Tappoch Broch

Tor Wood,
Glen Rd,
Larbert,
Falkirk
FK5 4SW
Scotland.


A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s.

The word broch is derived from Lowland Scots 'brough', meaning (among other things) fort. In the mid-19th century Scottish antiquaries called brochs 'burgs', after Old Norse borg, with the same meaning.

Place names in Scandinavian Scotland such as Burgawater and Burgan show that Old Norse borg is the older word used for these structures in the north. Brochs are often referred to as 'duns' in the west. Antiquaries began to use the spelling 'broch' in the 1870s. 
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 The Broch from top of stairs


Tappoch Broch (sometimes known as Torwood Broch) stands hidden in a dense forest
about two miles north east of the town of Denny. To reach it you take a minor road that turns off the A9 in the village of Torwood, which you then follow for a third of a mile before encountering a track on your left signposted as a pedestrian right of way.

This is fairly rough, but driving a hundred yards or so along it brings you to an open area on the left, which is where you should leave your car. Opposite the parking area a wooden bridge marks the start of the path through the forest to the broch.

The path to Tappoch Broch from the parking area is just over a third of a mile long, and climbs gently as it twists and turns though the dense growth of conifers.

In places the path is so indistinct that a little care is needed to follow it on the ground, while in other places its course is only too obvious as the passage of boots and cycle tyres have churned it into a surface that can be very muddy after rain.


The Intramural Staircase


Tappoch Broch occupies the summit of the hill you climb to reach it, and your first glimpse of it through the trees is as a heather-clad mound. As you come a little closer the path leads you between heather banks to what initially appears to be a very odd structure, a bridge of stone laying across the path with a gap beneath.

The "bridge" is in fact the lintel over the start of the entrance passage into the broch itself. The structure would once have been many metres higher than it is now, which leaves just the lintel of the passageway as the highest part of the broch on this side.

Following the path through the entrance passage brings you into the interior of the broch, which is lined by standing stone walls up to sufficient height to be impressive. In many ways, however, the best way to appreciate the broch is by walking up the mound either side of the entrance passage, which leads to a path running round what is now the upper surface of the wall of the broch.
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Entrance passage from inside the roch.   


When originally built, in the last century or two BC or the first century or two AD, Tappoch Broch would have formed a truncated tapering cylinder (think "cooling tower" and you are not far wrong) of anything up to 10m or more in height.

The walls are massively thick (nearly 7m thick at the site of the entrance passage) and built from two thicknesses of dry stone walling with the inner and outer faces linked together at frequent intervals to ensure strength and stability. Air circulated between the outer and inner walls.

The sheer scale of Tappoch Broch when it was built is hard to imagine when looking at its remains today, but there are some features still in evidence which help build a mental picture. The length of the entrance passage is one.

Another can be found on the right hand side of the broch when looked at from the entrance. Here you can find a large circular cavity created within the thickness of the wall which would have provided the residents with storage or accommodation.

Entrance to Intramural Staircase from inside the Broch.


Perhaps the most striking feature of Tappoch Broch today is the incredibly well preserved "intramural staircase". Brochs usually allowed access between different levels by means of staircases set within the gap between the inner and outer layers of the walls.

A double layered lintel on the left side of the broch when viewed from the entrance leads through to the base of a set of steps up between the walls. Today this simply brings you out onto the top of the mound which still surrounds the broch: it would once have continued upwards to the upper part of the broch, perhaps to the walltop as at Mousa Broch.

From http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/denny/tappochbroch/index.html


Well worth a visit but stick to the footpath that you followed in or you will easily get lost. 
                                                                                                                                                 Pictures taken by myself, you can view more pictures of the Broch i took HERE

Video I took of the Broch can be viewed HERE
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Tappoch Broch location... HERE

More info on Tappoch Broch HERE

Stirling Castle

Address: Castle Esplanade, Stirling, Scotland, FK8 1EJ

Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position.

Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification from the earliest times. Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542.



Stirling Castle Gate House.

There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie unsuccessfully tried to take the castle.

Stirling Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is now a tourist attraction managed by Historic Scotland.

Castle Hill, on which Stirling Castle is built, forms part of the Stirling Sill, a formation of quartz-dolerite around 350 million years old, which was subsequently modified by glaciation to form a "crag and tail". It is likely that this natural feature was occupied at an early date, as a hill fort is located on Gowan Hill, immediately to the east.

