texlahoma
one of the many hut cirlcles scattered around
Image credit: texlahoma
Charlie and I visited Hambledon & Hod Hill for the first time on saturday. We climbed Hod Hill first, trying our best to avoid the cows coming straight for us. It was a beautiful sunny day and on top of the hill the views were amazing as we walked around the top of the hill with nothing but the birdsong and butterflies to distract us.
Afterwards we made the steep climb up to Hambledon. The hill looks so impressive on the climb up to the top and once there the views are even more incredible than from Hod Hill. We saw a deer on the way up and horses running through fields. There is actually a small lay by by two houses at the bottom of the hill if you want to park as close as possible. If not the car park at Hod Hill is only a short walk away.
Visited the Harpstone again this afternoon and found that the approach to the field containing the Harpstone has been cleared and is no longer overgrown. The once slippy steep climb down to the stone is no more. The land has been cleared of all the overgrown trees and plants and a railing has been put in place with a “footpath” sign attached. It is so much easier to get to the stone now.
Source: Bournemouth Daily Echo
Date Published: Friday 10 June 2005
AN ancient standing stone from a lost sun temple has been unearthed by dowsers in east Dorset.
Students on a local dowsing course discovered the hidden Bronze Age relic at Knowlton Henge, two miles south of Cranborne.
Experts believe it is one of the most exciting finds in the region for years.
And, intriguingly, the dowsers pinpointed the ancient flat stone after spotting an energy line on a photo of the area.
“It’s a very significant find,” said Paul Craddock, chairman of Wessex Dowsers and a local dowsing tutor.
“Where the stone was discovered, we believe there may have an avenue of stones. We also think there is a second stone close by, buried upright in the ground.”
Dating as far back as 4,000BC, the large slab is thought to have been part of the stone circles of a pagan sun temple.
It is widely believed the henge was either knocked down or broken up when the now ruined 12th century Norman Knowlton Church was built on the same spot.
It was common practice for early Christians to take over the older pagan sites, as local people were used to worshipping at the sacred circles.
Some of the stones are thought to have been used in the church’s foundations, and may also form part of the altar.
Dowsing expert Paul Craddock, from Parkstone, first suspected an energy line running in the area near the stone after a “ghost” line appeared on three photographs taken by a friend’s son.
He runs courses on dowsing and decided to take his students up to the site to practise some of their dowsing techniques.
One tracked the energy line directly to the stone, which was lying hidden under thick weeds.
Dorset ancient stone expert and author Peter Knight has now examined the megalith and says he is “very excited” about the find, and keen to notify local archaeologists.
Paul was delighted with the success of his dowsing students.
“Most people know dowsing as a means of finding water with a twig, but it can also be used for archaeological searches, building site surveys, tracing lost objects, and much more,” he said.
Government departments and public utilities both here and abroad discreetly make use of the techniques, as dowsers are far cheaper than ordering full site surveys.
During the Vietnam War in the 1970s, US soldiers were taught dowsing to locate hidden Viet Cong tunnels.
It can also be used in healing, said Paul, with many doctors in Germany, Austria and France using dowsers in their health care programs.
And he says interest in dowsing is on the rise locally, with more students signing up for courses in techniques using rods and pendulums.
For more details, call Paul at Wessex Dowsers on 01202 733452.
First published: June 10
thisisbournemouth.co.uk/dorset/east_dorset/news/EAST_DORSET_NEWS_NEWS1.html
The relief to be out of the way of all that traffic and up on the moors was enough to compensate for the downpour of rain that greeted us as we were looking for the The Plague Market At Merrivale. At first this proved a little difficult as the mist swept in so suddenly and we could only see a few feet ahead of us and could see no evidence of stone rows or circles as we wandered around, although there were stones everywhere. All of a sudden the mist lifted out as quickly as it had appeared and the sun broke through shining down upon one of the stone rows now stood right in front of me. i waved across to charlie and we made our way in awe walking down these amazing stone rows. the stream running between the rows was really high and made an amazing sound that i wish i’d recorded. we spent the next hour or so looking at Merrivale Stone Circle, the menhir and investigating all the hut circles, what a place! it was very peaceful, maybe it the changeable weather but there seemed to be little in the way of traffic or other people about.
we headed off to The Spinsters’ Rock. We found it easily, driving up the tiny lane to the farm at the top and parking in the lay by next to the gate. the site was well signposted both from the road and at the lay by. The field was full of sheep and a beautiful horse that didn’t move the whole time we were there. the sun still graced us with it’s presence only occasionally dipping behind the clouds. The spinsters’ Rock looked perfect, we spent our time just chilling out and pondering on the legends of the spinsters or witches or Mysterious Old Man and his three sons putting up these stones.
