The track up here is atrocious: you really fear for your car’s suspension. But there was a notice when I visited yesterday and it seems this month they are closing the track for repairs. So if you visit very soon, you’ll probably have to walk up. but it’s not far, just a bit steep.
I suppose it’s unnecessary to repeat what everyone else has said about the inner ditch but I can’t resist. This place does not feel like a fort. For one thing, where’s the extra reinforcing outer bank round the entrance(s)? Where are the extra banks you’d expect on the flatter side? Why is it so awfully symmetrical feeling? And as for the inner ditch... well it’s just not Normal is it, especially so far into the middle of the area, it’s not like it’s right next to the outer bank. Nah, this place is a bit weird. The banks felt like they were keeping out Prying Eyes, but you could still see the panoramic view from the central area. Or maybe the banks were for sitting on to view whatever was going on in the middle, who knows. I wouldn’t buy anything about cattle enclosures either because the young ones here quite liked the challenge of the ditch.
There was a steady stream of visitors. I guess it’s free and near Salisbury, I don’t blame them but I was expecting to get the place to myself. Also you’ll find a lot of sloes in the hedges around the car park, so if you visit you’ll soon be able to gather some for your sloe gin. The rings themselves are an SSSI and there are lots of nice chalkland plants to check out.
Nice fieldnotes Rhiannon. Perhaps once you've brewed (or whatever the verb is for gin) your sloe gin, we could all come and sit on the banks, watching whatever entertainment is on in the centre and getting slowly pissed.
Now that sounds like an excellent idea, I could do with that, I really could.
Are you off to Offa's Dyke as planned? I've only walked a very short bit of it but was amazed how high up it was, it was all wooded. I forget where we were, Montgomery way perhaps. The atmosphere's stuck in my mind better. Hope you have fun.
We went last weekend, cheers. We managed to do a bit more - as far as Ruthin now (22 miles down, 155 to go..). Great hillforts, especially Foel Fenlli - in Postie country there. Pics to follow once I get organised.
My memory is well dodgy and I don't know the arable history of the rings, but the ditch looked a bit weird to be a classic henge ditch. Ocifant describes it as jagged in his notes and that sounds about right. Perhaps it hasn't had the more intensive agriculture of other large henges...
Also, am I right in remembering an external ditch and tall banks?
Oddness abounds!
I don't know about jagged. I thought it all looked very neat to be honest. I reckon they had to cut down into the (relatively) solid chalk, no small job. You'd be right about the agriculture though I guess, too fiddly to plough maybe. But the plants suggest it's not been ploughed in a long while? All quite closely nibbled though what with the cattle and the rabbits. Yeah and an external ditch I think and tallish banks too (tallest on the view side).
Figsbury Ring struck me as a huge space within a considerable bank and ditch. Admittedly it isn't anywhere near as big as the likes of Maiden Castle, which has to be seen to be believed, but it was obviously a big undertaking.
I was struck by how almost perfectly level the interior was, and how it dominated the landscape, i.e. how the views from it (the banks) were extensive, which is probably the whole point of its position.
When will there be a decent dig there, a la Danebury? Now that's another interesting, huge place. Well worth a visit if you liked Figsbury.
As for Figsbury, I loved the place, and the total peace within.
A warning: the car park seemed to be a thieves delight, being concealed from the road and from the ring itself. I'm always a bit suspicious, me. Maybe it's where I come from.
Ah I've not been to Danebury, I didn't realise it was relatively close by. Maiden Castle though, I went there in the spring. It is insane isn't it, just an amazing feat of effort. But as with most forts that sticks to the contours of the land - at Figsbury the shape felt completely contrived to me? and yes like you I was struck by the levelness of the inside - rather like being at (say) Mayburgh henge. Hence the added feeling of hengishness.
I left my car full of assorted detritus and some very stinky cheese I'd just bought, so any thief would have had an unpleasant shock. But I do take your point.
Go to Danebury, Rhiannon, it's in Hampshire, just ENE of Salisbury, in the fork between the A343 and the A30, near the Wallops, and it won't disappoint if you liked Figsbury. It's down a country lane, with a big, free car park. Choose a day of fresh winds, and a patchwork of sunshine and cloud-shadow. The trees that grow within the banks will add the sound, with the wind, that speaks of ages past. It's huge, and is on high land that gives great views. It seemed a lonely place when I went there, which just added to the atmosphere, which I like.
By the way, I like stinky cheese, me. Just had some Morbier, followed by a chunk of Wenslydale Jervaulx Blue - delicious.