|
|
 Log in |
Register
|
|
|
England
The GreywethersStone Circle
|
Show map (inline Google Map)
|
|
|
Images (click to view fullsize) |
 Add an image |
|
Fieldnotes |
Add fieldnotes |
|
After trudging through the forestry for what seemed like hours it was great to get out onto open moorland again. It was hot with little breeze so on first reaching the circles I chose to sit in the shadow of the northern most stone and have my lunch...and take on water. Refreshed I explored. I had the stones to myself, the gentleman who had walked with me from Fernworthy had gone off to find a cairn on the side of Sittaford and a couple who had avoided encroaching on my lunchtime had slipped off to who knows where. For some reason I started thinking about the figures on Easter Island...although the stones here are not that large they just gave a sense of being so...perhaps it is because there is very little else in the landscape for scale. I lingered a while, took in the tranquility..realised that it would probably be the only time I ever visit this remote part of the moor before heading up hill to Sittaford Tor. |
Posted by Mr Hamhead3rd July 2010ce |
|
I parked right at the end of the road next to the reservoir just a hundred metres from Froggymead (grr)and got out my trusty bike,unfortunatly I'm a bit older and a bit heavier since I last came here and the trek up the track through the forest was just crap. I passed Fernworthy(aawh)and kept going, passed one crosstrack and turned left at the next crossing this track takes you to the forest edge from here follow the wall till you can see the circles. Apparently reconstructed at the behest of King George V, nice one matey. From the circles Sittaford tor is not visible so I'm inclined to presume the eastern horizon was the focus ,The equinox sun rises directly between the two rings though this might be because the circles are north-south aligned, i'm no expert but two circles and two imaginary lines projected from them to the rising sun may be some kind of phalic representation, just a thought . Every one into stone circles should come here atleast once, the bike ride back to the car was a real thrill and took just 3 mins. |
Posted by postman21st March 2007ce Edited 21st March 2007ce |
| What a beautiful day to be here, it was cold but perfect. I am not one who minds circles being reconstructed as long as it is faithful. The imprint of what happened in these places is still here to be found. We stayed here all afternoon forgetting we had to get back to the car. It was dark when we got to Froggymead which was bathed in bright silver moon light, Oh for a better camera. |
Posted by hamish19th November 2005ce |
|
I knew I'd hate the walk which even Burl calls 'tedious'. But I did it in 50 minutes, mostly by thinking about Sir Ernest Shackleton and the fact this was surely better than being at work... wasn't it?! The weather was shite - very windy and it even hailed once we'd reached the huge circles. Damnit! They'd be no sketching here. My notebook says: 'absolutely appalling walk which I'm not sure is entirely worth it, even though this perfect pair of large, complete circles are 'A'-list Hollywood sites.' Nevertheless, to see this pair of circles so close together, so even and so big was a real privilege. But the hike and the weather left me feeling so shitty that I couldn't even be arsed to climb the nearby rise to get some height. Moth did though and got some lovely pics. I staggered around them like a drunkard wondering: 'why here?', 'why two?', 'why so close?' and 'how the hell am I going to get back to the car?' This post appears as part of the weblog entry The 'Must-Sees' we saw on Dartmoor
|
Posted by Jane10th July 2005ce Edited 10th July 2005ce |
|
The first time I tried to visit this site I got within about 200 metres then got hit by Dartmoor snow storm and had to shelter in the lee of a stone wall for 30 minutes. The Grey Wethers is a double stone circle with the two circles side by side instead of concentric. |
Posted by stewartb 3rd May 2003ce |
|
Greywethers Stone Circles - 29.3.2003 Aubrey Burl can be a miserable sod sometimes. To describe the walk from Fernworthy Stone Circle to the Greywethers as ‘through the forest and across the shabby moor’ and as ‘tedious but rewarding’ hardly does it justice. I was honoured by a beautiful day, and a tinder dry moor, but I think it would be a great walk even in worse weather. You could probably just about do it without a map and compass, but it’s a risk I would not encourage anyone to take. It’s not worth the risk to get stuck out there for the sake of a 7 map (or printed off OS website for squat) and a compass (starting from 4 in Index). From Fernworthy Stone Circle join the track again and walk straight on (as if you hadn’t stopped at the stone circle). Keep on going straight ahead, even though it becomes a much smaller track than some of the bigger left and right tracks. You will be going uphill for about 10 minutes. Trust me. As you come towards the brow of the hill there is a large clearing on your right and soon you plunge down hill, through thick sexy forest, punctured on a sunny day by a huge hole of light awaiting in front of you. As you get to the end of the forest the moor suddenly opens up in front of you. The official footpath on the map (to the Greywethers) is not really clear on the ground but don’t worry too much - within reason, and especially on a clear day, all roads south lead to Rome. You can walk along the top of the field (i.e. close to the forest) and you’ll pass through a clear hole in the first field wall, or you can decide to head for a very visible (at least on a clear day) old set of gate posts further down the field. Once past this wall, a wooden gate is visible in the far distance in the second wall. The Greywethers are literally