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I used to get taken to Stonehenge every year without fail, en route to the family holiday in Bounemouth. Also visited Nine Ladies in Derbyshire (again on a family day out) when I was young, and have vague memories of it having some horrendous wall surrounding it.

Visits to sites really kicked off though after getting hold of a copy The Modern Antiquarian during a holiday in Glastonbury in 1999. We made a trip out to Avebury the next day, and visiting old stones has been an obsession ever since!

Well, it's all a bit complicated. The first time I ever got in the car and actively sought an ancient place it was Stonehenge, it was my twenty first birthday present to my self, I was with my best mate and my girlfriend of the time, I remember the stones were very big (and they are).
But with much hindsight I now know that Beeston Crag was my first ancient place, I must have been something like ten maybe twelve it was a school trip to the local castle, there was no little visitor center, for another twenty years I thought it was just a castle, now its some kind of Neolithic enclosure, a bronze age settlement and a hill fort.
Maiden castle,( not that one, mine) was seen (but not recognised) on a scout hike across the sandstone trail, age ten maybe.
My first planned trip to a burial chamber was West Kennet long barrow, Avebury was my second circle
But my real first burial chamber was Plas Newedd on Anglesey, I was fourteen, another school trip. I didn't know it was a 5000 yr old burial chamber, I thought maybe it was a folly of some kind (yet didn't know what a folly was) Only a big orange book inspired trip revealed i'd been there before.
So even without my knowing it I've been doing this all my life, they just pulled me in, and now there's no way out other than to see it through.

Ravenfeather wrote:
I used to get taken to Stonehenge every year without fail, en route to the family holiday in Bounemouth. Also visited Nine Ladies in Derbyshire (again on a family day out) when I was young, and have vague memories of it having some horrendous wall surrounding it.

Visits to sites really kicked off though after getting hold of a copy The Modern Antiquarian during a holiday in Glastonbury in 1999. We made a trip out to Avebury the next day, and visiting old stones has been an obsession ever since!

Thanks a lot, showing your age with that silly wall [ i've only seen it myself in photos though ]. The modern antiquarian is povotal to a lot of people [myself included] as you would expect on this site.