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.