Andy Burnham's Blog, page 28

Book Review: The Rocks at the Edge of the Empire by Ian Jackson

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Rob Ixer writes: If ever there was a book for Megalithic Portal readers this is it and at an unbelievably low price. This is a landscape book with full colour, full page, carefully selected photographs, most of northern Britannia, very northern Brittania. Some are stunning, the majority are excellent, but there are one or two where Roman influence is difficult to see. Some, the untouched landscapes at Yardhope Burn and Harrows Scar especially even exude a spiritual aura.

Jægersborg Hegn Rundhøj 3

At the end of a riding path and next to the footpath (formerly the Nærum-Vedbæk railway) stands a well preserved and clearly visible burial mound. The mound measures 20 metres in diameter and 2 metres in height. It is amazing it managed to survive this well preserved despite having the railway built next to it before these mounds were protected.

Zhangguang menhirs

An assembly of typical Kirin (麒麟) culture small standing stones with a projection or hollow. These stones seem to have dug out throughout Zhangguang village (Taiwan) and placed in a line on the northern outskirts of the village. Some scholars suppose that these standing stones represent male and female figures and others believe that they are genital symbols. Curiously there are some which have both projection and hollow in this assemblage.

The Burton Stone

A cross base with a central hole for a cross-shaft. It has four cup-like depressions in the upper face which suggest use in time of plague as a barter stone. No longer in original location but enclosed by a wall, behind a railing.

Carn y Defaid (N)

Carn y Defaid bronze age cairn is located in heather moorland just below the summit of Mynydd y Garn-fawr (near Blaenavon) and to the north-east of a large summit cairn. The cairn's location affords spectacular views across the lowlands of the Usk Valley.

Hut Circle Settlement NW of Ty'r Dewin

A very interesting settlement site that may contain a lot more than just a single hut circle. Situated within marshland on the northern slopes of Mynydd Cennin, it occupies high ground with the terrain sloping away to the north, east and west. The hut circle lies at the SW corner of an irregular shaped enclosure measuring 35m NNW - SSE by 30m wide.

Efessangus stone

A standing stone in Pembrokeshire with Ogham inscriptions and a cross carving.

Scorhill

Scorhill stone circle and standing stone on Scorhill Down, northeast Dartmoor. Its dramatic setting on the rugged moorlands makes this 26.8m (88-foot) circle an especially worthwhile visit. Only thirty-four stones remain of an original sixty-five to seventy, and only twenty-five of those are still standing. Two cart-tracks run right through the ring, making its appearance even more dramatic. The stones are not evenly spaced, and the tallest, at 2.5m (8 feet 2 inches), is located in the NW. There is a prostrate massive slab,1.8m (6 feet) long and 1.5m (5 feet) wide, slumped at the SSW.

Menhir Mouillé de Kervenahuel

Kervenahuel (SW of Belz) Morbihan. At the very end of the long Etang du Sac'h, in a private property, another "menhir mouillé" as we call them (wet menhir).

Santu Cristos Domus de Janas

Domus de Janas are typical Sardinian rock cut tombs dating back to the Neolithic. Only one tomb remains almost intact, with three interconnecting rooms. The entrances of two rooms are well carved. Traces of red ochre-based paint are preserved on the walls.