Polished performers and a goddess worship arena

certainly makes sense here, where all you have to do is follow the South Dorset Ridgeway to immerse yourself in a ritual landscape. Again, serendipitously I met an entrepreneur and landscape archaeologist Catherine Speakman from Tess of the Vale when I first found the polishing stone, in The Valley of Stones.

For a solitary creature who had lost her voice for over a year I really am being most sociable and talkative at the moment. Another guided walk I went on was Gary Biltcliffe’s Maiden Castle – History and Mystery Gary suggests that Maiden Castle was not built as a fort. His theory is that the earthwork was used for many different purposes such as a sports arena, trade and goddess worship.

On the Maiden Castle walk I learned a lot but felt I was missing something. Letting the tour advance I stood on my own, drinking in the view and the atmosphere. Weary, I plonked myself down a little away from the beaten track and startled a hare. It darted off and I felt connected to the place again. As nice as it is to socialise, this old hermit can only really feel the magic when alone.