Home

Schematic of Sites The Time Shaman Stone Circles Modern Mythology









Dowsing by Ian Honeywood



Diagrams and photos by the late Ian Honeywood.


This Dowser was a pioneer of putting ancient stone sites onto the web, starting with his site in August 1998 his work showed how these ancient sites should be researched. Dowsing the energy lines and spirals of the site gives an insight into the purpose and interest of the designers themselves. Below is a small sample of his work, in his own words and understanding of the energy lines.










Assycombe Stone Circle and Rows



Assycombe dowsing by Ian Honeywood
















Brisworthy Stone Circle













The Circle at Boscowen Un

This is an impressive circle even though it is not large in diameter, nor the stones of any great size. As a structure it seems to create an aura of mystery and even power. It is indeed unfortunate that some individuals have deemed it OK to leave bunches of rotting  flowers intertwined with tatty, non-degradable plastic ribbon around the centre stone and have burned designs into the grass just inside the circle. Our ancestors built these structures for purposes known only to them and so should remain exactly as they left them. If some believe there are "spirits" at the site then an appropriate offering would  be to keep the site clear of brush and clean. If all visitors behaved as these few, the site  would be surrounded by burned and blackened grass and knee deep in tatty bits of plastic.

Although this was not a true circle, a dowsed line was found to pass through all the stones. The unique feature here was that the rods rotated constantly on this "circle", except or an arc which extended from a point between stones 4 & 5 to a second point between stones 5 & 6, where no rod rotation was experienced. The arc on which rotation took place is shown as an"aqua" coloured line. Dowsed lines also existed between each of the stone of the circle and the learning centre stone, the one to the stone at A taking a slight Southerly kick to the stone at B. Since there were no lines from the centre to any gaps between stones, it might be concluded that all the stones are present and in their correct places The gap between stones 19 & 1 would therefore appear to have been intentional. A spiral which unraveled quite quickly from the centre stone passed through stone 2 and on outward through some heavy and thorny brush and was therefore not followed.















The spiral began at a off-centred stone not shown on the diagrams I have seen and unwound to terminate at the standing stone after seven and a half revolutions exiting the circle at stone f

The gap between a and b dowsed as the entrance to the circle. Between c at the centre of the entrance and the stone at f, a ceremonial path was revealed which continued on to the standing stone after a slight change in direction. Also from the standing stone a connection dowsed to the stones at g which was both structural and ceremonial. The same thing occurred between stones at h and j. The connections between the stones of structure m were all ceremonial and joined to

 h/j as shown. The stones at k appeared to be structural although maybe I did not have the right focus solution to identify their purpose. The only other connection internal to the circle was a ceremonial one between stones d and e. Rotation of the rods occurred over the standing stone which usually indicates a burial and concentric circles were found centred on the stone. The inner one of these connected several small buried stones.






The stones of the adjacent double row were joined by dowsed connections even though they were not in physical alignment. The row B/C terminated at each end with a stone and had a "spur" to a stone at D from the dowsed structure limit line. Row E/F terminated in line with B/C but not at a stone, missing perhaps? but also having a "spur" from stone G to one at H. From a stone at J a dowsed path ended in line with the stone row end

 


 

 



Leskernick Stone Circle


Below Leskernick

Since the circle here was not named on the O.S. map, we temporarily termed it the unknown circle. We found it just by following the map and at first sight we could see that it was indeed a circle. The stones which form it are all "recumbent" and may have always been that way. I could see no well defined socket holes as is often the case with fallen stones. All of them fell on a dowsed circle and if I judge by the dowsed cross-alignments I found there may have been two stones missing from D & E. Several stones, those at F, G & H were cross aligned with two "opposite numbers". From G1 & E1, there were alignments to a large stone at K and one from K to a stub in the turf at B. There the line ended. Within the circle, after a bit of slow meandering, a slow spiral was revealed which I first followed to an approximate centre where the rods rotated slowly. Following it in the opposite direction I found it exiting the circle at stone A. The spiral then took a loop around the circle, intersected the K/B line, crossed a small stone at C and finally appeared to straighten out and head off on an approximate 260 degree heading which would be toward the hut circles on Codda Down. I was getting anxious to head for Altarnun and so did no more except to locate the remains of another circle of about 3 stones. Continue below the diagram.

