The Journal Of Antiquities

Ancient Sites In Great Britain & Southern Ireland

Category Archives: Ancient Settlements / Camps


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Grimspound Ancient Settlement, Near Manaton, Devon

Grimspound Ancient Settlement, Near Manaton, Devon

Grimspound Ancient Settlement in Devon. One of the hut circles.

NGR: SX 7006 8089.  At the northern side of the Dartmoor National Park half-way between Hameldown Tor and Hookney Tor and 3 miles to the west of Manaton, Devon, is the Grimspound Ancient settlement, an almost circular four-acre site dating from the mid to late Bronze Age period of pre-history. The whole site is enclosed by an almost complete 500 foot diameter ancient boundary wall and within this there are 24 hut circles or roundhouses, some of which are in an excellent state of  preservation, although a few have had to be rebuilt. The hut circles were built with loose stones, indeed some very large, shaped stones were used, and they had narrow entrances; most of the huts were used as dwellings with hearths but a few were used for storage or maybe as animals shelters, and they would have been roofed-over. Nearby there is an ancient field system. To reach the site head W on the country lane from Manaton; then W again for 1 mile to Heatree and Heather-combe Forest. Now walk W for 2 miles on the footpath over the hilly, windswept moorland to Grimspound Ancient Settlement. 

Timothy Darvill (1988) tells us that: “This site is probably the best-known middle Bronze Age enclosed settlement on Dartmoor. It lies in a shallow valley sheltered from the wind by hills to the north and south in an area of wild open moorland. When the site was occupied  between about 1600BC and 1200BC, the climate was warmer than today, and this part of Dartmoor was probably open grassland occasionally punctuated by small fields. The Grimspound enclosure covers an area of about 1.6ha, and is bounded by a stout wall of granite boulders. The ancient entrance lies on the south side; the other gaps are modern. Inside are the foundations of over 20 buildings, all round in plan with walls up to 1m thick. Sixteen of them were probably dwellings and another eight possible storage buildings, barns or byres. The stone foundations visible today originally supported a wooden superstructure and a thatched roof. 

Roland Smith (1990) says: “In his first report back to Sherlock Holmes from Baskerville Hall, in Conan Doyle’s novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, the famous detective’s loyal lieutenant, Dr Watson, painted an accurate picture of Dartmoor’s brooding sense of prehistory: 

On all sides of you as you walk in the houses of these forgotten folk, with their graves and the large monoliths which are supposed to have marked their temples. As you look at their grey stone huts against the scarred hillsides you leave your own age behind you, and if you were to see a skin-clad, hairy man crawl out from the low door, you would feel that his presence there was more natural than your own.

Grimspound Ancient Settlement. One of the B/A hut circles.

Grimspound Ancient Settlement. Entrance to one of the huts.

Watson’s keenly observant eye led him to the conclusion that the occupants of Dart-moor’s many pre-historic hut circles must have been an ‘unwarlike and harried race’, forced out on to this inhospitable moor where no one else would settle. Of course, in Watson’s day,  pollen analysis of Dartmoor’s peat had not yet revealed that the climate of Bronze Age Britain was several degrees warmer and much drier than it is today. But as you pick your way through the foundations of a settlement like Grims-pound , near Manaton, it is not difficult  to share the good doctor’s uncanny feeling  about the close proximity of the past and those pioneering first farmers.  Grims-pound, on the wild and windswept combe between Hameldown and Hookney tors, is the most complete and accessible of Dartmoor’s Bronze Age village settlements. The wall surrounding the four-acre site is almost complete and still 6 ft (1.8 m) high in places, and the remains of two dozen hut sites can be clearly seen. It is the nearest thing England has to Orkney’s Skara Brae settlement, and a place where the past seems very close.”

Janet & Colin Bord (1991) say that: “Dartmoor today does not look the most inviting of locations for a cattle farm, but in the late Bronze Age conditions may have been better. Grimspound survives as evidence for such settlements, and a ruined wall encloses a large area in which can be seen the remains of about twenty-four huts and some cattle-pens. The name ‘Grimspound’ was given to this place when it was already ruinous and its occupants forgotten — ‘Grim’ means  the Devil, or Woden, or some evil spirit.” 

Crispin Gill (1976) tells us more, saying: “Of all the Bronze Age villages on the Moor none has a more striking wall around it, heavily built and 6ft high in places. A stream runs in and out, there are clearcut gateways and 24 huts inside, all free-standing, and some small courts against enclosure walls. It covers nearly 4 acres. The general belief is that the wall was to keep animals in, protected from natural predators, rather than to keep out human enemies.”

Sources / References & Related Websites:-

Bord, Janet & Colin, Ancient Mysteries of Britain, Diamond Books, 1991.

Clamp, Arthur L., A Pictorial Guide to Eastern Dartmoor, Westway Publications, Plympton, Plymouth, Devon, 1969 or 70.

Darvill, Timothy, Glovebox Guide — Ancient Britain, Publishing Division of The Automobile Association, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 1988.

Gill, Crispin, David & Charles Leisure & Travel Series — Dartmoor, David & Charles (Publishers) Limited, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1976.

Smith, Roland, Britain’s National Parks — A Visitor’s Guide,  Dolphin Publications, Salford, Manchester, 1990.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/grimspound/history/

https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/grimspound-prehistoric-settlement-nr-manaton-9402

https://ancientmonuments.uk/112881-grimspound-a-partially-enclosed-prehistoric-settlement-with-field-system-and-two-post-medieval-caches-between-hookney-tor-and-hameldown-tor-north-bovey#.YFkhqlJM5jo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimspound

More here:  https://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/grim_pound.htm

Copyright © Ray Spencer, The Journal of Antiquities, 2021.

