice sunrise can be seen, so obviously a place

Cup-Marks on Winter Hill Stone.

Cup-Marks on Winter Hill Stone.

of great reverence in pre-historic times; the cup-marks being carved in the Bronze Age. To get to this stone it is “best” to follow the footpath opposite the small carpark, on Buck Stone lane, close to Wainman’s Pinnicle, then head in the general direction of the Hitching Stone, but after some 460 yards (at the little wooden gate) veer off to the south-west and, a further 380 yards brings you to Winter Hill Stone, close to the western edge of the moor overlooking the hamlet of Over Dean. The village of Cowling is 2 miles to the west and Cross Hills a further 4 miles north along the A6068 road.

Winter Hill Stone (Top).

Winter Hill Stone (Top).

This large rounded, weather-worn stone is quite prominent upon the flat-shaped Winter Hill, but sadly the cup-markings around the stone’s base are now much less prominent – indeed some of them are barely legible to the eye. There are at least 17 tiny cup-marks that are eligible, the rest are very faint, but on the top of the stone more cup-marks are quite well-defined, indeed over time they have become deeper and wider due to the constant weathering; the strange grooves and ruts are also the result of erosion to the soft gritstone. The hill on which the boulder stands is ‘so named’ because the winter sun can be seen to rise from [here] behind the Hitching Stone over to the north-west. There are many, many other boulders and stones littering the moor, one or two also look as if they “might” have very faint cup-marks on them. In particular, a boulder some 380 yards to the south-west of Winter Hill, looks a likely candidate. It is highly likely that there were ancient settlements somewhere on the moor, but obviously these are now hidden beneath the thick, dense carpet of ferns and heather which seem so relentlessly to have taken over.

The author Paul Bennett in his epic work ‘The Old Stones of Elmet’ says: “Although there are some cups higher up the rock, oddly the majority are just above ground level. This makes little sense until one realises, thanks to its name, that the winter soltice sunrise was observed from here rising up behind the gigantic Hitching Stone on the near skyline.”

Hitching Stone.

Hitching Stone.

The Hitching Stone (Os grid ref: SD 9866 4170) is a huge glacial erratic block of gritstone the size of a small house that was deposited here at the last Ice Age. It reputedly weighs over 1,000 tonnes. Large fissures run vertically through the rock, one of which was caused by a fossilised tree that has worn away; while one side of the rock bears a large oblong-shaped hole that people climb into. There are some Victorian inscriptions on the stone while at the top a deep natural basin containing rain-water that is never known to dry-up, even in long dry spells of weather. Long ago local folk visited the stone in order to participate in various games, and the site was also a meeting place for local councils and parliaments – Bennett ‘The Old Stones of Elmet.’ The Hitching Stone stands on the Yorkshire-Lancashire boundary.

And in the interesting little book ‘The Pendle Zodiac’ by Thomas Sharpe we are told that the Vernal Equinox sunrise behind the Hitching Stone is in alignment with Pendle Hill. Sharp goes on to say: “Where natural markers (and even some of these have pecked ‘cup and ring’ markings) are absent, the ancestors would have incorporated standing stone monoliths to time the alignments and to receive into the landscape, etheric vitality from the luminaries.” Pendle Hill beacon is roughly 14 miles, as the crow flies, to the south-west of Winter Hill Stone and  Hitching Stone.

These large gritstone boulders on Keighley Moor were laid-down thousands of years ago at the last Ice Age by a massive glacier moving southwards, and retreating as it did so. Over time the boulders (erratics) themselves are slowly weathering-away due to the often wet, windy climate upon the moor. Nowadays, however, these strange, often round-shaped boulders and stones have become waymarkers and sentinels that seem to loom-up on the barren, unforgiving landscape, taking one by sudden surprise!

Sources:

Bennett, Paul., The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann Publishing, Milverton, Somerset, 2001.

