One year on, and time to pop back. The sign at the footpath says "no digging of holes".
Yet as I mooched around the Southern edge this time, I noticed that not only are some cheeky homeowners fencing off bits of the ditch and bank for their gardens, one house is totally relandscaping "their" bit.
Not good.
Still a beautiful place though
... come, come ...
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The access is still fine (21/8/00), but it's a bit of a double-edged sword. There's a huge amount of damage, mainly from candles balanced on ledges on the stones, but one bit looks like there's been a proper fire in one of the side chambers (first on the left).
Seal it up if we can't look after it. Pains me to say it, and I never thought I would, but I can see why there's a fence around Stonehenge now. Bloody drives you mad ...
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Just got my Krupp book back --- the alignment from the East of the King's Men to the Whispering Knights is the "Mid-Calender Sunrise"
hope that clears that one up ...
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Visited 6/8/00
Due to a combination of not reading TMA properly and Bovine Intervention, we didn't get into the Mother's Jam proper. You head up Eastwards out of Avebury, past the scaggy farm and up on to the Ridgeway (you can just see the crest of Silbury above Waden Hill). Cross straight across (following the coloured bridleway sign) along the unbelievably sheep-shit coated path (I swear the sheep do it on purpose - the rest of their field isn't that bad) until you get to the horse gallop thing (looks like a racecourse).
Attentive readers of the TMA will now cross these gallops, and "descend to a sea of stones".
Fellow Gibbons will not cross the gallops, but instead head down into the field on the "wrong" (Western) side, and no doubt, like us, find themselves literally marooned on top of an enormous stone, eating sandwiches, and looking back at the 10+ curious cows gathered around the base of the stone.
There was loads of them! We were sat down by a large stone, and had decided against sitting on it, due to possible damage to lichens, "what if every who came here did it?" and so on, got the butties out, and generally admired the view. Mrs Gibbon let out a bit of hoot as she spotted a young calf, followed by several others, coming in about 15 ft away. We scrambled up the stone (there's 2 quite big ones, at the south-western end of the gallops, on the Avebury side), and watched in horror as the couple of cows mooed as loudly as they could, calling in the others for a look, surrounding the whole stone, looking at us.
We were up there for over half an hour. Occasionally the odd cow would drift off, but it would soon be replaced by another, galloping in from over the horizon, in response to the signal. We were praying that no-one was going to come past and see us, perched up there. It wasn't as if we were *frightened* or anything. Oh no. Just that the cows had formed a very solid circle around us. And they were looking at us. Ruminating.
We were finally saved by the rattle of the feedbucket. All the cows all legged it off down to the farm at the bottom of the hill, and we were left to have a root about. As it turns out, we were in the "wrong" side, but there's still plenty to amuse. Down at the bottom of the field, there's a whole heap of stones, many arranged in various straight lines. Follow the field straight up (there's a long-barrow shaped tumulus, with poles in the top - not sure exactly what it is), and there's at least 2 more "destroyed" circles, one on a small hillock, the other around a small ditch. Not quite the "natural earth altar" we were expecting, but that's what you get for not paying attention, and being scared of cows.
Possible the most beautiful part of the Avebury complex we've visited so far. Well worth the visit just to try and imagine what a shocker of a job it must have been to bring the stones in, and to see the Henge of Avebury from a new angle. Will return, avoiding the cows. Probably get aliens next time or something ...
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Don't want to get to be a Rollright Bore, but I was looking through "IN SEARCH OF ANCIENT ASTRONOMIES " by E.C. Krupp last night, and there's an article by prof Thom in there about alignments etc ...
There's a drawing of Rollright, and it says that the line between the Whispering Knights and the nearest stones in the circle point towards the Midsummer Sunrise.
Looks about right, but I dunno ...
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re camping at Rollright ... no-one actually took a potshot at us, or any such, but we did get a few people parping their horns as we went past ...
... this can go either way ... I didn't pay that much attention at first, but as we were getting in the van for a kip, it suddenly struck me that we were Slough-Gibbons, alone and deep in the heart of BumpkinLand ...
