Andy Burnham's Blog, page 11

Menir da Vilarinha 3

An interesting menhir and part of a fascinating alignment in the Algarve, BUT it's not the original. It was originally sited further down the row and known as Vilarinha 5. The original Vilarinha 3 is very ornately carved and now in the museum in Silves to preserve it (we have photos of that one also).

Winklebury Camp (Hampshire)

The impressive banks of this hillfort survive in deepest Basingstoke. It has a single rampart (which has been developed right up to) and a ditch enclosing almost 6 hectares (15 acres). The site has suffered a lot of development in recent times: it is surrounded by a housing estate and in 1977 a school was built within the ramparts. Excavations discovered two Iron Age phases; firstly from the 6th to 5th century, and secondly from the 2nd to 1st centuries BC.

St Augustine's Abbey Standing Stone

I'm off to Canterbury on Wednesday as a guest at Fiona R's book event and I'm going to have a look for these. One of two sarsen stones discovered in the foundations of the original abbey. Nobody knows for certain but it is claimed that Saint Augustine may have used this one as a preaching cross. St Augustine's Abbey was originally created as a burial place for the Anglo-Saxon kings of Kent, it is part of the Canterbury World Heritage Site, along with the Cathedral and St Martin's Church.

Allanfearn

Also known as Culloden! The remains of a chambered cairn to the north of the A96 near Inverness.

Castellum of Aardenburg

The village of Aardenburg (Zeeland) was part of the Roman Empire from at least 27BCE until 289CE.
This part of western Europe was the home of the Menapii, a Celtic tribe, until the Romans came. The Romans and Celts mingled. But in 170CE there were invasions from Germany and the Roman soldiers built a Castellum on the high sand ridge, with the name Rodanum.

Koppelberg Dolmen

Several destroyed dolmens stood on the Koppelberg, a promontory overlooking a lake NE of Berlin. They were used as sources of stone in the 19th Century. However there are many loose stones by the wayside that may have once been part of the dolmens. There are also many cup marks in the area, check the nearby sites list and map on our page.

Selino Pyramid

This is one of the most obscure prehistoric sites and hard to get to. It is a Minoan tomb on Crete, but carved entirely out of rock. The name 'Pyramid' is a misnomer - the structure is a fairly perfect cone.

Breamore Miz-Maze

A really beautiful turf maze in Hampshire of 'Chartres' design. These are hard to date as they get recut and maintained. Some contend it has prehistoric origins, but more likely to be mediaeval, cut by the friars of the nearby Augustinian priory, or later by the owners of nearby Breamore House.

Kindstein

Like many standing stones, this one is thought of as a fertility symbol according to local legend. It's on Zum Kindstein Street in a recent housing development south-west of the village of Unter-Widdersheimin near Frankfurt.

Petroglyph Provincial Park (British Columbia)

This park was created to protect a high concentration of rock art sites, many thought to date back a thousand years. Many of the figures are beautiful depictions of sea creatures. It is a location of great significance for the Snuneymuxw First Nations people.