Right on the doorstep

The days are short now and the weather was poor so we thought we'd stay fairly local.

Only lived in this area now for 10 years but still never quite got around to visiting our local piece of woodland. To be honest I only found out about it  a few months ago and then by a chance conversation. To be fair it wasn't given a great write up so I wasn't expecting much and it wasn't a great priority.

However today seemed a good chance to go and see it...

Well it was bigger than I'd expected and I'd no idea it was actually a hillfort. And right on the doorstep too... rather embarrassing really but never mind.






It's a small one  just a single circuit of ramparts for enclosure and defence but is still a  Scheduled Ancient Monument despite being damaged by quarrying and mining.

A small stream runs between it and Stephan's Vale. I don't think this bridge is the original structure though somehow...

The waterfall in Stephan's Vale was a lovely surprise too. The path down to it was wet and muddy and looked steep and slippery so that is saved for another day.

It is apparently carpeted in bluebells and other woodland flowers in the spring.










And to round off a day or surprises, a rather out of season thorn. I guess it is a little confused by the mild weather we've been having.







Well it may have taken me 10 years to find the place but I think a return visit in the spring will be essential to enjoy the bluebells and other woodland flower. I certainly won't be waiting a decade to go back!

A Holey Dancing Stone ?

Interesting one today. I'm still recovering from the December festivities (!) and today was the first time I didn't have to be up early for weeks so it was a very late start - coupled with the short winter afternoon, that meant somewhere local. Ideally somewhere we hadn't been yet.

A search of the Megalithic Portal throw up a nice oddity not so far away so it was off to Star. As we wanted to take advantage of the pub car park so we felt honour bound  to at least have lunch there first. The cider was nice!

The object of the excursion was to find the Wimblestone. A 5ft standing stone with a hole through it. Normally these stones are credited with having healing powers. You climb through the hole and are cured of whatever malady affects you.

Well the stone itself proved remarkably difficult to find. I didn't read the associated folklore before the visit or I'd have been forewarned. Wimble means "lively" and the stone has the reputation of being quite mobile.....

Well it certainly lived up to its name - I was with someone who swears it wasn't there when he looked so much frustrating wandering around ensued until I took control of the map and found the stone exactly where marked - he still says it definitely wasn't there the first time!

Anyway it is now frozen in pixels so these images shouldn't be going anywhere- or at least I hope not even if the stone does go dancing around its field or pursues impertinent farm workers all the way to the churchyard.

The hole is that dark mark near the bottom on the right hand side. You are looking through it onto mud which is much the same colour as the stone so it doesn't show up as well as it might.

A back view  - the hole shows up much better from this side.

 A close up - it is just about big enough to put a hand through comfortably. I guess it is just too small a hole to pass even a baby through which is why there seem to be no healing legends attached to this one.