Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Images
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
I had put off coming here for years, wary of the whole twee ‘bride and groom posing upon a craggy rock like elitist Victorians-vibe’. However, once through the turnstile, this is actually a pretty impressive prehistoric site.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Pretty much how one might suppose a Mesolithic cave settlement to be, to be fair?
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
In addition to the obvious overhangs, the sandstone crags are riven with deep fissures providing a lot of scope for high-end Mesolithic camping. The wooden bridge forms part of the elevated walkway allowing punters to traverse the NW flank of the site of the hillfort, above.
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image credit: 2011 www.illustrativemaps.co.uk
Image credit: 2011 www.illustrativemaps.co.uk
High Rocks, looking south into the area of mesolithic shelter. Stairs on left are modern!
Image credit: Sussex Archaeological Society
Articles
Didn’t think I’ll like it – but I did
On a blustery but sunny day I travelled to visit High Rocks for the first time. I had know about the place since going to see British Sea Power there last year, but had never seen it up close nor in daylight.
As we approached the site I was struck by the size of the rocks, just sitting there majestically on the top of the hill, seemingly out of place with the surrounding environs.
After paying to enter ( I like to be honest about these things, and did get to see the groom from the wedding party in top hat and platform boots! ) the girlfriend and I entered through the rusty gates, then spent the next hour exploring this peaceful place.
The giant rocks cast a magical spell over this part of kent, with the potential for massive enjoyment for the smaller members of the HH crowd! there are caves and crevises, trees and plants, rope swings, climbable rocks and mostly, the peace and tranquility of an english countryside that is fast disappearing.
Truly, this place is special, and I will be visiting again, next time with the kids
Just off a minor road linking the village of Groombridge (and the B2110) with Royal Tunbridge Wells (and the A264 and A26)
Arrived at this site just after sunset on the way back to West Sussex after a look at the Addington/ Chestnuts Longbarrow and Coldrum.
We sneaked in through the open turnstile (You are supposed to pay £2 at the bar of the High Rocks Hotel to view the site, but as it was nearly dark we thought this wasn’t good value!)
These certainly are some huge and impressive rock formations, overhangs and caves, and all the more atmospheric in the failing light. I thought I had seen some big old sarsens at Coldrum earlier in the day, but these great natural forms are giants compared to those.
Excavations in 1954 and 1956 revealed a range of microlith (small flint tool) types and flint knapping debris apparently associated with areas of charcoal and fire cracked flint. These are presumably the remains of fires or hearths, though whether they were contained in an independent structure, or whether the overhang itself provided enough protection is unclear. High Rocks has been carbon dated to around 4500BC, quite late in the Mesolithic. Nothing of the Mesolithic levels themselves can be seen, but you can get a good idea of the nature of the rock shelters that nestle at the base of the cliff.
The overhangs apparently provided shelter for a variety of Neolithic and Bronze Age hunting parties as well.
You can walk through the fissures in the rocks, and then ascend one of the rock cut stairways to traverse the top of the cliff over rickety looking wooden bridges. There is an Iron Age enclosure/ hill fort on top of the escarpment, but we didn’t check that out this trip.
We thought we’d be clever and get back to the car park without going through the main gate, but soon discovered that they have done a pretty good job of fencing in the site, so if you go in the day you may well have to get your £2 out I am afraid!
Now, The Citizen Cairn must declare upfront that this is not the sort of site I would normally seek out... set within the grounds of an idyllic hotel and considered a ‘romantic’ venue for wedding parties to pose for snaps after ‘the event’. Yeah, “Oh, this one’s me and Britney about to fall to our deaths... doesn’t she, like, look, like lush, innit?” Yeah, OK, one has to pay an entrance fee and enter through a locked gate as – to judge by the not-so-modern graffiti carved into the sandstone – have many, many before me.... but I have to say this is actually a rather fabulous place.
Consider: not only are the sandstone crags (the ‘High Rocks’) impressive in stature; they are also the site of a number of later Mesolithic shelters which one can explore, albeit a bit boggy underfoot in places. Furthermore, the crags, themselves, form the northwestern flank of a multi-phase Iron Age hillfort perched above. As it was, I couldn’t make out a great deal of the ‘landward’ defences of the promontory, but nevertheless, this is a thought-provoking, aesthetically appealing place.
The sandstone crags are interconnected by a high-level ‘aerial walkway’, a rather unique feature... although if you’re bringing children along ensure you enforce the same restrictions as for hill walks: needless to say, a slip could have potentially fatal consequences. Just like for our Gaz and Britney.
Sites within 20km of High Rocks
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High Rocks Hill Fort
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Saxonbury Hill
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Castle Hill, Tonbridge
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Tile Lodge
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Peat Lump Hill
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The Park Fort
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Dry Hill
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Oldbury Hillfort
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Squerryes Park
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Oldbury Rock Shelters
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Wildernesse Barrow
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