On the summit of cloud hill is a stone outcrop known as the drummer’s knob. It is said that at this place during the Jacobite rebellion an English sniper killed a young Jacobite drummer boy. He is said to haunt the area with his ghostly drumming.
It is also said that a giant dropped his shoe on the hill and was then startled by a small animal and fled leaving his shoe behind. The shoe then turned to stone over many years and now looks like a boulder with a hollowed out face.
We drove to mow cop and the castle built in 1754. there is a suggestion that mow cop was used as a watchtower by the romans although no evidence has been found of their occupation. i could imagine this though standing their looking out as it would make the perfect location for a watchtower. even more than this the place does feel like it could have been an important ancient site, especially because of the hills prominence on the landscape for miles around and the natural outcrop of rock that looks so dramatic breaking the view on the horizon between the earth and the sky. there are also some upright standing stones here within the rocks but i don’t know from when they originate. as well as all this though there is the old man o’ mow, which is situated on an ancient cairn, before the castle was built the cairn would have been the highpoint of the land and it is though that it was a burial mound linked to the bridestones, although it could simply be a boundry between two counties.
As we approached the Bridestones the sky was dark towards Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Welsh hills in the far off distance. we did encounter the barking of dogs on approach to the stones although they quickly stopped again leaving us in peace. As we entered the enclosure the sun broke through the sky and created amazing views past the stones and across the landscape. This is an amazing place to visit and in very good condition. By the gate there is what looks like a capstone to the tomb or maybe it is another standing stone which has fallen over at some point, either way it is huge.
looking at the stone from the stream behind the barbed wire fence.
Image credit: texlahoma
i visited this site for the first time with charlie and juamei on dec 27th 2004. juamei is spot on about it being very muddy getting to the stone in the winter time, so do wear good walking boots. the stone once you get there is magnificent, a really interesting shape with lots of detail. we found that we could get to the other side of the stone by going to the end of the field and walking back up on the other side of the hedge, this is a really nice approach to the stone as well but if you can’t be bothered to walk round you could always slip under the barbed wire.
We visited the cloud on sunday the 14th 2004. This used to be a local walk for me for years, as I grew up in this area. The views from up top are incredible, whatever the time of year. This is one place where you can’t help but feel alive after the walk to the top. From a distance the cloud is always there on the horizon, huge and magnificent!
Dragon Hill is an amazing place. As we walked down from the White Horse the sun shone through the cloudy sky illuminating it as we made our way down. There are great views from here of Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle and of the surrounding Oxordshire countryside. It’s a great place to sit and gather your thoughts too, whether contomplating the slaying of dragons or anything else for that matter.
Charlie and I visited this site again today. This time it was late afternoon and the sun was setting fast as we got out of the car and took some photos of the henge on this Halloween night. Last time we we here in the middle of the day and the ground was covered in snow. Today the place took on a completely different feel as night set in, and we saw the place for the first time in relation to the night sky. There is some work going on inside the church at the moment, and the scaffolding inside from some angles somewhat spoils the overall vibe of the place, as does the portaloo right at the entrance to the henge. However this didn’t detract from our time, walking around the henge in the dark, lit only by the moon and stars with the sounds of owls hooting and far away farm dogs barking into the night.
A beautiful Autumn day was spent yesterday at Waylands Smithy. The orange leaves falling all around on a gentle breeze, in this most tranquil spot. People came and went as we sat there and moved around taking our photographs, a popular place for those on foot or bikes and passed every now and then by huge off road vehicals powering down the ridgeway. Sstill this didn’t bother me as I sat inside each of the chambers totally switching myself off from the world outside. This place is an absolute treasure.
Charlie and I visited the white horse for the first time yesterday, and what a place! The views from just above the horse on the hill are breathtaking. We walked down past the horse looking at the chalk close up. The actual outline of the horse makes no sense at this close range, but it seems really well looked after and maintained. On reaching the bottom and climbing up to Dragon Hill the white horse figure takes on it’s full shape and the dramatic landscape all around adds to this viewing pleasure.