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Unexplained uneasy feeling
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Re: Unexplained uneasy feeling
Jul 08, 2011, 10:06
tjj wrote:
I'm interested in your observations about West Kennet Long Barrow as I experience a similar sensation when I go into the barrow. I've been doing it sporadically for about ten years now and it always feels the same - by its nature a dark and cavernous place. The floor is always wet and someone told me rats get in there?? (possibly invented to deter people leaving 'offerings'). I've had some wonderful moments over there but always outside the barrow - one occasion that stands out was a misty midweek morning in October when a wren flew out, sat on an entrance stone and observed me for a few moments before flying into the long grass. I think we are not really meant to be going inside chambered long barrows, if you think about it, it isn't really a natural thing to do. I much prefer to stay out in the breeze and sunlight, or starlight if at night, and leave places for the dead in peace.


I've never felt that way about the WKLB June but have about the passage grave La Hougue Bie in Jersey...but only as an adult. http://www.prehistoricjersey.net/La_Hougue_Bie.shtml (check out all the other sites on the island and be amazed).
The strange thing is that as a kid born and raised in the island and living just a mile from this most amazing of chambered tombs, we were forever playing in and around it without a care in the world. We would run inside its whole length without fear and hide in the side chambers in the pitch dark. 60 years ago there was no lighting and it was open to whoever wished to go inside.
I left the island when I was 16 and for some 10 years never returned, but I go back every other year now as I have family over there.

I have two ports of call above everything else when I return and they are what is known locally as the Dolmen de Faldouet (Le Pouquelaye de Faldouet) and La Hougue Bie, both passage graves. Childhood memories and my introduction to the Ancient World.
Faldouet is still the most charming of sites being enclosed within a little woodland where you can sit just 75 yards off the little country lane unseen and find complete solitude. I absolutely love it and would be where my ashes would be spread if I still lived there.
La Hougue Bie on the other hand I am much more 'respectful' off as to me it 'feels' like you are walking amongst the dead whilst inside. It's not something I am afraid of and go in alone. It is huge, or feels huge inside compared to the WKLB. I am not afraid because I feel they are my direct ancestors and on occasion I have wept for them. I think the older you get the closer you feel an affinity with those that have gone before. Ten years ago I would never had revealed this but you 'grow up' don't you as you get older and see this as being quite normal behaviour.

As an 'aside', if you've not visited Jersey or the other islands, you should. The Neolithic history in Jersey is astonishing for such a small island and will literally take your breath away...then there's the island itself!!!

Roy
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