60-664: The Lochmaben Stone ( grid reference NY 3123 6600 ) is a megalith standing in a field, nearly a mile west of the Sark mouth on the Solway Firth , three hundred yards or so above high water mark on the farm of Old Graitney in Dumfries & Galloway in Scotland. The area is also known as Stormont. Together with a smaller stone it is all that is left of a stone circle dating back to around 3000BC. The principal stone or megalith, referred to as
120-623: A transverse Mercator projection with an origin (the "true" origin) at 49° N , 2° W (an offshore point in the English Channel which lies between the island of Jersey and the French port of St. Malo ). Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight line grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin to eliminate negative numbers, creating a 700 km by 1300 km grid. This false origin
180-585: A vitrified fort near Gatehouse of Fleet , and the analysis of its artefacts in the context of other sites and their artefacts have led to claims that the kingdom was centred on Galloway early in the 7th century. Interpretations of another place-name, with even less certainty, indicate that Rheged could also have reached as far south as Rochdale in Greater Manchester , recorded in the Domesday Book as Recedham . The River Roch on which Rochdale stands
240-727: A 'Locus Maponi' which has been tentatively identified with the Lochmaben stone site. The Lochmaben Stone was a well known, well recognised and easily located 'marker' on the Scottish Marches and as such it performed a number of functions prior to the Union of the Crowns, such as arrangements for truces, exchange of prisoners, etc. Raiding parties met here before launching expeditions into England and Scottish armies assembled here before major incursions or defence operations took place. It may well have been
300-697: A British Apollo . Tolstoy sees Merlin as a chief druid carrying out ceremonies at the Clochmabenstane. Sometime during the seventh century, an unknown monk in the Monastery at Ravenna on the Adriatic (eastern) coast of Italy compiled a list of all the towns and road-stations throughout the Roman Empire ; this important historical document has since become known as the Ravenna Cosmography and it lists
360-467: A farm worker with an excavator, the intention being to locate any 'treasure' beneath. The local primary school attended an official re-erection ceremony which was covered by the local paper, the Dumfries and Galloway Standard 22 September 1995. The Auchinleck Chronicle records that on 23 October 1448 a Scottish Army under the command of Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormonde , and Sir John Wallace of Craigie won
420-572: A flagstone, tablet or slate. The element Mabon , as in the Celtic god, is common to all of the variants and this strongly confirms this association, as well as helping with the identification of this site with the Roman site of 'Locus Maponi', as listed in the Ravenna Cosmography. It is also suggested that Locus Maponi means the 'Loch' or 'Pool' of Mabon and this would suggest that the town of Lochmaben
480-496: A grid index where the tens denote the progress from West to East and the units from South to North. In the north of Scotland, the numbering is modified: the 100 km square to the north of 39 is numbered N30; the square to the north of 49 is N40, etc. The grid is based on the OSGB36 datum (Ordnance Survey Great Britain 1936, based on the Airy 1830 ellipsoid ), and was introduced after
540-483: A line, perhaps of kings, descended from Cynfarch Oer's brother: Elidir Lydanwyn. According to Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd Elidir's son, Llywarch Hen , was a ruler in North Britain in the 6th century. He was driven from his territory by princely in-fighting after Urien's death and was perhaps in old age associated with Powys . However, it is possible, because of internal inconsistencies, that the poetry connected to Powys
600-665: A number of early Welsh poems and royal genealogies. His victories over the Anglian chieftains of Bernicia in the second half of the 6th century are recorded by Nennius and celebrated by the bard Taliesin , who calls him "Ruler of Rheged". He is thus placed squarely in the North of Britain and perhaps specifically in Westmorland when referred to as "Ruler of Llwyfenydd" (identified with the Lyvennet Valley ). Later legend associates Urien with
660-432: A resounding victory over the invading English forces of the younger Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland . There is nothing to mark the site of the battle ground. 3,000 Englishmen were slain or drowned in flight. Many prisoners were taken. Estimated Scots losses range from a low of 26 to a high of 600, the most serious of whom was Sir John Wallace of Craigie, Sheriff of Ayr , who was mortally wounded, dying some time after
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#1732852483497720-625: A tribal assembly point. An army was ordered to assemble here as late as 6 February 1557. In 1398 an exchange of prisoners took place when English and Scots representatives, the Dukes of Rothesay and Lancaster met at the Lochmaben Stone. The prisoners were released without ransoms and any that had already been paid were to be returned. Its use by the Marcher Lords or Wardens suggests that the Scots regarded