I have to admit that we did not plan to visit this circle at all. In fact, we only came upon it by accident brought about by an error in map reading by a certain lady whom I won't mention by name. The plan had been to re-visit Altarnun and the unmentionable lady had found "an easier way in". There was certainly a circle in the area, actually two, but neither as it turned out was Nine Stones, Alt. I had the map, appropriately folded in its holder and found, (en route to Altarnun, I thought), a circle in which all the stones were lying flat. We spent quite a bit of time on it and diagrammed it as shown above, found a second one which was only three flat stones, then went on looking for Nine Stones. After a short while I realized that the terrain didn't look right at all and after much stomping around and a frustrating study of the map, discovered our error. We were quite a way from Altarnun, in fact on wrong side of the A30. Only on looking at the map later and reading a report from a friend did I realize, we'd been to Leskernick!













Tregaseal Stone Circle

(Red lines and degrees in diagram are mine additions)

The circle at Tregaseal was a little hard to find as it is completely surrounded by brush of the thorny type and only the tops of the stones are visible from any distance away. We did get a bit of help in the lane about half a mile away, this little sign was wedged into the hedgerow close to where we parked the car.

Dowsing the circle provided some interesting results which are shown on the diagram above. This was a bit difficult to do in many spots due to the hostile brush which left a goodly number of abrasions on my hide. All the stones of the circle fell on the dowsed outline which delineated the boundary of the structure. The pair of recumbent stones between numbers 1 & 19 dowsed as a separate structure, but I forgot to see if the dowsed line joining them was also ritual in nature. There was rotation of the rods over the outer of the two, which indicates an interment. This stone is not found on other diagrams of this site. I wonder if the inner of the pair originally stood at the point where the dowsed path from stone 8 ends at the circle boundary. The dowsed path from stone 9 also ends at the boundary between 18 & 19 and not at a stone as do the dowsed paths connecting all the others.

The stones at 6, 7 and 13 all connect with two opposite stones. Stone 6 connects across the circle with 14 and 15, between which is a recumbent stone, (shown in pink), not found on the diagrams I have seen. From this stone a dowsed ritual path extends on a heading of approx. 105 degrees. Another ritual path beginning at stone 19 passes through stone 10, then onward on a heading of approx 30 degrees perhaps toward a group of hut circles and an enclosure about half a mile away in that direction. Stone 7 is connected by paths to stones 17 and 18, the latter again shown in green is not found on other diagrams of the site. The dowsed paths from stone 13 connect to stones 3 and 4. The small recumbent stone behind 10 apparently has no significance to the structure or paths, it was recorded at the time because it was there.

At the approximate centre of the circle, R, the rods rotated indicating an interment of some kind. From this point a spiral was found to wind out in a clockwise manner exiting the circle just before the eastern corner of stone 15. Here, the single path split into four but following them became impeded by thick and thorny brush so I could not really resolve even approximate headings or see any likely termination points.












Gros Fawr Stone Circle

We had a misty day for this visit, it kept moving in and out for the entire time we were on the site, sometimes obscuring the background completely. The light was not too good for photography and the whiteness of the fog made it a bit difficult to decide on the best way to use the camera.

In the above diagram I have shown those alignments which dowsed as being structural in nature in orange and those of ceremonial or ritual nature in blue.

As can be seen the stones of the circle fell on or were connected by a dowsed "circle" and there were a few other connections to and between stones which were indicated as being structural in function. These are for example, from a point P on the dowsed circle to a stone at Q, from interior stone S to and external stone T, from point V to a stone at U and also connecting stones at K, X and Y.

There are many ceremonial or ritual paths, among which is a spiral which originates at a point RR where the rods rotate, (indicating burial), unwinding over a little more than two rotations and terminating at an internal stone at A. Also from A there is a path which runs across the stone circle to the stone at B. From RR additional paths run to a circle stone at E and another through external stone C and on to terminate at a stone at D. Other ceremonial paths were noted between stones at F-G, F-H, L-M, N-O and J-K.

As is all too common, fires had been lit in the middle and around the circle, evidence of the "let's pretend" rituals of self styled pagans. Be nice if, before they destroy them, they showed the reverence for these sites that their forebears did.










