Both these trips were such a big deal for me. Well, they’re all a big deal, but both were so special. In March my very good pal and Olwen and I planned an ambitious itinerary that took us to see a whole slew of places in England I’d wanted to see for a long time. I returned to Ireland in December for the Winter Solstice at Newgrange. (I was there again in October for work but didn’t see any big stones.)
March 1995
In Oxford we had a wonderful megalithic adventure. We took a “coach” to the tiny town of Chipping Norton, and from there took a cab to a site called the Rollright Stones. (We were skeptical about taking a cab, but in fact the cab man was delighted to drive us out there and promised to return in an hour, which he did.)
Rollright Stones
The Rollright Stones complex stands on a broad flat farmland and consists of 3 elements: a quite large stone circle called the King’s Men, a single standing stone called the King’s Stone, and a cluster of stones called the Whispering Knights.
The stone circle is pretty intact; most of the stones appear to be in their original position. (This is rare. Medieval people did their level best to destroy or pull down these stones, convinced they were dangerous and demonic.) The stones are in very bad condition, however. They are limestone, which is unusual, and are very weathered.
The King’s Stone looks like a bent little old man from a distance. It is enclosed in a little fence which looks more decorative than protective, but it’s said people used to hammer off chunks of it for good luck.
Then we walked down to see the Whispering Knights. The legend is that the Whispering Knights were a group of traitors conspiring against the king. They were turned to stone.
The Whispering Knights is said to be the remains of a collapsed dolmen. It could be one of the oldest monuments of its kind in Britain, possibly as early as 3,800 BC. That’s nearly 6,000 years ago!
They were constructed over a period of thousands of years; the people who erected the King Stone probably had no idea why the stone circle had been constructed. The Whispering Knights is early Neolithic (3,500 BC). The stone circle is late Neolithic (2,500 BC). And the King Stone is Bronze Age, around 1,500 BC. As so often is the case, it’s very likely that people have buried their dead here because people had done so before them.
Sometimes the stones for these megaliths were quarried and transported from hundreds of miles away. In this case, the stone is local.
I wanted to see this site because I had recently read a book about the Dragon Project, a group of people who investigated selected megalithic sites applying strict scientific method. The group did the most extensive testing here. The usual outcome: yeah, some weird stuff going on, but how or why, who knows?
There was a raggedy old guy in a little hut who said he’s the overseer. He was very friendly and informative and had leaflets for 20p. He said the property has belonged to the same family for 400 years, that a woman owns it now, and was no longer allowing the scientists to come out. “They were trying to tell us what to do.” He said in the summer he has as many as 100 visitors each day. The cab man later told us the old guy made up a lot of stories, to take it all with a grain of salt.
We spent the rest of the trip in Yorkshire. I’d been reading about the War of the Roses and wanted to see the home territory of the Yorkists. We spent several days in York, which was great fun, lots to see and do. Carole came over on the ferry and met us there. Then we rented a car and headed west.
I’ve had a lifelong fascination with the Bronte sisters, so we were off to Haworth, to see their home. They lived their whole lives (nearly) in the parsonage of the church where their father was curate. We were able to wander around their home. I had to sit down on the stairs at one point and just listen to the silence.
We spent the night at the White Lion just down the street from their house. It snowed overnight, so the morning looked like this.
I wanted to see the moors, those moors where Catherine and Heathcliff chased one another, where Jane escaped from Thornfield, where the Bronte sisters built whole worlds of imagination.
We trekked up to look for Top Withins (the model for Wuthering Heights) and waded through the wet snow, until we realized we were getting lost, so followed our footsteps back to town before the snow could cover them over. It was magical.
Then we drove off to see Castle Bolton, where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned — and from where she escaped.
Then we headed east across North Yorkshire and saw some fantastic places. By chance one night we stayed at the 400-year-old Cover Bridge Inn run by the delightful June and Jimmy Carter. An episode of All Creatures had been filmed there.
Devil’s Arrows
In Boroughbridge, we saw the Devil’s Arrows, some enormous standing stones.
I’m also a huge James Herriot fan; we breezed through both Thirsk, the town where he actually lived, and Askrigg, where they filmed the show. It was a thrill just to see the landscape where his stories were set.
We topped it off with a visit to Castle Howard, the location where they filmed Brideshead Revisited. We were not able to go into the house, but happily wandered around the garden and grounds in the pouring rain.
There are a ton of great megalithic sites in this area but we just ran out of time. And to top it off, we got on the wrong train back to London, so had a little detour via Leeds!
December 1995
Young Fidelma had put our names on the list to be allowed inside Newgrange for the winter solstice, and five years later our number was up. They allow a small group of people to enter the central chamber to watch the first rays of sunlight come through the roof box and penetrate into the chamber. If this isn’t ringing any bells, go look at the 1990 page for a refresher.
Newgrange
You may remember that this giant, 5000-year-old passage tomb has a special opening above the entrance called a roof box. It’s precisely aligned with the sunrise on the shortest day of the year. So the light doesn’t come in the doorway; it comes through the roof box. They designed it this way to allow for the slope of the passage. Not bad for people who didn’t have metal!
When I’d tried to go into the passage in 1990, I discovered I have claustrophobia: not just fear of confined spaces, but also a massive fear of crowds in confined spaces. I had to overcome that fear if I wanted to experience this. It was a big deal for me.
We spent the night in a nearby hotel and drove out there in the dark, just as the sky was beginning to lighten. I stood apart from the group and did my best to breath evenly and calm my mind. My fear was not only about confined space but also about being crushed in a crowd, so I waited until everybody had gone in and the passage was clear. Fidelma went just ahead of me and reached back to take my hand, but I was OK so I declined.
I went slowly. I had studied the sketches of the passage and knew there would be a place where I’d have to duck down and another place that was too narrow and I’d have to turn sideways. I knew the passage opened up once I was past that. I thought about how all those thousands of years the stones had stood, and I told myself I could trust them to continue to stand now. I clutched a little painted stone that my mom had given me. So I went ahead.
By the time I got in there, everyone had arranged themselves around the outside of the chamber. I took a place nearest the passage and looked up at the corbeled roof: space. Those of us towards the middle sat down on the ground so the others behind us could see. Carole was behind me and Fidelma to my side. The guide said she would now turn out the light and it would be pitch black for a few minutes. It was. Utterly completely black. We were silent.
Then far off down the passage we could see a golden snake crawling toward us. It crept on and passed in front of me. I put my hand out and touched it. You could see our shapes and faces in the dim light and the dust fly up when someone put a hand down onto the ground. Some people drew spirals in the gravel. If you put your head down to the floor, you could look down the passage and see the roof box aflame. Some murmured to one another, but mostly we were silent.
We were in there for over a half hour. Because I’d gone in last, I was first out, which helped with the claustrophobia. We emerged into full daylight. It made you think about life, death, rebirth, the cycle of the seasons, and the sun and stars.
Now click here for more fun in 1996!