The Romans bypassed Stirling, building a fort at Doune instead, but the rock may have been occupied by the Maeatae at this time It may later have been a stronghold of the Manaw Gododdin, and has also been identified with a settlement recorded in the 7th and 8th centuries as Iudeu, where King Penda of Mercia besieged King Oswy of Bernicia in 655. 




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The area came under Pictish control after the defeat of the Northumbrians at the Battle of Dun Nechtain thirty years later. However, there is no archaeological evidence for occupation of Castle Hill before the late medieval period.

The first record of Stirling Castle dates from around 1110, when King Alexander I dedicated a chapel here. It appears to have been an established royal centre by this time, as Alexander died here in 1124. During the reign of his successor David I, Stirling became a royal burgh, and the castle an important administration centre.

King William I formed a deer park to the south-west of the castle, but after his capture by the English in 1174 he was forced to surrender several castles, including Stirling and Edinburgh, under the Treaty of Falaise.



Stirling Castle from King's Knot Gardens.

There is no evidence that the English actually occupied the castle, and it was formally handed back by Richard I of England in 1189. Stirling continued to be a favoured royal residence, with William himself dying there in 1214 and Alexander III laying out the New Park, for deer hunting, in the 1260s.

Almost all the present buildings in the castle were constructed between 1490 and 1600, when Stirling was developed as a principal royal centre by the Stewart kings James IV, James V and James VI. The architecture of these new buildings shows an eclectic mix of English, French and German influences, reflecting the international ambitions of the Stewart dynasty.

Gardens..
There are two gardens within the castle, the southern one including a bowling green. Below the castle's west wall is the King's Knot, a 16th-century formal garden, now only visible as earthworks, but once including hedges and knot-patterned parterres.

The gardens were built on the site of a medieval jousting arena known as the Round Table, in imitation of the legendary court of King Arthur.




Pictures taken by myself, more pictures of the castle can be viewed HERE

Stirling Castle Wikipedia HERE

Stirling Castle Official Website HERE

Gowan Hill & The Beheading Stone.

Gowan Hill/ Moat Hill.
Stirling
Scotland

Access from Lower Bridge Street, Stirling.
Rises to 278 feet.

Gowan Hill..  The hill is a fantastic but previously neglected 10 hectare open space next to Stirling Castle in Scotland. The area contains layers of ancient history (an iron age hillfort, a beheading stone, battle sites) as well as featuring strongly in the memories of living residents.

Also known as ‘The Heading Hill’ or 'Mote Hill', the Gowan is the site of an ancient Pictish Fort, this was the site of the execution of the aristocratic murderers of King James I, in 1437,

The Fort... The interior of the fort would have measured around ninety by sixty feet, and would have had a stone wall protecting its boundary. There are now only a few places where any sort of bank can now be seen here.

A report dating from 1794 stated that a rubble wall was still visible....

The fort has been known as Hurley Haaky* and Murdoch's Knowe in the past. It is thought that there may have been a second wall or bank defending the summit of the hill, laying some twenty five feet outside the first defences. There are still faint remains in this area, of what could be this earthwork, measuring some eight feet across.

Mote Hill is in fact far older and is a vitrified hill fort destroyed by fire around 250 AD. It isn't known who destroyed it, but it was likely to be either the Romans going north or the Picts raiding south. The hill fort controlled the Forth crossing, the only place an army could cross by foot for the next 2000 years!

In January 1746, Gowan Hill and Mote Hill were used as artillery batteries by Prince Charles Stuart's forces. The retreating Jacobite army attempted to take Stirling Castle from the English garrison occupying it at the time. It didn't take the Castle's guns long to destroy the batteries and force the Jacobite army to abandon any hopes of taking the castle.
 

Beheading Stone
The Stirling beheading stone is thought to have been used for capital punishments in the 15th Century and was probably used in the executions of various important figures.



The Beheading stone with Wallace Monument in the background.

In 1425, Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany and former Regent of Scotland and two of his sons were executed. Murdoch's father in law the the Earl of Lennox was also executed here, King James I was taking revenge for Albany's 18 year abuse of his power when the King was held captive in England.

The two cannons...
The two cannons on top of Gowan Hill have never been used, they were purchased by the town council in 1902 from the army at Stirling Castle and moved here for decorative purposes only.

