The forest is shrouded in fine missal, dampness is everywhere, clinging to everything and the ground yields easily under every foot; all sound is muffled, subdued, and still, only the occasional bark of a distant hound, carried from on far. The open heath and bog adjacent to Ferny Knap (1843) feel desolate, exposed, but free. Ferny Barrows, Bronze Age burial mounds, lay on an island of dry land surrounded by streams and wetland, although not on high ground, their siting in a natural bowl makes them a prominent feature in the local landscape. This prominence is enhanced by one of the barrows being considerable in size, 18m diameter and almost 1.5m high. Although the mound has been robbed, a tell tale linear trench marking the intrusion of an 1800's antiquarian, it remains substantial as does the encompassing ditch, now filled with water to over boot depth in sections. It's a place with a calm presence, on a drier day I'd stop a while.
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