Walpurgis night is little known here in Britain but is celebrated in other Northern European and Scandinavian countries on 30 April. In Germanic folklore it is known as 'Hexennacht', literally 'Witches Night'. Legend says that during Hexennacht, evil ghosts represented by cold weather, snow and darkness meet with witches and demons at Blocksberg Hill in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany between the rivers Weser and Elbe. Here they make mischief before taking off on broomsticks, pitchforks and billy goats at midnight. Customarily, children and teenagers play tricks on neighbours, similar to the night of 31 October here in Britain. Witches Night seems to have originated in distant times, when people believed that evil ghosts attempted to prevent the "Queen of Spring" ... Read More

Walpurgis night is little known here in Britain but is celebrated in other Northern European and Scandinavian countries on 30 April. In Germanic folklore it is known as 'Hexennacht', literally 'Witches Night'. Legend says that during Hexennacht, evil ghosts represented by cold weather, snow and darkness ... Read More

The bluebells are almost in full bloom and on Sunday 17 April 2016, we decided to visit a bluebell wood in Dorset discovered by chance some years ago. Most bluebells are found in ancient woodland where the rich habitat supports a whole host of species and some perhaps remnants of the original wildwood that covered Britain after the last Ice Age. Nowhere does the bluebell grow in such profusion as in Britain. In Scotland the flowers are known as wild hyacinth.  During the Bronze Age, people used bluebell glue to attach feathers to their arrows.  Folklore suggests that a field of bluebells is intricately woven with fairy enchantments.       Bluebells carpet the woodland in late spring creating a shimmering azure haze and to have them in your ... Read More

The bluebells are almost in full bloom and on Sunday 17 April 2016, we decided to visit a bluebell wood in Dorset discovered by chance some years ago. Most bluebells are found in ancient woodland where the rich habitat supports a whole host of species and some ... Read More

Part 1 My first memory of Hengistbury Head is a childhood school visit and I recall huge banks of large pebbles on the beach, not unlike those on Chesil Beach further west along the south coast. I have visited the site probably thousands of times over the years for walks and occasional jogs along the seafront. I have also researched the archaeology of Hengistbury and its environs a little over the years, especially during my visits to the excellent Red House Museum who kindly allowed me access to their archives some years ago, before my local studies took a backseat to my Stonehenge-related activities and other projects from December 2013. Sometimes it is easy to overlook the history on one's own doorstep, and to date ... Read More

Part 1 My first memory of Hengistbury Head is a childhood school visit and I recall huge banks of large pebbles on the beach, not unlike those on Chesil Beach further west along the south coast. I have visited the site probably thousands of times ... Read More

On Monday 4 April 2016 I visited the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester. This visit was first inspired last year on viewing a photograph of the above object, which is on display at the museum. The chalk carving is described as 'found in the south ramparts of Maiden Castle, Dorset. The spiral -- a common decoration in prehistoric art -- suggests a human face.' The carving also incorporates a primal solar form into the 'eyes' of the face, hinting perhaps at observations made by man of the apparent movement of the sun across the skies and horizon between midsummer and midwinter solstice standstills. One of the most iconic displays in Dorset County Museum are the mosaics inlaid on the floor, which came from Roman townhouses ... Read More

On Monday 4 April 2016 I visited the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester. This visit was first inspired last year on viewing a photograph of the above object, which is on display at the museum. The chalk carving is described as 'found in the south ... Read More

As a child, I enjoyed many family summer holidays in the West Country, particularly in the area around St Merryn, Trevone Bay, Constantine Bay and Harlyn in Cornwall. Living on the south coast of England in Bournemouth, Dorset, the drive across the 'green and pleasant land' of Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall was unfailingly an inspiration.  In recent years, I generally visit Glastonbury in Somerset three or four times a year, and to this day, driving west from Bournemouth somehow naturally lifts my spirits, perhaps in echo of those halcyon days of sunshine, seaside, innocence and childhood. My first drive to Glastonbury in 2016 was on Sunday 13 March, accompanied initially by a perfect early spring blue sky. By mid-afternoon, as I walked from the town ... Read More

As a child, I enjoyed many family summer holidays in the West Country, particularly in the area around St Merryn, Trevone Bay, Constantine Bay and Harlyn in Cornwall. Living on the south coast of England in Bournemouth, Dorset, the drive across the 'green and pleasant ... Read More