* Hurley Haaky, This pastime, which was played here for centuries, involved sliding down the steep hill (here, supposedly, this was done while sitting on a cow's skull, using its horns as handlebars; in an agricultural market town like Stirling, skulls were readily available). In any case, it is thought that the name of the pastime was transferred to the hill.



Pictures taken by myself, more of Gowan Hill can be viewed HERE



 

Torwood Castle

Torwood Castle is a castle ruin near the village of Torwood, in the Falkirk Council area of central Scotland.

It has been estimated as being built around 1566 for Sir Alexander Forrester. It was once the seat of Clan Forrester. The castle was built by the Lords Forrester, who supplied the Crown with timber and were in charge of a royal hunting area. The castle is a Scottish Baronial style castle.

Although the castle is not open to the public, it can be enjoyed by the public for photography and walks around the main buildings, and inside the ruined walls.

Torwood Castle stands about two miles north east of the town of Denny. To reach it you take a minor road that turns off the A9 in the village of Torwood, which you then follow for a third of a mile before encountering a track on your left signposted as a pedestrian right of way.




View from South East

This is fairly rough, but driving a hundred yards or so along it brings you to an open area on the left, which is where you should leave your car.

Opposite the parking area a wooden bridge marks the start of the path through the forest to Tappoch Broch, but to reach Torwood Castle you continue on foot along the gently climbing track for a little under half a mile.

Your first sight of Torwood Castle is from the north and if the sun is shining this means you will be presented with an imposing silhouette of what appears to be a remarkably complete and well preserved castle. When David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross visited during the research for their definitive guide to castles, published in 1892, the castle was known as "Torwoodhead Castle". It isn't clear when the name subsequently changed, but today it seems to be known only as Torwood Castle.




The Castle Kitchen

According to a date stone found in a nearby ditch in 1918, Torwood Castle was built in 1566. It is of architectural interest because it sits at a transitional point in the development of castles into mansions, and as a result has features of both.

The castle is built on an L-plan, with a long rectangular main block running approximately east-west, with a small wing projecting to the north from the north-west corner. Within the re-entrant angle is a small square stair tower.

The entrance is by way of a small door on the east side of the extending wing, and above it is a carved niche for an armorial panel, which is missing. Surrounding this niche, and extending around this wing and the stair tower, is a decorative carved rail detail at a height of around two metres.

The courtyard was originally enclosed by ranges of buildings on all three sides, and traces of a kitchen garden have been found to the south of the main range. Nothing of this is evident today, and presumably the oblong water-filled pit that with the eye of faith could almost be part of a moat is actually an unfilled excavation trench that was dug to explore the garden.



View from the South

In 1957 a Glasgow Accountant a Mr. Millar purchased the castle by then a ruin and a labour of love started over the next 40 years he slowly began to restore it single handed and when he passed away in 1998 he left the castle to the Torwood castle Trust who sofar have failed to live up to the job in hand and the castle will be lost unless action is taken.

Pictures taken by myself, view more HERE

Read more about Torwood Castle HERE

Torwood Castle Location.. HERE

 

Prudhoe Castle..

Prudhoe Castle
Castle View
Prudhoe
Northumberland
Post Code : NE42 6NA
Telephone : 01661 833459

Prudhoe = An Anglo-Saxon name meaning Prud's spur of land.

Prudhoe Castle is a ruined medieval English castle situated on the south bank of the River Tyne at Prudhoe, Northumberland, England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building.

 

Archaeological excavations have shown that the first castle on the site was a Norman motte and bailey, built sometime in the mid 11th century. Following the Norman Conquest, the Umfraville family took over control of the castle. Robert d’Umfraville was formally granted the barony of Prudhoe by Henry I but it is likely that the Umfravilles had already been granted Prudhoe in the closing years of the 11th century.



The Umfravilles (probably Robert) initially replaced the wooden palisade with a massive rampart of clay and stones and subsequently constructed a stone curtain wall and gatehouse.

In 1173 William the Lion of Scotland invaded the North East to claim the earldom of Northumberland. The head of the Umfraville family, Odinel II, refused to support him and as a result the Scottish army tried to take Prudhoe Castle. The attempt failed as the Scots were not prepared to undertake a lengthy siege. The following year William attacked the castle again but found that Odinel had strengthened the garrison, and after a siege of just three days the Scottish army left. Following the siege, Odinel further improved the defences of the castle by adding a stone keep and a great hall.