780-425: A wide range of names attached to it over the last few millennia or so. Lochmabonstone, Stormont, and Old Graitney stone are amongst the most recent. In 1398 the name is 'Clochmabenstane', in 1409 and 1472 the name 'Loumabanestane' is recorded, with 'Lowmabanstane' used in 1485 and then 'Loughmabanestane' in 1494. 'Cloch' and 'clach' mean 'stone' in modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic respectively. In Welsh, 'llech' can be
840-464: Is an abbreviated alphanumeric reference where the letters are simply omitted, e.g. 166712 for the summit of Ben Nevis. Unlike the numeric references described above, this abbreviated grid reference is incomplete; it gives the location relative to an OS 100×100 km square, but does not specify which square. It is often used informally when the context identifies the OS 2-letter square. For example, within
900-543: Is another example where the Gaelic word is undeniably linked with a stone, in this case still on view in the town centre. The first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map (1843–1882) refers to it as " Druidical circle (Remains of)", which the Ordnance Survey Name Book states as being formerly composed of nine upright stones placed in an oval of about 0.5 acres (2,000 m). Only two of these stones are visible above
960-595: Is called the Helmert datum transformation , which results in a typical 7 m error from true. The definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the Ordnance Survey is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN15. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy. The difference between
1020-477: Is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly. In order to minimize the overall scale error, a factor of 2499/2500 is applied. This creates two lines of longitude about 180 km east and west of the central meridian along which the local scale factor equals 1, i.e. map scale is correct. Inside these lines the local scale factor is less than 1, with a minimum of 0.04% too small at the central meridian. Outside these lines
1080-619: Is now the preferred coordinate reference system across Ireland. ITM is based on the Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system (UTM), used to provide grid references for worldwide locations, and this is the system commonly used for the Channel Islands . European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), or variants of it. The first letter of
1140-622: Is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent . These two datums are not both in general use in any one place, but for a point in the English Channel halfway between Dover and Calais , the ED50 longitude lines are about 20 m east of the OSGB36 equivalents, and the ED50 latitude lines are about 150 m south of the OSGB36 ones. Rheged Rheged ( Welsh pronunciation: [ˈr̥ɛɡɛd] )
1200-490: Is possible that it was a peaceful takeover, both kingdoms being inherited by the same man. After Rheged was incorporated into Northumbria , the old Cumbric language was gradually replaced by Old English , Cumbric surviving only in remote upland communities. Around the year 900, after the power of Northumbria was destroyed by Viking incursions and settlement, large areas west of the Pennines fell without apparent warfare under
1260-565: Is recorded as having been used by smugglers. The title of Viscount Stormont is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1621 by James VI for Sir David Murray . It is a subsidiary title of the Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield . The family held land in this area and no doubt some connection exists between the title and the area. The upper stone of a rotary quern was found about 1976 when ploughing some 350 m SSW of Old Graitney farmhouse, where it
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#17328524834971320-454: Is still held by the finder, Mr S Smith. Slightly oval in shape it measures about 30 cm in maximum diameter and is made of granite or a similar rock; there are both central and side-holes. A local legend associates the Lochmaben Stone with the stone from which King Arthur pulled the sword Excalibur . However, this only agrees with some versions of the Arthurian legend. In other versions of
1380-573: Is that the name may be a compound of rö- , a prefix meaning "great", and cę:d meaning "wood, forest" (c.f. Welsh coed ) although the expected form in Welsh would be *Rhygoed . If association of the name with cę:d is correct, the prefix may be rag- , meaning "before, adjacent to, opposite". Derivation from the element reg , which with the suffix -ed has connotations of "generosity", is another possibility. The name Rheged appears regularly as an epithet of Urien (a late 6th-century king of Rheged) in
1440-452: Is the intended named site. Maporitum is another name recorded in the cosmography and given that the name relates to the Ford of Mabon and indeed the name 'Solway' is most likely derived from the word Sul standing for the pillar or Lochmaben stone and the word Wath that is of Viking origin and means to 'wade', indicating a ford. The stone marked the northern terminus of the most useful ford on
