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Fieldnotes
| It is still a difficult place to find, there are no signs pointing the way until you are at the small car park. Leaving the B4449 west of Stanton Harcourt head south following signs for the Recycling and waste centre, it is a dead end road, just keep following the road without deviation. As you enter the Recycling centre there will be a small car park immediately left. Use eagle eyes to pick out the small sign saying Devil's Quoits. Follow the path alongside of the big lake with birds on it until the henge and stones appears to your right. Bingo! I didn't really know what to expect from this place, it's newness, it's fresh out of the box feel could have been overpowering, the landfill site right smack next door to it could have been suffocating. Both of these things are an inescapable part of the Devil's Quoits, but they should not put you off from visiting. People are passing by all the time but they are just folk out for a nice walk by the lake with lots of birds on it, they did not intrude upon my solitary musings. So I start a walk round the stones, as it happens anti clockwise or widdershins, the first two things one notices about the stones is that some are really quite big and all of them are a lovely Cotswoldy yellow in colour. Other things one notices are some stones are quite small, one stone is outside the circle, pointing in, Clive Ruggles says it has no astronomical function, but the information board ignored him and said it does. One stone near the west entrance is clearly a few feet within the circle. As I approach the east entrance I go for what I assume is a little trespass, through the earthwork over a not fence and up the landfill hillock with big valves on it. A good view of the entire site can be had from here, though the knowledge of what I'm standing on is a little stomach churning. Back in the circle I carry on my unfavourable circuit of the stones, one stone a smaller one is strongly grey, standing stark against the yellow/orange of the other stones. I wonder who chose which stones go where and how they settled on this format. Mind you I wonder that at most stone circles, but the mind behind this lot is still alive and approachable. Back at the entrance I have a quick look at the information board, it is, unsurprisingly, informative. Either side of the entrance are some large stones that must not have made the cut for some reason but then got left behind, spares? The henge is slowly, or indeed quite quickly being eroded by burrowing rabbits, I have not seen such bunny destruction in a very long time if ever, the cute little darlings should be annihilated without mercy. All too soon it is time to go, but my time here, was, I felt, well spent. Upon my return to home I found out that not all the stones were modern replacements, at least three, including one of the big ones are original Devil's Quiots. Strangely (or not) this made me feel a little better about the site. |
Posted by postman16th February 2020ce Edited 16th February 2020ce
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