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Halangy Down Ancient Village, St Mary’s, Scilly Isles

Halangy Down Ancient Village, St Mary’s, Scilly Isles (photo: F. Gibson).

NGR: SV 90983 12379. The ancient village/settlement of Halangy Down is situated about 1 mile north of Hugh Town on St Mary’s Island, in the Scilly Isles, and is close to the sea-shore between Toll’s Porth and Halangy Point; it is just a little down the slope from Bant’s Carn Burial Chamber, while a bit further to the south is the golf course at Carn Morval from which there are quite exceptional panoramic views of all the Scilly Islands. This ancient site was probably occupied originally in the Bronze Age, but the village itself was established in the late Iron Age and, continued to be occupied through the Roman period, and on into the Romano-British period. There are some well-preserved remains of a complex of buildings including circular huts, inter-connected structures, courtyards and stone drains, all of which seem to be well looked after. To get to St Mary’s take the ferry-boat from Penzance, Cornwall. It’s then a case of walking the footpaths and road (northwards) at the western side of the island from Hugh Town, keeping to the coastline, and passing Porthmellon, Porthloo, Seaways, the golf course, and Toll’s Porth, to reach Halangy Ancient Village.

Circular hut at Halangy Down Ancient Village, St Mary’s. (F. Gibson).

F. Gibson tells us quite a bit about this site, saying: “There is an extensive complex of stone built huts here, developed and modified during the course of some half-millennium. A courtyard house is the uppermost, with buildings lower down which were all inter-connected. A system of stone drains led under the main entrance of the house and beneath the courtyard. It is probable that both the house and the courtyard were roofed; roofing spars supported in the middle by posts would have supported a thatch of reeds or straw, held in position by straw ropes weighted down by boulders. During excavation a number of quartz implements were found; they were crude choppers, rounded blocks, rough scrapers and axe-like points. There were also a wide range of heavy tools and equipment made from the local granite, as well as numerous querns of the saddle, bowl and rotary types.

“The earliest inhabitants are considered to have arrived about 2000 B.C. and they sought sustenance from the sea. Shellfish were collected, and fish, birds and mammals were caught; whilst at the same time the land was not neglected, cereals being brought to the islands, where clearances were made to grow them. It would seem from the middens however that limpets were the main source of protein in their diet.” 

Gibson also adds that: “Evidence of the Roman period can be found in the islands. Ancient villages of this period are at Halangy Down on St Mary’s and on Nornour. The site at Halangy is on the higher slopes of a much larger settlement which reaches down to the Porth. The lower slopes were probably abandoned on encroachment of the sea. The people who lived there were growing grain, keeping cattle, pigs and sheep; and eating fishand limpets in vast quantities. From evidence of finds the economy appeared well adjusted to island life.”

Timothy Darvill (1988) with regard to Bant’s Cairn on St Mary’s, tells us that: “Nearby are the foundations of round and oval houses of a small Iron Age and Romano-British village.” Lord Harlech (1970) tells us much the same as Timothy Darvill (1988) apart from saying it……“was occupied in the middle of the Roman period.”

Nearby, just up the slope, at NGR: SV 90994 12302 is ‘Bant’s Carn Burial Chamber’, a Bronze Age tomb dating from around 2000 BC. There are four large capstones resting above a rectangular chamber with an entrance leading into it, and there is an inner and an outer wall of large slab-stones; the whole structure with its grassy mound being quite well-preserved. Close-by is a small section of ancient field terraces which were begun in the Bronze Age but, later, in the Iron Age and Romano-British periods – these field systems were obviously re-used by the occupiers of the Halangy Down Ancient Village.

Sources / References & Related Websites:-

Darvill, Timothy, AA Glove Box Guide — Ancient Britain, Publishing Division of the Automobile Association, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 1988.

Gibson, F., Visitors companion to the Isles Of Scilly, (publisher unknown, and date unknown).

Harlech, Lord (the late), Southern England — Illustrated Regional Guide to Ancient Monuments No. 2, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, 1970.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halangy_Down

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/bants-carn-burial-chamber-and-halangy-down-ancient-village/history/

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6333313

https://www.citizan.org.uk/interactive-coastal-map/#zoom=10&lat=6435646.73888&lon=-700072.42535&layers=B00000TF

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal/article/excavation-of-a-homestead-of-the-roman-era-at-halangy-down-st-marys-isles-of-scilly-1950/4676994F35C2F26A377B817179CFED2F

© Ray Spencer, The Journal of Antiquities, 2019.


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Star Carr Ancient Settlement, Near Seamer, North Yorkshire

NGR: TA 02821 81006. Early Mesolithic settlement, village, or campsite to the southeast of Seamer and to the east of A64 Stax-ton to Seamer road, in north Yorkshire. This archaeologically important site is close to the south bank of the river Hertford and just west of Star Carr bridge. However, nothing can be seen today in ‘this flat landscape’ but from an aerial perspective there are visible signs of ancient occupation with many crop marks – these archaeological features dating back to around 8,000 BC. Major Archaeological excavations took place at the site in the mid 20th century and, again in more recent years, and many interesting artefacts from the Mesolithic period have been found during those excavations, including antler implements and deer frontlets, which were probably used as ceremonial masks. A long trackway and footpath heads south and then southeast from Chew Lane at Seamer, going under the A64 and crossing over a few watercourses, to reach the site of Star Carr ancient settlement.

Ian Longworth (1969) tells us that: ‘It was the quick and experienced eye of a local man, Mr John Moore, which first spotted the decayed remains of bone and antler exposed in a field ditch at Star Carr—a vital clue to what lay beneath the peaty soil. The excavations, carried out by Professor Clark of Cambridge University, revealed a vivid picture of what a temporary camp of a group of mesolithic hunters was really like. When the ice-sheets covering northern Yorkshire began to melt a vast lake had formed in what is now the Vale of Pickering. This lake had gradually drained away, leaving behind a series of shallow meres and patches of marshland in its place. It was on the northern shore of one of these meres that the hunters made their camp.

