Caburn Walker
For someone who has the word "walker" in his chosen name I haven't done much walking recently.
So last Sunday I set off from my front door and walked to and from the summit of Mount Caburn, Lewes' pre-Roman counterpart.
I haven't been up there since Lammas 2001, a whole world away in terms of life change.
It was like saying hello to an old friend...
Mount Caburn means a lot to many people in the town of Lewes I think.
It was the nearest settlement of any size to the site that Lewes was eventually founded on by the Saxons and can be seen from much of the town.
The skyline of the hill from the town means that the ditch and bank of the fort seems to cut it off from the rest of the ridge on which it stands. The hill the fort was built upon is fairly distinctive anyway, being a dome with broad slopes sweeping down from it to the south, while it seems almost to be the head of a giant downland animal, the rest of the downland ridge that it forms part of trailing behind the hill to the north. This ridge is the only block of the South Downs that is not a part of the main ridge along which the South Downs Way runs, having been cut off from it by the Glynde Reach river, that you will see joining the river Ouse to the south west.
When you approach the fort from the north the ditch and bank are very prominent, but the part of the hill still inside the fort protrudes above it still, giving an impression of a round hat, or, one might say, a flattened Dalek's head!
Once inside the fort one seems simply to be on a hill, as the whole ditch and bank becomes far less obvious. This is particularly true on the southern side, where the defences are far less spectacular. I have always been told this is because on this side any attacker would have had quite a climb first. I'm not entirely convinced though, as this does not take account of attackers circling from the northern side. For me, the steep hill suggests some erosion of the defences on this side, though I have no evidence for this either way.
In any case the view is very impressive for a hill that is not actually that high (150m above sea-level), particularly of the downland ridge to the south. Firle Beacon and Windover Hill, home to the Long Man of Wilmington, can also be seen to the south east.
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Ballynoe from the air
A friend of mine who lives in the North took these pictures of Ballynoe today.
What a strange site! The long barrow built AFTER the circle goes completely against my understanding of the usual pre-historical sequence for things megalithic. But then again my understanding of these things does tend to be quite southern England based.
I'm starting a forum thread on this, in case anyone can shed any light.
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Long Man vandalism 6 months on...
A member of Heritage Action asked me on Wednesday if I had any photos of the vandalism committed at the Long Man of Wilmington on 14/9/04.
I have been remiss in my duties as a supposed HA Site Inspector in that, at the time when it happened, I didn't even visit the site due to being insanely busy with other stuff, not that I couldn't have spared an afternoon.
Today I made up for this with a very depressing walk up Windover Hill to see the damage six months on.
As you can see from this picture, which is not colour or contrast adjusted, even on a foggy day the slogan is still clearly visible, which was no doubt the intention of the scum who put it there.
After a walk up the path to the east of the Long Man that reminded me how unfit I have become this winter, I arrived at the site.
There is some plant growth on the letters, but not much, and still a lot of scorched earth.
It would also appear that any gorse bushes that got in the way were destroyed possibly before the fire was lit.
Most of the surface consists of bare earth covered with lank dead grass. Once summer comes the whole surface should grow over, but the slogan will still be visible simply by virtue of the different treatment dealt out to the ground that was burnt.
It is truly disgusting, regardless of one's feeling as regards the cause these morons thought they were fighting for, that anyone should choose to desecrate a sacred landscape in this way. Having taken all the pictures I thought I needed (And there are more) I took out my water bottle and symbolically watered the entire slogan in reverse, while uttering words of ill-will towards the inbreds who had put it there.
If my words have some effect on their lives, either of a redemptory or punitive nature, then that is all to the good. If I am just a silly druid who thinks he can do magic and stuff, then all I can say is that, in the face of such f****wittedness, it made me feel better.
If you should happen to find yourself on Windover Hill with a full bladder at some point in the future can I also recommend this as a particularly appropriate place to relieve yourself. It does the ground no harm and is one of the most primal forms of ritual condemnation.
Do I seem a little angry by any chance?
As an afterthought, at the time the vandalism was carried out the C*ntryside Alliance put this up on their website:
Page from the Countryside Alliance's own website, bragging about the vandalism, including a picture of it taking place.
17/8/05 UPDATE: They seem to have removed the picture. What a shame...
2/8/06 UPDATE: It's back again. Maybe they think the heat is off now...
5/7/07 UPDATE: And it's gone again
This is interesting, as the photo can only really have been taken by someone who was participating in the act.
I don't know for sure if this is a picture of the Long Man vandalism, but if it was taken on private land, or on a Site of Special Scientific Interest, then there may be legal implications for the CA. I wonder if anyone would like to ask them for permission to put the photo onto TMA? I imagine one would do this via their contacts page at:
http://www.countryside-alliance.org/contact/Countryside_Alliance_General_Enquiries/
If they refuse permission that means they are admitting copyright of the picture, and therefore responsibility for its being taken by a participant in the action. If they deny ownership, and will not say who does own the picture, then I doubt the copyright owner will want to come forward, so it is effectively for free distribution.
What's the betting they take this page down soon?
All I can say to that is FILE > SAVE AS
Wonderful thing the Internet ;-)
2006 UPDATE
I visited the Long Man again last Friday (21/7/06). The vandalism caused, or at least supported, by the C*ntryside Alliance is still very much visible, as the quality of vegetation is different where the letters were burnt on the hillside.
Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. I'll try to get back there sometime soon.