Odinel died in 1182 and was succeeded by his son Richard. Richard became one of the barons who stood against King John, and as a result forfeited his estates to the crown. They remained forfeited until 1217, the year after King John’s death. Richard died in 1226 and was succeeded by his son, Gilbert, who was himself succeeded in 1245 by his son Gilbert. Through his mother, Gilbert II inherited the title of Earl of Angus, with vast estates in Scotland, but he continued to spend some of his time at Prudhoe.

It is believed that he carried out further improvements to the castle. Gilbert took part in the fighting between Henry III of England and his barons, and in the Scottish expeditions of Edward I. He died in 1308 and was succeeded by his son, Robert D’Umfraville IV. In 1314, Robert was taken prisoner by the Scots at Bannockburn, but was soon released, though he was deprived of the earldom of Angus and of his Scottish estates.

In 1316 King Edward granted Robert 700 marks to maintain a garrison of 40 men-at-arms and 80 light horsemen at Prudhoe. In 1381 the last of the line, Gilbert III, died without issue and his widow married Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. On her death in 1398, the castle passed to the Percy family.



The Percies added a new great hall to the castle shortly after they took possession of it. Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland fought against Henry IV and took part in the Battle of Shrewsbury, for which act he was attainted and his estates, including Prudhoe, were forfeited to the Crown in 1405. That same year it was granted to the future Duke of Bedford, (a son of Henry IV) and stayed in his hands until his death in 1435, whereupon it reverted to the Crown.

The Percies regained ownership of the Prudhoe estates in 1440, after a prolonged legal battle. However, Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland fought on the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses and was killed at the Battle of Towton in 1461. In 1462 Edward IV granted Prudhoe to his younger brother George, Duke of Clarence. The latter only possessed the castle briefly before the king granted it to Lord Montague.

The castle was restored to the fourth Earl in 1470. The principal seat of the Percys was Alnwick Castle and Prudhoe was for the most part let out to tenants. In 1528 however Henry Percy 6th Earl was resident at the castle as later was his brother Sir Thomas Percy. Both the Earl and Sir Thomas were heavily involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 and both were convicted of treason and executed. Following forfeiture of the estates the castle was reported in August 1537 to have habitable houses and towers within its walls, although they were said to be somewhat decayed and in need of repairs estimated at £20.

The castle was once again restored to Thomas Percy, the 7th Earl in about 1557. He was convicted of taking part in the Rising of the North in 1569. He escaped, but was recaptured and was executed in 1572.



Castle Chapel.

The castle was thereafter let out to many and various tenants and was not used as a residence after the 1660s. In 1776 it was reported to be ruinous. Between 1808 and 1817, Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland carried out substantial repairs to the ancient fabric and replaced the old dwellings within the walls with a Georgian mansion adjoining the keep.

In 1966 the castle was given over to the Crown and is now in the custody of English Heritage and is open to the public.



All pictures taken by myself, view more of the castle HERE

Prudhoe Castle Website HERE

More info on Prudhoe Castle HERE

Location Prudhoe Castle HERE

Vindolanda

Chesterholm Museum
Bardon Mill
Northumberland
NE47 7JN

Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, among the most important finds of military and private correspondence (written on wooden tablets) found anywhere in the Roman Empire.

The first post-Roman record of the ruins at Vindolanda was made by the antiquarian William Camden, in his Britannia (1586). Occasional travellers reached the site over the next two hundred years, and the accounts they left are useful because they predate much of the stone-stealing that has damaged the site.



The military bath-house was still partly roofed when Christopher Hunter visited the site in 1702. In about 1715 an excise officer named John Warburton found an altar there, which he removed. In 1814 the first real archaeological work was begun, by the Rev. Anthony Hedley. Hedley died in 1835, before writing up his discoveries. Little more was done for a long time, although in 1914 a workman found another altar at the site, set up by the civilians living at the fort in honour of the Divine House and Vulcan.

Several names for the site are used in the early records, including Chesters on Caudley, Little Chesters, the Bower, and Chesterholm; the altar found in 1914 confirmed that the true Roman name for the site was "Vindolanda", which had been in dispute as one early source referred to it as "Vindolana

Wooden Forts..
The earliest Roman forts at Vindolanda were built of wood and turf.^[3] The remains are now buried as much as 4 metres deep in the anoxic waterlogged soil. There are 5 timber forts, built (and demolished) one after the other.

