The walk up to West Kennet Long Barrow is one of my favourites. It is only half a mile but it is a lovely walk, it crosses the river Kennet then passes a "dressed tree" which has been decorated with ribbons and other things (people decorated trees in the past to honour the spirits in the tree)
Then you walk up a gentle slope and see the top of one of the stones of the barrow come into view, as if it is an organic thing growing out of the earth. When you get to the top you can sit there, have a flask of tea and enjoy the views of Silbury Hill and the Marlborough Downs.
West Kennet Long Barrow is said to be haunted by a figure with a white dog, that appears on Midsummer Day. It has been speculated that this could be a folk memory of a ritual that took place here a long time ago, and if so this could be Britain's oldest ghost.
Sonia Smith also says in her book about haunted Wiltshire, that a lady who visited the barrow near dusk went inside and was apparently touched by a large number of invisibly hands.
I took some photos inside the barrow, and was surprised to find this strange white mist turn up on one of my pictures:
Think you will find the white mist in your photograph is from pagan incense burners...the smoke lingers and is captured by flash. I see you too have managed to photograph more ‘ritual tat’ adorning the gentle proud oak at Swallow Springs.
ReplyDeleteThe mist isnt from incense.I caught this mist in a photo aswell and there hadnt been anyone at the barrow for a whole day..We know this as the Parks guy was up there, he had been cleaning rubbish up around the area and said we were the first people there that day...and by then it was late afternoon..feb 2 2010
ReplyDeleteWe took many shots inside the barrow and only one has the mist..if it was incence then most of the shots would have had the fog..
plongi@live.com.au
Interesting Benjamin. I too have a similar photograph (please cut and paste the link below)that was most definately from some kind of pagan ritual. Incence burners are in evidence at WKLB all year round.
ReplyDeletehttp://hauntedwiltshire.blogspot.com/search/label/West%20Kennet%20Long%20Barrow
I'm a paranormal investigator. The mist is water vapour. It's often invisble to the naked eye, but shows up on film. The interior is always quite damp and warm, perfect conditions for mists.
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ReplyDeleteWest Kennett is well known, with the pronounced dip in it, where workmen started to cut a road through it(!). I also believe, that a lot of bones were removed by one Dr Toope, a quack physician, in the 18th century. Overgrown by trees, not far off, is the East Kennett Long barrow. Not many people visit that.
ReplyDeleteI had the strangest experience of my life at the barrow and surrounding areas and a semi religious experience involving dreams and strange coincidences. I don't know about haunted but it's a magical place if such a thing exists in this world.
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