Rambling with Kirk: Stonehenge!

[kirk13]

Welcome to what in all likelihood will be the last major ramble of 2015....Neolythic Wiltshire! In this one we'll travel from Durington Walls to Old Sarum.

Or at least that was the plan.....

[Top-Gear-24]

Can't wait to see the pics and read about your last ramble of 2015 mate  .


 

[kirk13]

The walk started a bit before ten when I got dropped at Durrington Walls/Woodhenge. Before going any further I do have to apologise. Photos just do this earthwork justice. Even the photo on the Wiki link fails badly

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrington_Walls

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29138355

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-34156673

[SAK Guy]

   

Can't wait!!!!!!   

[kirk13]

[Crow]

 

[SteveC]

 

Can't wait!!!!!!   

+1

[kirk13]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodhenge

[Grathr]

[kirk13]

Some thoughts and observations:

Durrington Walls kind of defies expectation. If the latest archeological research is right,it's edge was surrounded by 60 odd megaliths,with wood monuments within,and a workers settlement without(so much for these monuments being built by hunter gatherers). It just defies imagining how this was constructed,and why!

You may have noted there's very few pictures of Woodhenge. This was mostly because of a couple of families with small children bouncing around it. In this day and age it's just not wise to be taking photos under these circumstances. The thing,I think that bothered me more was how the kids were behaving. This is an ancient holy site. The fact that the builders,and the faith they practice are literally thousands of years in the past is neither here nor there. The second picture is of where a ten year old girl was buried,four thousand years before the beginning of the Common Era. That her grave is still tended is wonderful. I'd have hoped that the parents of the kids screaming and charging around would have shown the same respect as if one of their kids was buried there.

[kirk13]

Still,enough preaching

Before we head off,there's just time for a look off in the direction of Boscome Down,the British answer to Edwards Air Force Base


The first leg is over two miles,taking us through the Cuckoo Stone field,and along the side of the Cursus,before crossing through it and along to Stonehenge itself





This is sight I always love...the way into the woods!

Part of this path is a disused railway. That's something I still need to go back and look into. There'll be a photo in about five or six miles that needs explaining. You'll know it when you see it

From here it's a short walk to the Cursus

[kirk13]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_Cursus





This is the east end of the Cursus. Yeah,it's a good thing there was a sign to tell you






Still,you have to stop and think about this...60m wide,and a kilometre long...that's a helluva lot of digging!

[kirk13]

Here's a thing: Cathedrals

A lot of years ago,I went up to Kings Lynn for a slot car race. On the way back you could see a Cathedral. You could see it from miles away. You could see it long before you knew there was a town called Ely there.

I've had the same experiance when out mountain biking around St Albans. Even in the twenty first century CE,it's stunning.

Now imagine,there's no cars,nothing we'd call a road. The Ridgeway we walked on the Avebury ramble IS the super highway of This land of the Gods. Imagine seeing this for the first time...

[kirk13]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge





And this was as close to the Stones as I could get

[Smashie]

Great photo's John and you had much better weather than I had today

[kirk13]

Great photo's John and you had much better weather than I had today

Cheers Mark. I done the walk back in the last week of October. The wind was fairly bitter,but at least it was dry! As to the pics,there's only so much the iPad can do,and it's having to compensate for the idiot behind it!

 

Can't wait!!!!!!   

Can't wait to see the pics and read about your last ramble of 2015 mate  .


 

Thanks everyone

+1

[kirk13]

Some thoughts on Stonehenge...

The first time I seen Stonehenge I was 16,and we were in England on holiday,driving down to Devon. At the time I was massively underwhelmed. You were so far from the Stones you had no sense of scale.

Having visited Avebury,Coldrum,Newgrange and Ballynoe,I was interested to see what I'd make of it now.

On my last trip out to Avebury,my flatmate drove us back via the Stones,and,well it just blew me away.