“A rough platform of birch brushwood had been laid down and at one point two trees had been placed at right-angles to the platform out into the water to provide a rough landing-stage. Though it is likely that some sort of hut or shelter would have been erected on the platform, no trace remained. The camp covered an area of about 240 square yards and was probably occupied by a group of three or four families during the winter months and early spring for several years.

“Fortunately for the archaeologist, prehistoric man was not a very tidy soul. Things which were broken or dropped usually remained where they had fallen, so that on a camping site like Star Carr, where the bone and organic material is well pre-served, a remarkably full picture of the life of the community could be obtained. The finds show quite clearly how much of mesolithic man’s existence must have been taken up in the quest for food. Meat was still the main source of nourishment, and from the bones of the animals which the hunters had killed and brought back to their camp we know that red deer was the main object of their hunting expeditions. Bones of this animal were one and a half times as numerous as all the other animals put together. Then in order of importance came the wild ox (or Bos primigenius to give it its full Latin name), followed by elk, roe deer, and wild pig.

“Despite the fact that the hunters were living beside a lake, bones of water-fowl and other birds are very few in number and there is no direct evidence of fishing. No fish bones were found but these are too small and soft to survive well under any conditions and there is plenty of evidence amongst the weapons found on the site that fishing must have played an import-ant part in their life.

Mesolithic implements (after Clark).

“The people of Star Carr did not just eat the meat and throw away the bones and skins of the animals they had caught. These were far too valuable a source of raw materials for making other things. The antlers of red deer, and to some extent elk, were especially useful. Using a flint burin….to cut deep parallel grooves, long splinters were detached from the red-deer antler and made into barbed spearheads. A simple form of hoe or mattock…..was made from elk antler and was used no doubt for grubbing up edible roots. Leg bones were also made into hollow tools which could be used along with the flint scrapers……for dressing skins. These tools and the flint awls…..are clear evidence that the hunters and their wives wore skin clothing, though none of this survives. 

Longworth goes on to say that: “Besides scrapers, burins and awls, flint was also used to make axes and adzes. The two trees which formed the primitive landing-stage showed clear signs that axes had been used to fell them. No boat was found, but a wooden paddle was discovered and no doubt the hunters had a canoe, made from a split tree trunk and hollowed out by means of fire and the flint adzes. Flake knives were also made and small flint points and blades known as microliths.

“‘Microlith’ means literally a ‘small stone’ and is a name given to the small pieces of flaked and trimmed flint used in the composite weapons and tools of the period. Many of the flints must have been used as barbs and tips for arrows. Again, these small flints tell us that the hunters possessed the bow, though no example was found on the site.

Star Carr Antler Frontlet by Mrs Eva Wilson.

“Particularly interesting were the rolls of birch bark found on the site. Birch bark produces a sticky pitch-like substance and the birch-bark rolls represent the raw material from which this pitch was made. This primitive glue was used, among other things, for attaching the small flints to their wooden arrow-shafts. Indeed, a fragment of flint was found with some birch pitch still attached to it. “Intriguing, too, are twenty stag frontlets……, preserving the stag’s antlers still attached to part of the skull, but deliberately lightened and perforated so that the frontlet could be worn as a mask on the head. They were probably worn by the hunters as they stalked their quarry, and perhaps also in ritual dances before the hunters set off on their expeditions. Amongst modern primitive tribes belief in magic plays an important part in the hunter’s life and controls many of his actions.

“The evidence tells us very little of what Star Carr campers looked like. Besides the skin clothing which would have been essential in the cold winters of this early post-glacial period, beads made of stone, perforated deer teeth and amber were worn. Their life, at least in winter, seems to have left little leisure time for devising other forms of decoration. While man remained dependent upon the whims of nature for his food, leisure must have been hard to win.

“The hunters of Star Carr were proto-Maglemosians; that is to say they belong to a phase earlier than the Maglemosian hunters named after a site found in the Magle Mose (‘Great Bog’) near Mullerup in Zealand, Denmark. There are no settlements dating to this later phase in Yorkshire, although several typical spearheads have been found in the east of the county. Whereas the proto-Maglemosians of Star Carr used antler for their spearheads the Maglemosian harpoons are usually made of bone. They have been found at three sites all in the low-lying plain of Holderness, at Brandesburton, Hornsea, and Skipsea. Though most of the Maglemosian finds made so far in Yorkshire have been confined to the low-lying ground of east Yorkshire, these hunters certainly penetrated further inland. Two of their typical flint axes have been found in the West Riding: one at Rishworth in Calderdale and another on Blubberhouses Moor in mid-Wharfedale. Axes have also been found in the North Riding at Nova, near Pickering, and Cockheads in Glaisdale, as well as Skipsea in the south-east of the county.”

Some 3 miles to the southeast of Star Carr is the site of a Bronze Age round barrow at Folkton Wold (NGR: TA 0591 7775), which has become famous for the so-called Follkton Drums find. When the barrow was excavated: “There were found three chalk-cut idols of the Early Bronze Age. These squat, cylindrical objects had been laid in the grave of a five-year-old child, the smallest touching its head, the two larger at the hips. There is nothing else in the world like them, although we can find parallels for some of their individual designs. In very shallow relief they show a curiously composed arrangement of zigzags, lozenges and other geometric designs, all unquestionably with magical significance; on the raised disk at the top of each idol are circular patterns which can be recognized as eye symbols, while each bears on its side a pair of eyes below heavy arched eyebrows. These unique idols are now in the British Museum…..” says Jacquetta Hawkes (1973). 

