Monday, January 02, 2012

A unique enclosure, opening to the swamp

The red "X" marks the location of a curious enclosure in the Littleton, MA Town Forest.

I could not photo it very well but this shows the view, from the water side, of an area enclosed by stone walls with only a single opening in the direction of the swamp:Here is the opening, looking out:The plan was something like this:The enclosure was maybe 70 feet across and seemed to be full of large tumbled boulders. What could this be for? Maybe this video gives a glimpse of the place:

There was a standing stone, fifty yards away in the woods in one direction:There were a few very minor rock structures across the water about 20 yards from the enclosure:I do not know if this enclosure is unique. I can't come up with any guesses as to its purpose. Have you seen anything like this?

5 comments :

theseventhgeneration said...

There is a site here in NY - Barbour Brook - with odd enclosures, lots of rock piles, a nice standing stone, 3 cellar holes and some stone walls (the main one enclosing a swamp). It seems like there might be some similarities to this Littleton site, but this doesn't answer your question. I wonder, too, what purpose the enclosures have at Barbour Brook.

Tim MacSweeney said...

I'm looking at a trail map:
http://littletonconservationtrust.org/guide/newtown-hill/newtownhil-topo-map.jpg and wondering what the squiggly lines on some of the property lines are...

Tim MacSweeney said...

And I'm also wondering why I'm looking at the wrong parcel of land...

Tim MacSweeney said...

The little section of row by the opening sort of has those "holes to let the wind through" as in Dan's photo at
http://www.boudillion.com/glossary/rowblackpond02.jpg
Do the other stone rows nearby look like that too?

pwax said...

Tim: No, or at least not that I noticed. The "lacey" look was only by the entrance.