Busy busy busy, but no so busy that I can't rearrange my life, get up at 4am, bomb down to the coast & back again in a mad 7 hour period, taking in 5 sites in one location. That location would be Wilmington Long Man & associated stuff.
Ok, it wasn't long before I realised that it was too far to do in a morning (especially as I had to be at work at midday in Richmond), but I was desperate for countryside so the traffic jams & being late for work were definately worth it.
The sites themselves were worthy. Enigmatic & holding views as good as Adam's Grave, shame I don't live closer really...
[visited 14/07/03] Been here a couple of times before, but this was the first time I've climbed the hill (Like Dyer says, you can see it with binoculors perfectly well from the carpark :).
It apparently dates from Saxon times, though as per the rumour is something was painted here well before that. I will say the hill surface it is on is surprisingly flat and to my mind marks the quarries, almost like a first attempt at a billboard! [visited 14/07/03] If I hadn't known this was a barrow, I would have thought it was either related to the fint mines next to it or some weird hillfortesque defense. The reason for my confusion is it seems to curve along the edge of the hill, though that could have been my sleep addled mind...
All in all its a good length, though fairly denuded & with a bit missing (the platform?). The question in my mind is whether the fint mines are contempory as Dyer hints. [visited 14/07/03] Well, I'm by far a cursus expert but I always thought they were much wider and generally bigger than this. However look at the pictures; it is a very strange track, it heads straight to one end of the barrow and it does go straight up a very steep hill. I would guess the central mound (and it is raised) is about 5 metres across.
Unfortunately I didn't get to the end at the bottom of the hill due to time constraints, so I have no idea how far it went etc... [visited 14/07/03] Amazing views to the east, spoilt by the low sun & the early morning haze, which to be fair made the whole experience seem more mystical. This mound is a strange one, I wasn't sure where the mound ended and the edge of the hill began. Of course being the wrong side of the barbed wire fence didn't help.
I'll be back to have a proper shufty at this, the other side of the fence.
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