17th June 2000
Today was fantastic! We headed out to visit Stonehenge and a few other historical sites that lie nearby. First we headed for Salisbury, originally known as New Sarum, apparently the story goes that Old Sarum was occupied up to five thousand years ago before being developed into an Iron Age fort, it was settled by Romans and Saxons before the Norman bishopric of Sherbourne was moved there in the 1070s. Within a couple of decades a new Cathedral had been consecrated and a large religious community was living alongside the soldiers in the central castle. Apparently Old Sarum was an uncomfortable place for the clergy both due to the high winds and problems with the neighboring castle occupants. In 1220 they appealed to the Pope for permission to decamp to New Sarum (Salisbury). When permission was granted they left and the kind castle occupants quickly ripped apart the monastery to use the stones/materials to improve their own buildings.
On the way out of Salisbury we noticed a signpost pointing us to the original Old Sarum Castle, we decided it would be an interesting place to visit. We weren.t disappointed; there are essentially two ruins here the first being the hilltop fort and the second being the cathedral which is on the lower plain.
| There.s not much left of the cathedral as you could imagine, the destruction by the castle occupants was quite comprehensive. What remains, however, is still interesting; it.s pretty much what we would describe as the foundations although a cellar still exists.
On the right you can see a photo of the remains of the Cathedral, this photo was taken from the castle at the top of the hill, there.s essentially a hill within a hill, offering the castle two protective barriers from possible attacks. |  |
The Castle/Royal palace ruins were far more impressive, although about 80% of the original structure is gone (removed to Salisbury for building material when the Castle was finally abandoned). The Castle was protected by a moat that is still there; naturally a new (safe) bridge has been constructed on the east side of the moat (originally there was a second bridge on the west side).
 | In the photo on the left I.m standing in front of the ruins of the Royal Palace at Old Sarum. The palace consisted of four ranges around a central courtyard and contained royal apartments and two chapels. I found it totally amazing to think that this ruin dates back to the Iron Age! It.s exciting to look around the place then compare the ruins to the drawings of how the place originally looked. It really makes you appreciate just how huge the place was. I couldn.t shake the feeling that hundreds of people lived their entire lives within this single area. |
After Old Sarum we headed out to Stonehenge. I.ve always wanted to visit this place although I had read enough to be prepared for a crappy tourist attraction. How wrong I was, there were hundreds of people around but hats-off to the operators of the place, they have managed the site very well, nobody is able to walk between the stones as a small rope fence keeps you away from it. But you do get close enough for the stones to completely fill your viewfinder on your camera, an added advantage of not allowing people to walk through the stones is that your photos are of Stonehenge by itself, it.s extremely easy to take a photo the makes you look like you were the only one there.
The operators also provide you with a free audio device that allows you to learn about the history of the place (albeit they admit they don.t really know what it.s was for). For the three to four pounds we paid to get in, I have no complaints what so ever. In future they are going to move the highway that is close-by to further enhance the site. What I didn.t realize was there are hundreds of burial mounds all around the site; in fact the horizon is dotted with them.
| This was a big buzz for me, I.ve always wanted to see the stones but didn.t really know what they were about, after we left Lucy and I tried to put our own thoughts together. Lucy felt that it was definitely a calander, whereas I believed that it must have a religious connection. Then presto, the Blanks theory was developed, my theory is it.s a device that marks the day and month that a person died, when the morning of the day occurs, the stones point to the burial mound of the person who died. Naturally, I have no facts to back this up, but that.s what I believe anyway. |  |
 | After Stonehenge, we headed up the road to visit Woodhenge, this is a site similar to Stonehenge, but was built out of wood (the original Stonehenge was also constructed this way before being "upgraded" to stone). This site is a little more tourist friendly as you can actually walk among the concrete markers signifying where the original posts were.
In the middle there is a Childs grave, my guidebook explained that the Childs skull had been split in two signifying a ritual sacrifice! Fortunately we were the only two people there, so we had a chance to look around without being bothered. Well worth a look-see if you.re in the area and have time but nowhere near as impressive as Stonehenge. |
We then headed off towards Avebury as my guidebook pointed out that it "stands in the midst of a stone circle that rivals Stonehenge". Whilst on the way I noticed a large crop circle in the field on our left, I asked (pleaded) with Lucy to pull over and proceeded to drag her up the hill and into the field.
| This was my first crop circle and I have to admit that although I believe they are (more than likely) fakes. I still find the whole thing extremely interesting. In the photo on the right you can see Lucy in the middle of the crop circle with Silbury Hill in the background, it.s man made and is 130ft tall, constructed totally by hand in approximately 2600 BC. Nobody knows what it.s for or why it.s there - freaky. |  |
 | On the other side of the hill (away from the road), I noticed a number of Stonehenge type rocks, in fact, what we had stumbled across was the "West Kennet Long Barrow" - a barrow (burial mound/cave) that was built approximately 2300 BC and held up to 51 bodies at one time (they now have been removed to a museum). |
| You can actually walk inside the barrow for about 15 meters or so (which we did). It.s kind of freaky as you are literally walking in one of the world.s oldest crypts |  |
We then headed off to our original destination Avebury unfortunately my digital camera packed in at this stage due to bad batteries (will bring more next time). But I did get some photos with my normal camera, when developed I.ll post one up here. The stone circle was impressive, but nowhere near as exciting as everything else we.ve seen today. I have to disagree with the Rough Guide on this one. The Avebury circles are pretty boring and resemble a large garden border, albeit the stones are huge!
We headed home after this, but today was a fantastic day, I highly recommend this trip to anyone who finds himself or herself over this way!