Showing 1-50 of 71 posts. Most recent first | Next 50 
Avebury somehow seems diminished these days. I suppose the world heritage status and higher public profile which have put it on the tourist map have had some positive effects but it's difficult somehow not to think that like at Stonehenge, they have simultaneously taken something away.
Anyway, we were struck again last weekend by the fact that in a way what is really important here is the Henge. It is apparent that at its original full height it would have created an artificial and perfect horizon - in other words, it would have engendered an idealised world view from within its circumference. As well as facilitating astronomical observances this would have created a psychological sense of 'interiorness' - a major step on the human journey from the purely instinctual through the communal to the individual and then to the personal. We felt this time more than at any other that Avebury's function is in the promotion of the 'artificial' -in the sense of artifice or artefact - an aesthetic appreciation of the world as embodying conciousness and human potential rather than merely survival and the randomness of action.
|
|
  
|
British Museum
The new prehistoric galleries are open - a limited amount of lovely things on show although sadly they seem smaller than they did previously.
|
|
The more we visit Gelli, the more it seems that this place is at the centre of a complete ancient ritual landscape. It's very unusual in its riverside location - althoug it is possible that that uniqueness is a property of time rather than the tomb. Who knows what other burial sites have occupied places such as these but been eradiciated by the presence of people for millenia? It might be that more tombs survive in the uplands because the land is less obviously valuable but still, there is something strange and magical here which make you wonder whether the place itself was significant. It's absolutely beautiful of course and well located in so many ways, but perhaps also it served as a focus for the communities around and that's why it seems psychogeographically to be at the centre of a collection of sites including maen. hir, maen bach, cefn gwynnerd, Ty Newydd, crugiau merched etc.
|
 
|
|
 
|
|
Take the first left off the road between Dunecht and Kintore onto the minor road. The stones are on the left below you in a field a hundred yards on your left. You can park in the field entrance opposite the bunalow and walk between the furrows.
In fact, there are at least three stones - the recumbant and the flankers - and the farmer has given them a nice circular setting
|
|
Can't believe people find this a happy place. Coming back from the Orkney tombs which have such a loveliness, these tombs seemed dark and strange to us - particular the end chamber of the linked pair.
Something sad happened here I think - and I had bad dreams for three nights afterwards!
Extraordinary though..
|
|
|
 
|
|
Another beautifully located single stone on the highest point of this extraordinary finger of land between two deep gorges. Like it's cousins Maen Bach and Maen Hir it stands marking an ancient trackway and point to the valleys below and beyond
The two cairns are next to the stone and nearby is what looks suspicously like a complex of round barrrow needing further investigation
DIMENSIONS:
1.6(h), 0.8m(w), 0.6m(d)
|
 
|
 
|
There is a large menhir at Berrisbrook farm in a field boundary. There is another which has been has less convincingly been described as its pair which is now used as a gatepost in te adjacent road
DIMENSIONS:
1.8m(h),1.2m(w), 0.7m(d) the isolatesd stone
1.8m(h),0.7m(w), 0.7m(d) the gatepost
|
  
|
The stones lie on a line tangential to the ring cairn and are roughly aligned in the directions of the midwinter setting or midsummer rising sun
DIMENSIONS:
3 stones av. 0.5m(h), 0.4m(w), 0.4m(d). 2.0m and 0.4m apart
|
 
|
This little barrow competes the complex of circle, ring and alignment. It has a small depression in the top which may be a sign of previous excavation
DIMENSIONS:
11m(diameter), 1.5m(h)
|
|
The cairn is buried and mainly hidden under the long grass and almost impossible to photograph although you can feel it under foot. Two crescent of stones remain. On one lies the quartz boulder thought to have possibly been a standing menhir
|
|
 
|
This is another unrecognised site requiring confirmation. Set high on the hillside and orientated approximatley south west - north east, it marks the route to the Cefn Gwwynerd complex
DIMENSIONS:
0.8m(h),0.4m(w), 0.6m(d)
There is also a possible fallen and half buried alignment adjacent - again to be confirmed
|
| |
Log in |
Register
Top of page