The weekend before last there was, very briefly, a minor heatwave in the south of England. So I decided to have a big day out exploring. Except I wasn’t really exploring at all, because I just walked along the section of the Ridgeway from Swindon to Goring. Still, it’s guaranteed to be a fun day out: one of my favourite places to go walking, just behind the other bit of the Ridgeway out towards Avebury, but that is a bit of a pain to get to from where I live now.
And this is one of my favourite places on the route, the neolithic long barrow called Wayland’s Smithy. It’s about 5500 years old and in a glade off the main path surrounded by these old, but not quite so ancient, trees. It’s really one of the most atmospheric places I know, especially if you’re there on your own. I ate lunch on the roof. Hope that wasn’t too disrespectful.
I experimented a bit with using my phone to take photos but Samsung seem to have dropped the oversaturation bomb and everything looks a bit psychedelic. Apparently that look is popular in Korea. Think I’ll stick with my camera in future.
This place is called Uffington Castle, which is a truly fantastic name. Friend Blodgett once commented on a previous visit here that it’s not a real castle. But that is clearly incorrect. This is either the moat or perhaps part of the rampart. Use your imagination. On the side of the hill there is a large chalk horse, but it’s quite hard to see from above.
This place is about 2500 years old. It occurred to me while I was sitting here having my second lunch, that when this castle was constructed, the long barrow nearby was already over 3000 years old, which is older than this castle is to us now. History is weird.
The 20 miles or so from Uffington castle to the Thames at Goring is uneventful, but pleasant, and usually devoid of people. The evening sun going down the long hill at the end was really pretty. Didn’t time it quite right to catch the sunset though.
Posts