Delf Hill |
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| District: Lancashire
Ordnance Survey map reference: SD 901337 Landranger map number: 103. Latitude: degrees. Longitude: degrees. Architecture: Embanked.. Length of the major axis: 4.6 metres. Length of the minor axis: 4.6 metres. Height of the highest stone: metres. 0.4m Shape: Circle. Number of stones in the circle originally: ? Number of stones in the circle now: 7 Impression of the site (10 amazing, 1 limp): 4 Burl rating of the circle: 5 (Uncertain Status). Thom reference for the circle: -. Astronomical alignments from this circle: -. Excavations undertaken at this circle: 1842. Details of any finds at this circle: Urns, cremations. This circle is not in state care. Access to the circle: When I originally tried to find this circle in 1987 I roamed around Extwistle Moor in vain and couldn't find it.Since then I have been informed by John Belbin of Colne that Burl's co-ordinates for the site in 'The Stone Circles of the British Isles, 1976', are in fact wrong and it was these co-ordinates I had used whilst trying to find the site. The same is true for the co-ordinates of the nearby Hellclough stone circle, that site lies some 1.5km to the north west of Burl's map reference. In fact the co-ordinates that Burl gives for the Extwistle Moor site in his 1976 book are actually the co-ordinates for Delf Hill and the co-ordinates for Delf Hill point to an empty piece of remote moor land. Delf Hill is marked on the OS 1:50,000 maps as a Cairn circle and it stands about 100m east from a trig point and close to a stone wall. According to John Belbin the site is reached easily by a good track from the Brierfield to Worsthorne top road and up a side road towards Monk Hall. There are many other earthworks of considerable historical (but little viewing) interest in the area. Follow the track to "Hellclough" then head south west to a gate where the walls form a T the leg leading south to the circle. The shorter route to "Hellclough" from Thursden to the north-west requires considerable map reading and wild moorland walking skills plus wellingtons! Description: The highest stone at Delf Hill possibly stood 0.76m tall but has now fallen and the tallest stone at the site now stands at 0.7m. At the center of the circle is a deep hole, and according to John Belbin, about 25 years ago a stone occupied this hole. It is unlikely however that this centre stone was an original feature and may have been positioned there by mistake in recent times. An old stone 1m high now lies by the wallside 130m to the north and just possibly this could have been that center stone. Although Delf Hill is listed in Burl's gazzetter of stone circles in Burl 1976, it is most likely the remains of a complex ring cairn rather than a true stone circle, and I hazard a guess that the centre hole could be the remains of a cist rather than a stone hole. Despite this it seems to be the best preserved prehistoric site on Extwistle Moor and possibly the whole immediate area around Burnley. |
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| Delf Hill as seen from the south. Picture courtesy of John Belbin. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Another picture of Delf Hill taken by John Belbin and looking from the west. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Contact me with any queries or information regarding any of the sites in this data base. | ||||||||||||||||||
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