Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.
Travelling north along W 3° 05′
Laughing Gravy & the Druids
A space in between
Getting lost in the ginnels of Marske
Albion
Back on the Bran
Billingham
Work is commencing in Billingham town centre on the demolition of the West Precinct, the Kingsway Car park and buildings on Queensway. The plan is to create an area comprising of a mix of residential and commercial spaces. Existing businesses including the Astronaut and Half Moon pubs will be relocated to new premises.
My friend Carl Mole and I decided to take a walk around the town centre before the bulldozers move in.
Pareidolia – Torhousekie Stone Circle
In his 1995 book, A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain Ireland and Brittany, Aubrey Burl states that Torhousekie is almost certainly a variant form of recumbent stone circle. It lies midway between the concentrations of such rings in north-east Scotland and south-west Ireland. Colin Richards & Vicki Cummings don’t agree with this as they state in their recently published Stone Circles. A Field Guide (2024)..the likely similarity proposed by Burl is neither convincing nor helpful.
I bear a tiny grudge against Richards & Cummings after they spelled Teesside wrong in their recent guide, but having visited a number of recumbent stone circles myself, I tend to agree with their comment. Whatever the case Torhousekie is a beautiful circle, it sits on a slightly raised platform and has three aligned stones at its centre (well, just off-centre to be accurate). The circle is about 22m in diameter, with a flattened arc on the east-south-east.
Another feature of the circle is that the stones are graded in height with the tallest in the south-east. The space between the stones is also graded with the smaller stones closer together.
Walking around the circle I noticed this unusually shaped stone, all of the other stones are rounded boulders. I wonder if this stone has been broken in the past? The stone also has some unusual marks on its outer face, which may possibly be plough scars.
The markings on the stone tickled the pareidolic part of my brain enough to create a 3D scan. The dark regions on the scan are caused by my shadow falling across the stone, it was a very sunny day.
The stone row is in a field opposite the circle. It is comprised of three large rounded boulders aligned on a north-east, south-west axis. The granite boulders all contain large black inclusions. I didn’t notice any of this type of stone in the circle so this may have been the reason why they were selected for use in the row.
If you are passing this way, the circle and the row are just beside the B733 and are well worth stopping for. The terrier and I were sitting in the circle having a drink when a pair of motorcyclists stopped at the roadside, one of the bikers pointed at the stones and shouted stone circle! at me and then rode away.
12 Apostles of Holywood
Scale – Scotland’s largest Stone Circle
Landscape – Farm land, rich soils beneath which lay a wealth of prehistoric remains including 2 Cursus monuments.
Communications – Close to the Cluden Water, a tributary of the River Nith allowing close access to the Solway Firth
Aubrey Burl – 4 stones are local with the others being transported from Irongrey Hill 2 miles away
Stone Selection – size, colour, shape, mineral veins, natural cups marks
Folklore – 11 of 12 stones remain – Judas was removed
Cairnholy 1 & 2
Glenquicken
Aubrey Burl described Glenquicken as…the finest of all centre-stone circles
It’s a few years since I was last here, I’d forgotten how lovely this ring of low stones and their setting was. In this part of the world whether a site is down on the fertile Machars or on the upland moors you experience the same effect – space – open landscapes – big skies.
Drumtroddan
I first visited the stones at Drumtroddan in 2003 when two of a trio of stones in this magnificant Prehistoric Stone Row were standing.
The general rule of thumb when erecting standing stones is approximately one third beneath the ground and two thirds above ground. This rule was followed by the prehistoric erectors at Drumtroddan but despite this, and after standing proudly for thousands of years, in 2010 the leaning stone fell. I’m not aware of any plans to re-erect the stone.
After visiting the stones I drove round to Drumtroddan Farm where there’s a small car park and access to the beautiful rock art panels. Sadly a sign at the carpark said ‘no dogs’ which is fair enough, it’s lambing season and this is a working farm. I left the rock art for another day.
The rock art panels at Drumtrodden are beautiful and well worth seeing, here’s a few images from a previous visit.
The White Cairn of Bargrennan
Driving north along the Cree Valley, we pass the Penkiln Burn, I smile…it’s 8am eternal.
Questions
Why are there so many sites named ‘White Cairn’?
Why is there such a paucity of megalithic chambered tombs in the area to the south of the Solway Firth? All sorts of variations of chambered megalithic tombs exist along our western seaboard from the Isles of Scilly to Shetland but there are very few between the Mersey and the Solway Firth.
Questions aside, we arrived at the outskirts of Glentrool and follow the track uphill through the forest to the site of the cairn. Walking into the lovely forest clearing, the dappled light of the low sun shining through the tall pines, the warm still spring air, the smell of the damp woodlands, a distant rapid rat-tat-tat of a woodpecker…just joyful
The terrier and I wander around cairn’s perimeter and then crawl along the short, narrow passage into the widening chamber. We sit for a while, both quite happy just to be still and listen to the sounds of the forest. It occurs to me how odd it is that we can feel such ease in a place of the dead.
The Smell of Water 