Nant Tawr Stone Circle - east




The diagram above shows the dowsing experienced the easterly circle, the alignment in blue indicating the extent of the structure, no outliers etc. being identified. In general the stones are linked in pairs across the circle by ceremonial paths shown in yellow however, the stone at 11 was linked to 1 & 4 and 1 to 11 and a point e on the circumference at which there is no stone. The same is true for several other  stones, 17 to a, 2 to b, 8 to c and 16 to d. Perhaps there were stones at these points at one time, I should have dowsed for an answer but it did not occur to me at the time!





Nant Tawr - west circle


Once again, on this the western circle, the structure is defined by the blue dowsed alignment. And again no other stones or structures were connected with this structure. The two circles were not connected by any path, nor was the cairn just down the hill. This I found quite surprising since past experience has been that adjacent structures such as these have connecting ritual or ceremonial "paths." Possibly these structures were built at different times, and perhaps by a different people.

At the centre of this circle, an area about two paces in diameter dowsed, (shown in red), where the rods remained crossed indicating a ceremonial spot, from which the spiral path as shown in yellow wound out about two and a half turns in an anticlockwise direction, terminating at stone 9. This was also unusual and does perhaps indicate a different usage for this western circle compared with that of the eastern one.
















Stone Circle at King Arthur's Down

There isn't a lot left of this one, and even less of the other one that's supposed to be next to it but we could see it from above Leaze so across the waterlogged fields we went. I should have spent more time here but we'd been at Leaze for quite a while and energy was running out for two tired geriatrics. What the rods revealed is diagrammed below, but I know there was more to be discovered.

Most of the stones of the circle fell on a dowsed line defining the bounds of the  structure, stones 7 & 8 being the exceptions. I would guess that they had been displaced at some time. The spiral ritual path beginning at stone B near the centre took two and a half clockwise turns before exiting the circle at stone 1 and then appeared to straighten up on a heading of about 182 degrees. The ritual paths connecting stones and points on the circle were quite unusual  in that some were decidedly curved. This would go un-noticed were it not so pronounced and also avoided crossing the central stones which were line-of-site across the circle.

The paths from stone 2 to 7, stone 3 to 8 and 9, stone 4 to a point marked 11, also stone 5 to the point 11 all exhibit a pronounced curve. All the remaining stones were joined to at least one other by a ritual path and several points where there is presently no stone, were also joined to stones or each other.The path from stone 12 running through stone 5 continued on a heading of about 82 degrees through another stone and on beyond the nearby field wall. A path beginning at roughly the centre of the circle continued outside the circle but ended 60 paces out next to a conical stone set quite firmly into the ground. The terrain here was thoroughly saturated so that there were great pools of standing and running water which limited our movement somewhat. We did not relish walking out with wet feet! More could be done here, but the combination of ankle-deep water and a bit if fatigue after coming over from Leaze, caused us to end our day at this point.












Four Stones Circle

This circle is in the corner of a farm field right next to the road. There are many other archaeological sites in this area which is known as Walton's Valley.

The structural outline here was quite simply that which connected the four stones but there were two spirals which propagated from the centre of the circle. These unwound somewhat differently, the one shown in green taking only two and a bit turns before exiting the circle adjacent to the stone labeled A, the one shown in blue taking three and a bit turns before exiting on the other side of the same stone. I have to admit here that somehow I got the directions/headings confused on our diagram, but I've estimated east roughly as compared to the position and direction of the adjacent road.














Hirnant Cairn Circle - (green lines are mine)

The stones here all fell on a dowsed "alignment" perhaps indicating that they have not been disturbed One thing though, all stones were seen to have a ceremonial path almost to the centre but stopping just short as did one spot at a which had no stone! Rotation of the rods was experienced at R, indicating an interment and from which point a spiral path unfolded exiting the circle at b then passing through a group of stones at c and finally straightening up on a heading of about 300 degrees. Another path, found by back-tracking began or ended at a large stone to the east, traveled 170 paces to another stone, then 243 paces to the approx. centre of the circle, and continued on after a slight southerly kick on an approx 250 degree heading.











