Stonehenge

There is an old myth that Merlin commanded some giants to collect bluestones from Wales and some sarsen stones from the Marlborough Downs and bring them to a site on the Salisbury plains for the wizard's mystical uses. Apparently, the stones were too heavy, even for giants and Merlin had to magic them across himself before assembling them as we see today. On seeing Stonehenge, this does seem to be the most likely theory as to how they were assembled. I mean, teams of hundreds, maybe thousands of men, hauling these stones across hilly terrain, beating them into shape and then somehow making them stand upright in perfect allignment with the movement of the sun- doesn't that sound a bit far-fetched?

Stonehenge looked glorious in the morning sunlight. Eddy and I travelled there with a tour from Bath. We circumnavigated it, and, as seems to be normal with Stonehenge, now have a photo of it from almost every angle. Because it lies so close to an army base, there were tanks rolling down the road behind us and helicopters flying overhead- yet, it stands there, dignified and mysterious, and nobody can walk away without thinking, why??

The tour also took us to a village called Lacock for lunch. You may not have heard of it but if you've ever watched, among a number of things, the BBC's Pride and Prejudice, you would recognise the streets and houses. Most recently they were there filming night scenes for the next Harry Potter film. From there we went to Castle Combe, once voted Britain's most beautiful village. It was very pretty, nestled into woodland.

We are enjoying exploring the area around Bath and Odd Down. There are public footpaths everywhere and you never know where you will end up. The wildflowers are beautiful at the moment, the fields are full of daisies and buttercups and we've even seen a whole field of poppies. We have found a pub to be our local, about 20 minutes walk from the house. It is 16th century, and is the only commercial building in South Combe village. The pub has its own dedicated boules lawn and looks over rolling cotswolds hills.

Stonehenge, Lacock and Castle Combe



Views around Odd Down