The fly in the ointment of this trip was that I knew I couldn't get into the monument. The only way into Stonehenge is to travel to the visitors centre,three miles to the west,pay £25 to travel up on a little bus,and walk around with a horde of philistines. Thank you English Heritage.

It was painful to walk past,but there you go

[ColoSwiss]

Interesting tour as always!   

[ducttapetech]

Beautiful! Got any more pics?

[kirk13]

Interesting tour as always!   

Thank you

Beautiful! Got any more pics?

Lots more to come Nate,but not of Stonehenge

[kirk13]

The A303 marks the end of the first leg of the walk. From here it should be cross country down to the river Avon at the village of Upper Woodford,then across the Avon on the last leh to Old Sarum



But first,a last look back at the Stones,framed by the blaspheme,I mean traffic on the A303

[ColoSwiss]

If you're into cathedrals, here's something you might enjoy.

http://www.swisstool.co.uk/st/salisbury-cathedral-swiss-army-knife/

[Zed]

Cool pics kirky  me the wife and kids and soul went too Stonehenge last year ,was a lovely walk 

[SAK Guy]

Wonderful pics and info John!!! Thanks again for letting us tag along on one of your awesome treks!!!

[magentus]

Brilliant stuff as usual John I visit Stonehenge and Woodhenge regularly as we're lucky enough to live in Bath and it never fails to grab me in the chest whenever I see the stones themselves, and also the way the grave at Woodhenge is so lovingly tended (throughout the whole year) by some wonderful people.

I understand what you mean by the pictures as well - it's nigh on impossible to capture the magnificence of these places.

It's like suddenly catching site of Silbury Hill - no photograph can convey the thoughts and feelings at the sheer audacity and hard work that went into these monuments..........Why wouldn't you build a road right through it?  It's the divinity we can achieve together back then, right bang next to the insane stupidity we more often demonstrate nowadays.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us John   

[dks]

Nice photographs.

It is a shame that you can no longer get close to the stones..
Last time I visited I had a British heritage card, or whatever it was called, so I got in for free I think...
It was many years ago.

[magentus]

Nice photographs.

It is a shame that you can no longer get close to the stones..
Last time I visited I had a British heritage card, or whatever it was called, so I got in for free I think...
It was many years ago.

It's really annoying to me that we don't get access to one of our most important cultural touchstones. The authorities feel quite happy to put 2 roads through it and hive off most of the landscape for military use but are worried about visitors vandalising the site. My head hurts. 

[Grathr]

Great info and pics Kirk. Id love to see it some day.

I do understand why it is closed off though. If my memory is correct, then there was a big problem with people going to the henge to sacrifice to the old gods and have parties there.
The irony beeing that the same people worshipping the stones also littered the place down and was often using drugs, leaving all kinds of smurf behind, ruining it for everyone else.

[dks]

[magentus]

Great info and pics Kirk. Id love to see it some day.

I do understand why it is closed off though. If my memory is correct, then there was a big problem with people going to the henge to sacrifice to the old gods and have parties there.
The irony beeing that the same people worshipping the stones also littered the place down and was often using drugs, leaving all kinds of smurf behind, ruining it for everyone else.

There was an annual free festival there, and without getting too political, our governments don't like people self organising. The police came down hard on some travellers (See 'battle of the Beanfield') and the festival was stopped. This, along with the miners strike and the Steven Lawrence case makes me feel ashamed of our 'public servants'.

In Victorian times a hammer was issued with a ticket to the Henge so visitors could grab themselves a bit of history. Nothing like that happened during the free festivals.

There is a well established story that Christopher Wren (designer of St Pauls Cathedral) left his initials on the stones.  Go figure......

We have much more reverence for the site nowadays and I think it would be perfectly safe to allow people access to it. We don't charge access to our christian cathedrals after all, and the only graffiti to be seen (on the graves themselves!) is pre 1900 (often going back to the 1500's) begging the question 'when does graffiti become an historical item?'