Re: Arriving at a site. | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Arriving at a site.

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Rupert Soskin Aug 5, 2010 09:32:47

Replying to texlahoma

Different things excite me. The biggest WOW was Skara Brae - so personal and with no mumbo-jumbo. You could say with absolute certainty that someone stood 'here', or went to sleep 'here... amazing.
But the excitement of finding a smaller site hidden in forest gets me every time. Assycombe is still very high on my list for exactly that reason.

suave harv Aug 5, 2010 09:45:49

Replying to Rupert Soskin

Good thread!

I never know how I'm going to feel and that's the fun of it. Sometimes I can be seriously underwhelmed - Lacra stone circles, the first time at Mitchells Fold, Blakely Raise. . . even Callanish! That's not to say I didn't enjoy my visit or wish I hadn't gone, it's just the arrival didn't have the 'wow'.

Yet sometmes I get a buzz like no other, almost to the point where it's scary. Cothiemuir Wood and Tyrebagger in Aberdeenshire, the Druid's Circle by Conway bay, Boscawen Un and Reenascreena in Cork all completely moved me in a way I can't describe.

I'm hoping to get similar vibes in Dartmoor soon. I bought OS map 191 two days ago and I can't believe the amount of sites there!

Megalithics Aug 5, 2010 11:31:46

Replying to Rupert Soskin

Rupert Soskin wrote:

The biggest WOW was Skara Brae - so personal and with no mumbo-jumbo. You could say with absolute certainty that someone stood 'here', or went to sleep 'here... amazing.

When "visited" Skara Brae a couple of years ago and we were very disappointed. There was NO access to any of the houses and the best preserved house had an opaque roof fitted so that the interior was completely hidden. The internal access passages and doorways are also completely off limits and largely invisible, as for the rock art we were keen to see, absolutely impossible.
You travel all that way, get within a few metres and you are not allowed into even one house, pure torture. It's the fab "Stonehenge" experience all over again.
At the visitor centre there was replica of a house that you could enter, complete with fictional roof, yeah, we definitely travelled all that way to "experience" a replica.
In contrast, if you hop over to the Knap of Howar houses on Papa Westray you CAN stand where they stood and even have a rummage in their cupboards. We got a really warm "good stoney experience" glow after visiting Howar instead of the simmering frustration produced at Skaraworld.

Maggie & Keith