Sharpe, Thomas., The Pendle Zodiac, Spirit Of Pendle Publishing, 2012.

http://davidraven-uk.blogspot.co.uk/


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Ballycrovane Ogham Stone, Co. Cork, Southern Ireland

Ballycrovane Ogham Stone (Photo credit: Peter Ribbans - Geograph)

Ballycrovane Ogham Stone (Photo credit: Peter Ribbans – Geograph)

Irish grid ref: V 6569 5291. On the windswept headland to the south of Lough Fadda, at the far-western point of County Cork, Southern Ireland, stands the ancient monument which is known as Ballycrovane Ogham Stone, a very tall standing stone (menhir) which has an Ogham inscription carved on its edge. But this tall, thin pillar-stone pre-dates the Ogham inscription by over two-thousand years – back to the Bronze-Age, at least. The ancient standing stone is located in a field on the top of the hill overlooking the harbour at the south-side of Kenmare Bay – at Ballycrovane on the Beara Peninsula (Ring of Beara) – a few hundred-yards south-east of the ‘Faunkill and the Woods’ road and the little coastguard station, then with ‘possible’ access through the farmyard*. Ballycrovane is 2 miles to the south-west of Ardgroom village and the R571 road; the village of Eyeries being a further 2 miles to the south-east. [*The stone is on private farmland, so you “might” have to pay a small fee to visit the monument!]

Ballycrovane Ogham Stone is said to be ‘the tallest Ogham stone in Ireland’ and probably in Europe, for that matter. It stands at a very impressive 17 feet (5.3 metres) and is said to be several feet below ground, but it is only a very slender pillar-slab and it tapers slowly away to the top. At the eastern edge there is an Ogham inscription which is becoming difficult to see because of weathering. This stone was obviously erected here during the Bronze-Age, with the notches being carved onto it in more recent times, probably during the 3rd-5th centuries AD. The inscription is now thought to recall someone called Deich and Toranus – the full Latin translation being: MAQI DECCEDDAS AVI TURANIAS which would be ‘Of the son of Deich a descendant of Torainn’, but could the inscription in fact be a kind of dedication or memorial to the Deisi – the ancient tribe that inhabited Ireland – during the 3rd-4th centuries AD? We may never know that question.

Ogham was the ancient (Goidelic) language of the Celts who inhabited the western fringes of Britain in pre-Roman times, but it was still being used by the ancient Britons up until the 5th-7th centuries AD – the so-called Dark Ages, at which time many Ogham memorial stones were Christianized with a carved cross. The script consisted of a series of short notches or strokes, carved vertically and also slanting on the edges of grave-covers and some standing stones, similar in fact to the wording and epitaphs that we see on gravestones in churchyards today. Antiquarians and historians in this particular field have now been able to translate, in Latin form, these usually short inscriptions by following the Ogham script alphabet, the key to which was in the 14th century Book of Ballymote.

The author James MacKillop in his work ‘Dictionary of Celtic Mythology’ says of the Ogham language: “The earliest form of writing in Irish in which the Latin alphabet is adapted to a series of twenty ‘letters’ of straight lines and notches carved on the edge of a piece of stone or wood. Letters are divided into four categories of five sounds.” MacKillop goes on to say: “Ogham inscriptions date primarily from the 4th to 8th centuries and are found mainly on standing stones; evidence for inscriptions on wood exists, but examples do not survive. The greatest concentration of surviving Ogham inscriptions is in southern Ireland; a 1945 survey found 12 in Kerry and 80 in Co. Cork, while others are scattered throughout Ireland, Great Britain, and the Isle of Man, with five in Cornwall, about thirty in Scotland, mainly in ‘Pictish’ areas, and more than forty in Wales. South Wales was an area of extensive settlement from southern Ireland , including the migration of the Deisi.” 

Sources:

Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998.

Photo copyright:  http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/507477

© Copyright Peter Ribbans and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Reader’s Digest., Illustrated Guide to Ireland, The Reader’s Digest Association Limited, London, 1992.

Scherman, Katherine., The Flowering Of Ireland,  Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1981.