Cairn near Glandy Cross

This cairn and what remains of its curb circle were also found on the O.S. map, no name so I've names it for the area. It was a bit hard to see as it was hard up against a hedgerow and the small stones blended pretty well with the surrounding vegetation. The overcast did little to help light conditions either, but here goes.

Once again, the stones are a bit hard to see but I think you'll see an arc sweeping out to the right beginning with the flat stone just off centre, front of picture, then back to the left in the middle of the picture.

The diagram shows what dowsing revealed about the site and quite unusual it was too. There were five points, R1 - R5, where rotation was observed which would indicate five interments. From R3 and R4 spirals unwound, the one from R3 turning more sharply past R2 and exiting the circle at d finishing on a southerly heading while the one from R4 exiting at c on a northerly heading . The dowsed outline shown in red delineates the limits of the cairn structure, just one stone at b falling just inside and what looked like a socket at a being right on line.









Black Tor Row

These are a few of the stones in the row.



Black Tor Row

This is a bit more of the row, which is at best, intermittent. This is hardly surprising, since a local landowner chose this as a property line and used row stones in this adjacent wall, as well as other nearby stone works. Pity, isn't it. As the top picture shows, the ancient stone row and the wall or fence, are in close proximity and in some places they become one and the same. This whole area is full of rows, cairns and cists, a few of which a few are barely discernible now. The Sharpitor West and Hart Tor sites have fared a little better than most, but all are a bit too close to the Princetown/Plymouth road.

On the way in to this row, we encountered a dowsed alignment which appeared to be headed toward the wall which we knew to be hiding the row. I had seen it through binoculars while doing Hart Tor last year. Anyway, I backtracked the line to a single stone A, where it terminated, then in the other direction, 140, to another stone, B, where it again appeared to terminate. There were however, lines propagating away at right angles to the original which looped around to pass through several more stones to form a circle. Further investigation resulted in the two configurations shown below. The stone at A was about 80 paces from B.


Black Tor Row

After finding the circle which began and ended at B, I discovered another, beginning  and closing at at E. Also from E, a curve which looped out to F and in the opposite direction to D. Still another circle began and ended at to D. Still another circle began and ended at D while from C a loop led in to a small circle near the centre of things. At the centre, the rods rotated and a spiral looped out to join the inmost circle and if you examine all of this you will see that the spiral connects all circles Also from the centre a straight alignment took off at about 70 degrees ending at stone G from which a spiral loop connected two circles both of which encompassed small groups of stones, passing through one or two on the way. As though a continuance of the incoming alignment, albeit with a kick to a 160 heading, a line continued through a stone in the boundary wall, between two row stones, and passing through a small group on to where I know not. While identifying the row alignment, I noticed two areas M and N, of disturbed soil and stone debris. Near the centre of each, the rods were found to rotate and from both these points, clockwise spirals looped out to link with circles near the edge of each area. Again, in both cases an outer circle encompassed each of the two. I believe These were disturbed, (ruined), cairns. All of this we observed before beginning on the row, which turned out to be one of the least complex I have encountered.


Black Tor Row



Stone 1 at the bottom of the diagram on the left is the same stone as is marked 1 in the previous diagram. Most of the stones in the row fell on the dowsed line, sometimes the line passing through one side of the stone rather than through the centre. There were some fragments and small stones off line, perhaps displaced at some time. In places, the row stones became part of the adjacent wall and in some cases were perhaps covered with turf and not seen.

At the point a, a line dowsed off at right angles to the row, passing through stones at b and c and then went quite some distance before crossing stones at d and e. Dowsing around a bit revealed a circle passing through e with d at its approximate centre. There were no spirals or radials here, that was it.


Ian Honeywood, Black Tor Row






Ian Honeywood

These next nine sections of the row did not exhibit anything special, most stones falling on or close to the dowsed alignment. In 4, the dowsed line did pass between two pairs of stones at a and b, but pretty much through all the others.

The only other unusual occurrence was at the end of the row, where the 'blocking" stone is significantly off line with the row, the dowsed alignment seemed about to continue on past the stone, but then curved around behind it, where it terminated as shown at the bottom end of diagram 9.

Subsequent reading has suggested that this is a double row, the other part being inside the wall, which is now completely covered in turf. I did climb up on to the wall two or three times, but recorded no action from the rods. There was none in front of the blocking stone either, so what to think?


