The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

West Kennett

Long Barrow

Fieldnotes

Yet another visit 11.2.13

The light was starting to fail as we headed home via the (slight detour) of Avebury (as you do!)
I had fully planned to just have a quick ‘drive by’ of WKLB, Silbury Hill and of course the standing stones. At least that was the plan until we approached the deserted parking place for WKLB.
‘Mind if I have a quick visit as the children are asleep?’ I enquired
‘I thought you would say that!’ came the reply.
5 minutes later I was squelching my way up the hill through the mud.

They had clearly had a lot of rain here recently and the little stream you cross before the climb up was the highest I have ever seen it – just short of bursting its banks.

On the way up I was surprised to see four ladies also making their way up – I expected to have the place to myself at this time of the day. The ladies all wore different brightly coloured wellies and therefore weren’t as concerned about the mud as I was.

I strode on ahead of them in order to get some time to myself in the tomb.
The wind was biting and in the distance the hills were covered in snow.
It was also nice to be able to see the ‘Silbury moat’ for myself – I had recently seen the pictures posted on this site. Silbury never fails to impress.

Once inside the chamber and out of the wind all was silent except for the drip, drip of water falling off the stones.
I hadn’t brought a torch and in the gloom my eyes were finding it difficult to adjust.
A faint smell of incense filled the chambers – not overly strong and quite pleasant.
Nothing had changed since my last visit but there is of course no question that this is a very special place.

I heard the ladies arrive outside and to be fair to them they waited outside to allow me ‘my time’.
As I exited they came in – torch in hand.
‘I didn’t bring a torch’ I explained ‘as I wasn’t planning on stopping – but felt I had to’
‘A lot of people say that’ the one holding the torch replied ‘it’s like paying your respects’.
Quite……..

By the time I got back to the car it was seriously dark and I was only just about able to make out some of the standing stones as we drove through the stone circle and home.
Posted by CARL
15th February 2013ce

Comments (1)

Your account made me smile mate, rude not to "just call in" isn't it. :) harestonesdown Posted by harestonesdown
17th February 2013ce
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