Sources & Related websites:-

Hawkes, Jacquetta, A Guide To The Prehistoric And Roman Monuments In England And Wales, Cardinal (Sphere Books Ltd), London, 1973.

Longworth, Ian, Regional Archaeologies—Yorkshire, Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., London, 1969. (Line illustrations by Mrs Eva Wilson).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Carr

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Carr#/media/File:View_of_Star_Carr_site_looking_NWW.

http://www.starcarr.com/history.html

https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/return-to-star-carr-discovering-the-true-size-of-a-mesolithic-settlement.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1401425

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8353

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=5139

© Ray Spencer, The Journal of Antiquities, 2019.

 


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Chysauster Ancient Settlement, Near Gulval, Cornwall

Chysauster Ancient Settlement, Cornwall. B/W aerial photo.

OS Grid Reference: SW 4723 3497. A few miles to the northwest of Gulval, Cornwall, lie the quite remarkably intact and restored ruins of Chysauster Iron Age settlement/village at Newmill. It is 3 miles north of Penzance. There are several oval-shaped houses with courtyards, a street and also terraced garden plots, and at the south-side a ruined underground passageway known as a fogou or souterrain. This very significant archaeological site is thought to date back, perhaps, to the 1st century BC (the Late Iron Age) and was probably still inhabited until at least the 3rd century AD (the Romano-British period). Some of the granite walls of these round houses are ‘still’ quite high and very solid despite their great age. To reach this ancient site travel northwards from Gulval village onto the B3311, and then take Chysauster Road northwest for a mile or so – looking out for Chysauster cottage on the right-hand side and the Iron Age village. There is a car park beside the lane (northwest-side of the cottage) and, a ¼ mile further up hill where the roads bends to the left, is the English Heritage site shop. There is an entry charge. 

Author Jacquetta Hawkes (1975) gives us some interesting information on Chysauster. She says that: “on the west slopes of the hill [Castle-an-Dinas] is the Late Iron Age and Roman village of Chysauster, meticulously excavated and now carefully maintained. It is laid out in an orderly way with nine houses opening on a slightly curved lane in opposing pairs. The houses are of an unusual kind, known in Wales and further north but believed to be of Mediterranean origin. The principal of this domestic architecture is so utterly unlike our own that it is not easy to describe. The external outline is a rough oval, but the oval wall is immensely thick and contains within itself all the rooms, their doorways opening on to a central courtyard. In nearly all the houses the ‘best room’, oval or round in shape, is exactly opposite the narrow, roofed passage that leads into the courtyard from the lane. This larger room appears to have been thatched or turfed, but a few of the smaller cells were corbelled. Most of the floors were paved, and the larger rooms were usually furnished with hollow granite basins, presumably used as mortars; fragments of rotary querns or handmills were also found. There were serviceable drains, usually laid below the paving stones.

Chysauster Ancient Settlement, Cornwall. (Illustration).

Behind each house was a private garden, skilfully terraced and secured by an outer retaining wall of large blocks. A much-worn road led down from the village to the tin-deposits in the valley below as well as to the nearest stream. Where so much is preserved one longs to see it peopled; to know how many of them worked in the mines and how regularly; how much time they gave to their gardens: how far they were their own masters and how they marked their produce, getting the ore to the merchants who, as we are now fairly confident, shipped it from St. Michael’s Mount as the first step on the long route across France to their Mediter-ranean customers. At least it is not difficult on going into one of the Chysauster houses to see it in an Iron Age summer, the sun glaring in the courtyard where the dogs lie on the paving, the rooms dark as caves, a woman sweating as she pounds away with the heavy grindstone, small children kept safely in sight by the closed door of the passageway. All a little smelly and untidy, but not too uncomfortable and wonderfully companionable, with the eight neighbouring families, every detail known of their affairs—of expected births, betrothals, deaths; scandals, failures and achievements.”

Lord Harlech writing for H.M.S.O (1970) says of the site that: “Chysauster seems to have originated in the first century A.D., and it continued in occupation under the Roman Empire up to the third century A.D. The houses consist of oval enclosures of thick dry-built masonry, forming an open court from which various rooms open: the shape is common to other Cornish villages of this type. Chysauster and Carn Euny, like other such villages, contain a curious underground chamber known locally as a “fogou” and possibly  used for food-storage. Parallels to these are found in Scotland and Ireland.” 

Timothy Darvill (1988) says that Chysauster: “is an Iron Age settlement comprising a series of eight houses arranged in pairs along a street. Each house has an entrance facing east or north-east — away from the prevailing wind — thick outer walls, a courtyard immediately inside the entrance, and from three to six rooms opening from the courtyard. It is thought that animals were kept in the courtyard. The village also contains a fogou which is a long, narrow underground chamber possibly used for storing food and as a hide-out in times of unrest.” Janet & Colin Bord (1984) with regard to Chysauster say the site was occupied from the second century BC. They also say of the fogou or souterrain that “…..there is speculation regarding their purpose. Food storage or places of refuge are the most widely accepted answers; but we should not dismiss the possibility of there being some religious or spiritual reason for their construction.”

Sources and related websites:-

Bord, Janet & Colin, Mysterious Britain, Paladin Books, London, 1984.

Cunliffe, Barry, Roman Britain, The British Broadcasting Corporation, London, 1966.

Darvill, Timothy, Ancient Britain, (AA Glovebox Guide), Publishing Division of The Automobile Association, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 1988. 

Hawkes, Jacquetta, A Guide To The Prehistoric And Roman Monuments In England And Wales, Cardinal, London, 1975. 

Lord Harlech, Southern England, (H.M.S.O. Illustrated Regional Guide to Ancient Monuments No.2), London, 1970.