The first, a small fort was probably built by the 1st Cohort of Tungrians about AD 85. By about AD 95 this was replaced by a larger wooden fort built by the 9th Cohort of Batavians, a mixed infantry-cavalry unit of about 1000 men. That fort was repaired in about AD 100 under the command of the Roman prefect Flavius Cerialis.



When the 9th Cohort of Batavians left in AD 105, their fort was demolished. The 1st Cohort of Tungrians came back to Vindolanda, built a larger wooden fort, and remained here until Hadrian's Wall was built around AD 122, when they moved, most likely to Vercovicium (Housesteads).

Stone Forts...
Soon after Hadrian's Wall was built, most of its men were moved north to the Antonine Wall. To cope with the dearth of soldiers, a stone fort was built at Vindolanda, possibly for the 2nd Cohort of Nervians.

From AD 208 to 211, there was a major rebellion against Rome in Britain, and the Emperor Septimius Severus led an army to Britain to cope with it personally. The old stone fort was demolished, and replaced by an unconventional set of army buildings on the west, and an unusual array of many round stone huts where the old fort had been: some of these circular huts are visible by the north and the southwest walls of the final stone fort.

The Roman army may have built these to accommodate families of British farmers in this unsettled period. Septimius Severus died at York in AD 211; his sons paid off the rebels and left for Rome. The stone buildings were demolished, and a large new stone fort was built where the huts had been, for the 4th Cohort of Gauls.

Excavations...
In the 1930s, the house at Chesterholm where the museum is now located was purchased by archaeologist Eric Birley, who was interested in excavating the site. The excavations have been continued by his sons, Robin and Anthony, and his grandson, Andrew Birley, into the present day. They are undertaken each summer, and some of the archaeological deposits reach depths of six meters. The anoxic conditions at these depths have preserved thousands of artefacts, such as wooden writing tablets, that normally disintegrate in the ground, thus providing an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of Roman life – military and otherwise – on the northern frontier.



In 2010, the remains of what is thought to be a girl between the ages of 8 and 10 years old, with her hands tied, were uncovered in a shallow pit in what was the barrack room. She is believed to have been murdered about 1,800 years ago.

Along with ongoing excavations (in season) and excavated remains, a full size replica of a section of Hadrian's Wall in both stone and timber can be seen on the site.



View more of my pictures HERE

Vindolanda website... http://www.vindolanda.com/

Location of Vindolanda... HERE

Durham Light Infantry Museum...

D.L.I. Museum and Durham Art Gallery
Aykley Heads
Durham
DH1 5TU

The Museum..
The original Museum of The Durham Light Infantry was opened just after the First World War at the Regimental Depot at Fenham Barracks in Newcastle upon Tyne.

In 1939 the Regimental Depot moved to Brancepeth Castle, near Durham City, where the Museum remained until the Castle closed and the DLI's Depot moved out of the County.

Then in the 1960s, on the site of the last working colliery in Durham City, a new DLI Museum was built. Opened in 1969 by Jennie Lee, Minister for the Arts, The Durham Light Infantry Museum and Arts Centre soon established its reputation for innovation and excellence.

In 2000, after a major refurbishment, the building re-opened and today is one of County Durham's most modern visitor attractions - the Durham Light Infantry Museum and Durham Art Gallery.




Durham Light Infantry..
The story of the DLI begins in 1758, when General John Lambton of County Durham first raised the 68th Regiment of Foot as part of the British Army. 50 years later, the 68th was chosen to become a new light infantry regiment - with better trained and equipped soldiers - and was sent to fight in Wellington’s Army in Portugal and Spain. There the Regiment won its first Battle Honours.

Later the Regiment fought in the Crimean War and in New Zealand. During these campaigns, three Durhams were awarded the Victoria Cross - John Byrne, Thomas de Courcy Hamilton and John Murray.

In 1881 The Durham Light Infantry was formed and soon saw action in Egypt and against the Boers in South Africa.

During the First World War - the Great War - 1000s of volunteers from the mines, shipyards, farms, shops, schools, offices and industries of County Durham joined the DLI. By 1918, the Durhams had raised 43 battalions - like the Durham Pals - with 22 seeing active service overseas - on the Western Front, in Italy, Egypt, Salonika and India.

