Twelve Apostles stone circle, nr Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway

Twelve Apostles stone circle
nr Holywood and Dumfries
Dumfries and Galloway
Scotland

This stone circle was visited in June 2008, along with many towers and castles in the area. If you're not aware that this circle here, it is all too easy to pass on by, as it is hidden away in a field off the main road, and although it's the largest stone circle in Scotland, and the fifth largest in the UK, it is fairly indistinguishable from the landscape in which it can be found.

The above photo gives some indication of how flat the area is, and how the fallen stones blend into their surroundings.

The circle lays some two miles to the North of Dumfries, and about a quarter of a mile South of the small village of Holywood. There is room to park at the side of the B729 (about half a mile off the A6 to Thornhill)

There are eleven stones remaining out of a possible original nineteen, with all but five of the stones now fallen. Of these five standing stones, the tallest is around 1.9metres tall, with the largest measuring around 3.5 by 2.5 metres. The diameter of the circle stands at around 88 metres.

It is estimated that the circle dates from around 2000BC and is one of many prehistoric earthwork features in the area.

Only four of the stones are of local origin, with the rest from quarries some miles away. The circle used to be split in half by a field boundary, but this was removed in the 1880's completing the circle again, and allowing full access.

Although there is no public right of way through the field in which the circle sits, it appears that the land owner, fearful perhaps that his walls would be damaged, has kindly built a stile over the wall.

Some of the stones have marks on that bear a passing resemblance to 'cup and stone' marks....early stone decoration. Most documentation on this site however, advises that these marks are probably the result of weather erosion.

This site is definitely worth a visit, although lower your expectations so that you won't be disappointed.

Cappelside Hall, Autumn 2008 visit

Cappelside Hall
Nr Beetham
Cumbria

The remains of Cappelside Hall, as mentioned in the original post some time ago, are hidden, off the beaten track, and otherwise not accessible. The remains can be found at the foot of a hill in a field, sandwiched between Paradise Lane and Pool Darkin Lane, just off the A6 near Beetham Garden Centre. There isn't parking readily available nearby, so a walk is required.

Once over the brow of the hill, and heading South East across the field, the remains can be seen at the foot of the hill before you. Basically, you're looking at the remains of the South end of a hall house, constructed some time during the 1400's, possibly on the site of an earlier building. The Hall and its tower would have stood around 11 and a half metres by 7 and a half metres, with walls somewhere around a metre and a half thick.

View of the garderobe in the South Western face of the pele tower's single surviving wall.

View of the South Eastern wall of the pele tower.

View from the West, showing the Southern surviving wall.

The garderobe entrance can be seen at the top right of the photo. At this part of the wall, the stone plinth upon which the tower was built can be seen in the grass.

Map of the layout of Cappelside Hall, based on Curwen's work. Some of the layout is probably pure conjecture on the part of Curwen, but there are earthworks all over the site, suggesting buried walls and features.

A shot of the only upstanding remains of the pele tower from the West looking down Cappelside Hill towards the direction of the Garden Centre. It's interesting to note, that the remains do not appear on the map...strange that such an important manorial site does not get a mention!!?! However...if you look carefully at the map, just above the A in Cappelside Hill...there is a curious [ shape....perhaps indicating the edges of the building!

There are feint earthwork remains to the North West of the standing remains, representing a kitchen block, and a larger hall block....all now long gone. These two areas were dismantled in 1687, when the property passed by marriage to the Cliffords. The tower was converted to use as a barn at this time.

Parts of the surviving walls stand to around 12 feet at their tallest, whilst the rest are either ground level or just above. A fence that runs to the East of the remains seems to be mounted on what looks like an old wall boundry, long since dismantled. I wonder if this is a boundary that would have been in existence when the hall was being used. As well as this, there are mounds of masonry against the walls to the north of the remains, possibly parts of the original buildings.

This visit to the remains was much better, yielding a better set of photographs.

Sedbergh Castle Haugh, Autumn 2008 visit

Castle Haugh\Castle Haugh Tower
Sedbergh
Cumbria

Another site re-visited recently, was the motte and bailey castle at Sedbergh. A small, very well preserved and defined fortification with a complete motte and bailey, this earthwork is a pleasure to visit.

