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Segsbury Camp

Hillfort

Fieldnotes

Undertaking a weekend tour of a few sites in the vicinity I arrive at Segsbury, the last on my 'itinerary' - for want of a better word (since my trips always seem to descend into improvised chaos) - too late to do it justice.

I therefore decide to kip in the car and have a proper walk the 'morrow, bright and early. Segsbury seems handy in this respect since the road actually penetrates the hillfort's defences before morphing into a dusty track to meet the Ridgeway beyond. It's a brilliantly clear, calm, moonlit night, the thought of actually sleeping within a hillfort not at all unappealing - I simply love being in ancient places, me. I check in with home and am 'jokingly' told to remember to keep quiet and not upset the ghosts of the previous inhabitants..... Yeah, right. I'd probably have a chat and ask them what they thought about their neighbours on the Sinodun Hills....

All is fine until, some time after 3 am 'something' hurtles past the car in the pitch darkness - and in total silence - making it judder with the displaced air. I freak out, jump out of the car to have a look, but whatever it was is long gone - no lights, no noise, nothing. I assume I must have been dreaming...... although there's no doubt that the car moved without a breath of wind around... ooer. Check the handbrake. On.

Next morning dawns perfectly as I go for a wander around the hillfort's powerful univallate, D-shaped ramparts. It's a long walk, too, this being a large enclosure, no doubt home to quite a substantial population and their animals in times of trouble. The surroundings are great, too, even the cooling towers of distant Didcot power station appearing deceptively aesthetic.

Nethertheless Segsbury clearly has the potential to do funny things to a traveller's psyche.......
GLADMAN Posted by GLADMAN
22nd August 2009ce
Edited 22nd August 2009ce

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