The DLI fought in every major battle of the Great War - at Ypres, Loos, Arras, Messines, Cambrai, on the Somme, in the mud of Passendale and in the final victory of 1918.

Some 13,000 Durhams died on these battlefields, with thousands more wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.



Six Durhams were awarded the Victoria Cross during the Great War - Thomas Kenny, Roland Bradford, Michael Heaviside, Frederick Youens, Arthur Lascelles and Thomas Young.

During the Second World War, nine battalions of the DLI fought with distinction in every major theatre of the War - from Dunkirk in 1940, to North Africa, Malta, Sicily, Italy, Burma and in Europe from D-Day to the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Casualties during the Second World War were far lower than in the Great War but in several fierce battle at Arras, Mareth, Primosole Bridge and Kohima, the Durhams suffered heavy losses.

In Belgium in May 1940, Richard Annand, 2nd Battalion DLI, became the very first soldier of the Second World War to gain the Victoria Cross.

Whilst in June 1942 in North Africa, Adam Wakenshaw of Newcastle upon Tyne was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross fighting with the 9th Battalion DLI in North Africa. His Victoria Cross and anti-tank gun are on display in the DLI Museum.



After 1945, The Durham Light Infantry was reduced in size until only the 1st Battalion DLI remained. In 1952-53, 1 DLI fought as part of the United Nations forces in Korea in conditions almost like those of the trenches of the Western Front. Many of these young Durhams were National Servicemen.

The 1st Battalion DLI later served in Cyprus and was based in Berlin in 1961, the time when the Berlin Wall was built. In 1966, the Durhams fought their last campaign and suffered their last casualties in the jungles and mountains of Borneo.

Finally in 1968, whilst the battalion was serving in Cyprus, it was announced that The Durham Light Infantry would join with three other county light infantry regiments to form one large Regiment - The Light Infantry.

In Durham Cathedral on 12 December 1968, the Durhams paraded their Colours (flags) for the last time. After 200 years of history, County Durham’s own Regiment was no more.



Durham Light Infantry Museum Website HERE

More info via wiki HERE

D.L.I. Location... HERE

Long Meg & Her Daughters Stone Circle.

Bronze Age Stone Circle...
Little Salkeld, Penrith, Cumbria.
Visited 6th April 2014. Very sunny day.

Long Meg and Her Daughters is a Bronze Age stone circle near Penrith in Cumbria, North West England. One of around 1,300 stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany, it was constructed as a part of a megalithic tradition that lasted from 3,300 to 900 BCE, during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.
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The stone circle is the sixth-biggest example known from this part of north-western Europe, being slightly smaller than the rings at Stanton Drew in Somerset, the Ring of Brodgar in Orkney and Newgrange in County Meath.
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It primarily consists of 59 stones (only 27 remain upright) set in an oval shape measuring 100m on its long axis. There may originally have been as many as 70 stones. Long Meg herself is a 3.6 m high monolith of red sandstone 25 m to the southwest of the circle made by her Daughters. Long Meg is marked with examples of megalithic art including a cup and ring mark, a spiral and rings of concentric circles.
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The monument is 109m x 93m in diameter. Long Meg herself stands 25m outside the circle, 6m above the farthest stone in the circle, " and is the tallest of the 69 stones at c.3.8m high and weighing c.9 tonnes.
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The Long Meg monolith is of local red sandstone, probably from the River Eden or the nearby Lazonby hills, whereas the circle stones are of rhyolite and are glacial erratics. Two large blocks are placed to the east and west and there are two extra 'portal' stones placed to the south-west.
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The placement of Long Meg is in the alignment between the centre of the circle and the point of the midwinter sunset. The south-west face of Long Meg has crystals in it, whereas the face looking towards the circle has spirals and other rock art inscribed on it.

