Kate Pickering (Member n0: 2070)
Avebury
At one point I leant onto a stone, and felt the coldness and heaviness travel through my hand, up my arm and into my body. It felt like the stone was rooting me into the ground alongside it.
Avebury. Finally got to see this place I’ve been hearing and reading about. I dragged two old friends along, not really stone enthusiasts but perhaps because we’ve been friends since primary school they were willing to indulge my niche interests. The stone circle was huge, much bigger than I had anticipated and I don’t think I managed to see all of it.
My pictures don’t really do it justice. The henge (the large ditch and hill that surrounds the stones) were deep and high and the stones, lichen covered as expected, were weathered into fleshy droops and runnels. They appeared as ancient grey beings, hunched and balanced precariously or anchored into the ground.
There is one large stone circle inside the ditch, two smaller circles inside that, along with an avenue of stones. I felt somewhat disoriented during the whole experience and at one point we left the information centre (way more people wandering around than I’d expected) and circled back accidentally and found ourselves where we started. It reminded me of the inability of the fictional inhabitants of Milbury (in the TV series ‘Children of the Stones’ set in Avebury stone circle) to leave the village and the alluring pull of the circle. I felt dizzy, my head spiralling, as I looked down into the ditch. At one point I leant onto a stone, and felt the coldness and heaviness travel through my hand, up my arm and into my body. It felt like the stone was rooting me into the ground alongside it.
It is thanks to a compelling talk by artist duo Daniel and Clara Hall last November for the Fortean Society that I made my way here. Daniel and Clara build on a history of artists and filmmakers that have worked with this site, also finding themselves drawn to the stones secrets. I’m not intending to do the same, but it is another stop on an intermittent pilgrimage around ancient sacred sites in the U.K., using my body to listen to what these sites might tell me about belief and my body in a world that speaks of other ways of being, connecting and ritualising. Also my daughter bought me membership to Stone Club best Mothers Day gift ever!
