Yesterday's second morning walk on the Gower was a challenging one: Worms Head island which is only accessible via a causeway that's above water during a 5 hour period with low tide, and which is very rocky. Luckily we bought shoes for our whippet the day before, so he could join us. Seals sunning on the rocks below.
First morning walk, in the Three Cliffs Bay yesterday. Dramatic cloud skies. The cloud in the last photo might be the one from the movie Nope (2022) by Jordan Peele!
Monday afternoon: Cardiff Castle, a site where the Roman fort, Norman keep, and Victorian Gothic Revival interiors all survive within one set of walls. The Roman stonework, the 11th‑century motte‑and‑bailey, and the Burges‑designed Bute rooms make the different phases of the castle’s history clear in a single circuit.
Monday morning in Barry, Wales: Jackson’s Bay, dog friendly and one of the clearest coastal exposures of Triassic desert beds meeting Jurassic sea‑floor sediments in South Wales. The iron‑cemented sandstone on the beach looks metallic, but it’s natural: iron oxides binding the grains.
We picked up a fossil-bearing rock that I initially thought was a piece of rusty iron, but turned out to be iron rich sandstone with the imprint of a Jurassic shell still visible in the surface.
Sunday afternoon: Lacock Abbey, a former Augustinian house founded in 1232, later converted into a country residence. The cloisters survive almost intact, making it one of the best‑preserved monastic interiors in England. You might recognize the first photo as a location used in the Harry Potter movies.
#RespectLaCock
Visit to Avebury on Sunday. Started at West Kennet Avenue, the Neolithic processional route that once ran for more than 2 km, marked by pairs of standing stones. Even in its reduced state, the alignment and ambition are still clear.
Then into the Avebury Henge and Stone Circles: the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world, enclosed by one of Britain’s deepest (the ditch was 9m deep originally, with almost vertical walls!) and widest Neolithic earthworks. The surviving stones still outline the original scale, which remains unmatched. Can you spot the bare in photo 8?
A stop at Avebury Manor — a National Trust property set directly inside the henge — before continuing across the wider ritual landscape.
Silbury Hill dominates the valley: the largest artificial prehistoric mound in Europe, built around 2400 BCE. No access to the summit, but the height and volume are obvious from any angle.
Finished at West Kennet Long Barrow, one of the longest and best‑preserved chambered tombs in Britain, built around 3650 BCE, which you can also enter. Its position on the ridge gives a clear view back across the entire Avebury complex: a landscape defined by the biggest, highest, heaviest structures of their time, still legible thousands of years later.
Hellen thought the cows on our way back were moving a bit too close to the path.
Last 3 days in reversed chronological order. Beer garden at The Swan #vrijmibo, The Vyne NT, Nymans NT, and around Wilmington - Hellen at work at the Priory.
A curious sight in Wilmington today: an enclosure in a field filled with what looked like abandoned Christmas trees. For a moment I wondered if Sussex had invented a new ritual: sky burials for festive Xmas trees.
A Google search revealed that the explanation is less dramatic and far more English. Farmers and conservation groups fence off small plots like this to protect young saplings, improve soil, or create habitat piles. Old Christmas trees are perfect for that: free, slow to decompose, and excellent shelter for insects and small mammals. Not a ceremony, just practical countryside ecology.
#Wilmington #EastSussex #SussexCountryside #FieldNotes #RuralEngland HabitatRestoration ConservationUK DeadwoodEcology ChristmasTreeRecycling