I still have a copy of the web-page on which the CA condoned this action. They took it down originally as soon as they realised that it might not have been such a bright idea after all. My wife went and took more pictures for me on 28/7/06.
As I was putting them up on TMA I discovered that the CA have put the original article on this BACK on their website, including the offending picture.
Considering the fact that the damage is still visible at the Long Man I find this unbelievable.
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Winter Solstice in Croydon.
Tue 21/12/04 3:53 pm
When you say to most people that you will be celebrating the Winter Solstice on the top of a wooded hill in Croydon they tend not to believe you.
In fact the view from the ridge over Purley, to the south west, and the effect of the street lights coming on just after the Winter Solstice sunset was more beautiful than I expected. This really does form a perfect arena for this event, with the woods all around, except specifically to the south west.
We first came up here with friends a year ago for the sunset. They are also druids and had decided to find sites where they lived that could be used for druid ceremony, rather than always coming down to Sussex.
The only downer is that, as usual, I could not actually see the sunset. As a Pagan I have NEVER seen a Winter Solstice sunset. I've looked at where they are happening at exactly the right time every year, but my failure to actually see the Sun is almost a tradition now. It is testament to our friendship that I am welcome back next year, despite the fact that our friends HAVE seen the sunset up here at the times I haven't joined them.
Maybe next year...
I came up here to photograph the site two days before the Solstice as the light was good considering the time of year.
It is a very low barrow that does not come out well on camera, though is easy to make out while actually there. The setting is perfect for a bronze-age burial and it is still very easy to imagine what the view looked like before London existed.
On the Winter Solstice the Sun apparently sets along the Crooked Valley that apparently gives Croydon its name. This is the valley through Purley that the A23 now follows.
In the woods to the south east, along the ridge, there is a raised area of ground that looks like it MAY be another barrow, but I can't be certain. It isn't marked as such on the OS map. The established barrow is at TQ338632 and this other area is at TQ338631. The path divides either side of it and when I was there it was a distinct area of greenery (See picture)
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Good Friday at the Lewes Tump
I went to see the Good Friday service at the Tump for the first time in a few years, mainly because I wanted to get some pictures of the cross being erected on the summit.
My attitude towards this has softened recently. Most people in Lewes assume the Tump was made by the monks of the medieval Priory as a Calvary Hill, so this is not really an act of conscious Christianisation, even if it is in fact.
The cross was carried at the head of a silent procession through the town to the Tump, where a small group carried it to the top, while the rest of the procession stayed on the adjoining Bowling Green.
Then there was a short inter-denominational service, which is taken by a different local church each year.
As a non-Christian I have to say I found it a dignified and moving event, despite the inevitable references to anyone who is not a Christian being deficient in character.
This is one of the few occasions when most of the Christian denominations in the town come together to worship. This can only be a good thing as there are all too many parts of the world in which this is still not possible, some not so far away. But there is still an unavoidable exclusionist element to the proceedings. As a Pagan I was completely an outsider looking in, and the Tump, a site that has very strong personal meaning for me, felt somehow "taken" from me for this short time.
The fact that many in the town object to the cross was mentioned in the sermon, and this kind of attitude is always assumed to originate from such people feeling somehow "challenged" by its presence.
While I have no doubt this is true in some cases, and that this "challenge" is of the sort that many people may need in their lives, it needs to be acknowledged by those who erect this cross that many of these objections may run a little deeper than this and are not signs of moral degeneracy, but of genuine discomfort in seeing a communal site seemingly "claimed" in such an open manner.
After the service I went to the summit to look at the cross more closely, and in particular the hole in which it is placed.
It felt good to be able to go straight back onto the Tump once the service was over, and the fact one is able to do this helps me to be far more tolerant of the occasion than I would otherwise be.
Until Easter Monday the cross is left to the mercies of the weather and whoever goes up there to look at it, and there have been years when it has not survived this process. I hope it does though. Partly because I expect as much tolerance of my beliefs and partly because there is little point in giving people further excuses for self-righteous indignation.
As I have said before, the only thing I really object to about this tradition is the way in which this hole is left open after the cross is taken down each year, so that it can accumulate a new collection of lager cans.
A spade, some earth and more respect for the place outside its role as cross-bearer is all it would take.
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I am an Atheist Naturalist Humanist Neo-Pagan Ritualist Revivalist Philosophical Druid (Yes that title is tongue-in-cheek), living and practising in Sussex.
The Long Man of Wilmington is a site of great importance for me and was the first with which I feel I connected spiritually. In 1998 I started walking extensively in the area of the Long Man as well as taking an interest in its history.
Both my grandfathers died in early 1999 (See my fieldnotes on Windmill Hill). As a way of honouring them, between April 1999 and August 2000 I walked the route from Eastbourne, in East Sussex, to The Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire, via the South Down's Way, Winchester Cathedral, the Clarendon Way, Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, the Vale of Pewsey, Avebury and the Ridgeway.
The walk also took in visits to both of their graves, in Sussex and Wiltshire, en route.
In 2001 I extended this walk from Salisbury Cathedral, West to Wells Cathedral and then on to Glastonbury Tor.
Nearly all of my earlier pictures were taken during these walks and I tend to focus, overall, on Sussex and the South Downs.
In recent years I have also taken an interest in Ireland, as marrying into an Irish family does tend to mean one visits the place from time to time!
Although I have become an atheist, I still class myself as a Pagan. This can give rise to interesting discussions!
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