Site Event/Activity record ECH4520 - Excavations on The Cloud by the Macclesfield Scientific Society

Report in the minutes of the society. The members of this association will remember when we a short time ago visited the Cloud End, many such cairns were seen; and, taken in connection with the entrenched ground, there certainly seemed strong presumptive evidence of their being veritable Celtic remains, indeed us such I have hoard them spoken of. By the kind permission of Lord Edgerton of Tatton we have been enabled to solve the problem. We learned from the keeper of the wood that they were now as they bad been these last forty years, to his knowledge, and before that time but little was done there in the way of planting and quarrying. Our Secretary, together with Mr, Alfred Bullock, a Congleton gentleman, and myself, removed two of them with the greatest care. The first one showed a very nicely formed cist, but in it we found nothing, and upon digging a couple of feet below the surface not the slightest indication was discovered of any remains. The second one showed no cist, and had in every way a rougher appearance than the first opened. So carefully did we work that we can with confidence pronounce them of no historic value, and suppose them to be simply heaps of stone cleared off the land many years ago. I ought to have said they were well covered with bilberry bushes, the roots thick and tough, and around the mounds there were no circles; but, we did find an odd stone or two. I do not attribute very much importance to these circles, without they really show unmistakable evidence of genuineness, being large and in such a position to leave but little doubt of their purpose. I have been deceived by them. A very short time ago I carried my spade and other implements more than three miles uphill, to open what certainly appeared a most symmetrical grave mound. So carefully was this to be opened that a gentleman, at no great distance from, me at the present, and whose interest in grave mound exploration seems second only to the interest he takes in the general work and welfare of our society, was to photograph for you by separate photographs, each section of the mound uncovered. Up hill he trudged too, armed with camera and all the little etceteras known only to those who are well up in the mysteries of the art of photography. Judge then our surprise and disgust, when within the almost complete circle of stones and beneath a goodly covering of bilberry bushes and grass, the first spit revealed a piece of coal and two short lengths of tobacco pipe stump and below that stratum nothing unusual. Close to this delightful spot we afterwards observed what appeared to be the remains of the foundation of a house.