Although the trees are still in leaf, it's easy enough to make out the various parts of this fortification. The bailey, a raised earthen platform some 8 metres above the surrounding fields, is just visible behind the trees in the photo above.

The motte is superbly preserved. It still stands to around 30 feet high, and is very steep sided and difficult to climb.

To the East side of the motte, a more recent field wall is built on top of the bank on the outside of the ditch. It only serves to accentuate the steepness of the sides of the ditch, especially here.

The motte is surrounded by a ditch on all sides, except on its South side, where there is a natural scarp dropping away to the fields some way below. The ditch surrounding the motte is about 10 to 15 feet wide, and around 6 to 8 feet deep.

The section of ditch between the motte and the bailey is somewhat deeper, and the sides are much steeper.

The footings of the observation post mounted on the bailey are still visible.

The bailey is basically a huge raised platform, measuring around 40 feet by 80 feet, and is triangular in shape.The castle is easily accessible via a well marked footpath from the middle of the village. It's fairly easy walking, although not suitable for prams and wheelchairs.

Greenholme Motte and Bailey, Tebay

Greenholme Motte and Bailey
Tebay
Cumbria

There is some doubt about this site being a motte and bailey castle....even an unfinished motte and bailey castle, as some sources suggest. Local documents tell of two castles built in the Tebay area, to stop marauding Scots from passing through the area and onto Lonsdale and Kentdale further South. Castle Howe near junction 38 of the M6 motorway is undoubtedly an early medieval motte and bailey castle....the remains of the motte, ditches, banks and an extensive bailey area are all clear evidence of this.

Walking into the field behind the farm, it took a while before I could even make out this earthwork feature. The old course of Birk Beck can clearly be seen in the field, some 50 yards or so the South of the current water course. The remains of the fortification, if that is what they are, would therefore have been about 20 yards or so from the waters edge, much the same as Castle Howe's situation. The motte, or enclosure, has an internal area of some 23 metres by 9 metres, and rises no more than four feet or so above the surrounding area.

There are clear ditches to all sides of these remains, fed by a beck that runs from the top of the field above it. They were clearly water filled on the day I visited, and the ground around this feature was water logged and boggy.

The photo above, shows the feature in the field to the South of Birk Beck. I wouldn't say that this would have been an ideal place to locate a fortification, as the area to the south is higher, as is the area to the West, making this a somewhat vulnerable site. If this is in any way connected with the motte and bailey closer to Tebay, it may have just been a watch post, possibly to warn of any Scottish incursions.

Click on the images for full screen views.

Arnside Tower....2008 Autumn visit

Arnside Tower
Arnside
Cumbria

I've been back to Arnside Tower near Arnside and Silverdale....probably one of the grandest towers in the South Lakes area. This time, with better weather, the photos are a bit better than those previously posted here.

Built sometime in the later part of the 14th century, the tower is almost unique in Cumbria in that it was a free -standing tower with no attendant buildings around it. Severely damaged by fire accidentally in 1602, repaired and occupied for a time after this, the tower was eventually stripped of its roof timbers and other building materials in the 1680's.

Whilst entry to the remains are forbidden, the structure appears in the Heritage At Risk, North West report of 2008 stating that it is in need of consolidation work, it is easy to see the interior without placing yourself at risk, as the whole of the South West wall has collapsed, exposing the interior. From this vantage point, the interior walls can be viewed, with the remains of some of the walkways, built within the thickness of the walls, and parts of staircases can still be seen.

It's obvious when you're this close to the ruins, that there is much work to be done to secure the mere survival of this building, with many lintels showing the strains of carrying stone work above them.

Some windows and doors have even been robbed of their lintels, further straining the fabric of the building. The spiral staircase, hidden in the thickness of the North East wall, connected all floors, and can still partially be seen, even though the cross wall has totally collapsed.

This portion of the cross wall probably survived the storm of 1884 which finally brought the main part of it down, as it's the thickest part of the structure. The oven in the North Western projection of the tower is also fairly intact. Part of the arch over the oven entrance is missing, but the vaulted roof of the interior is still intact.

