West Kennet

[poliphilo]

 







It was probably always a ritual site, not a tomb, but who knows? I suppose the one doesn't exclude the other. It is oriented East-West- just like a Christian church. 17th century treasure hunters messed up the archaeological evidence. Digs in the 19th and 20th centuries uncovered the remains or approximately 50 disarticulated bodies.  The individuals were of both sexes and all ages.

A jolly American woman had established herself in the furthest chamber with a set of singing bowls. You can see the flames of her candles in picture #3. The bowls were humming away and members of other parties were harmonising from the side chambers. The woman had a tray of sand from Ayers Rock in Australia and was inviting us to help ourselves to a handful.

Local folklore holds that the tomb is visited on Midsummer morning by a ghostly figure in white, accompanied by a white hound with red ears.

I asked the big stone at the mouth of the tomb what it was there for- and it told me it was there for the sunrise.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

You find the most amazing places! I love your accounts and photos of these little corners of England.

Interestingly the ghostly figure in white echoes some of the Welsh folklore about a "white lady" and white hounds with red ears are the Welsh fairy hounds, possibly even the Cwn Annwn.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes! I knew I'd come across red-eared hounds somewhere else before.