Townley's view

A harsh wind raked the ridge around the Kimmeridge bowl this morning as we made our way along it towards Tyneham Cap, and although the sun shore brightly, it was no match. A bright cold day indeed, great for walking, and we did at quite a pace. On reaching the Cap one of the Jurassic Coasts many spectacular vistas comes into view; in the foreground Gad Cliffes, beyond, a sweeping view across the Tyneham Valley and Worbarrow Bay, over the ramparts of Flowers Barrow Iron Age hillfort, across to Mupe, and Portland on the horizon. Quite something. The Jurassic Coast at it best. No wonder Townley Shenton loved this view.

St Andrews Church

Nestled up in a slight wooded valley above Church Ope Cove, and under the gaze of the 15th century ruins of Rufus Castle (whose origins lie much earlier in the 12th century) are the ruins St Andrews Church, itself 12th century built on the site of an earlier Saxon church. There are lots of interesting features to see: the footprint of the churches walls, all standing about a meter of so high and a variety of old grave stones and tombs, although the most striking is the 15th arch which was a feature of the churches tower.  Even at this time of the year it disappears amongst the encroaching undergrowth, in the summer it must look quite magical, all a bit Lords of the Ringsy really.

Up above the streets and houses...

Up above the streets and houses rainbow climbing high, everyone can see it smiling over the sky, paint the whole world with a rainbow.  Who remembers 'Rainbow'?  Todays rainbow climbed up above the redundant King Barrow quarry stone heaps. As the sun sunk behind the clouds in the west, a rainbow appeared in the east. Nice.

Modern stone setting

High on the Isle of Portland is this stone setting, in nature and appearance it looks not dissimilar to the stone rows and circles found on the Scottish Isles, although it's of no antiquity at all. This stone row is a modern art installation, part of Tout Quarry, a disused stone quarry turned into a sculpture park.  Modern or not, I like it.  I'm very much in favour of creating more contemporary stone and earth settings and features, be they for memorial/monumental use (as with the new long barrow build in Wiltshire) or for contemporary ritual/ceremonial practice or whatever, to party in/at. Things with some meaning. I follow a pagan path and as much as I cherish our connection with the ancestors and their associated monuments, I feel that if we are to move forward we have to start creating our own sites, or we exist, in some ways, only as a shadow of the past.  Don't get me wrong, I love our archaeological site, but you can't 'use' them any more, can't experience them as our ancestors did,  sites must be tiptoed around and revered/respected. What we understand from many archaeological sites is that as well as ritual, there was partying, there was life and the sites were alive. We can respect our past, and live wholly in the now, whilst building for future folk to use. What would be ideal is, as our ancestors did, re-use/re-model the sites of our forebears; with respect, of course.  Sites need to be used, or they become hollowed out museum pieces, devoid of life and spirit. But that wont happen, for many reasons I can well appreciate.  So we need to build new sites and fill them with life. I'd be interested to know whether these stones share any significant alignments or are merely decorative.  Either way very cool.

Tout Quarry Park

Tout Quarry covers an area of about 40 acres, an old stone quarry originating from 1750, it was last quarried in 1982; in some parts you can still see the cart/tram marks in the rock, where stone was transported from the site. Since 1983 Tout Quarry has been a sculpture park and nature reserve. I believe there are over 70 sculptures and carvings scattered amongst its labyrinth of ravines and winding gullies. I've only spent a short time exploring and have yet to find many of the pieces. In the summer I may have to bring supplies and spend a whole day exploring to see if I can't find them all.  The works range from small line carvings, rough faces which emerge out of the rocks, shapes, textures and all manner of oddities, to much larger pieces like the rebuilt 'Lanos' Arch'.  Some of the quarry is easily accessible, a broad path winds through, with smaller paths and sets of concrete/stone steps leading off it. Although beyond the paths it becomes arduous to say the least.  Still, if you're in the area it's worth a gander.

Art for art sake.

Tout Quarry park: a disused quarry, active since 1750; used by the military in World War 2 as the site for a Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low radar station; in the 1950's the military used it as a ROTOR (air defence radar system) site; the ROTOR site was abandoned and demolished in the early 1960's; and then sometime later, in 1983, it became a sculpture park, which has developed over time. As you can imagine the quarry is packed with things of interest, industrial archaeological remains, military archaeological remains and a shed load of cool art. I came across Tout Quarry late in my walk and so couldn't really investigate the place as we'd have liked; I saw about a dozen of the 50 or so pieces of art, all of which served their purpose of stimulating the imagination. Though to do the place justice I need to really take some time to look about, and maybe look to document all the pieces.

Portland poetry

A poetic sticker at High Angle battery.

Portland

It turns out that the Isle of Portland is a weird place: I'm sure made weirder today by the sea mist which periodically swept over the isle, obscuring the sun, adding a chill and adding an another-worldyness to an already alien landscape. Don't get me wrong, I'm not maligning the place, not at all. Just saying it's weird. I'd been looking at Portland for a walk for some time now, expecting more of Purbeck, and in some ways that's what I found, though in others it felt so so different. It feels like nature here has been deeply wounded, she's still reeling from mans onslaught, though slowly starting to come round. Although nature slowly creeps back over the works of man, still most, if not all, of todays walk was in a landscape hugely altered by man. You notice that nearly all the flora is different here, minimal, colonizers, it's all primary growth, so worked is the land that there's not been the opportunity for more developed plant communities to establish; as for the most part the land has literally been turned inside out. In this quarried landscape, with its racing mists, I am put in mind of a 70's Dr Who set, or Blakes 7. I don't mind that, I quite enjoy remembering those shows.

Although the naturalist in me is somewhat disappointed, the archaeologist in me is thrilled by a landscape where your eye can wander endlessly from one artifact/monument to another; Portland really is almost entirely a post industrial, post military landscape, jam packed with archaeology.  Strange edifices appear out of the mist, testament to some past occupation or activity; chimneys, walls, buildings, all slowly being absorbed as nature takes back what was hers.  One structure in particular catches my eye and my imagination, a giant dressed stone structure, beautifully crafted, somewhat like a massive piece of Toblerone. Further investigation showed it to be the beautifully built butt, completed in 1920 of a rifle range originally initiated during the Victorian period. Further investigation is definitely required of this strange landscape; that really was the point of todays mission... recon, and I saw plenty of places I'd like to further investigate. With luck my next mission will be in better weather.