behind this wall. One advantage of the higher route (or disadvantage if you want a surprise) is that you can see the stones from quite a distance. Judging from the state of the small gullies down these two fields and the presence of marsh grasses I can imagine that when it’s wet, it’s a much harder walk! On this nice day it was a very brisk 30 minute walk for me. Because I arrived on the lower route, the first time I could see the stones was as I approached this gate. Wow. And then all of them unfolded as I walked up to them, saying to me “look, we are a double circle, and yes we are almost complete - that bloody showed you what a major ancient site could have looked like didn’t it”. After seeing so many ‘difficult’ circles: tiny things, broken up, battered, ploughed over, stolen and pillaged; this is a shock. A truly stunning and a spectacular setting. All the way there and back I didn’t meet one other person. However at the Greywethers themselves one group of young kids (probably doing the Duke of Edinburgh Award or something) suddenly yomped down over the hill, soon to be joined by another group, and another. Later a fourth group were making there way towards the circle just after I’d left. This post appears as part of the weblog entry Another Kernow Week
|
Posted by pure joy6th April 2003ce |
| I had a spare week back in June so I went down to the South West armed with a few OS maps and my essential copy of the Modern Antiquarian. I wanted to check out as many sites as possible (hell, there are loads not featured in the MA), and especially this one since I hadn't been before, despite having lived in nearby Plymouth for a number of years. Since leaving Plymouth I've missed the quiet desolation of Dartmoor and it's many prehistoric relics, particularly when they are as fine as this. Far away from the tourist trail that can so often be overwhelming up here, the Greywhethers was worth the effort of a difficult hike across open moorland. By the time I reached the stones, the weather was turning from hot and sunny to dull and overcast, perhaps magnifying the bleek location that this fine monument occupies. These two well restored circles are a perfect representation of the solitude that can be sought around these parts. |
Posted by xyz 15th November 2000ce |
Folklore |
Add folklore |
|
Another tale recorded by Ruth E St Leger-Gordon: Once there was a young man who'd just arrived in Devon. (Probably one of those rich people from London who have just sold their house for a squillion quid and want to Move to the Country - like you see on tv every half hour). He decided he wanted some sheep to put on his land, so he went along to the local market. He saw loads of sheep but felt quite disorientated by the mysterious goings-on of the auctions. Retiring to the pub he got chatting to a friendly local. It turned out he had some sheep to sell - two flocks in fact. And they seemed very reasonably priced. The young farmer decided to buy them and began to discuss how he would come and collect them. Ah, don't worry - they could be delivered. If he went up to Sittaford Tor next Thursday they'd be there waiting for him. The young man handed over his cash and went home happy. In due course he set out across the moor to the Tor. He could spot the sheep grazingly happily there in the distance... |
Posted by Rhiannon12th October 2004ce |
|
This story comes from Ruth E St Leger-Gordon's "Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor" (1973); she heard it from an elderly man from Chagford. "Long ago faithless wives and fickle maidens were forced to expiate their misdeeds" in the following way. First they had to go and wash at Cranmere Pool. This was, and still is, a very remote spot - so it would have been some penance to get there in the first place. (Cranmere Pool has other legends connected with it - for example, that a no-good ex mayor of Okehampton, 'Binjy', had to empty it with a sieve.. having craftily done this he now sits on the bottom to spin the sand into ropes.. but that's another story). They then had to cross the moor to Scorhill stone circle, and run round it three times (supposing they had any energy left). Next they were driven down to the banks of the River Teign, where they dropped through the hole in a water-worn rock known as the Tolmen. Rumour has it this is a good cure for arthritis - but probably only if you've been good. Next they went soggily up to the Grey Wethers stone circle. Each woman would fall to her knees in front of one of the stones. They would pray for forgiveness (to whom or what the story doesn't mention). If nothing happened they could then assume they had been forgiven and purged of their transgressions could get up and stagger home. However, if a particular woman's sins were just Too Bad, the stone in front of her would topple forward crushing her to death. "And that," added R.E.St L-G's informant, with a twinkle in his eye, "is why so many of the stones was lying flat before they was set up again." No mention is made of what fickle and unfaithful husbands had to do. One suspects nothing probably. |
Posted by Rhiannon 12th October 2004ce Edited 12th October 2004ce |
| The stones are said to move round slowly at sunrise so that each face is warmed by the sun in turn. A similar story exists for the Longstone at Shovel Down. |
Posted by pure joy 19th March 2003ce Edited 19th March 2003ce |
Links |
Add a link |
Grey Wethers Panorama360 Degree panorama taken from between the two circles (uses java applet which may cause a warning message in Internet Explorer) |
Posted by Chris Collyer7th October 2008ce |
Liminae |
Posted by stewartb 3rd May 2003ce Edited 2nd February 2005ce |
Megalithic Walks siteA pair of circles on Dartmoor. 4 photos of this site |
Posted by phil 13th January 2002ce Edited 1st December 2004ce |
Top of page