Martin Down and more

Dry and then some. Martin Down and the surrounding predominantly arable and grassland landscape has the appearance of our own domestic savannah. Cranborne is currently rocking a palette which heavily leans brown. Todays' walk was to reconnect with an area I used to roam frequently, though had not walked in some years. Maybe ten years. It's a glorious landscape, marked all over by six millennia of human activity, Mesolithic hunter gathers first roamed this downland, though they left scant evidence of their presence beyond flint tools, those who came after on the other hand were more giving, sculpting the land into barrows, banks, hillforts and dykes spanning prehistory; Roman roads and villas speak of one phase of colonization; centuries of Medieval farming and hunting have maked the land too, speaking of peasantry and privilege, in many respects an England still recognizable today; more recently the 20th century saw industrialized farming and military activity adding their mark. This is a landscape clearly favoured and well used by our ancestors, still used today. Standing on Penbury Knoll (listed as an early prehistoric hillfort, though I'm not so sure) I surveyed this world in awe. Walking here is walking in the footsteps of our forebears, and you feel it. It was surprising how little the old routes we'd take had changed over a decade, Norris and I knew this place well. A stunning landscape, even in it's current desiccated state a lovely walk.

The Chase

Our Walk through Cranborne Chase today, looked like this. From the top: through Stonedown Wood up on to the Ox Drove, across Woodminton Down and into the Ebble Valley, up Marlycombe Hill, through West Woodyates, With Penbury Hill on the horizon, and wispy clouds above. Eight miles of pure loveliness; we would've gone further, though even when we arrived at 08.00 it was hot and I knew it would become too hot for Geoff, and so I clipped here and there, taking some shorter or more direct routes; it was a good move too, as by mid morning it was scorching and all our water had already gone. Fabulous walking though, and again, few folk about, other than we walked through farms or hamlets.

Penbury Knoll Camp

Penbury Knoll Camp is designated as an early prehistoric hillfort, with an irregular single rampart and ditch, and an interior suffering from later quarrying. I'll be honest, in it's present condition and scant visible remains (beyond a section of shallow ditch and slight bank), it's hard to see this site as a hillfort, it's very small too. It's definitely something prehistoric. There are several causeways across the visible shallow ditch, and I could see it being a causewayed enclosure, and interestingly there are good assemblages (from surface finds) of Mesolithic and Neolithic flint work from the knoll.  Nice spot, with some good vistas over the Chase and towards the New Forest, you can see why it would have been the focus of human activity.