Michell, John, Prehistoric Sites in Cornwall, Wessex Books, Newton Toney, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 2003.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/chysauster-ancient-village/

http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/a2m/rom_british/courtyard_house/chysauster/chysauster.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chysauster_Ancient_Village

© Ray Spencer, The Journal Of Antiquities, 2017.


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Din Lligwy Ancient Settlement, Near Moelfre, Anglesey, Wales

House foundations at   Din Lligwy by Velela (Wikimedia Commons).

   OS Grid Reference: SH 49717 86134. At the eastern edge of Coed cae’r-gaer woods near Rhos Lligwy, Anglesey, stands the well-preserved ancient settlement of Din Lligwy, dating for the most part from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD when it was occupied by a Romano-British tribe, though the first settlers here were people from the late Iron Age period. Set within a walled enclosure there are a couple of hut circles, rectangular structures, and a gatehouse-type building at the entrance. The site is located to the east of the A5025 road about 1 mile west of Moelfre, and not far from the east coast of Anglesey. A little to the northeast of Din Lligwy is Hen Capel Lligwy, a ruined medieval chapel while just over to the east stands the Lligwy Neolithic burial chamber. There is a car-parking area and information boards on the lane over to the east of the site, and a footpath run to the west for 300m, passing close to the ruined chapel, and then to Din Lligwy ancient settlement which nestles in a woodland clearing.

Plan of Din Lligwy Ancient Settlement, Anglesey.

   The ancient settlement or village of Din Lligwy covers about ½ an acre and measures roughly 56m x 53m and is pentagonal-shaped (with five-sides). It sits upon a limestone plateau at the edge of a low hill. Although its limestone walls were built for a partly defensive (fortified) purpose at the time, its more likely they were simply built to ‘enclose’ the buildings, but they obviously followed the standard pattern of earlier Iron Age construction. Inside the enclosure walls are two well-preserved hut circles, or round-houses, built from large limestone slabs around the sides, and also four rectangular-shaped buildings, one of which was perhaps the chieftain’s house, while beside the original entrance (NE side) another building that was probably a gate-house; the entrance (SW side) is later as is the little exterior building. The enclosure walls are a staggering 4-5 feet thick.

    Jacquetta Hawkes in her work ‘A Guide To The Prehistoric And Roman Monuments In England And Wales’, says of this site that: “Within a stout enclosure wall, there is a group of houses, two of them circular, but the rest rectangular in plan and all spacious, splendidly built and almost intact. Nearly all the walls show a massive construction with an inner and outer facing of large slabs and a packing of smaller stones. Din Lligwy shows signs of having buildings of more than one period, but it is known to have been inhabited during the Roman occupation down to the fourth century A.D.; it must surely have been the stronghold of some chieftain of unusual standing—one would like to think that the lord himself lived in the larger round house, a place quite worthy to rank as a Celtic palace.”

   The author Christopher Houlder writing in 1978 says of Din Lligwy: “The two round huts used as living quarters are likely to have been part of an open settlement of early Roman date, included in the strong pentagonal enclosure in the late IV century A.D. Six hearths in two of the rectangular buildings show that they were used for iron workshops, but one was a gatehouse.”

   We don’t know much about the people who lived at Din Lligwy apart from they were Romano-British, but they were probably subservient to the Romans and almost certainly supplied the army with iron weapons and tools made in their own smelting workshops. In this case, then, they were very useful to the Romans and so were more or less left in peace. To the people of Din Lligwy though this situation ‘served as a means to an end’. Then at some point between 385-400 AD they abandoned their settlement/homestead. The Roman army withdrew back to Gaul at about the same time. “There is no evidence that this outstanding site was lived in after about AD 400”, according to Harold Priestley (1976). The site was excavated between 1905-7 when “finds here have included Roman pottery and coins which may be an indication that the occupants were on friendly terms with the Romans”, says Chris Barber (1987).

   Hen Capel Lligwy (Old Lligwy Chapel) over to the northeast is a ruined 12th century chapel with some interesting Norman features. On the opposite side of the lane to the east (at OS grid ref: SH 50135 86039) is the Lligwy Neolithic burial chamber or cromlech. This has a huge capstone that is said to be 18 feet in length, and weighing 28 tons, according to Janet & Colin Bord (1994). “When excavated, the remains of 30 persons were discovered together with animal bones and pottery”, says Harold Priestley (1976).

Sources of information and related websites:-

Barber, Chris, More Mysterious Wales, Paladin, London, 1987.

Bord, Janet & Colin, Ancient Mysteries of Britain, Diamond Books, 1994.

Hawkes, Jacquetta,  A Guide To The Prehistoric And Roman Monuments In England And Wales, Cardinal (Sphere Books Ltd., London, 1975.

Houlder, Christopher, Wales: An Archaeological Guide, Faber & Faber, London, 1978. 

Priestley, Harold, The Observer’s Book of Ancient & Roman Britain, Warne & Co Ltd., London, 1976.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Din_Lligwy

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=1494

http://www.anglesey-hidden-gem.com/din-lligwy.html

http://cadw.gov.wales/daysout/dinlligwyhutgroup/?lang=en

http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/95541/details/din-lligwy-settlement-moelfre

                                                                                         © Ray Spencer, The Journal Of Antiquities, 2017.

 


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Babyhouse Lane Ancient Settlement, Cononley, North Yorkshire

Babyhouse Lane Settlement from the south-west.

Babyhouse Lane Settlement from the south-west.