1500-562: The British Isles : this article describes the system created solely for Great Britain and its outlying islands (including the Isle of Man ). The Irish grid reference system is a similar system created by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland for the island of Ireland. The Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM) coordinate reference system was adopted in 2001 and
1560-564: The University of Oxford 's People of the British Isles project, the original population of Rheged has left a distinct genetic heritage amongst the people of Cumbria. The research compared the DNA of over 2000 people across the British Isles whose grandparents were all born within 50 miles (80 km) of each other, and found a number of cases, including Rheged, where genetic clusters of people matched
1620-726: The retriangulation of 1936–1962 . It replaced the Cassini Grid which had previously been the standard projection for Ordnance Survey maps. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain; more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the Global Positioning System (the Airy ellipsoid assumes the Earth to be about 1 km smaller in diameter than the GRS80 ellipsoid, and to be slightly less flattened). The British maps adopt
1680-621: The Arthurian legend, Excalibur was a sword that came from the water from the Lady of the Lake , and the sword in the stone does not have a name. Ordnance Survey National Grid The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system ( OSGB ), also known as British National Grid ( BNG ), is a system of geographic grid references , distinct from latitude and longitude , whereby any location in Great Britain can be described in terms of its distance from
1740-561: The British National Grid is derived from a larger set of 25 squares of size 500 km by 500 km, labelled A to Z, omitting one letter (I) (refer diagram below), previously used as a military grid. Four of these largest squares contain significant land area within Great Britain: S, T, N and H. The O square contains a tiny area of North Yorkshire , Beast Cliff at OV 0000 , almost all of which lies below mean high tide. For
1800-488: The Esk and another suggested meaning for the name 'Sulwath' is 'Muddy ford'. The Old Gaelic cloch or Brittonic *clog element is found with the 1398 record 'Clockmabanstane', and this suggests that as in the modern Gaelic clach , meaning stone, the whole name may mean the 'stone or burial place of Mabon'. The loss of the initial C- is due to the influence of the name Lochmaben , 18 miles north-west. The name Clackmannan
1860-495: The Lochmaben stone as being the southernmost limit of the Scottish realm. In 1398 an indenture was made at 'Clochmabenstane' for the men of Tyndale and Redesdale to meet from Whitsunday to Michaelmas at Kershope Bridge. The Commissioners not only met here, but "gave bail for their good behaviour to one another." In 1398 the agreement was reached that " The men of Galloway, Nithsdale, Annandale and Crawford Muir, shall meet with
Lochmaben Stone - Misplaced Pages Continue
1920-560: The Lochmabonstone by Logan Mack in 1926, has, in the Borders context, an unsurpassed extent of history attached to it. It is an erratic, 7 feet high and 18 feet in girth and weighs approximately ten tons. It is composed of weathered granite, exposed to severe glacial action. In these treeless flatlands this stone, given its size, would have been a distinctive landmark on the flat Solway Plain for several millennia. The Lochmaben stone has had
1980-569: The OSGB 36 lines in South Cornwall , the difference diminishing to zero in the Scottish Borders , and then increasing to about 50 m north on the north coast of Scotland . (If the lines are further east , then the longitude value of any given point is further west . Similarly, if the lines are further south, the values will give the point a more northerly latitude.) The smallest datum shift
2040-688: The OSGB36 National Grid location for Ben Nevis is at 216600, 771200. Grid references may also be quoted as a pair of numbers: eastings then northings in metres, measured from the southwest corner of the SV square. 13 digits may be required for locations in Orkney and further north. For example, the grid reference for Sullom Voe Oil Terminal in the Shetland islands may be given as HU396753 or 439668,1175316 . Another, distinct, form of all-numeric grid reference
2100-514: The Wardens of the West March for redress of claims at Clochmabanstane. " In 1473, the Scottish and English Ambassadors met to agree that more frequent meetings of the marcher Wardens were to be held at the six recognised sites on the marches. These were Newbyggynfurde, Redaneburn, Gammyllispethe, Belle, Loumabanestane and Kershopebrig and the meetings were to be held at successive venues. On 26 March 1494
2160-595: The battle. At NY 31 66 a Viking boat-shaped barrow or mound existed. It was levelled around the year 1851, but no burials or Viking artefacts are recorded as having been found. This tower-house was built by the Johnstones in 1535 and burnt by the Maxwells in 1585. Locally a tower is said to have stood 180 m south of the Old Graitney Farmhouse although no traces are visible on the ground. This site at NY 316 660