... what if the parpers were malicious types, trying to wake us up, and soon to return with pitchforks and shotguns and banjos and extra chromasones? Neither of us look particular "hippy" (Gibbon Jnr is only 12 - today as it happens :-), but the van is a total giveaway, and easily susceptible ...
seemed to be OK this time though ... it's a fairly densely populated part of the world around there ... Jeremy Clarkson lives just around the corner! :-O = Run Away!
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Slug City! The Ridgeway up here was absolutely *dripping* with them last week ... Mrs Gibbon was most perturbed, having trodden on one barefoot the night before ...
Cracking place for a wander if you need to stretch your legs for 10 minutes ... Silbury nestles quitely behind Waden Hill, just like the book says it does. Go towards it and it disappears, before returning with a huge "blam" in your face.
Careful though ... we had our car broken into here once. For some Penguin biscuits. And the turn out towards Silbury/Avebury is terrifying ... the top of a blind hill either side ...
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woah! Me and one of the Gibbonettes headed up here in our Camper on Saturday night (1/7/00) on the spur of the moment.
When we got there, it was full of a wedding party ... apparently you can hire the place out for weddings, rituals and so on .... twenty quid deposit and a pound a head, and you get the place to yourself for a while and carparking
AND
a fire brazier thing. As it got dark, all but one of the wedding party shot off, and so the 3 of us created our own little "Fire Temple" (as The Boy put) with those little nightlight candles (3 quid for 100 from Ikea :-)
We had the big fire in the middle, an inner circle of lights, lights around the stones (no candles on the stones though ... damages the lichens and all that), and a path of lights from the centre out to the exit.
We fell asleep around the fire, and woke up in the middle of the night - pitch black, all the stars out, and all the candles still burning ... cor, did my head totally .. the stones were just *glowing*
fantastic. The warden turned up in the morning after we had tidied up, and he was totally sound
they have quite a few events there as well ... next one is Halloween.
http://www.rollright.demon.co.uk/
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I've never paid that much heed to "The Henge" before, possible because of a combination of the fence and loads of people with nasty Stonehenge t-shirts. I dunno
Anyway, I'm back with gibbon-tale between legs. I took the gibbonnettes down for the Solstice, and being a responsible Primate, stayed straight all night. We saw in the dawn from the barrow near the Hele Stone, and then started to run back to where the rest of our mob were slumped ...
we were working our way round, when I realised I was on my own ... "little sods", I thought, "they'll be around here somewhere"... they weren't ... I was on entirely on the different side of the circle, and when I finally loped back, I had been gone for *ages*
Not to be underestimated :-)
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if you're up there, you can't see anything of the horse, but what you can see is what appears to be a massive spaceship landing bay!
In front of the horse, the hill opens up into a rather tasty womb-like half-valley thing. Rather extraordinary :-)
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A highly discrete, but strangely charming Chiltern hillfort. Hidden beside the A40 at Gerrards Cross, Bucks, just north of Slough (about half-an-hour from London), it's modern function seems sadly to be the private dog-walking arena for the surrounding "exclusive" housing estate.
Take the A40 to Gerrards Cross, turning left at the crossroads with the B416 to Stoke Poges/Slough. About 150 yards on your right there is a road marked "Camp Road". Ignore the "Private Road" sign, and park up (if you're driving - good luck with public transport) wherever you like around the "No Parking Past this Point" sign (though it does look like the kind of place where the Locals might get shirty :-)
Walk up the road until you get to the houses. On your right is a village green type thang. Turn left, walk about 20ft, and look closely for the "Bulstrode Camp" sign on your right. It's open for the public, but they're keeping this quiet.
Walk up the dog-shit caked grass footpath, and you'll notice a ditch ... yes it's a double-rampart, running almost the entire circumference of this enormous Iron-age settlement. The ditch is 8-10ft deep in places, though almost impassable - large houses with swimming pools and nasty dogs now "protect" this area, magically strengthening its power by dumping their canine and garden waste into the once proud defences. Cross the ditch by the path, and into the huge clearing of Bulstrode.