    OS grid reference: SD 9719 4628. On the hills a mile or so to the south-west of Cononley, north Yorkshire, near the top end of Babyhouse Lane there is an Iron Age settlement or camp. This is thought to have been a Brigantian outpost that was still in use in the late 1st century AD when Roman soldiers marched along the Roman road to the south-west and set up their fort at Elslack. For a time the Brigantes got on to some extent with the Romans, but that was not to last for long and their settlements were soon to be abandoned, forever. Babyhouse Lane can be reached from Colne Road (A6068) near the Dog & Gun public house at Glusburn. Take the lane up onto Leys Lane, turning left at the top onto Babyhouse Lane, and then just after the junction of four lanes and the wooded area on the right, go through the second farm-gate and into the large walled field – here before you are the faint and grassy earthworks of the ancient settlement.

Babyhouse Lane Settle-ment viewed from SE.

Babyhouse Lane Settle-ment viewed from SE.

    At ground level there isn’t a great deal to see apart from a few raised areas (low ramparts) in the middle of the field and, what are probably ditches around the edges; and the earthworks continue just beyond the wall at the N side. This pentagonal-shaped settlement measures approx. 91m x 85m and covers an area of just over 1 acre. At the W and S sides the ditch is more prominent – just before the land rises forming the bank (which seems not to be part of the earthwork), while over at the E side there is what could be an entrance. The settlement appears to be strategically placed to overlook the Aire Gap to the north-west. And the modern-day walls surrounding the earthworks give this former Brigantian, possible Romano-British settle-ment, the look of “still” being an enclosed site, even if today it is only to keep the sheep in! Sadly nothing much else is known about this site.

Babyhouse Lane Settlement viewed from the East.

Babyhouse Lane Settlement viewed from the East.

    The late John Dixon in his work ‘Journeys Through Brigantia’ , Volume One, says of the settlement here: “Just down Babyhouse Lane, over on the left, are the earthwork remains of an Iron Age/Romano-British settlement site, the earliest home of man in the area, being a pentagonal dtched earthwork with an entrance on the east and covering just over one acre.” While the author and antiquarian Harry Speight considered the ancient settlement on Babyhouse Lane to be of Danish origins. There are indeed some Scandinavian place-names around this area. Cononley is named after King Canute, according to Mr Speight. But it would seem that this is a late Iron Age-Romano-British site; and there are similar earthworks at Higher Scarcliff and Catlow Gill near Carleton Lane Head, a couple of miles to the north.

Sources:

Dixon, John & Philip., Journeys Through Brigantia, Volume One, Walks in Craven, Airedale and Wharfedale, Aussteiger Publications, Barnoldswick, 1990.

Check out this web blog by Jim Jarratt:  http://www.jimjarratt.co.uk/walks/beaconsway/section2.html


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Aedmar’s Mound And Earthworks, Blacko, Lancashire

Aedmer's Mound at Admergill, near Blacko, Lancashire.

Aedmar’s Mound at Admergill, near Blacko, Lancashire.

    OS grid reference: SD 84829 41718. For want of a better name I am calling this site ‘Aedmar’s Mound Earthworks’. These earthworks or ringworks are located down in a narrow valley, in a field above Blacko Water, near Wheathead Lane, just to the west of Blacko and Gisburn road, Lancashire, in the area called Admergill. A trackway heads off from Wheathead Lane at the bridge and then goes in a south-westerly direction for a short distance, and eventually through a wall stile – the earthworks are in the field (here) at the western-side of the beck – being noticeable by the grassy rectangular mound with its accompanying low ramparts, known as ringworks. These now rather forgotten earthworks may date back to the Iron-Age, or from the so-called Dark-Ages, or from the early Medieval period, but other than that we do not know when these earthworks were built or what they actually were; and they are not marked on any Ordnance Survey maps.

Aedmar's Mound / Earthworks viewed from the south-east.

Aedmar’s Mound / Earthworks viewed from the south-east.

    The earthworks cover an area of approx. 94m across N-S and 60m diagonally W-S though the S and N sides are cut-off and damaged by the farmer’s ‘modern’ field system, while at the NW side of the site there is a continuation of the low ringwork ramparts. The rectangular-shaped low mound ‘with the telegraph pole’ is quite a distinctive shape, but there are actually two mounds here – both being intersected in the middle by a deep ditch, or entrance. So what was it exactly? Was it a camp, a hillfort, or a defended site? Or was there a settlement here or maybe a royal residence of some kind? There appears to be at least three circular ramparts or ring-works and, possibly a fourth ring by the looks of it, surrounding the low, grassy elevated mound, and the same again at the far NW side but in a sort of square-shape, which has been cut off from the main site, possibly due to farming, or that it was meant to be like this?

    Local author, John Clayton, in his fascinating book ‘Valley of the Drawn Sword’, says that Admergill could possibly take its name from: “the Welsh prince A’dd Maur who controlled certain British lands sometime in the Early Medieval period, it is very possible that this name has been shortened over time to Mawr….but equally, it could apply to the nearby settlement of Admergill…..which eventually leads to A’dd Mawr’s Gill.”

Aedmar's Mound, Blacko, with ditch through the middle.

Aedmar’s Mound, Blacko, with ditch through the middle.

    But what of Aedmar and Eadmer two names that may be connected with this area, in which our ancient site lies.  St Aedmer or Eadmer was a bishop, ecclesiastic, and theologian who died in 1126, and was a friend of St Anselm. Was it “he” who gave his name to Admergill. And, there was a 7th century St Eadmer, a Northumbrian monk and disciple of St Cuthbert. But the truth is we don’t know, and probably never will – the name being lost in the mists of time. I think we should, therefore, say that the Welsh prince A’dd Mawr (Athmawr) is the more liklely contender here. He may have ruled over the Celtic (British) kingdom of Craven – Admergill being at the southern edge of this northern kingdom. And 2 miles to the north we have a farm called Craven Laithe!