The photo below, shows the interior of the oven. The vaulted nature of the ceiling can just be seen.

Portions of the now collapsed South Western wall lay in a heap both within the confines of the tower, and outside.

There is fallen masonry everywhere, and it looks likely that there is a good four or five feet at least, of roof and wall rubble within the tower itself, and spilling out around the walls.

Portions of the upper parts of the tower still retain their corbels, obviously indicating that some additional height would have existed in the tower's heyday.

These days the tower is a mere curiosity, holding a magnificent place in the foot of the valley between Arnside Knott and Elmslack.

Carlisle Cathedral and the Fratery, Carlisle

Carlisle Cathedral and the Fratery
Carlisle
Cumbria

Carlisle Cathedral was built on the site of an earlier church, with records telling us of a disastrous fire in around 876, when the town of Carlisle was sacked by the Danes\Vikings. The church remained in ruin for over 200 years, until William II, Rufus, William the Conqueror’s successor, took the city of Carlisle from the Scots, and financed the reconstruction of the building in 1092. Under the new Norman rulers, the city flourished, with its new castle at the North end of the city, and much emphasis on trade and religious learning.

The building of the church (it wasn’t a cathedral yet!) coincided with the Norman advance into the farther reaches of the North of England, and there are many motte and bailey castles appearing in Cumbria, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Northumberland at this time.

When Henry I succeeded his brother in 1100, rebuilding of the collegiate church was well under way, with a group of secular canons responsible for the running of the church and its lands in Carlisle. These canons, who had been the landlords since 1092, were eventually superceded by the Augustinian canons in 1123. It was during this period, that a new nave and south transept were added to the existing buildings.

In 1133, Henry I created the Diocese of Carlisle, and the church became a cathedral, still very much a work in progress at this time. The cathedral’s first Bishop was Athelwold. The creation of the Diocese of Carlisle was a tactical move on Henry’s part. The North of England, Cumberland and Northumberland were, up until the Norman invasion, an unruly border region, with the Bishop of Glasgow regularly attempting to bring Cumberland under his spiritual influence. Now that Henry had the Diocese of Carlisle in place, there was good reason to garrison the city, provide protection to the people of the region and garner support against the restless Scots.

However, it wasn’t long before the Scots flexed their military muscle, and moving south, took the city of Carlisle back under their control in 1135. It remained part of Scotland until it was taken back again in 1157 by Henry II. By this time, the cathedral had undergone more building and extension, and was a typically cruciform type ecclesiastical building.

It is via a mixture of natural disaster, civil war and rebuilding that the building we see today has come about. In 1292, the newly built choir was destroyed by fire, not being rebuilt until 1315. In 1380, the massive tower collapsed during a ‘great storm’ not only destroying itself, but also demolishing the north transept. It was rebuilt between 1400 and 1420, with more extensive building work being undertaken between 1465 and 1499. In around 1500, the Prior’s tower was built, providing fortified accommodation for the Prior Gondibour. In 1528, Prior Slee’s gatehouse was built, adding more security for the cathedral precincts along with the wall encircling the grounds.

With various armies occupying the city between 1645 and 1746, buildings were robbed of stone, demolished, used as prisons and even used to store armaments and weaponry. The Fratery, the building across the yard from the cathedral was used to store a large number of military items, including salletts, horse harnesses, breast plates, chain mail, halberds and various other implements. The windows were shuttered, and entry barred by use of draw bars secured from within.

The tower is even thought to have played a small part in the fortification of the city, with the stair tower that can be seen jutting from the very top of the tower, most likely being used as a look out with the possibility that there was also a beacon lit on the roof to warn of the advance of the Scots.

In the 1644-1646 civil war, the western portion of the nave was destroyed to make way for barracks by General Leslie. He also ordered his men to remove stone from the buildings here in order that the castle walls be repaired for the Parliamentary forces then garrisoning the city.

The cathedral was used to imprison Jacobite prisoners when the city was retaken from Bonnie Prince Charlie’s men in 1746, with dozens of his men kept secure in the nave.

