After the coffee and the fire at the Two Bridges hotel warmed our bones, we set out again as it was not raining at the moment.
I had read a couple websites, and a couple guidebooks on how to get to Grimspound. It seems, if the weather is nice and a walk is in order, to park across the street from the Warren House Inn and then head in a general easterly direction.
But today the rain was coming in waves, so we decided to park on the road, only a half mile or so from the stone circle and walk up from there.
The only question was where the stone circle actually was, so with a few u-turns and some guess work with the map we found a small dirt space beside the road to park the can and we headed up the hill.
Water, from all the rains, ran down the hill.
Towards the road where we had parked the car. And just for informational sake, the Warren House Inn, is on the other side of the hill.
It must rain here a lot, because someone built a channel for the water. I wonder how long ago this was built? 100 years? 500 years? Or maybe the same time the stone circles had been built, 3000-5000 years ago.
An excerpt from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“In the evening I put on my waterproof and I walked far upon the sodden moor, full of dark imaginings, the rain beating upon my face and the wind whistling about my ears. God help those who wander into the Great Mire now, for even the firm uplands are becming a morass. I found the Tor upon which I had seen the solitary watcher, and from its craggy summit I looked out myself across the melancholy downs. Rain squalls drifted across their russet face, and the heavy, slate-coloured clouds hung low over the landscape, trailing in gray wreaths down the sides of the fantastic hills. In the distant hollow on the left, half hidden by the mist, the two thin towers of Baskerville Hall rose above the trees. They were the only signs of human life which I could see, save only those prehistoric huts which lay thickly upon the slopes of the hills.”
And I wondered how long ago, this path, that led up to the stone circle, had been laid.
And then we were at the stone circle. I was expecting small round huts, about the size of an igloo. Those huts were here, but I had not expected the grand circle of stone that surrounded the whole village.
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Another excerpt from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
“The barren scene, the sense of loneliness, and the mystery and urgency of my task all struck a chill into my heart. The boy was nowhere to be seen. But down beneath me in a cleft of the hills there was a circle of the old stone huts, and in the middle of them there was one which retained sufficent roof to act as a screen against the weather. My heart leapt wihin me as I saw it. this must be the burrow where the stranger lurked. At last my foot was on the threshold of his hiding place – his secret was within my grasp.”
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And then there was my stone hut, or at least the remains of it.
Click here to visit: Stone Circles, Sherlock Holmes and the Rain at Grimspound [Part 3]