    About 1 mile to the north on the southern side of Burn Moor a bowl-shaped quern stone was found, dating from 300-400 BCE (the middle Iron-Age). Grain would have been rubbed in the central depression with a small, rounded stone or pestle. In the vicinity of this discovery there were found to be a number of ancient boulders, some being built into walls (Clayton, John A, 2006).

Sources:

Clayton, John A., The Valley of the Drawn Sword – The Early History of Burnley, Pendle and West Craven, Barrowford Press, 2006.

Dixon, John & Mann, Bob, Historic Walks Around The Pendle Way, Aussteiger Publications, Barnoldswick, 1990.


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Llangorse Lake And Crannog, Powys, Wales

Crannog on Llangorse Lake (photo credit: Pam Fray - for Geograph)

Crannog on Llangorse Lake (photo credit: Pam Fray – for Geograph)

   Os grid reference: SO 1287 2689. About 37 metres from the northern shoreline of Llangorse Lake (Llyn Safaddan), Powys, also known as “Savaddan Lake and Lake of Brycheiniog” (Bord, Janet & Colin, 1986), lies the tiny man-made island of Ynys Bwlc, which is in fact a crannog, a Dark Age island settlement, dating probably from about the beginning of the 10th century, or maybe earlier, which would have once supported a royal residence for the king of Brycheiniog. The lake is said to be the second largest natural lake in Wales, being formed at the last Ice-Age many thousands of years ago; the River Llynfi (Afon Llyfni) enters at the far south-eastern side of the lake and then, rather strangely flows out of the lake at the far northwestern side, close by the caravan park. The lake is 1 mile long and 5 miles in circumference.

    Llangorse lake and crannog can be reached on a country lane to the west of Llangorse village, heading south close to the caravan park, which brings you out at ‘The Welsh Crannog Centre’. A few miles to the south is the village of Llansantffraed while the town of Brecon lies some 4 miles to the west and, at the south-side of the lake stands the ancient church of St Gastyn at Llangasty Tal-y-Llyn. The place-name Llangorse is nowadays ‘often’ shortened to Llangors.

Llangorse Lake viewed from Mynydd Llangorse (photo credit: Velella for Wikipedia)

Llangorse Lake viewed from Mynydd Llangorse (photo credit: Velella for Wikipedia)

And the lake is also the setting for a number of myths and legends – including one that says the lake is the location for the submerged Roman city of Loventium, but in early medieval history it was known as ‘Brecenenmere’. In 1925 a 25 foot-long wooden dug-out canoe was excavated from the mud near the northern shore of the lake, and in 1990 a second dug-out boat was excavated from close by. These have been dated from between the 8th and 11th centuries AD. In the 12th century Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) visited the lake and made mention in his great work ‘The Journey Through Wales/The Description Of Wales’ of the abundance of fish and also how miraculous it was and, the numerous strange colours that the lake water takes on at certain times. And the lake has long been associated with fairies, very large eels, and a witch who lived beside the lake and was known to frighten-away naughty children!

   Giraldus, who was a medieval historian, claimed that birds living around the lake would only sing ‘when a rightful prince returns to rule the area’. At this time the area was ruled over by King Henry I of England. One day the king was walking along the lake’s shoreline in the presence of two Norman lords and the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Rhys, but he noticed that all the birds were silent. He then commanded them to sing – they ignored him, but when Prince Rhys asked them to sing – they sang merrily! Near the southern shores of Llangorse lake, near Bwlc, can be found the crumbling remains of Blaenllyfni Castle, a 12th century Norman foundation.

   “The tiny man-made island was first identified as a crannog in 1876 by E.N. Dumbleton”, according to Chris Barber in his work ‘More Mysterious Wales’. The almost round-shaped tree-covered crannog at the northern side of Llangorse Lake is thought to date from c890 AD. It was probably destroyed in either 911 AD or 916 AD possibly by King Alfred’s daughter Ethelflaed (Lady of the Mercians), when according to legend, they “took the king’s wife and thirty-three others prisoner” (Hughes, Wendy, 1995). However, some historians and archaeologists believe it could, in fact, be of an earlier date, maybe 7th-9th century? There is, however, some reason to suspect an Iron Age ‘crannog’ here, artificially improved with stakes as a lake-dwelling like those at Glastonbury and Meare in Somerset (Houlder, Christopher, 1978).

   According to legend a palace is said to lie beneath the waves. Long ago a ruthless princess ruled at the palace; she married a poor man from the town, but the agreement was that ‘he would bring her lots of gold’. In sheer desperation the man robbed and killed a rich merchant. When he returned to the palace with his spoils the princess immediately married him, but then shortly afterwards the murdered man’s ghost began haunting the place and, later warned the newly-married couple that their crime would be avenged, and this would fall heavily on the ninth generation of their descendants. However the princess and her husband became even more greedy and wicked – their lust for wealth being unceasing. The warning eventually came true and the palace was inundated by a deluge of water from the nearby hills which had been triggered by an earthquake – drowning both palace and town – the ninth generation of the family including the princess and her husband were killed, according to “the” legend.

   Local people claim to have seen the foundations of submerged buildings when the water-level is low in drought conditions and, they also claim to have heard the eerie sounds of church bells ringing out from below the waves in very stormy conditions when there is a heavy swell on the water.

   At the north-side of the crannog there is a sort of stone jetty which indicates where a wooden causeway once existed – linking the island to the shoreline. The artificial island measures ‘roughly’ 50m x 55m and is “set upon a base of stones and brushwood” (Figgis, N. P., 1995), and built of willow branches and reeds – with sturdy wooden piles sunk up to 7 metres down into the lake bed. It would ‘probably’ have been defended with a double row of wooden palisades. “Fragments of pottery, implements and animal bones” (Hughes, Wendy, 1995) have been found beneath the crannog during recent archaeological excavations, including the one by Time Team in 1993, and earlier in 1991 a few fragmentary metal parts from a small portable house-shaped reliquary/shrine were found during underwater excavations at the crannog; and there are also apparently traces of hut circles on the island.

