The Neolithic Adventures of Paleo Man

As the haze clears from some overenthusiastic celebrations of the significant birthday, attention turns to how to productively spend the rest of my two weeks off. Many thanks to all who helped me with phase 1 of the celebrations (phase 2 with work and family coming up in the next couple of weeks - hopefully the stamina holds up!) and for the fine ‘shroom themed presents and birthday cake.

I see this time off as something of a dry run for how I will keep myself occupied during my imminent retirement. Shouldn’t be a problem as it turns out.

I am on something of a mission to visit as many places as possible from these books

which should keep me usefully occupied for some time! I also have a desire to head north to Holy Island and Bamburgh (Bebbanburg!) on account of watching too many Viking series.

First things first though: I have a trip to Ireland (courtesy of Ethan) to visit the neolithic tombs of Bru Na Boinne. There are a number of sites in the valley - Newgrange (by far the most famous), Knowth, Dowth and Tara. We are visiting the first 2 of these. Although I had seen plenty of pictures of the impressive Newgrange, I hadn’t even heard of Knowth before the trip. What an eye opener that was. There are a large collection of tombs and the stones which lined their walls are festooned with art - apparently 80% of the surviving neolithic art of Europe is at Knowth!

Even more fascinating to my mind was what the guide told us about the builders of Knowth. Apparently they were the first farmers in Ireland and were genetically different from the native hunter-gatherers, hailing as they did from Anatolia. Now this is very interesting as this is where farming seemed to get a reboot (around Gobekli Tepi) post the floods at the end of the last Ice Age (see previous post Gonna Need a Bigger Ark). Apparently the Anatolians got around a bit - including to both North and South America. By sheer coincidence I had been listening to a podcast earlier in the week which was espousing the theory that both the Melungeons of Appalachia and the Cherokee are of Anatolian descent. More research required methinks but some interesting connections.

Onwards to Newgrange (equally astonishing), and which you can actually go into. Sadly, I had already made my way out before Ethan pointed out that I had missed one of the key sights - the famous triple spiral carving - which the guide had been stood in front of and failed to point out. He kindly bought me a fridge magnet of same so I could get the experience! Actually, it is also on the stone outside but that’s not the point! Hopefully (as if) I will get to go back as I have entered the draw to be allowed in for sunrise on the winter solstice.

On to the second week and looking at the tide time for safe crossing of the causeway to Lindisfarne, it seems that later in the week will be a better time to be able to visit at a reasonable hour, so I will nudge that to later in the week and find something to gainfully employ my time at the start.

To be fair, I was feeling a little jaded on Monday after meeting Ethan for lunch on Sunday, which turned into a prolonged session in Wetherspoons, so not too much travel was indicated. A trip to Sherwood Forest (my go-to for recharging batteries) hit the spot.

Tuesday still being too early for the Lindisfarne trip, I got back on the Neolithic trail with a trip to Avebury. Now a friend suggested that I should report back on the energy associated with these sites so I am now on a mission to figure out how to classify vibes. My report on Avebury was that it just felt right - in the right place and you feel at home within it. It has a lived in feel (which is not entirely surprising as a part of the village is within the stone circle) - “like an old pair of slippers” was my assessment. Not sure how helpful that is.

I then spent a few hours walking the landscape around Avebury, much of which has a very different vibe - particularly the West Kennet Long Barrow which I did not really care for and spent a very short period of time inside before retreating!

I’m not sure why the cows preferred one particular sarsen stone but I guess they know something I don’t.

Wednesday and I am off for some hiking on Ilkley Moor on my way up north. Obviously I am still going with the Neolithic theme, so first stop the Twelve Apostles stone circle. Vibe: Utilitarian. No idea what it was used for but, given it’s placement and the split into 12 probably a fair bet that it had some astronomical significance. Has the feel of a tool. Maybe classify this as Spanner.

As I am in the vicinity, seems it might also be worth the Swastika Stone. Turns out not so much, even if I hadn’t taken a wrong turn and spent 20 minutes wading through chest high ferns.

Still Ilkley Moor is very scenic and will probably bear another visit. The hiking took somewhat longer than expected and, combined with a Google Maps nav failure meant that I had to abandon my attempt to visit the Strid, but shall return having done some research rather than just heading off at a whim. Onwards for an overnight in Durham to be within reasonable striking distance of Holy Island in the morning, and a day of not-so-ancient history.

On my previous visit to Holy Island, I completely failed to find anywhere to park and had to head straight back to the mainland without looking around. I was also swamped with so much spray that the car looked like the rim of a margherita and I had to head rapidly to a car wash before the salt dissolved the car. This time around I timed it perfectly - leaving about 30 minutes into the safe crossing time to make sure that the water had fully receded and landing in an almost empty car park.

I always used to think that Holy Island looked spectacular when I passed that way during my year living in Edinburgh, so it was nice to get a closer look.

Vibe? Very quiet and subdued for the number of tourists there. I’m putting a Library tag on this one. Except from the priory which I thought felt a bit oppressive. This may have just been me projecting my general feeling about priesthood and religious hierarchies or it may have been that St. Cuthbert was giving me stink eye.

Want to make something of it??

The sacking of the priory by Vikings was cataclysmic event in British history. The establishment couldn’t believe that this could happen with the protection of God and St Cuthbert, to what was the epicentre of Christianity in the North. That’s going to leave a mark.

I was comforted to learn though that, after a long and arduous trek, pilgrims could have their needs catered for.

Personally, I was in the market for some mead to consume whilst rewatching some relevant episodes of Vikings and The Last Kingdom. Talking of which, off to Bebbanburg!

Now I’m not saying that £17 is a lot to get into a castle, and its probably good value if you like the trappings of a stately home, but the only thing of interest to me inside the castle were some evil looking weapons and the various props from The Last Kingdom. Should have saved myself the money and just enjoyed the views from the beach!

Destiny may well be all, but it is now my destiny to drive for 5 hours, so had better get on it!