The circle may have had a bank running round some of the stones at least, and the centre may have been scraped out to some extent.
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The large ditched enclosure lying immediately to the north of the circle is probably Neolithic. In this respect, it may be of the same date as other enclosures found in Cumbria that include: Carrock Fell, Skelmore Heads, Howe Robin, and Green How.
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Long Meg
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If the stone circle is later than the enclosure, it is likely to be of early Bronze Age. There is the possibility that the Long Meg monolith was not contemporary with the stone circle.
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Long Meg was something more than a burial place. However, the exact nature of the purpose of the monument is still a matter of conjecture. Clare summarises the various arguments concerning types, purpose, construction, size, layout, origins and dates, of Cumbrian stone circles and other monuments.
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His conclusion seems to be that the nature of the monument, and others like it (such as at Swinside), suggests that they are "places where people came together, probably at certain times of the year. Amongst activities at such times, we might envisage ritual, social exchange and trade.
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The "certain times of the year" mentioned here would probably have been calculated using the suggested predictive calendar as outlined by Hood. The actual building of the circle, perhaps taking place in stages over time, might in itself have been one of the purposes of the monument.
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The most famous of the many legends that surround the stones is that they were once a coven of witches who were turned to stone by a wizard from Scotland named Michael Scot. It is said the stones cannot be counted - but, if anyone is able to count them twice and come to the same total - the spell will be broken or it will bring very bad luck. Another legend states that if you walk round the circles and count the number of stones correctly, then put your ear to Long Meg, you will hear her whisper. The name itself is said to come from a local witch, Meg of Meldon, who was alive in the early 17th century.
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From a certain angle, the Long Meg stone resembles the profile of a witch. Long animal bones found buried at the site may have been misinterpreted in the past as a 'Giant's bone and body'.
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All pictures taken by myself (Ken Fitzpatrick) View More HERE
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Map Location ...  HERE


Reviews from Tripadvisor HERE

Durham Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, usually known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral
in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham.

The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093. The cathedral is regarded as one of the finest examples of Norman architecture and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with nearby Durham Castle, which faces it across Palace Green.

The present cathedral replaced the 10th century "White Church", built as part of a monastic foundation to house the shrine of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. The treasures of Durham Cathedral include relics of St Cuthbert, the head of St Oswald of Northumbria and the remains of the Venerable Bede. In addition, its Library contains one of the most complete sets of early printed books in England, the pre-Dissolution monastic accounts, and three copies of the Magna Carta.


Durham Cathedral Looking Down The Nave

The see of Durham takes its origins from the Diocese of Lindisfarne, founded by Saint Aidan at the behest of Oswald of Northumbria around AD 635. The see lasted until AD 664, at which point it was translated to York. The see was then reinstated at Lindisfarne in AD 678 by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Among the many saints produced in the community at Lindisfarne Priory, Saint Cuthbert, who was Bishop of Lindisfarne from AD 685 until his death on Farne Island in 687, is central to the development of Durham Cathedral.

The present cathedral was designed and built under William of St. Carilef (or William of Calais) who was appointed as the first prince-bishop by William the Conqueror in 1080.[10] Since that time, there have been major additions and reconstructions of some parts of the building, but the greater part of the structure remains true to the Norman design. Construction of the cathedral began in 1093 at the eastern end.


The choir was completed by 1096 and work proceeded on the nave of which the walls were finished by 1128, and the high vault complete by 1135. The Chapter House, partially demolished in the 18th century, was built between 1133 and 1140.

William died in 1099 before the building's completion, passing responsibility to his successor Ranulf Flambard who also built Flamwell Bridge, the first crossing of the River Wear in the town. Three bishops William of St. Carilef, Ranulf Flambard, and Hugh de Puiset are all buried in the rebuilt Chapter House.

Cuthbert's tomb was destroyed on the orders of Henry VIII in 1538, and the monastery's wealth handed over to the king. The body of the saint was exhumed, and according to the Rites of Durham, was discovered to be uncorrupted. It was reburied under a plain stone slab worn by the knees of pilgrims, but the ancient paving around it remains intact. Two years later, on 31 December 1540, the Benedictine monastery at Durham was dissolved, and the last prior of Durham – Hugh Whitehead—became the first dean of the cathedral's secular chapter.




Bishop Hatfield's tomb.

After the Battle of Dunbar on 3 September 1650, Durham Cathedral was used by Oliver Cromwell as a makeshift prison to hold Scottish prisoners-of-war. It is estimated that as many as 3,000 were imprisoned of whom 1,700 died in the cathedral itself, where they were kept in inhumane conditions, largely without food, water or heat. The prisoners destroyed much of the cathedral woodwork for firewood but Prior Castell's Clock, which featured the Scottish thistle, was spared. It is reputed that the prisoners' bodies were buried in unmarked graves. The survivors were shipped as slave labour to North America.

