Friday, November 13, 2020

Connelly Hill

 Are there any readers from the Holliston/Upton area that can go check a site? I was glancing at the map:

Given the extremely rich collection of sites just to the east, it seems obvious that there will be sites around the marsh, circled in red. 

I checked the satellite view and there are building all around, so this may involve some tresspassing. Any takers?

6 comments :

CURTISS HOFFMAN said...

Peter -
I have one site at the northern end of Connelly Hill, reported by Matt Howes. If the weather holds we might make an expedition out there this afternoon.

CURTISS HOFFMAN said...

There is a powerline/gasline easement running through the area, not shown on the map but very clearly shown on GoogleEarth, which provided easy access from South Mill St. There were a few structures in the powerline itself - 2 isolated split filled boulders and a stone pile, going from south to north. To the east of the easement, including the southern lobe of the hill you circled, there was a bit more -- 9 rock piles and a house-sized balanced rock at the southern edge of your circle and 2 rock piles on the southern lobe of the hill itself. But the real gem was on the east-projecting nose of the hill, just to the east of the swamp. Here we found 43 stone piles, plus a fallen standing stone, a split boulder, a stone circle (possibly recent), and a small mound with a depression in the top. We didn't see any stonework on the top of the northern lobe of the hill, so we didn't go there.

CURTISS HOFFMAN said...

Sorry - I meant just to the WEST of the swamp!

pwax said...

Cool

pwax said...

May I suppose the standing stone would cast its shadow over the 43 piles?

Curtiss Hoffman said...

It was fallen atop one of the piles, and was about 1 1/2 feet long. So if erected it might shadow that pile and perhaps some others. We did not do any formal mapping or photography.

BTW, it did not appear that there was anything of interest to the southwest side of the clear-cut. It was apparent that when it was clearcut the developers moved a lot of large rocks to either side, and may have done some blasting as well. The two split-filled boulders in the middle of the clearcut did seem genuine, but the 2 rock piles were on the edge. Everything else was in the woods and unaffected by the clearcut.