The Megalithic Portal:  http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=12

 


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Dupplin Cross, Dunning, Perth And Kinross, Scotland

Duppling Cross (originally at Cross Park Field, Forteviot)

Duppling Cross (originally at Cross Park Field, Forteviot)

Os grid reference: NO 0190 1448. This very splendidly carved free-standing cross which is known as Dupplin Cross, has in recent years been re-housed inside the ancient church of St Serf at Dunning in the Strathearn region, Perth & Kinross, for safety’s sake as it originally stood on a hill at Cross Park Field near Bankhead Farm 1 mile to the north of Forteviot, Perth & Kinross (Os grid ref: NO 0505 1896). Forteviot was one of the Pictish ‘royal’ capitals and a palace is said to have been built there. The Dupplin cross is, infact, a Class III Pictish stone – the shaft displaying human figures and a Latin inscription – while the head of the cross has Celtic-style decoration. And also in the church there is a Pictish cross-slab and also a Viking (hogback) tombstone. The early 13th century church of St Serf (Servanus) is located in the centre of the village of Dunning some 3 miles south of Forteviot, 3 miles south-east of the A9, and 7 miles south-west of Perth.

Dupplin Cross (front & east side) by J. Romilly Allen.

Dupplin Cross (front & east side) by J. Romilly Allen.

The cross is made of local hard sandstone and is 8 foot 6 inches high and 3 foot wide across its arms, and it is said to date from about 900 AD, so quite late for a Pictish stone. It is a Class III Pictish cross, but it does not have any symbols as such, although there are numerous warrior-like figures and also Biblical characters as well as ornate decoration described as being ‘Celtic’ in style. On the front face of the cross roll moulding and little spirals at intervals on the arms – with a raised circular boss at the centre which, according to the very detailed work ‘Symbolism Of The Celtic Cross’ by Derek Bryce, is “decorated with what appear to be solar radiations, symbols of Divine light”; the boss itself having a tiny cross on it. The shaft (front side) has three panels, one of which is now known to have a Latin inscription recalling the Pictish King Custantin, son of Wuirgust (Constantine Mac Fergus), the other two depict birds with crossed and interlinking beaks and legs surrounding a raised boss of interlacing and, David (from The Old Testament) tending the lion’s paw, with two more animals at the side.

The opposite cross-face has roll moulding, but the decoration in the boss is damaged, and the arms have scrollwork and key-patterning at the top. Both edges of the cross have interesting carvings – that at the left side has three panels (top) and three more on the shaft (lower) with a beast biting its tail, a man probably David seated playing a large harp, and cord-plait work. The right edge (top) has four panels of interlacing and three more on the shaft (lower) with two dogs sitting on their haunches with paws touching, two warriors on foot with sheilds and spears, and knotwork. The opposite shaft face has three panels showing a warrior on horseback, four warriors on foot holding shields and spears, a hound leaping on another animal which is perhaps a hind, and key-patterning seperating it all, according to Elizabeth Sutherland’s very thorough work ‘The Pictish Guide’.

Also in St Serf’s church is a Pictish Class III sandstone cross-slab of the 10th century? This has a broad-type Wheel or ring cross in high relief which is 3 foot 10 inches high. This slab was dug up from beneath the floor under the church tower about 1900. The cross at the top is, rather oddly, repeated lower down the slab but only about half of it has been carved; the sides of the slab have typical Celtic interlacing, now rather worn. And a tombstone of the 10th or 11th century is thought to be a Viking hogback. This has a cross carved upon its front-side and cable moulding at its border.

St Serf or Servanus, patron of Dunning Church, founded a monastic school at Culross, Fife, in the early 6th century. Traditionally, he baptised and tutored St Kentigern (Mungo); and is perhaps wrongly acredited with the title: Apostle of Fife. He died in 560 or 580 and his feast-day is usually held on 1st July.

Sources:

Bryce, Derek., Symbolism Of The Celtic Cross, Llanerch Enterprises, Felinfach, Lampeter, Wales, 1989.

Jackson, Anthony., The Pictish Trail,  The Orkney Press Ltd., St Ola, Kirkwall, Orkney, 1989. 

Sutherland, Elizabeth., The Pictish Guide,   Birlinn Limited, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1997.