Sinodun Hill Fort

My favourite place in Oxfordshire, the Sinodun Hills or as they are known locally Wittenham Clumps. For miles around one can look up and see them rising out of the ancient plain, almost artificial in their conical shape and crowned with the "clumps", the woods that give them their name. There are two hills separated by a saddle like pass between them that leads down to the twisting water meadows of the Thames. They once rose like islands out of the ancient marsh that used to cover this area and resisted all attempts to drain it from the Romans until defeat at the hands of the Victorian improves. Nowadays they are a much loved place for walks and woodland crafts, kite flying and sledding, but for most of human history and prehistory they have been the centres of local power - civil and military, dominating the area in the same way they still dominate the skyline. They formed part of Brittania's defence against the Romans and were pressed into use against the Germans in the last war, part of the defensive line of artillery emplacements , pill boxes and tank traps to stop the invasion that so nearly came.

This is taken as I paused to let my legs stop shaking after climbing the path to the outer ramparts of the Hill fort that covers the top of the lower hill. The original gateway is on the other side of the hill buried in the woods, this modern access point lies across the ditch, (this short section filled in by long dead farmers,) and over the inner ramparts. Long ago these ramparts were crowned by wooden palisades and defended by Celtic warriors. Jake loves this place almost as much as me except he doesn't feel the presence of Celtic forebears or any sense of continuity...he just glories in the smells and sights of grassland and woodland and the sheer joy of running across rolling grassland. Tires me out watching him.