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Another curious outcropping of the source stones for Stonehenge and Avebury. This is slightly easier to get to compared withThe Mother’s Jam and The Greywethers as it lies in the middle of the little village. It’s a NT property and there is a small explanatory notice at the entrance.
Disabled: Parking on Road, level access to gate, most can be seen from Rd.

This place is quite an astonishing curiosity. It lies underneath a house called, unsurprisingly, “The Caves” and was open to the paying public until about 1840. As you walk down the steps into the main chamber you are presented with the sight of thousands of bones stacked neatly from floor to roof, bones of bear, ox, wolf & deer. Apparently loads more of the more interesting ones were taken away(where to ?). Later the cave belonged to a Bishop Law who reckoned that the bones were proof of the Biblical Flood and put several monuments/ grottos in the garden above to put across his point! Worth a visit although the garden was a bit overgrown when I went there. Access is only granted a couple of times a year, generally on those days when all sorts of other, usually private, places are open. Local newspaper would have the dates.

Although there is not a lot to see as most of the fort is on a private estate, its site is interesting as it complements Danebury across the River Test. Were they friends or in competition? It’s worth the short walk up the hill as the site is a classic example of chalk downland and full of the rich diversity of flora and fauna this area is noted for.

Disabled: Car park on other side of road.

On a really bizarre day for the weather, 25C+ in April, I visited this site for the first time for at least 15 years. Slightly put off by all the notices in the car park warning of thieves. Walked up to the Trig Point by the entrance and was struck by the fact that, although it is the highest point in the immediate neighbourhood, if it was meant to dominate the crossing of the River Test it doesn’t as it is too far away. Mind you the other hills nearer the river are more conical in shape and were probably too small to support a hill town of any size.
The earthworks on the SE side outside the main ramparts are very confusing and it’s difficult to see, to my untrained eye, how they could have been cattle enclosures.
Inside the E. entrance, which is a bit “managed” with a wooden walkway, I was struck by the difference from my last visit. The inner bank and much of the interior used to be quite thickly wooded, now apart from a small group of cherries and an isolated tree the centre and inner bank are mostly empty. The trees were felled as they were diseased although the ones on the perimeter seem to be fine. The clearance did, of course, make the extensive excavations possible.
Although the site is on high downland and is managed grazed, the flora has yet to completely recover and compared to Woolbury it is a bit of a desert. The clumps of brambles on the banks seen to have been cleared by flame throwers, unfortunately this has also killed the grass holding the topsoil and there was much evidence of slippage of the surface. There was more erosion on the tops of the banks caused by walkers. What does one do? I am as guilty as most but do you keep to the worn bits or do you tread elsewhere and spread the problem?
It’s still a pretty grand site though and it’s easy to imagine the thousand or so people that lived here for about 500 years leading a mostly settled and prosperous existence.
Disabled: Long slope up from carpark on grass.

Making enquiries at the nearby pub (as you do) the Plough Inn at Coldharbour, it was pointed out that it is on private land and the owner doesn’t like people “Wandering over his land with Geiger Counters”, the mind boggles! Might try to get his address and request a visit.

It’s worthwhile checking these stones as their setting is spectacular. They sit high on the SW escarpment of the Mendips and command extensive views to the Bristol Channel, the Quantock and Polden Hills. Exmoor can be seen in the far distance and Glastonbury Tor rises from the Somerset Levels below. When I got there unfortunately there was thick hill mist and you couldn’t see a sodding thing! It was a slow drive-by visit so didn’t get to see the site in detail but there seem to be two stones, a tall one to the S and a more squat one to the N about 10-15M away. The site is very near to the car park for the beautiful Ebbor Gorge.

An Iron Age Hill Fort, promenent above the River Itchen (a pre Celtic name) and Winchester. Oval in plan with ditch and bank following the contours. The bank originally topped with a timber pallisade and the entrance on the NE was inturned and protected with watch chambers. Nothing remains of the Chapel of St. Catherine except a small mound and a distinctive clump of trees. A Miz Maze (qv) and to the NE (over M3) the Dongas, the prehistoric and mediaeval trackways worn deeply into the chalk. A modern stone obelisk accuses the people responsible for the vast cutting accommodating the M3! This side of the hill is treated shamefully by the motorway but the W. side has better views and is quiet and peaceful with superb collections of wild flowers and butterflies.

Disabled: From the North car park, several hundred steep steps. From the South West, parking across busy road, long steepish climb on narrow track. From the North East, tiny lay-by gives onto short uphill road and across bridge, steep climb to top. Although this does not give access to the top, this route would give a fine circular trip esp for wheelchair users as the track from the bridge slopes gently down Plague Pits Valley to meet the level path alongside the Itchen Canal which ends at the North car park.

It would be nice to have more up to date info on this mound as the last research done was in the 50s. If it was a “Roman” burial mound it must have been enormous as the present mound has been “truncated and spread” and is still large. Info at the site mentions that it was built over a previous barrow!
It’s position commands extensive views in all directions and would have been visible for miles. Was it the site of the burial of an impotrant chief as it’s dominant position suggests?
There are few enough prehistoric/Roman structures to be seen in the London area perhaps this is one that has escaped the net.

Disabled: Car park within 100M, Level, mown grass.

I had to wait in the car today for a rare (for this area) snowstorm to pass before I could walk to the fort. The light dusting showed the ditch and bank clearly from afar. What is more obvious is that the barrows clearly dominate the skyline for miles around. The fort builders obviously lived in harmony with these relics from an earlier age. The three tumuli in the top look as though they have been robbed in the past, the usual depression in the top, but next door there is a peculiar circular depression with a small bank about 10 M across. Is this the remains of a Bowl barrow or could it be a dew pond? Near the E entrance there is a new (?) circular pond. Near the two entrances are scattered about 13 other barrows. Geophys has found nearly 70 hut platforms on the site. After the blizard had gone the sky cleared and the views were spectacular, I could see Beacon Hill, another fort just outside Newbury and with better eyesight perhaps the barrows on St. Catherines Down on the I.O.W!
Must come here again when the wind chill is not -10 and explore the whole National Nature Reserve.