Blackbury Camp

I'm going back a few months here. The remains of hurricane Bertha is making herself felt, sudden downpours, intermittent howling gales and the odd clap of thunder made a walk seem very unappealing. Not to mention the half finished decorating which has turned the house upside down.

So a Sunday at home it was. Having amused myself with some housework and supervising the decorator (!) I was also sorting out a website for a friend (Underworld Apothecary if you want to take a look) so not that relaxing.

Looking back through my files I found some pictures of Blackbury Camp. These were taken in late April when the bluebells were out.

 This is the remains of an iron age hill fort, It was excavated in the 1950s. According to English Heritage they believe that it was the defended stronghold of a wealthy family - a lot of sling stones were found here. The domestic angle is supported by the remains of local pottery and cooking pits and an oven as well as a hut.

Now the site is covered with woodland which makes it hard to imagine what it would have been like. Oh and bluebells. Lots and lots and lots of them...

I can safely say that  I have never seen so many bluebells. There must have been millions of them carpeting the area.

It was early evening when I took this and the light was starting to fail.

This is not the biggest of hill forts, more compact but it is still in reasonably good condition given that it has been reclaimed by the trees. It is possible to walk round the whole ramparts in 10 or 15 minutes but the temptation is to linger..

And yet more bluebells! Fortunately there were tracks clear of them as it would have been a real shame to have to walk over them ( although sadly plenty of the visitors and their dogs were). For early evening and starting to get cold it was still remarkably busy.

Well worth a visit in April/May if you like bluebells!

Visiting the Giant's Grave at Melcombe Bingham

Dorset this week - selected mainly as the weather maps showed this as being the nearest location that was expected to have only light rain rather than a deluge. Yes the fabulous British summer weather returns...

More precisely  Melcombe Bingham and the Giants Grave. This was a walk of two parts - the first a quick run up the hill to find the pillow mound and "gravestone" and a second longer walk starting in the village but going in a completely different direction.

So first the Giant's Grave. This is the "headstone" at the end of a long low pillow mound ( medieval, not prehistoric  but constructed to provide a home for rabbits and a cheap source of meat). To be honest the mound is very hard to see so I am more or less taking this on trust.

Not the most exciting of menhirs but nevertheless it has a quaint story attached. The giant in question lost a stone throwing contest with a neighbouring giant and died of disappointment!




So back to the centre of the village and a steep climb up the other side of the valley. Spring has been very late this year so the path sides were thick with both spring and early summer flowers. Red and white campion. cowslips, primroses, vetch, violets and many more.

The wind and rain had set in by now and it was very exposed at the top of the ridge. The views would have been fabulous if we'd been able to see anything but low lying grey cloud. Oh well.

We could see the ditches and lines of the barrows at the top - this is taken looking along the top of one of them.

Coming down from the top it was a lot pleasanter being sheltered from the wind  and we carried on to find the Dorsetshire Gap

This was quite magical. A mysterious meeting of 5 trackways which cut deeply into the landscape. This was the hub of Dorset from medieval times to the 19CE.





All around is evidence of    of prehistoric and medieval settlement: hilltop cross dykes, barrows and an incomplete iron age fort.

I could have stayed here a lot longer than we did but it was time to take the upper track and start to head back to the car.

Stopping of course to admire the bluebells in the wood and to pick some of the wild garlic which was everywhere.







 What goes down though must come up and there was a short climb back up on to the exposed ridge to enjoy the wind and rain again... 

Still we were rewarded by the sight of a dew pond which made the climb almost bearable. I was glad though to drop down into the valley again and take the farm track along the bottom back to the car.