STONE BOTHERING

Cornwall has a talent for surprises. You can be walking through hills and quiet villages when suddenly a single great boulder appears as if placed there by a giant’s hand. Bowl Rock near Trencrom Hill is exactly that kind of place. It looks simple at first glance yet the more time you spend with it the more fascinating it becomes. Locals will happily tell you that Bowl Rock was once a bowling ball belonging to the giants of Trencrom. The story is wonderfully absurd and that is exactly why it endures. Trencrom Hill has long been associated with tales of giant rivalries and noisy competitions played across the landscape. According to the old whispers these giants would roll stones up and down the hillsides for sport and Bowl Rock was one of the favourites. The National Trust even leans into the legend with a small plaque that nods to the tale and adds a touch of fun to the visit. When you stand beside Bowl Rock the story becomes strangely believable. The boulder is rounded almost perfect...

Cornwall is full of places that hum with an ancient stillness, where the land holds on to memories longer than people do. Among the moors of the far west, there are hundreds of stone monuments, barrows, and forgotten chambers. Some are well known, with their names printed on signs and trails. Others, like Portheras Barrow, hide in plain sight. You can drive past it a hundred times without knowing that one of the most quietly powerful prehistoric sites in Cornwall is only a few steps from the road. Portheras Barrow lies near the coast between St Just and Morvah, on a patch of high ground where the wind never seems to rest. From its rounded rise, you can see the sea glittering beyond Portheras Cove and the sweep of moorland stretching inland toward Carnyorth and Chun Castle . It sits in that kind of place that feels naturally sacred, even if you know nothing about archaeology. The horizon feels deliberate, the way the land folds around it feels designed for ceremony or watching the heave...

At the far western edge of Cornwall, stands Chapel Carn Brea. From a distance it looks like an ordinary hill, but once you start to climb it, you sense there’s more to it than the view. Layers of history lie hidden in the earth here, with traces of ancient burials, a lost chapel, and even a wartime lookout. This hill has been important to people for thousands of years. Standing on its summit today, with the wind sweeping in from the Atlantic and the land stretching endlessly in every direction, you can feel the weight of time and the quiet echo of countless lives that once crossed this ground. Chapel Carn Brea sits close to the village of St Just, on the far western edge of Cornwall, only a few miles from Land’s End. Often called the “first hill in Cornwall,” it greets travelers arriving from the sea, rising to nearly two hundred meters above sea level. From its summit, the views are extraordinary. To the north, the coastline curves toward Cape Cornwall and the Atlantic horizon. To the...

Gloucestershire, a county wrapped in green hills and ancient mystery, is one of those rare places where the land itself seems alive with memory. Every valley, ridge, and limestone rise holds traces of people who lived here thousands of years ago. Among its most remarkable relics are the long barrows, ancient burial chambers that stretch back to the Neolithic period, around 3500 to 3000 BC. These monuments were built long before metal tools or written words, yet they show a deep understanding of stone, landscape, and spiritual purpose. To visit these barrows is to walk into the imagination of people who saw the world as sacred. They carried their dead into the earth with ceremony, built monumental tombs with slabs of Cotswold limestone, and oriented them with a precision that still stirs wonder. Gloucestershire’s long barrows belong to what archaeologists call the Cotswold–Severn tradition, a group of megalithic tombs found across southwest England and south Wales. They are among the ol...

When you think of Wiltshire, one image almost always comes to mind. The great circle of Stonehenge rising from Salisbury Plain, a prehistoric masterpiece that has captivated people for centuries. But Wiltshire holds far more than that famous ring of stones. Beyond the queues of visitors and the hum of tour buses lies another Wiltshire, quieter and older in its mystery. It is a county scattered with long barrows, solitary standing stones, and forgotten circles where the wind still carries whispers of ritual and remembrance. This is the Wiltshire that calls to those who like to wander off the map. The Wiltshire of moss-covered stones and half-hidden mounds. These are the places that do not shout for attention. They wait for the curious to find them. Lanhill Long Barrow Near the village of Lanhill, just outside Chippenham, lies a long barrow that has been quietly resting since the Neolithic age. Lanhill Long Barrow stretches across the grass like a sleeping creature, roughly sixty metres ...

Wiltshire, situated in the heart of southern England, is a land steeped in history and mystery. Its rolling fields and tranquil valleys conceal some of the most remarkable prehistoric monuments in the world. From towering stone circles to ancient burial mounds, Wiltshire offers a rare opportunity to step back into a world shaped by rituals, astronomical knowledge, and sacred landscapes. For history enthusiasts, archaeology lovers, and seekers of the mystical, Wiltshire is nothing short of enchanting. In this blog post, we will explore the most significant ancient sites in the county, unravel their stories, and offer tips for connecting more deeply with these timeless places. Stonehenge No journey to Wiltshire would be complete without visiting Stonehenge, perhaps the most famous prehistoric site in the world. Located near Amesbury, Stonehenge is a Neolithic stone circle that dates back to around 3000 BC. Its imposing stones, some weighing up to 40 tons, were transported from distant re...

Oxfordshire is a landscape of quiet power. Its rolling hills and ancient paths seem ordinary at first glance, yet the land holds something deeper. Beneath the calm of green fields and winding lanes lies a world of forgotten ceremonies, half-remembered myths, and stones that have stood longer than the memory of kings. This is a county that holds its past close, and if you walk with patience and attention, you can still feel the pulse of that older world beneath your feet. As you move through Oxfordshire, you begin to sense that it was once seen as sacred ground. From its high ridges to its chalk valleys, from lonely barrows to circles of weathered stone, this landscape has been shaped not only by hands but by belief. Every ancient site seems to belong to a network of invisible lines, threads of purpose woven through the land. The stones are the markers of that unseen design, the remains of a spiritual geography older than recorded history. The Rollright Stones The first time you see the...

Somerset is a land where hills rise like islands out of the mist, where rivers carry echoes of forgotten ceremonies, and where stones still whisper if you care to listen. Few counties in England hold such a dense concentration of ancient sites woven together by story, myth and the curious persistence of human memory. To walk here is to walk in two worlds at once: the modern landscape of villages, roads and fields, and the older landscape that still breathes beneath it, marked by stones, barrows and sacred hills. In this journey we visit four of the most remarkable places in Somerset: Glastonbury Tor, Stanton Drew Stone Circles, Stoney Littleton Long Barrow and the lesser-known Flagstaff Hill. Each has its own history and mystery, yet they seem to be connected by threads that cross the landscape. Archaeologists speak of alignments, geometers map out ley lines, dowsers talk of currents of earth energy, and locals simply feel what cannot be easily explained. Our visits were not about expl...