I genuinely cannot remember. !

I'd really like to answer this one though in doing so I will contradict something I say later. Way back in those mist-covered days of living in London I was invited on a Pagan Day Out coach trip, organised by people associated with SKOOB Books (back then SKOOB was located near the British Museum and was a meeting place for all sorts of esoteric goings on - most of which were outside of my understanding at the time).

Our first stop was Waylands Smithy, then of course Avebury and West Kennet Long Barrow - with a quick stop at Stonehenge on the way back. I saw a bus heading for my home town Swindon - a place I thought I had left far behind as my parents had moved to Lincolnshire. I had no inkling at that time that life's changes would take me back there. At the turn of the new century take me back they did - and for the past decade Avebury has played a pivotal part in my life.

I went back there the other day (borrowed a friend's NT card as wanted to mooch around the excellent museum and information centre). Lots of school kids learning that Avebury was more than likely a place of prehistoric religious observance. I went back to the henge thinking to go for a walk, the sun was shining - but I looked around me and thought about all the petty squabbling and egocentric behaviour which I now associate with the place and thought it really is time to move on, not just metaphorically but physically too. I said goodbye to Avebury.

I used to play on Maiden Castle as a kid and occasionally Maumbury Rings, but only really thought of them as playgrounds...
As an adult I think a day trip to Avebury with an exes parents when I was at university in the late 90s was my first circle. But buying TMA in september 2001, was what opened the floodgates...

As a child we used to play at Totternhoe Knoll, as well as around the Five Knolls and various other places that I had no idea were of any provenance.

As an adult, though, and more aware of the existence of such places, I suppose it was St Catherine's Hill, in Winchester. Spent a Summer Solstice up there. But prior to that, a bus journey to work used to take me through Avebury, which I never got the chance to stop off at until I'd passed my driving test. It was the first site I visited when I had passed. Or was it Maiden Castle. Oh god this is a minefield. ;)

I could check but that would mean sorting through boxes of old photos, and frankly, my dear, I cannit be arsed! :D

G x

Ist Jan 2000 - I saw Silbury for the first time and then went to Stonehenge (where the visitor centre was squalid, the whole place was covered in litter left by prats and it was closed for half a day for the big clean-up). So that was Wow and Jesus wept what lousy stewardship all in one day, and so it has gone on.

Almost certainly Stonehenge as a schoolchild on a school trip.

I saw a proof copy of the paper TMA shortly before publication, then bought a copy. I note from my Weblogs here that I only started writing up my travels in January 2003 "having visited a lot of sites the previous year", so I don't have a record of what my first site as an enlightened visitor actually was.

Probably the Avebury area though...

Waden Hill one windy morning looking out towards West Kennet Long Barrow. The barrow was there but they hadn’t started on Silbury yet... I’ve said that before somewhere...

First chambered LB - Waylands Smithy whilst walking the ridgeway aged 17, so 1990.

Strichen RSC, 1973.

The very first place that I remember seeing and now know to be prehistoric (but didn't at the time) was Silbury and then Avebury. I was on a coach on the way to watch Swindon play (Blackpool I think but I am likely to be wrong) as my elder brother had dragged me along in a vain attempt to get me to like football. I think I was probably about 8 or 9 so that would be about 1971/1972.
However my first 'hands on' visit was a part of my GCE Archaeology course in 1979 while at college in Chippenham when we first visited Lanhill then Lugbury longbarrows. I must say they made quite an impression on me that has never waned.

:o)

Mine's a bit like Postie's, in that I visited some places before I was interested - I went to several Herefordshire/Shropshire hillforts with my Dad in my teens and got forced up the Brecon Beacons in blister-inducing boots at school.

But the proper cherry-popper was Arbor Low in November 1997. G/F and I had our first holiday together in the Peak District and the cottage we stayed in at Youlgreave had an OS map framed on the wall. I saw Arbor Low marked on it, thought it looked interesting and we walked there one day. Blimey.

The next year we went back to the Peaks again and I found a copy of the paperback Burl in the excellent Bakewell bookshop. This was the real eye-opener and we went to Nine Ladies and Nine Stone Close. We had travelled down from York on the train, it was my birthday week and G/F had managed to lug, in secret, my present with us - the paper TMA! So the two books then got me out to Blakey Topping, High Bridestones, etc. 1999 I went to Four Stones and Mitchell's Fold with my Dad, and the week after the eclipse G/F and I had our first trip to Cornwall together, accompanied by photocopied pages from the orange book and with the Burl book. But it was stone circles mainly, for quite a while. First chambered tomb would have been in Cornwall, probably Tregiffian. First chambered long barrow Belas Knap when we moved to Gloucestershire in 2006.

Down Tor/Hingston Hill Row in 1962, when I was 13, as I used to camp on Dartmoor, at Dean Combe, sometimes even sleeping in the potato caves, a lot during that summer and we went walking from there every day. I didn't know what it was but remember being fascinated enough by it to try an find out what it was.

Avebury was my second in 1963 when I was on a summer camp nearby and we walked there. I was a bit more aware of things then as I had done some research after seeing the row the year before.

I'd never knowingly been to any prehistoric site before I was given a copy of TMA. I devoured the essays at the front, and read the gazetteer with some interest. As luck would have it, a couple of months later, I was lucky enough to go on a camping holiday in Cornwall.

I went to quite a few sites there. I think the first was Men-an-tol.

I'd love to go back there some time. The tip of Cornwall is so beautiful.

I grew up in South Wiltshire - the first site I remember with any clarity would, of course, be Stonehenge. I was actually taken to the free festival every year by my mum and dad (all the locals of Amesbury and Durrington would head up to look at "The Wally's", buy candles and stuff, and generally have a great time).
I also remember being taken up Silbury Hill by my dad, in the days when that was considered ok.
I think I was very lucky to grow up where I did - it has had a lasting and positive effect on me for sure! =;o)

As kid we were camping at the Castlerigg campsite and walked to Casterigg from the campsite. I don't think it had much of an impact on my parents but I never forgot it.

Given the accessibility of the site I'm surprised more people haven't listed this as their first experience

I still love it, and visit at least once a year while we are in the lakes.

We got engaged there - no matter how many other places I visit this one will always be special to me

Hmmm... Probably Rollright Stones, in the rain with Fifi, circa 1982.

Guess mine was Avebury back in the early 80's. Clearly didn't make that much of an impression since it took the high Welsh cairns to tune me into ancient sites. Don't get me wrong... great site. But - for me - no vibe.

Hi bladup

The first site I remember was Grey Wethers, which I visited not long after we moved to the other end of Devon in around 1978/9. Dartmoor in winter was a great place to go for a long walk with kids in those days... maybe they'd not be as interested now with modern distractions!
(Our real 'first site' was Cow Castle on Exmoor, when we lived in N. Devon, but am not sure if it has the sort of 'extant' remains you meant.)

Wish I had an older surname reading this! lol

Just posting to say thanks again for the topic, as it made me drive down to Gwernvale this afternoon and check it out for the first time in about twenty years!

The grass and ivy are a bit out of control atm fairplay..

Really wish i could of seen how it looked before they 'excavated' it...

Tried to have a look at the Llangynidr Stone too, but couldn't spot anywhere to park up..

(Interesting about the Fish Stone/Myarth/Gliffaes thing..
The Gliffaes Hotel has a fish jumping out of a river on it's roadside sign...
Maybe something to do with the salmon in the Usk?)