Mine's a bit like Postie's, in that I visited some places before I was interested - I went to several Herefordshire/Shropshire hillforts with my Dad in my teens and got forced up the Brecon Beacons in blister-inducing boots at school.
But the proper cherry-popper was Arbor Low in November 1997. G/F and I had our first holiday together in the Peak District and the cottage we stayed in at Youlgreave had an OS map framed on the wall. I saw Arbor Low marked on it, thought it looked interesting and we walked there one day. Blimey.
The next year we went back to the Peaks again and I found a copy of the paperback Burl in the excellent Bakewell bookshop. This was the real eye-opener and we went to Nine Ladies and Nine Stone Close. We had travelled down from York on the train, it was my birthday week and G/F had managed to lug, in secret, my present with us - the paper TMA! So the two books then got me out to Blakey Topping, High Bridestones, etc. 1999 I went to Four Stones and Mitchell's Fold with my Dad, and the week after the eclipse G/F and I had our first trip to Cornwall together, accompanied by photocopied pages from the orange book and with the Burl book. But it was stone circles mainly, for quite a while. First chambered tomb would have been in Cornwall, probably Tregiffian. First chambered long barrow Belas Knap when we moved to Gloucestershire in 2006.
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