Rollright into 2025

Last day of 2024 and just time to squeeze in one last mini road trip for the year.

At Ethan's suggestion we are heading off to the Uffington Castle and White Horse and Wayland's Smithy - which is a little distance away from the White Horse and Castle along the Ridgeway ( the ancient track which runs between Avebury and Ivinghoe Beacon). I've always fancied walking the Ridgeway so may have to revisit this after a little research on good hostelries to stay at en route ...

Whilst looking at a map of Ancient Britain (well doesn't everyone have one?), I notice that a slight alteration to our trip can also take in the Rollright Stones, which I have always wanted to visit since hearing them immortalised in the Half Man Half Biscuit song, 24 Hour Garage People.

This obviously prompts me to go and listen to some Half Man Half Biscuit in way that I have already come to recognise as a retired person's mental pottering. In the course of this I notice that there is a song on the same album called Uffington Wassail

Clearly the universe is trying to tell me something and the trip takes shape.

Further research suggests that there is also a Ley Line running between the Rollright Stones and the Uffington White Horse. Hush now Universe, the die is already cast, no further persuasion is needed!

The Rollright Stones is a collection of various ancient monuments, including a stone circle referred to as the King's Men, erected about 2500 BC, another collection of Stones called the whispering Knights (about 1500 years older) and the King's Stone itself. Rumour has it that it is impossible to count the King's Men, so obviously we had to try and Ethan and myself headed off in opposite directions to tot them up. Our counts only differed by one but I can totally see why it why people get different counts each time : some of the stones are half buried, others look like two but are actually a single stone really. Sadly quite a prosaic explanation for the legend.

That said I did (at Ethan's prompting) watch the Tom Baker Dr Who episodes set at the Rollrights (The Stones of Blood), so I know that the stones move around. Well when I say watched, I gave up after a relatively short time as I had forgotten just how bad the acting and special effects were in some of these older episodes...

Sadly for our prospects of spending lots of time soaking up the atmosphere, the wind was bitterly cold and this, combined with 2 double espressos, an energy drink and an old bladder demand an emergency trip to a nearby garden centre. Given that someone seemed to have settled down for the duration in one of the toilets, I almost had to go in search of a plant pot. Luckily matters resolved without things getting uncivilised and, much relieved, we set off for Uffington.

Uffington Castle is a monumental earthwork commanding an impressive view of the surrounding countryside - surely the hang out for the dominant tribe of the area and the White Horse (oldest chalk figure in the country apparently) is clearly a gang tag. This was the border between a number of tribes and the castle and horse very clearly say, “Don’t mess”. What I hadn't expected was the magnificent view of beautiful Swindon from the top. Odd to find myself in the vicinity on my last official day of employment by UKRI. Equally odd that for all of these years I didn't know what was nearby!

We got a view of part of the White Horse from the top and resolved to circle around and try to get a better view from a distance. First business though: a little wander down the Ridgeway to Wayland's Smithy. This is a long barrow not far from Uffington Castle. Legend has it that if you leave your horse and a groat (who carries cash these days though?) outside the barrow, the smith Wayland will shoe your horse for you. If I could have gotten my car nearby I would have given it a try.

Anyway, no time to dally, we are heading back to Dragon Hill - a flat topped hill in front of Uffington Castle which is apparently where St. George slew that dragon. There is a bare chalk patch on top where no grass grows and local folklore has it that this was where the dragon's blood was spilled.

Now to try and get that shot of the White Horse. We walk for some distance looking for the ideal angle and it soon becomes clear that we have miscalculated and would probably need a drone to get a decent shot. Interestingly, as we had been driving up, we passed a bench and I had casually suggested that we stop and take a photograph as this was clearly the optimum viewpoint. Obviously we didn't and turns out it probably was. Of course. And we are now at the bottom of a very steep hill that we have to get back up to the car park. Still, the steps are looking good for today I suppose.

Time to hit the road and head off for some food and a New Year tipple.

Post Script: Flights to Denver now booked so locked in for a month in the States later in the year (although annoyingly booked over a pre-existing gig due to Avios rewards constraints), but first have to navigate Svalbard (just as a cold snap arrives of course) and Amsterdam…