I saw some swifts, just a glimpse out of the corner of my eye, flitting, turning, and then gone, flooding my whole being with joy. It was so unexpected, up there on the Ridgeway on this hot summer afternoon. I saw a little yellowhammer too, standing by the path. I stopped and watched it for a while. Perhaps it was watching me, too. It didn’t move until I did. Only that morning I’d read how yellowhammers were now on the RSPB’s red list and today I see one for the first time.
Ridgeways have long been useful pathways through the landscape, the long distance views making it easier to avoid trouble, and they’re often sacred places too. The South Dorset Ridgeway runs for seventeen miles from West Bexington to Osmington Mills, two tiny villages on the Jurassic Coast. Bronze Age round barrows are scattered along the whole length of this route. There are one hundred and ninety five prehistoric barrows and sites, including Neolithic long barrows and stone circles, along the Ridgeway, one of the most extensive concentrations in the country. Graves with a view, to see and be seen. To the north Dorset’s farmland stretches to the horizon, dotted with farm buildings and picture postcard villages full of second homes. Two deer prance through a field of young wheat. They seem to be doing it just for fun. To the south is Chesil Beach and the English Channel, with the Isle of Portland hazy in the distance. On the horizon to the west is the ever present Hardy Monument, built in 1844 to commemorate the famous admiral’s ability to organise the killing of sufficient French and Spanish sailors to win the Battle of Trafalgar. We like to celebrate the military in Britain far more than our literary or artistic greats. Maybe the barrows were doing the same?
After a while I’m so hot — the sun is blazing and it’s mid-afternoon — that all I can think about is walking. This is when I feel most connected to the landscape, this is why I love walking in the sun. Human beings have been connecting themselves to this particular landscape for thousands of years, deep into prehistory, and more than ever we now need to forge those connections again.