The site is visually unspectacular, disappointing even, at first when compared to sites such as Maiden Castle and South Cadbury Castle, but give it a while, and it'll soon grow on you. Apart from the Southern end, the defences are still well defined, if choked with undergrowth and compost, and parts are just explorable by the intrepid. There are lots of beautiful bluebells at this time of year (May). At the northenmost end (the A40 side, though you wouldn't know, it's a gloriously peaceful place) are a couple of trees that have been hit by lightning and hollowed out by the fire. It *is* possible for large adults to squeeze through the hole at the bottom, though you will end up covered in ash, and maybe bruises :-)
Not too sure about the historical details at the moment - the board says it is Iron-Age, and it's slap bang on the A40, so there was probably some Roman occupation as well, but that's only a guess. I'll try and find more, but in the meantime, do try to get out here and have a run about ... it's too good to be so hidden and secreted away "for the benefit of the parish"..
Do also note that Bulstrode marks the eastern end of the "Chiltern Hundreds" - the traditional way out of Parliament for washed-up, disgraced and greedy MP's. A valuable place indeed.
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Woah! This is something else. I've always seen this place on the map (just outside Salisbury, off the A30 to Andover), but never had chance to stop by. Coming back from the Blandford Forum festy with the kids, coated in mud, Monday couldn't have been a better time to go.
It's a little tricky to find, as a kamikaze has demolished the sign on the road, and the narrow track up the hill, past lots of private houses, doesn't give any clues. Stick with it, and the track turns into a largish carpark. Keep away from the scary MOD notices (they own the land all around) and saunter casually up to the treat in store.
Forget the photo in TMA. No camera can capture even a glimpse of this fantastic site. A huge ditch and bank sweeps around the top of the hill, giving magnificent views of Salisbury and all around, but what's this? An internal ditch! What's going on here?
The English Heritage sign says that this was for extra materials for the bank. Yeah right. Why not just dig another ditch on the outside ... better defences that way. No, there's something else going on here. Couldn't tell you what, but as soon as I abandoned the dog-walking circuit and headed into the inner-circle, something happened. Not sure what, but for a few moments, I was totally lost in the long grass, and all I could here was the birds hovering in the wind all around.
The kids stayed at the entrance, rolling eggs, whilst I drifted, but by the time I got back, they had gone a bit weird as well, and had made little nests for the eggs in the side of the bank.
An awesome site, that just sits, glimmering in the sun. Welcome aboard.
visited 29/5/00
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Stunning views to the South and East up towards Glastonbury Tor. There's a legend that this was the site of Camelot, and that old Art himself appears every year on Midsummer's Day.
What better way to mark this than installing a large Round Table, right on top of the hill (lottery money apparently) Up in the centre, towards the South side at what is probably the highest point, there's a circle of earth already cut out, so it'll probably be there.
Hurry whilst you can then ...
(visited on Easter Sunday)
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this is one steep hill! -- we went rolling decorated eggs down here on Easter Sunday. Too many ridges and paths to get a satisfyingly smooth roll though ...
but the sheer angle of the hill sways me away from the "can only see it from the air, so it must be for gods/aliens" type theory ... it's the steepest non-cliff hill I think I've been on - perhaps its the nearest the designers were going to get to a suitable canvass for viewing the giant from the road/nearby hills.
Dunno really - just a thought - only by going up there, rather than just looking at it from the road as I've done before, did I think about it
What's that huge scary looking mansion type place opposite all about then?
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watch out for the ocean-like puddle! take your wellies if you're going to go Quoit-squatting
that's crouching under Quoit's, like a little troll ...
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If you need to drain your kids of hyperactivity, then have them try to charge Maiden Castle via the main defences - my record for running is halfway up the second ditch, before collapsing with breathing problems.
An interesting and practical introduction into neolithic architecture and defensive strategy ...
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The Hurlers has the legend that it was a bunch of guys having a Hurl on the Sabbath, with the inevitable Petrifying Result
- the day we went, it was full of Posh Adolescents playing rounders, using a stone as some kind of primitive backstop, and braying at those peculiar frequencies only P.A.'s can muster - we didn't wait to see if history repeated itself --- has anyone counted the stones recently? :-)
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This place is great --- about 20 minutes outside Cheltenham, if you're ever that way. TMA says that you need a map ... there were footpath signs when I went up.
You *do* need to be fit though ... bloody steep bugger of hill to get up
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"Object lesson: the outward appearance of funkitude often belies a nature as stupid as any lager lad."
:-)
9 ladies has had this before - one of the stones there got knocked over by car once as well - dunno if that was a during ritual though ...
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