Above the Falls - a site at the headwaters of a brook in Bolton, MA

This weekend I found a site above a waterfall that impressed me. It was in an beautiful spot with some very nicely built piles. Also I think I learned something new which I want to try to explain. Here is a view up the waterfall:

And here is a video of the waterfall, to give you an idea of the sound.

The rock piles are up above the falls, on more level ground up there, where water is flowing underneath the tumbled boulders in a number of places.

When I first arrived in the area I saw one nice pile and then another and another.

As I proceeded I sensed something larger looming in the background - always a great feeling. Here is a video of my first impression:

I am obviously excited, although exaggerating for effect.

This large boulder is surrounded by rock piles. Here are some views of different sides and you will notice what seem like deliberate passageways between the boulder and the piles.
I was thinking, "Gosh! Walk through there and you will come out a different person". This thought had me looking at these "passageways" as if they served a purpose as a kind of doorway with the central boulder playing an important role. Then I noticed several other examples of the same sized "doorway" but without the boulder.

At around this point I realized how similar this is to what I called "pile-gap-pile" or "pile-space-pile" in describing a previously unique site in Westford. Now I know two examples of this kind of site.

Look more closely at this example:
We look out through the gap and see a wet spot (indicated by more green in ground cover) and we also see (actually FFC noticed this in the photo) a single rock and then another further off, behind the wet spot. So perhaps it is not about a person walking through a doorway but something else passing through this space. Perhaps it is a ray of light, or something - some "energy" passing out from the wet place. This last idea is re-enforced by seeing a small pile next to the waterfall with a small gap.Perhaps it is just damage not a deliberate gap but after looking at the larger pile-gap-piles I wonder. So what I learned is to think of these pile-gap-piles as related not necessarily to alignments but perhaps to doorways through which something could pass - perhaps something related to water not light.

Here is another pile:
This place in Bolton is west of the Rt 495/Beaver Brook corridor, in the same basic line of hills where all the other major rock pile sites are found (except for the Hill of 500 Cairns which is on the east side of the valley). All fall I have been looking for another largish site along here and am happy that with this site I also found something very distinct from the marker pile sites which are the norm in these hills.

Nor is this site a typical "brookside" site. Absent are the numerous rock-on-rocks and alignments. There was one seat-like arrangement of three close together piles forming three sides of what could have been an enclosure. Note the piece of quartz in the pile to the rear.
Here is a detail of it.
Also there was at least one split-wedged rock.
But this is a special kind of site.

Finally I should mention that near the boulder I found a large deer skull, with 9-point antlers, in perfect condition. The skull was lying teeth up, all the teeth were in place and one antler point was stuck into the ground. There was no sign of the rest of the deer and the skull was clean. Sort of curious. I traded it with FFC for a lunch.