Visiting Avebury on a School trip in 1969.
Then discovering motorbikes and Stonehenge free festival. £SD etc

Around 1972 my parebts took me to Stonehenge and Avebury. I can remember climbing over the stones at Stonehenge (sorry ... honest!) and the wonder of the place stuck with me. I always wanted to know more. However, I never really got the chance until I was supposed to be at polytechnic. I roadied for a lot of bands and many of the other roadies kept sloping off to stones to get bombed. I went along and got hooked (on the stones, not the being stoned ;-)

After a further absence I moved to Ireland, went to Newgrange & Knowth and was totally disappointed! I knew there must be more to Ireland's monuments than Disneyland! I was right :-)

I've never posted here before, but for me it was....

Long Meg & Daughters on a beautiful August day in 1972 whilst on holiday with my grandparents.

Since then I've tried to visit sites when the opportunity has arisen ( even specifically went to Orkney after reading the TMA ) but I've got nothing on you folks who post here.

Back to Unsung for me, take care stoneheads.

I'm another Avebury convert, was left dumbstruck by the scale of the henge. I can remember standing on the same spot on the SE side for 1½ hours, pondering its construction with stone tools & antlers etc.

Fabulous question, six months ago I had no interest in the old sites ,or anything to do with them.
Then bang, in an instant, as I stood at a spot on the side of Brailes Hill in Warks.
Many on here, understandably doubt Me, but consider something, if there is an energy system that is especially strong around these sites, it may have an effect on our brains, I am sure some on here reckon a big effect on His brain.
Just a thought from another person that is suddenly disappearing under a pile of books ,maps, gps, compasses etc, etc, that has all of a sudden started writing poetry ( not too well, but what the hell ) WHY
K.

London boy never saw a megalith other than the doubtful London Stone. Wed in 1967 and honeymoon in Cornwall. Managed to stagger out on to the clifftop and found two round barrows and promontory fort at Trevelgue - Pow!
Me and the Missis have been following the trail ever since.

I heard Julian on Johnnie Walker promoting TMA as I sat in commuter traffic up the A3 and thought if he's so enthusiastic about this there must be something to it. Anyway TMA was stored away as a good idea for a b'day/xmas present and lo and behold a year later, read the book and started diverting family holidays/weekends to the west. I think that year we thoroughly 'did' Avebury, Silbury, Devils Den etc, and Castlerigg in the Lake District. Have to say its all been down hill since then but we did set the bar quite high early on. Having to save Ireland, Lewis, Orkney for a couple of years whilst the kids still want 'family' holidays.

For me discovering the smaller sites was the light bulb moment, tracking them down and then having them to yourselves. Up until then, a walk in the country was a pay and display car park in a Forestry Commission pine forest with a couple of thousand other 'townies'.
I've since done an ALevel Archaeology, a certificate at Exeter and signing up for a diploma at Leicester.
Thanks Julian.

First I can remember was Castlerigg as a kid in the early '70s. Intrigued by parental tales of druidical sacrifice and general paranormal schlock. Then from teens to early twenties, intermittent visits to stuff in Cumbria, having been disappointed by Stonehenge.

The 'mystery' really kicked in about '92 when I first saw rock art, and found Stan Beckensall's books. The publication of the papery tma added some impetus too, when it made me realise that obscure old rocks and stuff didn't 'belong' to archaeologists,and that crazy hippy types were actually alowed to have an interest in them, a realisation for which I am indebted to Mr Cope as much as I am to Mr Beckensall.

The paraphanalia kicked in when I found this site, before then, I'd never even really bothered taking a camera, figuring who the heck would ever be interested? Now I want to lug ladders, lights, car batteries, water sprayers, laptops, scanners and allsorts up the hills. Probably just as well I can't actually carry suchlike.

I saw a picture of Avebury in a book as a kid. I assumed the stones were a foot or two high and forgot about them for fifty years.

A few years ago I was driving West out of Marlborough with someone, going nowhere in particular. We got over the brow of a hill when this amazing conical Thing loomed up on the horizon. I said What the F*%!! is that?!?... and have been wondering ever since.

Littlestone: "There's something very reassuring about these ancient places".
Totally and utterly agree.

Growing up in sight of Castle Hill hillfort. Seeing pics of Stonehenge in old encyclopedias when I was a kid - wondering what on earth it was, then seeing the place for the first time at the 1984 Free Festival. Also, my fist visit to Ilkley Moor, coming across the rock art at the Hangingstones and visiting the Twelve Apostles circle... must've been about 1982/83ish when it started.

I have been visiting for a number of years a place, local to me,and renowned for its presence,by many in the area,''THE COLDRUM STONES'',VIGO,in KENT..
This is the first place I started my quest for Ancient stone monuments,other than the usual tourist visitations to STONEHENGE...
It suddenly dawned on me,that there must be more sites,and also wondered if there more local to me...
First I came across,the location of ''KITTS COTY'',and ''KITTS COTY HOUSE'',not more than a few stones throw away in fact from ,THE COLDRUM STONES''.
Then the world was my oyster and I was up and down the country most free time...

Yes. I must have about seven years old and on the way back from a holiday in Devon. My Dad thought we should stop off and see Stonehenge. We parked at the side of the road and just walked right up to the stones as i recall. I remember thinking 'corrrr!!' the way only small children can. I was infected. But I became aware of my local circle -the Rollrights- only when I was about 15.
the infection didn't turn into a full blown disease until a lot later in my life.
J
x

I vaguely remember beihg taken to Stonehenge as a small boy back in the early sixties, left the stones alone til 1989 and the Mission's tour of Scotland. Passing Inverness I went to Culloden, what a haunting place, saw a sign for something called the Clava Cairns (didn't know anything about them then). Total peace and tranquility. Been travelling all over this beautiful country ever since trying to understand WHY. Now my flat's on sale and I'll move west to get closer to them. A very strange strange magic, indeed.http://lyrics.rare-lyrics.com/L/Levellers/Men-an-tol.html

Can't remember exactly how old I was - probaby about 10

Camping at Castlerigg in the lakes my parents took me on a walk to the stone circle - I was hooked.

18 months ago on midsummers eve I took my new partner to castlerigg, she had never been to a stone cicle - she was hooked insantly.

Off all the sites I've seen, whcich is sadly too few, I still love the drama of Castlerigg above them all

Cheers

Dave

Remember the seventies spooky kids tv series set in Avebury, Children of the Stones ?
Thats when i first got fascinated...
about the same time my mum was into the british society of dowsers and i got to know about some cumbrian circles.
the first time i really hung out at a circle was at the stonehenge festival in 83...even in the crowd, or maybe because of the crowd, there was a sense of timelessness and awe.
Now im back in cumbria and have still got lots to discover and explore... : )