Waylands Smithy, close to the White Horse at Uffington, is a place I have visited repeatedly, in fact since I was little.
The walk up the Ridgeway itself, across the chalk Lambourne Downs, where it is always windy, prepares me, clears my head. Then after walking between the trees, you turn off down a short path, and there in a circle of trees is the Smithy. It is a neolithic longbarrow, with standing stones at the entrance to the chambered tomb.
It feels..... alive, clean, clear, peaceful, private. Its hard to describe, but for me, when I am there I feel purely me, with no compromise and no limits to who I am. Does that make sense?
For a stunning site, you rarely see many, if any people there, even when the White Horse is heaving with visitors.
I would love to hear your impressions of this place.
david hobbs
I will be there for about the tenth time this July.
I love the place. You are right about the walk along the Ridgeway(I believe one of the oldest roads in the world) And I am so pleased that it is now closed to the off-roaders.
Do you leave a silver coin when you visit. The ledgend says I believe that if you do and you leave your horse, it will be shod by morning.
Perhaps you know more of the legends than I do.
Ian Macro
Looking forward to it dave, can't wait.
meiah
No coin (don't have a horse), but I often take something from my garden....dunno why really, it just feels right.
When are you visiting in July? Want some company?
david hobbs
Anne Ian Stan and I are going around the 6th of july.
Anyone welcome to come. We do our own thing.
You would be welcome.
anne
Wayland Smithy.....a majical place as you so rightly say, if only it would let me in when I want to go there. Some years ago 6 of us walked the ridgeway, from the Thames right the way through to Wiltshire, camping on the Ridgeway [shhh, dont tell anyone] each night. We had made arrangements to meet some friends at Wayland Smithy on the seventh day. We were only some 2 miles away and we ALL went down with different ailments. Pulled tendons, painfull instep, blisters and back trouble, to relate just a few. We couldnt go on any further, and found a friendly pub [first time we had been off the ridgeway]and decided to call it a day. A week later we decided to continue our journey and start from Wayland Smithy. Stupid as it sounds, we couldnt find W.Smithy, so again I didnt get there. This has hapened as you see twice now. I did however get there last year with no problems with Dave mmmmmm
meiah
Funny thing, used to be if I went from the White Horse I would get the heebyjeebies and turn around. Feels quite different going from the other direction.
Ian Macro
look out for a possible dvd of our adventures around wylands smithy, we will see where the weekend takes us.
david hobbs
Here's one for Meaih.
When you look at this picture the imagination runs riot.
It's a good pic, you could almost be there.
Click on to enlarge.
meiah
Thx. So beautiful. Just makes me feel so good, like a deep breath of clean air :D
I have one that I took, nowhere near as clear as this one, couldn't make mine small, dunno what I was doing wrong.
david hobbs
I was taught by a film technician(he worked for Kodak) that making pictures smaller was very difficult until he realised that all he needed to do was to stand further away :D
david hobbs
meiah wrote:
Thx. So beautiful. Just makes me feel so good, like a deep breath of clean air :D
I have one that I took, nowhere near as clear as this one, couldn't make mine small, dunno what I was doing wrong.
Meiah
Can I ask you what else if anything you picked up at Waylands Smithy.
I had some interesting input recently.
evergreen
anne wrote:
Wayland Smithy.....a majical place as you so rightly say, if only it would let me in when I want to go there. Some years ago 6 of us walked the ridgeway, from the Thames right the way through to Wiltshire, camping on the Ridgeway [shhh, dont tell anyone] each night. We had made arrangements to meet some friends at Wayland Smithy on the seventh day. We were only some 2 miles away and we ALL went down with different ailments. Pulled tendons, painfull instep, blisters and back trouble, to relate just a few. We couldnt go on any further, and found a friendly pub [first time we had been off the ridgeway]and decided to call it a day. A week later we decided to continue our journey and start from Wayland Smithy. Stupid as it sounds, we couldnt find W.Smithy, so again I didnt get there. This has hapened as you see twice now. I did however get there last year with no problems with Dave mmmmmm
Hi Anne .. I love those kinds of things I get a feeling that you had to visit with David.. it is as though you had to do that together... strange I know but that is the feeling I got when I read your post... things like that happen to me often I now just think I often have to go on my own as others aren't ready for what ever reason ... and if I can walk/drive straight to a place and they get lost then it isnt' for them...
evergreen
I dont 'know the history of that place but it does feel very strong in energy.. there appears to be a man there as far as I can see as though he is looking after the place.. and ages and ages of people interesting site David thanks for sharing that photo
meiah
David, am not sure what you are asking. Am not overly good at the psychic stuff. Besides, I don't go there to pick up things, i go there to be there, if that makes sense. And I may to go a stone this time, or sit under that tree the next time, or just pause near the entrance and gaze at it and wrap myself up in the feeling of the place.
Its never the same.
There are so many levels at the smithy, and a lot of them I don't understand, its not just one place. Its almost a non-place. How it feels can depend on how I feel when I go there, or what I am looking for, what I need (although I rarely know what that is).
Its a place that I don't think about for months, and then I HAVE to be there, and so I go.
I do often feel welcome when I go, and I do often feel that I am walked back to my car when I leave, not chased out, but escorted in the oldfashioned way.
Odd thing, when I was little, the place used to either terrify me, or else you could not drag me away.
Thats no sort of answer at all really, is it?
david hobbs
meiah wrote:
David, am not sure what you are asking. Am not overly good at the psychic stuff. Besides, I don't go there to pick up things, i go there to be there, if that makes sense. And I may to go a stone this time, or sit under that tree the next time, or just pause near the entrance and gaze at it and wrap myself up in the feeling of the place.
Its never the same.
There are so many levels at the smithy, and a lot of them I don't understand, its not just one place. Its almost a non-place. How it feels can depend on how I feel when I go there, or what I am looking for, what I need (although I rarely know what that is).
Its a place that I don't think about for months, and then I HAVE to be there, and so I go.
I do often feel welcome when I go, and I do often feel that I am walked back to my car when I leave, not chased out, but escorted in the oldfashioned way.
Odd thing, when I was little, the place used to either terrify me, or else you could not drag me away.