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Stirling Bridge

Stirling Bridge, Stirling, Scotland...
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The Old Bridge stands at the lowest fording place of the River Forth, one of the most critical crossing points in the country. The present stone bridge replaced a succession of timber bridges.
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Undoubtedly the most famous of these earlier structures was the one that stood nearby in the 1290s. At the Battle of Stirling Bridge (1297), Sir William Wallace and Sir Andrew Moray led a Scottish army to a resounding victory over Edward I of England.
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The present ‘old’ bridge was built in the late 1400s or early 1500s. Measuring over 80m long, it has four semicircular arches, supported by three piers. Each pier has triangular cutwaters. The central ones had pedestrian refuges which were originally roofed. At either end were arched gates.
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Stirling Bridge today (1st April 2015).
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The gates were removed, probably at the time when General Blackeney, Governor of Stirling Castle, ordered the destruction of the south arch in 1745. Blackeney was attempting to forestall Bonnie Prince Charlie’s forces as they marched south at the outset of the ’45 Jacobite Rising.
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The arch was rebuilt in 1749. The bridge was closed to wheeled traffic in 1831, and replaced by a new one downstream, designed by Robert Stevenson.
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Battle of Stirling Bridge...

The Battle of Stirling Bridge was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. On 11th September 1297, the forces of Andrew de Moray and William Wallace defeated the combined English forces of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, and Hugh de Cressingham near Stirling, on the River Forth.
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Stirling Bridge looking North with Wallace Monument in background
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The Earl of Surrey had won a victory over the aristocracy of Scotland at the Battle of Dunbar and his belief that he was now dealing with a rabble proved that he had greatly underestimated the Scottish forces. The small bridge at Stirling was only broad enough to allow two horsemen to cross abreast. The Scots deployed in a commanding position dominating the soft, flat ground to the north of the river.
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Sir Richard Lundie, a Scots knight who joined the English after the capitulation at Irvine, offered to outflank the enemy by leading a cavalry force over a nearby ford, where sixty horsemen could cross at the same time. Hugh Cressingham, King Edward's treasurer in Scotland, was anxious to avoid any unnecessary expense in prolonging the war and he persuaded the Earl to reject this advice and order a direct attack across the bridge.
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The Scots waited as the English knights and infantry made their slow progress across the bridge on the morning of 11th September. The disorderly Scottish army of 1296 was gone: Wallace and Moray's hold over their men was tight. Earlier in the day many English and Welsh archers had crossed, only to be immediately recalled because Surrey had overslept; the Scots held back and did not attack at that time. Wallace and Moray waited, according to the Chronicle of Hemingburgh, until "as many of the enemy had come over as they believed they could overcome".
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When the vanguard, comprising 5,400 English and Welsh infantry plus several hundred cavalry, had crossed the bridge, the attack was ordered. The Scots spearmen came down from the high ground in rapid advance towards Stirling Bridge, quickly seizing control of the English bridgehead. In the narrow space of the bridge, the massed English cavalry were incredibly vulnerable to the line of Scots spearmen holding the end of the bridge. Surrey's vanguard was now cut off from the rest of the army.
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The heavy cavalry to the north of the river was trapped and cut to pieces, their comrades to the south powerless to help Hugh de Cressingham, whose body was subsequently flayed and the skin cut into small pieces for souvenirs of the victory. The Lanercost Chronicle records that Wallace had "a broad strip [of Cressingham’s skin]...taken from the head to the heel, to make therewith a baldrick for his sword". Losses among the infantry, many of them Welsh, were also high. Those who could throw off their armour swam across the river.
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Stirling Bridge looking south with Stirling Castle in background
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Surrey, who was left with a pitiful contingent of archers, had remained to the south of the river and was still in a strong position. The bulk of his army remained intact and he could have held the line of the Forth, denying the triumphant Scots a passage to the south, but his confidence was gone.
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After the escape of Sir Marmaduke Tweng, an English knight from Yorkshire, Surrey ordered the bridge's destruction and retreated towards Berwick, leaving the garrison at Stirling Castle isolated and abandoning the Lowlands to the rebels. James Stewart, the High Steward of Scotland, and Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, whose forces had been part of Surrey's army, observing the carnage to the north of the bridge, withdrew.
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Then the English supply train was attacked at The Pows, a wooded marshy area, by James Stewart and the other Scots lords, killing many of the fleeing soldiers.

Taken From Wikipedia

All pictures taken by myself.

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