Celts and Moore

The giant stone circle at Avebury. Just behind the hills you can see the mound of soil piled up in a giant circle behind the stones. The 9 meter ditch is behind that.

It’s hard work trying to fathom a building made in the 1100’s, so seeing stone age villages and touching massive standing stones placed by mysterious people in Avebury over 4000 years ago blows my mind. Mind you, the rocks and cliffs all around us at any given destination could easily be that old. Still, it inspires awe to be sure.

The standing stones in Avebury were said to have been placed by neo-lithic people and the reason for their use is unknown. They dug a huge earth moat in a full circle around the meadows about 1 km wide 9 meters deep and placed giant stones of various shapes in a circular fashion around this, with a few smaller circles inside that. (It’s much bigger than Stone Henge, using many stones placed a few meters apart.)

We took a walk around the stone circle and then through the little village which was built in the middle of the henge along with the main road. And to one side of the henge was a glorious manor that was again, part of the National Trust and so we enjoyed immersing ourselves in the rooms that were decorated in different periods of the life-span of the house and learning about it’s inhabitants. One of these was a man who was really into archaeology, and it was him who set about excavating the henge and replacing some of the stones which had fallen or had been buried during the ages. Under one of these buried stones he even found a skeleton of a medieval doctor who must have come to a squishy end when the rock fell on him.

One of the walled gardens behind the manor. 

Dress-ups in Avebury Manor. The BBC used the manor in a documentary and it was them who refurbished each room in a different era.

This is Silbury hill, which is just down the road from the Henge of Avebury. It is believed that the same Neolithic people constructed this hill, which is truly massive! It's hard to see just how large it is in this photo, but it was made entirely by people bringing bucket loads of soil up the hill, and it is unknown what it's purpose was.

This discovery of Avebury and all its delights took a little longer than we’d thought it would and combined with the distance to cover we found ourselves running rather unfashionably late to get to our friend’s Pam and Andy’s house in Devon, where we’d planned to stay with them for a few days.

But we finally arrived in Hannock (near Exeter) and enjoyed being in the beautiful and cosy house and seeing our dear friends from Motueka who also live in England too. Pam had been keeping our dinner warm for us which we devoured with relish and we were also treated to hot baths and cosy beds.

Pam and Andy outside their house.

Pam is a harpist, and so she let the girls have a play on her harps. They really loved playing on them, and are inspired to have lessons.

In the morning after having a good catch-up and seeing the house and gardens we took Poupe up to Dartmoor. This is quite a famous place where the story of the Hound of the Baskerville originates and where many movies have been filmed. It is a beautiful place and we felt very lucky to visit on a clear, warm day. The Tor (hilltop) hosted some unusual rocks in the shape of a six toed foot on it’s way to the underground and behind those rocks was a herd of Dartmoor ponies - chocolate brown and rather friendly. Esmae was approached by a little foal for a pat and his Dam came over for a carrot Fern had been snacking on.

Dartmoor ponies

Further over the moor we came across some archaeologists who were excavating a pile of rocks that they said were round houses from the Celts/Roman times. There appeared to be quite a few people living up on the moors back in the past when the area was a bit warmer, but as England became colder they moved down to the valley. We walked further and came across quite a large ruined village dating from medieval times that was apparently abandoned because of the black plague. It was quite a view from the walls of those old houses and as we lay on the warm grass for a rest I felt so sad for the people who lived here and had such tough lives trying to survive, leaving only a few rocks piled up to be remembered by.

After being at Andy and Pam’s a few days we went with them to Cornwall where they have a pretty garden and a ‘Linny’ (a wee shed) near the coast where Pam goes to have a bit of solitude when she can. She invited us to camp there for the night and after saying our farewells to them we had fun playing the harp and Rummycub and reading by torchlight outside the Linny.

Pam relaxing at the Linny

The girls also having a relaxing time in the garden reading Pam's old comic books from when she was a child.

In the morning we drove up the Cornish coast to Tintagel, where it is said the legend of King Arthur comes from. Right on the wild and windy peninsula there are ruins of a castle and town that was inhabited from before Roman times. It was used for hundred of years, and is rumoured to be where Merlin the Wizard was based too.

On the pathway to the ruins. Where we were standing was once a strip of land that fell during the 1500's, which cut off half of the castle from the other half on the peninsula.

This is where ships would have arrived to unload their wares.

Westbury White Horse