Dead Men's Boats by N.P. Figgis (Atelier Productions), 1995.

Dead Men’s Boats by N.P. Figgis (Atelier Productions), 1995.

   In 1925 a 25 foot-long wooden dug-out canoe was excavated from the mud at the northern edge of the lake at (OS grid ref: roughly SO 132 269) which ‘was’ considered to be of a early medieval date, maybe 8th-11th centuries, and so a bit more recent than the lake crannog? The dug-out canoe can be seen on display in the Brecon Museum and a replica is at The Welsh Crannog Centre on the lake’s north-western shoreline, close by the crannog. And then in 1990 second similar dug-out boat was excavated from the lake near where the first had been found. But these dug-out boats have their origins in the Iron-Age. The canoe was eventually radio carbon dated to centre on 814 AD, so there is a strong possibility that the sample dates from somewhere between the years AD 754 and 874 AD, according to author N.P. Figgis.

   The dug-out canoe was excavated 1 metre down in the mud by a local man Mr Thomas Jenkins, and his sons. Author N.P. Figgis in his book ‘Dead Men’s Boats’ says: “The boat they brought ashore was a long, thin dug-out canoe. Her prow had broken off, and one side had caved in, and the stern was a step-shaped, heavy block; she was not like any modern craft”.

   Christopher Houlder in his excellent archaeological guide book: ‘Wales: An Archaeological Guide’, with regard to the dug-out canoe says that: “Though of primitive type it may be only medieval in date, used for access to the island near the N. shore for fishing and similar purposes”.

At the south-side of Llangorse Lake is the hamlet of Llangasty Tal-y-Llyn (OS grid ref: SO 1331 2613) and a mid-19th century church (on the site of an earlier medieval foundation) dedicated to St Gastyn. The churchyard looks to be almost circular in shape, indicative of a sacred site. St Gastyn was a Celtic hermit who founded the first “llan” here in the mid-5th century AD and was apparently the tutor to some of the many children of the saintly King Brychan, who ruled ‘this’ area, which became known as Brecknock (Brycheiniog).

Sources:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1823433 © Copyright pam fray and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llangorse_Lake

Barber, Chris., More Mysterious Wales, Paladin, London W1X, 1987.

Bord, Janet & Colin., Sacred Waters, Paladin, London W1X, 1986.

Dumbleton, E.N., On a Crannog, or Stockaded Island, in Llangorse Lake, near Brecon, Archaeologia Cambrensis, 4th series, vol 1, part 3, 1870.

Figgis, N. P., Dead Men’s Boats, Atelier Productions, Machynlleth, Wales, 1995.

Gerald of Wales., The Journey Through Wales/The Description Of Wales, Penguin Books Ltd., London WC2R, 1978.

Houlder, Christopher., Wales: An Archaeological Guide, Faber and Faber Limited, London WC1, 1978.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/kJyO0xSbTlCmDBtWr3cnsQ

Hughes, Wendy., The Story of Brecknock, Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, Llanrwst, Gwynedd, Wales, 1995.


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Talati de Dalt, Algendar, Minorca, Balearic Islands

Talati de Dalt Burial Tomb, Minorca, Balearics

Longitude 39.892946. Latitude 4.215006. The megalithic monument of Talati de Dalt or Taula Talaiot de Talati de Dalt on the south-eastern side of the island of Menorca (Minorca), is located some 300-400 metres south of the C-721 Carretera de Ciutadella Mahon highway – a little to the east of Talati de Dalt hamlet. The site is about two miles west of the town of Mahon (Mao) and half a mile east of Algendar village. It is partly surrounded on the southern side by the ruins of an ancient settlement (talaiot) and some defensive walls that would originally have had a watchtower. The taula monument (table tomb) and it’s associated village or settlement are thought to date back to the Copper-Age 3,000-1,6000 BC, which was a part of the Bronze-Age. The settlement appears to have been re-occupied “again” sometime between 400-200 BC – the Celtic period of the Iron-Age.

The prehistoric village complex of Talati comprises of a number of excavated houses with rooms, some having slab-stones that are still standing and stone-flagged floors – around which are the low ruins of defensive walls. It is conjectured that upto one hundred Celtic-Talayotic people lived here in what would have been a “covered enclosure”. Some of the buildings have not, as yet, been excavated. There are also subterranean caves in the hillside here with hypostylic, columned burial chambers or halls that are hewn out of the caves and, a connecting underground settlement. This has massive stone slabs for its roof. It can be better seen from the south-west side of the taula monument where stone steps lead on down through a large stone doorway connected to two underground chambers for burial purposes – the taula  (above ground) being connected to this underground burial complex probably as a shrine-cum-altar?

Talatí de Dalt archaeological site, Minorca, Spain

Talatí de Dalt, Minorca, Spain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the central horseshoe-shaped sanctuary stands the taula which resembles a sort of “T” shaped table tomb. This strange looking monument has a fashioned central capital stone and an oval-shaped base that is topped by a large rectangular, overlapping stone very similar to a capstone for a burial chamber. Another carved taula (pilaster) leans against the monument but does not, in any way support the taula –  it almost certainly used to stand up-right but has now fallen sideways. Three more standing stones are located around the monument. The taula acted as a sort of shrine, altar-stone, or tomb-marker for the burial chambers that lie beneath it. Talati de Dalt is almost certainly the prettiest and best of all the archaeological sites on the Island of Minorca.