They are horses hoofs ,ate! Good find! I made stacks of amadou with a some nice ones I found in scotland! Great fun it was too! Fabulous tinder!
Thanks for the reply guys, I did not take any, but some of them were large, might go back and get some next week end. The tree was very large but standing dead wood, and as I say covered in them.
I might have to take my condor with me, dont usually take a fixed blade when out and about on private land, but these are brick hard and will take a bit of prying to get them off the tree.