Stoney Littleton Long Barrow is a Neolithic chambered tomb with multiple burial chambers, dating from approximately 3500 BC. It is 30 metres long and located near the village of Wellow in the English county of Somerset. I visited it for the first time on a leaden-skied Sunday afternoon on 13th December 2015. English heritage state, 'Although usually considered to have been tombs, it is possible that many long barrows were in fact shrines -- places where the presence of the ancestral dead helped the living to contact their gods, much as a medieval church contains graves while being primarily intended for the living community that built it. Some barrows have provided evidence that use continued even after burials were no longer made.'   [caption id="attachment_1914" ... Read More

Stoney Littleton Long Barrow is a Neolithic chambered tomb with multiple burial chambers, dating from approximately 3500 BC. It is 30 metres long and located near the village of Wellow in the English county of Somerset. I visited it for the first time on a ... Read More

I visited Stanton Drew Stone Circles and Cove in Somerset for the first time on a leaden-skied Sunday 13th December 2015. 'Although this is the third largest complex of prehistoric standing stones in England, the three circles and three-stone ‘cove’ of Stanton Drew in Somerset are surprisingly little known. The Great Circle, 113 metres in diameter, is one of the largest stone circles in the country and has 26 surviving upright stones' - English Heritage 'Stanton Drew Stone Circles and Cove comprise a large regular stone circle ('the Great Circle'), two large irregular stone circles, two associated stone avenues and 'the Cove' a closely spaced group of three standing stones. These Late Neolithic monuments are situated in close proximity, near to the village of Stanton Drew, ... Read More

I visited Stanton Drew Stone Circles and Cove in Somerset for the first time on a leaden-skied Sunday 13th December 2015. 'Although this is the third largest complex of prehistoric standing stones in England, the three circles and three-stone ‘cove’ of Stanton Drew in Somerset are ... Read More

English Heritage write Maiden Castle, Dorset is 'the finest Iron Age fort in Britain and was first laid out in 600 BC over the remains of a Neolithic settlement. During the following centuries the hill fort was extended and additional defences thrown up around it. In AD 43 it was taken by the Roman army and its inhabitants moved to the new town of Durnovaria, modern Dorchester'. A brief history of the hill fort is here. I visited the site on Friday 4 December 2015 on a mild sunny day interspersed with cloud and a persistent prevailing south-westerly wind. On first sight, as always, the sheer feat of construction of the fort left me in awe of the achievements of our prehistoric ancestors. The above ... Read More

English Heritage write Maiden Castle, Dorset is 'the finest Iron Age fort in Britain and was first laid out in 600 BC over the remains of a Neolithic settlement. During the following centuries the hill fort was extended and additional defences thrown up around it. ... Read More

This year my interest in the prehistoric sites of Britain has opened up 'the view from above', more by chance than design. The result has been an ongoing  joint film project with Pete Glastonbury and a close working relationship with the aerial photography company CamAero based in Dorset  The photograph above is Badbury Rings Iron Age hill fort in east Dorset. During the Roman era, five Roman roads formed a complex junction on the north side of Badbury.  Aerial footage seems to further reveal the sheer scale of the achievements of our prehistoric ancestors.   Below are Bronze Age barrows at the northwestern approach to Badbury Rings:   [caption id="attachment_1853" align="aligncenter" width="743"] Bronze Age barrows Badbury Rings[/caption] The Badbury barrow carving in the British Museum, described by Aubrey Burl ... Read More

This year my interest in the prehistoric sites of Britain has opened up 'the view from above', more by chance than design. The result has been an ongoing  joint film project with Pete Glastonbury and a close working relationship with the aerial photography company CamAero based in ... Read More

A recurring theme for me of this year was sketched in an article by Robert MacFarlane in The Guardian newspaper on 10 April 2015, 'The Eeriness of the English Countryside', found here. I spent many hours during 2015 in the woods and fields of England at locations such as: The valley of the stones in Dorset Cerne Abbas and the Cerne Abbas Giant The Vale of Pewsey Avebury and its landscape  Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain and its landscape Corfe, Goldlingston Heath and Agglestone Rock in Dorset Badbury Rings, Knowlton church and henge, and Hengistbury Head in Dorset Bodmin Moor in Cornwall The fabric and shape of the land is textured in history, myth, lore and legend, and the earth itself a repository and memory of all that's ... Read More

A recurring theme for me of this year was sketched in an article by Robert MacFarlane in The Guardian newspaper on 10 April 2015, 'The Eeriness of the English Countryside', found here. I spent many hours during 2015 in the woods and fields of England at ... Read More