Ian Honeywood Black Tow Row

The last three stones in the row and the "blocking stone" are shown to the left.










Hut circle at Grimspound

This hut circle was somewhat unique in that it had an entrance-way that led around to the main portal which is the two upright stones at the upper right of the picture. The two large flat stones inside the hut circle on the left of the photo are in fact part of a group of four which I believe were either a shelf of the base for a bed. They fall on a dowsed line which identifies them as part of the structure. Some of the other huts had extensions which dowsed as storage areas, perhaps for grains or animals. The compounds near to the entrance would also probably have been for livestock of some kind.

Although we spent some considerable time here at Grimspound, we only managed to make a beginning at dowsing and recording what we found. I have used the three diagrams we made to illustrate what was done, so I'll start with the first one below.






The first thing I looked at was the retaining wall which dowsed as a double wall with an intervening cavity on each of the sections that I did. The hut circles proved to be most interesting as many of them had storage or pen areas attached to them. The hut, or living areas invariably had a ritual path beginning at the entrance and running straight down the centre to the opposite wall. I have shown these paths in green on the diagram. In hut 5, there were four flat stones close to the eastern side wall which fell on a dowsed line and I assumed them to have been a bed or shelf. This same hut also had it's entrance protected by a "hallway", the entrance to which was some five or six feet to the left of the hut entry. The ritual path however, still began at the hut entry and was not present in the "hallway". This layout was unique to hut 5. Hut 4 also had it's own unique layout in that both parts of the structure dowsed as living quarters and had ritual paths which were not on the same alignment. Were these close neighbours? or was it a two room house? Perhaps they had noisy children or a live- in mother-in-law. A couple of the huts also had what appeared to have been a hearth stone or quern close to one wall of the structure. The walls of all hut circles and storage areas dowsed as structures and are shown with a red line. The compounds just inside the modern entrance had no dowsed entrances but I assume they would have contained livestock or perhaps have been larger storage buildings. The limits of these structures are also outlined with red..

A further comment on the dowsed line inside the hut circles: these lines have been observed in every hut I have dowsed, Carn Euny, Chysauster, South Stack, Rough Tor, Merrivale and many, many more. By it's presence I can determine that the structure was for human habitation, rather than storage or animal shelter or confinement, in which case there is no path. This really needs to be verified at all sites containing these structures, but I'll bet on it's validity.










Upper Earme Stone Circle and Row





Upper Earme Stone Circle and Row

This curb circle is at the head of the longest row on Dartmoor and probably in the country. It is 3320 meters in length (3.2 kms.), and if you look carefully at the next picture, you can see it going over the hill in the distance.






I have diagrammed our dowsing experience only at the circle, the row is a daunting challenge to me. It takes about 2-21/2 hours of rough walking to get to the beginning so the prospect of another 6640m while taking the time to dowse it bears some thinking about at the age of 63. We'll see, I'd dearly love to do it but maybe forget the dowsing!

This is not the best of diagrams, the blue circles are supposed to be concentric and roughly equidistant but this is the best I could manage with "Paint". There was an alignment which began at a small stone to the SW of the circle, passed through another stone and made a tangential contact with the circle as shown. It continued on at a bearing of approx. 70W but was not pursued more than about 100 yards. There were 6 dowsable circles within the stone circle and one more about 6 paces outside it's diameter. The one around the diameter tended to join the stones of the circle although some were not quite "in line". I only followed the row for a little way, too. Just to see it disappear over yon far hill was enough to discourage me, besides the fact that we had a pretty rough 2 hours walk out still to go. This is one of the most emotion producing sites for me, don't know why.







For more on these types of energy rings see: Page 10 Stanton Drew in Somerset, England






James Conley - Dowser



Stone Circles - NEW



The Schematic of Time and Ancient Sites




Interpretive Misconceptions of Deciphering Petroglyphs PDF




The Recorded Birth of Spiritual Awareness, in Petroglyphs



The World Grid



Earth Vortexes



 The Time Shaman



Dowsing Ancient Sites




Needles of Stone - Dowsing pdf - by Tom Graves




The Dowser's Workbook pdf - by Tom Graves




HOME



Sitemap




 











Bill Dayholos
December 23, 2014