Rhiannon
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Your favourite 'significant landscape feature'
Mar 18, 2005, 13:02
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I've asked the nice people in HH and I'm asking you as maybe you could have a slightly different take:
I've got to do an arty project and have found myself unable to resist doing it on something to do with Kelston Round Hill, the maddest hill in these (not very mountainous) parts. Conical and topped by trees (with an teeny tree on the side) - spottable from miles around. I think it's its spottableness that really draws me. It seems to stand for (arty waffle) the sublime in the landscape? and kind of eternal things? It's not bad up there either. So if you wouldn't mind - which is your favourite (and maybe why?)
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StoneLifter
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Re: Your favourite 'significant landscape feat...
Mar 18, 2005, 14:40
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My favourite landscape feature is public toilets that are built with traditional materials - particularly if they have a sink and a piece of soap. There are some at Alston that have hot water (but are in the town).
'Kelston' = 'stone of kell'. Who was Kell ?
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nigelswift
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Re: Your favourite 'significant landscape feat...
Mar 18, 2005, 14:52
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A bit like you Rhiannon - the sublime in the landscape, spottable, eternal...
So this -
This…
http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/home/cs-archeo-distinct-picture-6.jpg
… which is next to the motorway and always says Nearly Home....and is a reminder that green and nice will perhaps outlast our bad stuff, and still be there, green and nice, when the first dandelions start to break through the carriageway.
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Hob
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Re: Your favourite 'significant landscape feat...
Mar 18, 2005, 14:54
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Current favourite is Gwenhyfar's Chair:
http://uk.geocities.com/hobsonish/GwenhyfarsChair.jpg
which looks like this from the side:
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/35665
It's a most outrageous erratic. The grain runs vertically, as if it's stood itself up of it's own accord.
Good luck with the arty thing.
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Kammer
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Re: Your favourite 'significant landscape feat...
Mar 18, 2005, 15:18
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I'd have to go for Pendinas, the hillfort that looms over Aberystwyth:
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/7896
K x
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elderford
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Re: Your favourite
Mar 18, 2005, 15:21
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Mynydd Du from Usk Reservoir
http://www.glynmeddigbarn.co.uk/images/reservlc.jpg
Mynydd Du with Llyn y Fan Fach beneath it
http://www.shef.ac.uk/jhj/mynydddu.jpg
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Kammer
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Re: Your favourite 'significant landscape feat...
Mar 18, 2005, 15:22
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Oh yes, you wanted to know why...
Well, it's visible for miles around, and it reminds me of the people that came before us. I see it when I start my journey to work from a distance of 12 miles, then it's there when I arrive. I can see it from the coffee room at work, Williams' school or when I visit Morrison's.
When I go home I always stop the car at the crest of the hill and look back at it (that same 12 mile view I had in the morning) before descending to our house.
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/9787
K x
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elderford
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Re: Why
Mar 18, 2005, 15:47
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The name translates as The Black Mountain.
At times the shadows from the ridge can be quite oppresive.
Not too many people make it over from the more popular central and easterly areas of the Brecon Beacons National Park.
It has two trapped glacial lakes (ancient, bottomless and all that, as well as Iron Age votive finds).
The southern ridge overlooks the Neolithic Trade route of the Tawe Valley (where Cerrig Duon is).
On the northern slopes are some out of the way stone circles.
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moss
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Re: Your favourite 'significant landscape feat...
Mar 18, 2005, 16:06
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Hi Rhiannon, as we both know Kelston Round hill, I'll tell you a story of something I found up there. One day whilst walking round the path that circles the trees on top, one large tree had fallen over and underneath caught up in its roots was a great mass of stone. Barrow I thought, took a photo as well, but never put it on site because was'nt sure, it left a lovely concave hole. The stones eventually disappeared, I think to help build the walling down below. The stones might have been an 18th folly, something not quite right about the uniformity of size.... But it would have been very fitting if it was a barrow, it would probably have faced the barrow that overlooks the viewpoint about a kilometre away, these bronze age males must have had a supeiroty complex, overlooking their domain; always thought that the sun disc had been placed in this second barrow, as it is west facing and the dead encumbent could have watched it go down over the Welsh hills! Have you seen the small memorial stone placed along the Cotswold Way and very near to the hill, to that young girl who died of an ashma attack whilst out riding her horse all alone.. the farmer who owns the land round there is a poet, and I remember they put up some of his poetry by one of the gates that kept the cattle in....
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StoneLifter
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Re: Your favourite 'significant landscape feat...
Mar 18, 2005, 16:51
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That's a standing stone. Those grooves are carved - laboriously - and are sometimes described as pollisoirs (I'm sure that spelling is wrong). It's further evidence of how much effort those guys would go to to frame the setting moon.
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