Just before the UK went into lock-down, amid all the worries for what the future held, the sun came up on another day. Because of the terrible Covid-19 virus hundreds of people were dying in Italy and Spain and across the globe; doctors and nurses were frantically, desperately, trying to save lives in stifling hospitals… Read more »
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Travelling the world with local guides. I have learned through my own experiences that hiring a knowledgeable local guide greatly enhances the enjoyment of a tour. A local guide will want to share his love for the subject whether that is simply their local area or something to be found within it. It is our… Read more »
Stonehenge stone raising. When I saw that English Heritage were going to experiment with raising a stone at Stonehenge it was something I was very keen to witness if not participate in. Perhaps unexpectedly the event in March 2018 was billed not so much as a study of the processes required for erecting the stone… Read more »
Two avenues of huge standing stones lead out of Avebury linking the giant stone circle with other important sites in the wider landscape. On a massive scale: Avebury and the Avebury Avenues Probably the most extraordinary thing about Avebury is the sheer scale of the monument. Not only does it incorporate the largest of all… Read more »
The entrances through the bank at Knap Hill stand out even more clearly after a light dusting of snow. The cows on the right of the photo give an idea of scale Our most ancient monuments Causewayed Enclosures are a type of monument associated with the earlier Neolithic period in Britain and can be considered… Read more »
Adam’s Grave crowns Walker’s Hill on the northern escarpment of the Pewsey Vale. The tiny figure on the right hand slope of the monument gives an ideal of the scale of this Neolithic Chambered Long Barrow. One of Wiltshire’s famous white horses (Alton Barnes, cut in 1812) can be seen on the slope below Adam’s… Read more »
The birth of aerial photography in archaeology Woodhenge was discovered in 1925 by WW1 veteran fighter pilot Group Captain Gilbert Insall VC MC. He was one of the first people to recognise the benefits to archaeology of aerial photography. Flying out of Netheravon aerodrome, one of many airfields that were by then installed on Salisbury… Read more »
The scene of fascinating recent discoveries Durrington Walls is the site of some of the most fascinating recent archaeological work in the Avebury and Stonehenge World Heritage Site if not the whole of the UK. Between 2003 and 2009 the Stonehenge Riverside Project, directed by Mike Parker Pearson, gathered together a stellar line-up of British… Read more »
Stonehenge is unique and world famous for many reasons. The ruins we see today are what remains of the ‘last great stone monument of the Megalithic* age’ (Parker Pearson 2012,) By way of explanation – Megalithic and Neolithic *Megalithic literally means ‘massive stone’ and refers to the type of monument building that incorporated such megaliths… Read more »
In the articles on this website I have tried to give a very brief summary of most of the sites that we can visit on our tours but I didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to try to be either too academic or too authoritative. Obviously when we are out in the landscape I… Read more »