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!

Seeking the Devil in his Churchyard

Minchinhampton is a pretty little town and the visits to the stone and the barrow didn't take long. Driving up from the town we spotted something called  "The Bulwarks" on the outskirts so decided to take a look.

And well worth it too they were. Some nice iron age earthworks sweeping in an arc around what was once a common but now seems to look very like a golf course!

Very little information seems to be available about this site other than they were intended to be "protective" rather than "defensive". Now there's a subtle distinction if ever I heard one. Some iron age pottery has also been found.

We did have a short walk along them but it was bitingly cold as you might deduce from the remains of the snow and we were getting hungry.






Also I chose my camera angles carefully. The site is criss-crossed by some reasonably busy roads so the ambiance isn't great when hulking great  4x4s whizz past.


After lunch ( Lamb Inn at Eastcombe if you are interested - wasn't much taken with my vegetarian burger but I'm told the wild boar sausages were nice) we set off in search of the Devil's Churchyard. Well who can resist a name like that!

This did require a bit of a walk. The blue skies had been replaced with grey at this point but we hoped the rain would soon pass over.


A level east walk if very muddy as was only to be expected. The Devil's Churchyard is now a patch of woodland and signs told us it was a nature conservation area.

We passed a grove of nicely coppiced hazels on the edges and then took a short detour into the woods themselves.

Unlike the Bulwarks the stillness here was absolute. Not a sound. We disturbed a couple of rabbits who looked pretty shocked to see us.







 It would have been idyllic other than the common farmers' habit of dumping unwanted detritus on land they aren't farming. Rusty water breakers etc don't really add to the countryside.

How the woodland got its name is a bit confused. One story goes that the town's attempts to build a church here on what  may well have been an old ritual site were frustrated by the work being torn down every night until they gave up and built the church elsewhere. Other local tales tell of there being stones here which were removed and used elsewhere - the Long Stone is said by some to have originated here.

Undecided whether this is entirely natural or has had a little help??

A side view of the woodland. We walked on a few extra miles but the weather deteriorated sharply and the resulting hailstorm was far from pleasant. I was glad to get back to the car and head for home.

Two hill forts - yes really there are!

On the hunt for Iron Age remains you quickly learn that there are those that are popular and those that just  - aren't. What is the difference between those that are preserved and cared for and those that are allowed to just moulder away? 

The weekend was spent on the Welsh heritage coast  - more specifically at the small town of Llantwit Major which was hosting the 2012 National Eisteddfod.

The cliffs are broken at Llantwit and it is possible to walk along them in both directions. Today we chose to go east - towards Aberthaw and passing two iron age hill forts.

The coast is eroding here quite rapidly, the layers of limestone interspersed with shale are very unstable and falls are common. The path is continually having to be moved back and at more than one point I was wondering if there was anything solid underneath us at all.

The views though are magnificent. The cave visible in the middle of the shot is at Tresillian and you can just see the lighthouse at Nash Point above the trees in the far distance.

Looking down gives super views of the limestone pavement that this stretch of coastline is justifiably famous for.

So on to Castle Ditches. This is very hard to see from the ground. The remains of the fort are buried in dense vegetation and part has been lost to the sea. 






It is obvious whether you are crossing the embankments and ditches but because of the undergrowth just about impossible to see the extent.


However our objective was the hill fort at Summerhouse Point. This turned out to be further away than anticipated ....

...and there it is  - yes also buried under dense vegetation! This is a semi aerial view taken from the Seawatch centre. This is a converted Coastguard station and we were very lucky to find it open  - it often isn't.  We were greeted with enthusiasm by the volunteer on duty and treated to a tour of the navigation and meteorological instruments housed there as well as shown some of the fossils and other marine detritus collected from that stretch of the coastline.

The hill fort itself is also being lost to the sea and has never been excavated. It is ( so I'm told!) semi circular and dated from around 700BCE to 100CE. It is mooted that it was just a look out point rather than having been inhabited but without an excavation it cannot be proven one was or the other.

The fort  gets  its name form the octagonal tower which was built by the Seys family in around 1730. The views must have been spectacular but today it survives as an ivy clad ruin.

You may need to take my word for it that there is indeed a building under there!








S

Storm Dodging in Dorset

It's been a pretty grim summer here in the UK. Today was "good in parts" so a careful study of the weather map was made and the decision taken to head down to Dorset and Hambledon Hill.

Hambledon Hill - a very prosaic name for a quite amazing site. It was originally a Neolithic site but little of that remains and it is now a prime example of an Iron Age hill fort. There is dating evidence for 2850 BCE and the site looks to have been finally abandoned around 300 BCE.

Parking the car in the nearby and quaintly named village of Iwerne Courtney we could see our destination at the end of the chalk downs of Cranborne Chase.  A quintessential English summer sight - a local cricket match.

We just hoped it didn't rain on them!

It is a pretty climb up from the village, especially at this time of the year.  The poppies are out and this barley field was almost ripe but still a little too green.



 
Everything seems to be late this year; nature hasn't appreciated the cold wet summer. Today though was quite warm. Provided that is that the sun was out. Which it wasn't all the time.

The fort itself is breathtaking. The sheer size is breathtaking in itself and the number of hours of labour it must have taken to construct the numerous banks and ditches made this no small undertaking.

 The site covers more than 1 sq  km with the long barrow on the top being approx 68 mt long. In all there is believed to have been 3 barrows here with one being buried under a later earthwork.

 From the top we could watch the storms passing by. Miraculously they all missed us - not sure how. Obviously our weather map reading was spot on.






All in all there are worse ways of spending a Sunday morning, sitting on a hill top and watching the ravens circling around. We weren't the only ones up there, it is popular with dog walkers and horse riders too but it wasn't too busy as you can see.

One fort is never enough.

Not exactly raining today but looking as if it might do so. Nothing daunted, pack the waterproofs and venture into Dorset and to Hod Hill near Blandford Forum.

Make no mistake this is a STEEP climb up and I'm gasping long before we reach the top - also keeping a wary eye on the young bullocks in the field - they have some fearsome looking horns but mercifully take no interest at all in me.

This is a large fort - Roman at one end and Iron Age at the other. The Roman's captured the fort from the local tribe and unusually reused it themselves. Seeing the extent of the fortifications who can blame them. The amount of labour that must have gone into digging the ditches is incredible ( the cows to the left give a degree of scale)

This is the Iron Age end  - there are the remains of over 2500 round houses so it would have been a sizeable settlement for the Durotriges. The site dates from around 500BCE before it was taken by the Romans in 44CE.


Getting close to lunch time now so a trip to nearby   Child Okeford and the Bakers Arms for a snack lunch in the pub garden. I'm told the beer was excellent but unfortunately we were driving....

So close so it seemed a shame not to visit Hambledon Hill fort which is very close by.

Another steep climb up and more young bullocks - these were older and had even more fearsome looking horns!


The fort comes into view long before you get there so it does provide some incentive for the climb. 

This fort is originally neolithic - radiocarbon dating places it at around 2850BCE in places although it must have been added too over the centuries. There are a couple of long barrows on the top.

Neither site has been ploughed or farmed in the interim and both are covered with an array of chalk lovng plants. As SSRIs they are protected and maintained by light grazing  - plenty of evidence that cows graze there!