2220-649: The city of Carlisle (the Roman Luguvalium ), only twenty-five miles away; Higham suggests that Rheged was "broadly conterminous with the earlier Civitas Carvetiorum , the Roman administrative unit based on Carlisle". Although it is possible that Rheged was merely a stronghold, it was not uncommon for sub-Roman monarchs to use their kingdom's name as an epithet. Place-name evidence, e.g., Dunragit (possibly "Fort of Rheged") suggests that, at least in one period of its history, Rheged included Dumfries and Galloway . Recent archaeological excavations at Trusty's Hill ,
2280-496: The commissioners of both countries met at the Lochmaben Stone to finally settle the long running dispute over the 'Fish Garth' across the River Esk . In the 16th century a reference is recorded " Loughmaben Stone standyng in Scotland, wher we have beyn accustomyd to keipe days of marches. " In the 1800s the tenant of Old Graitney farm decided to clear his land of the three remaining stones which ruined his field's appearance and got in
2340-433: The context of a location known to be on OS Landranger sheet 41 (which extends from NN000500 in the south-west to NN400900 in the north-east) the abbreviated grid reference 166712 is equivalent to NN166712. If working with more than one Landranger sheet, this may also be given as 41/166712. Alternatively, sometimes numbers instead of the two-letter combinations are used for the 100×100 km squares. The numbering follows
2400-578: The control of the British Kingdom of Strathclyde , with Leeds recorded as being on the border between the Britons and the Norse Kingdom of York . This may have represented the political assertion of lingering British culture in the region. The area of Cumbria remained under the control of Strathclyde until the early 11th century when Strathclyde itself was absorbed into the Scottish kingdom. The name of
2460-560: The coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB 36 are the same as for WGS 84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall , the WGS 84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB 36 equivalents, this value rising gradually to about 120 m east on the east coast of East Anglia . The WGS 84 latitude lines are about 70 m south of
Lochmaben Stone - Misplaced Pages Continue
2520-550: The cult of the Celtic god Mabon or Maponus. The name has its origins in map , the Old Welsh for 'son of' and is suggestive of a divine youth. He is said to have been the divine patron of the Kingdom of Rheged and dedications to his cult have so far been found at Birrens, Brampton, Chesterholm (Vindolanda), Corbridge and Ribchester. Mabon may have been a god of fertility: the Romans made him
2580-466: The digits is for the first coordinate and the second half for the other. The most common usage is the six figure grid reference , employing three digits in each coordinate to determine a 100 m square. For example, the grid reference of the 100 m square containing the summit of Ben Nevis is NN 166 712 . (Grid references may be written with or without spaces; e.g., also NN166712.) NN has an easting of 200 km and northing of 700 km, so
2640-524: The family of Llywarch and Urien with Powys has suggested to some, on grounds of proximity, that the area of modern Lancashire may have been their original home. After Bernicia united with Deira to become the kingdom of Northumbria , Rheged was annexed by Northumbria, some time before AD 730. There was a royal marriage between Prince (later King) Oswiu of Northumbria and the Rhegedian princess Rieinmelth , granddaughter of Rum (Rhun), probably in 638, so it
2700-473: The local scale factor is greater than 1, and is about 0.04% too large near the east and west coasts. Grid north and true north are only aligned on the central meridian (400 km easting) of the grid which is 2° W (OSGB36) and approx. 2° 0′ 5″ W ( WGS 84 ). A geodetic transformation between OSGB 36 and other terrestrial reference systems (like ITRF2000 , ETRS89 , or WGS 84 ) can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation
2760-568: The origin (0, 0), which lies to the west of the Isles of Scilly . The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in its survey data, and in maps based on those surveys, whether published by the Ordnance Survey or by commercial map producers. Grid references are also commonly quoted in other publications and data sources, such as guide books and government planning documents. A number of different systems exist that can provide grid references for locations within
2820-527: The origins of the Old King Cole of folk tradition), who is considered by many to be a mythical figure; if he has some historicity, he may have ruled a considerable part of the North in the early 5th century. All of those listed below may have ruled in Rheged, but only three of their number can be verified from external sources: There are two possible later kings of Rheged : A second royal genealogy exists for
2880-456: The people, whose modern Welsh form is Cymry has, however, survived in the name of Cumberland and now Cumbria ; it probably derives from an old Celtic word * Kombroges meaning "fellow countrymen". Previously, Rheged was assumed to have been centred somewhere in Cumbria, northwest England. However, in 2012 archaeologists found evidence at Trusty's Hill near the town of Gatehouse of Fleet , in Galloway, southwest Scotland, suggesting that
