Emilia Will (Member no:24)

Wessex

We stumbled through the largest megalithic stone henge in the world, crept into stone cold burial barrows, passed by chalk horses, castles, down haunted tracks

Went for a 51 mile ramble along a 5,000 year old track in Wessex last weekend. Hadn’t actually realised it was a route that would take me through an incredible string of prehistoric sites - and landscapes that I’d been looking at through artworks in books I’ve been working on over the past few years. Just thought, walking, no screen time, yep, I’m in. It was bitterly cold, my body was protesting every step of the way, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing like just putting one foot in front of the other for hours on end. Definitely the stomping ground for weird walkers and stone clubbers. We stumbled through the largest megalithic stone henge in the world, crept into stone cold burial barrows, passed by chalk horses, castles, down haunted tracks, ditches, through tumulus and snow drifts, listened for a spectral smithy, blew into the blowing stone, stood breathless watching herds of wild deer leap across our path, trundled through thick chalky mud as skylarks sung and red kites wheeled over head. 

Wayland’s Smithy long barrow. Named after the Norse blacksmithing figure. Supposedly if you need your horse shod you should tether it through the holes in the stones along with a gold coin and then turn away and keep your eyes closed until the sound of the hammer stops and then your horse will have mysteriously been shod.