The cathedral underwent major restoration between 1853 and 1856, under the watchful eye of Dean Tait, with much of the cathedral being rebuilt and modernised. Such was the extent of this rebuilding, that much of the early Norman and medieval structure has been hidden within new walls, or removed altogether.

Sweetheart Abbey, Dumfries and Galloway

Sweetheart Abbey\New Abbey
New Abbey
Dumfries and Galloway

The beautiful red stone remains of Sweetheart Abbey lay in the village of New Abbey, about six miles South of Dumfries. The abbey was first established by Lady Devorgilla, wife of John de Balliol, on the 10th of April, 1273. It was her wish to have this Cistercian abbey dedicated as a memorial to her husband, who died in October of 1268. Lady Devorgilla had her husband's heart removed, embalmed and encased in a silver and ivory box. Upon her orders, it was then buried with her beneath the high altar of the abbey in 1290. In her honour, the abbey was re-named as Sweethheart abbey, a name that it has retained to this day. Sweetheart was a daughter abbey to nearby Dundrennan abbey.

The remains of the abbey are many and varied, offering a good few hours of investigation. The abbey covers a huge area, consisting of 30 acres of walled precinct, surrounded by a high wall built of granite blocks that would originally have been around 4 metres high. The blocks were removed from the site when the monks were clearing the way for the building to begin. The wall was only built on three sides of the precinct with a water filled ditch being created on the fourth. The wall still survives to its full height in most places. There are what appear to be small openings in the wall where it survives to full height. These openings, only large enough to put a hand through, could well have been some form of defence...gun loops for example. They are definitely deliberate holes, as they have small lintels over their tops.

Elsewhere, the wall is missing its top foot or two, and as there is a distinct lack of any rubble at these parts of the wall, one can only assume that these missing stones have been incorporated into local buildings.

It is thought that the tower at Sweetheart was possibly built with defence in mind. The top of the tower still retains its crenellations, and it would have been secured with heavy doors, narrow corridors and draw bars.

The upper portions of the tower were only accessible via narrow mural passageways built within the substantial walls (as shown below) and these passageways in turn, were only accessible via a spiral staircase built into the north west side of the main abbey building.

The main entrances into the church were all endowed with draw-bar slots, indicating that it was possible to secure the abbey and prevent entry. Whilst not exactly a fortress, the abbey was certainly capable of being locked down tight enough to prevent un-authorised entry. The west gate to the abbey would have had a huge wooden door, secured also, with draw-bars.

This entry-way would most likely have been the main way in and out of the abbey, and as such was well protected against minor attacks.

Likewise, the gateway to the Cloisters would also have had a wooden door secured with draw-bars. Sweetheart was the last monastery of any significant size to be established in Scotland, and was severely damaged in the war with England in the later stages of the 13th century. Indeed, documentation tells us that nearly £5000 of damaged was done by the English army and its Welsh mercenaries when they were sent North by Edward I to strip King John of his throne.

The abbey was rebuilt by Douglas, Lord of Galloway (the Grim Douglas) when the abbey came under his patronage in the 14th century. It was probably about this time that the abbey began to flourish, earning most of its fortune from sheep farming (much like Shap abbey south of the border in Cumbria) In the 16th century, Sweetheart gained another rich patron, Lord Maxwell. Following the Reformation of 1560, Maxwell was ordered to destroy the buildings at Sweetheart, but he refused to do so. The last abbot, Gilbert Broun continued to resist the destruction of the abbey, but was eventually forced into exile around 1587. He attempted to continue the long tradition of the abbey by returning twice, but each time was arrested, spending time imprisoned at Blackness castle and eventually exiled to France where he died in 1612, a broken man.

The abbey fell into disrepair, with the local population regarding the fallen masonry as an easy source of building materials. As long ago as 1779, some locals decided that enough materials had been removed from the now ruined abbey, and set up a group to help protect what was left. In 1928, the ruins were passed into the care of the government, securing its long term survival.

About half a mile to the East of the abbey, the remains of a fortified tower can be found, Abbot's Tower, a fortified residence, possibly once belonging to Gilbert Broun.