Bamford South and the Old Woman's Stone

 This morning we took a trip over to Bamford Moor to bother the Bamford South stone circle. This is a small but quite well preserved circle, well preserved possibly due to it being difficult to spot and relatively unknown. We parked on the southern edge of the moor, at the start of a public footpath and the main path to the popular climbing area. We followed to p/f to a quarry, then made our way towards a prominent stone that's marked on the OS map and lies just north of a copse. This is probably just an old fencepost, it was drilled as such, but it was a useful marker to take a bearing from.

Taking and following compass bearings is a useful skill, and good fun. 

The circle itself;

Stanage Edge in the background.

The stones;

 

Another compass bearing took us to the Old Woman's Stone;

This is an outlier stone, toppled by landowners in the early 1900's because walkers were using it as a waymarker.

Shame it didn't fall on one of them!

A good morning's bother. Looking for these sites is not only about the stones themselves, although we do find them fascinating, but also a way of testing our navigation skills, seeing some wildlife, and enjoying being out in nature. Today we heard skylarks, heard and saw curlews and possibly saw a ring ouzel.

Paul.