2940-440: The second letter, each 500 km square is subdivided into 25 squares of size 100 km by 100 km, each with a letter code from A to Z (again omitting I) starting with A in the north-west corner to Z in the south-east corner. These squares are outlined in light grey on the "100km squares" map, with those containing land lettered. The central (2° W) meridian is shown in red. Within each square, eastings and northings from
3000-407: The site may in fact have been Rheged's capital c. 600 AD . The discovery was announced to the public in January 2017 and the site is still under excavation. One of the lead researchers, Ronan Toolis, stated that their findings revealed structural ruins atop the hill. These originally belonged to a fortification system with a timber-reinforced stone rampart where the main fortification
3060-410: The site. In 1982 the stone fell over, and excavations prior to its re-erection revealed that it had been set into a shallow pit. No artifacts were recovered. However, a sample of mixed Oak and Hazel charcoal taken from the lower fill of the stone-pit yielded a radiocarbon date of approximately 3275 BC according to Aubrey Burl . The name of the stone strongly suggests that this site was a centre of
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#17328524834973120-412: The south west corner of the square are given numerically. For example, NH0325 means a 1 km square whose south-west corner is 3 km east and 25 km north from the south-west corner of square NH. A location can be indicated to varying resolutions numerically, usually from two digits in each coordinate (for a 1 km square) through to five (for a 1 m square); in each case the first half of
3180-416: The surface of the ground, one being the Lochmaben Stone. The other stone stands 1.0 m high by 1.2 m in diameter in a less conspicuous position in the nearby hedge to the north east of the larger stone. The 1845 'New Statistical Account' also relates that a ring of large stones once stood here, enclosing an area of around half an acre, most of which were removed shortly before that date to facilitate ploughing of
3240-408: The way of his machinery. He set his farm hands to work digging deep pits for the burial of the stones. One had been completely buried and another partially sunken when the proprietor, Lord Mansfield , arrived at the scene and stopped further operations. The stone was still used as a gathering place for the locality into comparatively recent times. A local tradition suggests that the stone was moved by
3300-419: Was also "Ruler of Catraeth " ( Catterick in North Yorkshire ). It is accepted by most scholars, therefore, that Rheged was a kingdom covering a large part of modern Cumbria as well as areas of Dumfries and Galloway and extended, for some of its history, into present day Yorkshire. The traditional royal genealogy of Urien and his successors traces their ancestry back to Coel Hen (considered by some to be
3360-407: Was associated with Llywarch's name at a later, probably 9th century, date. Llywarch is referred to in some poems as king of South Rheged, and in others as king of Argoed, suggesting that the two regions were the same. Searching for Llywarch's kingdom has led some historians to propose that Rheged may have been divided between sons, resulting in northern and southern successor states. The connections of
3420-446: Was one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd ("Old North"), the Brittonic -speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland , during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages . It is recorded in several poetic and bardic sources, although its borders are not described in any of them. A recent archaeological discovery suggests that its stronghold was located in what is now Galloway in Scotland rather than, as
3480-412: Was previously speculated, being in Cumbria . Rheged possibly extended into Lancashire and other parts of northern England. In some sources, Rheged is intimately associated with the king Urien Rheged and his family. Its inhabitants spoke Cumbric , a Brittonic dialect closely related to Old Welsh . The origin of the name Rheged has been described as "problematic". One Brittonic -language solution
3540-446: Was recorded in the 13th century as Rached or Rachet . Such names may derive from Old English reced "hall or house". However, no other place names originating from this Old English element exist, which makes this derivation unlikely. If they are not of English origin, these place-names may incorporate the element 'Rheged' precisely because they lay on or near its borders. Certainly Urien's kingdom stretched eastward at one time, as he
3600-402: Was supplemented by smaller defensive works along the low-lying slopes. According to Toolis, this suggests the presence of a royal stronghold of the period: " This is a type of fort that has been recognized in Scotland as a form of high status secular settlement of the early medieval period. The evidence makes a compelling case for Galloway being the core of the kingdom of Rheged. " According to
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