On Friday, we had our first official field trip for the British Landscapes course. We went to Stonehenge, Old Sarum, and Salisbury Cathedral.

Ever since I can remember I have wanted to go to Stonehenge. Not because it is a circle of large rocks. Not because it has been around since practically the dawn of time (although that was sort of the reason). But because the curiosity draw is so strong. The need to figure out why it is there, and who built it, has always been at the back of my mind. Unfortunately we may never know. But there are some rather nice theories, and some of the science around it is cool. The rocks are blue stone from Wales. They honestly have no idea how the indigenous people would have gotten rocks from Wales all the way to Britain that were that huge. They had 56 columns around Stonehenge itself made of Sarsen stone which came from different parts around England. They have found evidence of a pathway leading to a town they have named Dorrington. They have also found evidence of people’s ashes (from cremation, not burning them alive or anything), and  pigs teeth which are all dated to 9 months old. This has led some to believe that there was a winter festival of sorts up there, but no one is sure. The Cursus is a long ditch that has two fire pits on either end. On the summer solstice and the winter solstice, the sun would rise and set over each of the fire pits but never touch the Cursus. It would also line up with the pathway and “entrance” of Stonehenge on the heel stone. All around the place there are hundreds of barrows. Also, Druids have only recently been associated with Stonehenge, and every once in a while, you will spot one all dressed up.

Old Sarum was a town built before the Norman Invaders in 1066. It was built with 3 baileys or levels with a huge ditch around so that the area itself was taller than on the other side of the ditch. Now it is a bunch of really old cool ruins and hills with beautiful trees and crests that remind me of Rohan. It was especially windy when we were there too! When the Normans conquered it, they tried to build a church. But five days after completing it, it burnt to the ground. So they decided to move out a bit (after building one but it wasn’t quite as good) to the surrounding area to build an even bigger one. This became Salisbury Cathedral. The only thing is, they built this cathedral only 4 feet above water because it is a swamp area. So they have this massive beautiful cathedral held up by 4 feet of earth and a thin sheet of shale until it gets to water. Oops. At Salisbury, we got to climb to the top of the bell tower (not all the way to the spire which is the tallest in Europe). It was a little scary climbing up some of the steps but quite honestly when I got to the top, it was absolutely breathtaking. You could see for miles. At Salisbury, they also have a copy of the Magna Carta because that is the cathedral where King John signed it. That was so cool to see, and it was very impressive because somehow or another, whoever drew it up had some of the best handwriting I’ve ever seen. It was so tiny and in straight lines like they had had lined paper.

I can’t write everything I learned in this one post, but hopefully you learned something as well.