Henges!

[shewhomust]

We have wanted to visit the Thornborough henges ever since we first read the very excitable reports of English Heritage opening them to the public. It took a while for us to organise ourselves, what with being without a car, and then meetings and other engagements, not to mention the weather - but we finally decided that Wednesday, while not ideal, would do, and after breakfast and a few unavoidable phone calls, we drove south into Yorkshire.

The car had enough charge to get us there, and a little further, but not home again. After some research, we discarded Plan A (henges first, then lunch at the brewery in Masham) in favour of Plan B (recharge at Booth's in Ripon, and visit the supermarket - and its café - at the same time). Which worked very well.

Early afternoon, between two showers, we reached the henges.

If this looks like a large bump in a field, that's about right. All the stuff in the press releases is absolutely true: it really is (one of) a group of massive earthworks and part of a highly significant ritual landscape. But also, a large bump in a damp, but not particularly muddy, field. Luckily we knew this in advance, and weren't expecting the view of the circles that you need a drone to see. As you round the earthwork, you reach the opening through which you can pass inside the circle; which shows you the size of the thing, and it's pretty impressive.

A less satisfactory photo, but if you look very closely, you may just be able to make out the rainbow. We were overflown by a pair of geese, and saw the whole flock take off, a little further away.

So we were not in any way disappointed. But after we had walked back through the middle of the henge and out the other side, we considered whether to cross the road and visit the other henge in the group, and decided that no, we were ready to return to our nice warm car.

Not a henge at all, but a pattern of circles seen from above:

(Lunch at Booth's, with biscoff tiffin.)

Comments

[cmcmck]

It's what gets called a tump hereabouts.

[shewhomust]

Is it? I thought a tump was a simple mound, not a big ring (not that you can see it's one of those from the photo!)

[poliphilo]

I visited the henges a couple of decades ago as a member of a group studying for archaeology "O"Level. I'm happy English Heritage has wrested them from the hands of Tarmac. The third henge- which we also went round- was essentially a wood- in which we found and picked raspberries.

[shewhomust]

That's the way to do it!