This 1755 picture of the rings appears in Francis Grose’s 1777 ‘Supplement to the Antiquities of England and Wales’. I feel a bit irked that I overlooked this place when I visited Maiden Castle last year. I blame it on the totally roman-centric brown ‘amphitheatre’ signs everywhere. (plus no research on my part).
That’s a gallows on the horizon which is a bit ghastly. Grose says that the bank is “somewhat injured on the side next the gallows, by the trampling of men and horses at executions... At Mrs Channing’s execution (A D 1705) there were supposed to be 10,000 spectators present, who filled the sides, top, and area of this work...” Very unpleasant.
Image credit: J Newton
Weird. I always imagined the gallows inside the henge...