puddleshark

Wind and cloud. I am grateful. I've missed having proper weather during our recent spell of nothing-but-sunshine. Followed the ancient Roman road from Gussage All Saints up onto Gussage Down, to visit the much more ancient Neolithic long barrows.

Ackling Dyke, the old Roman road, which arrows straight - very straight - northeast across the countryside. A crow flying towards Salisbury. The original Roman name, if it had one, is long forgotten, and we have to thank the Saxons for the current name.

Ackling Dyke is a section of Roman road in England which runs for 22 miles (35 km) southwest from Old Sarum (Sorviodunum) to the hill fort at Badbury Rings (Vindocladia)...

Much of the road exists as an exceptionally large embankment (agger), up to 50 ft (15 m) wide and 6 ft (1.8 m) high. This is much wider than most Roman roads. This would have been visible from a great distance and must have been intended to impress the native population, as it was unnecessary from an engineering viewpoint.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ackling_Dyke

This stretch of Ackling Dyke is beautifully preserved. A peaceful green lane, running between high hedges. A way lined with wild flowers, full of birdsong.

Dog roses guarding a gap in the hedge.

Bladder Campion (Silene vulgaris).

Normally in May, Ackling Dyke has something of the air of a ceremonial way, lined with a white froth of hawthorn blossom and cow parsley. But, thanks to the unusually warm temperatures, the may blossom and the cow parsley had but a short season this year. I blinked and missed it.

But the way is still green...

Into the woods, where a monster is lurking...

I could hear it crunching things, as I approached.

Forestry operations. A machine chopping down the diseased young ash trees, stripping them, and snipping them into sections. I nipped up onto the top of the wooded bank beside the track, and walked parallel, so as not to get too close to the machinery.

Leaving Ackling Dyke, I turned west onto the path across Gussage Down. To one side, vast arable fields, punctuated here and there by Neolithic long barrows. To the other, an area of rough grazing, with many enigmatic earthworks: the traces of a late Iron Age settlement.

Gussage Down.jpg

Barley fields on Gussage Down.

The wind in the barley.

Rams, having finished their duties for now.

Silverweed (Potentilla anserina) growing all along the paths. Once, travellers used to stuff the hairy leaves into their shoes to stop themselves becoming footsore. "Silverweed was a food plant in earlier times, and in some parts of the world it is still used as a food source. The long slender roots are rich in carbohydrates, perhaps almost as rich in starch as potatoes and widely used before the introduction of potatoes in 1586." https://botsoc.scot/2023/11/05/plant-of-the-week-6th-november-2023-potentilla-anserina-silverweed/

There is a lot of Silverweed along this path. I like to imagine it was once grown as a crop by the prehistoric inhabitants of this landscape.

On the left, a Neolithic long barrow.

A summer path, through the tall grass, with the wind blowing. And among the tall grasses, deep pink flowers of cranesbill, yellow flowers of hawksbeard, and the dusty silver flowers of stinging nettles.

Hawksbeard.

A ~~prehistoric~~ vintage tractor.

Long barrows, like islands in the arable.

Time to turn for home, southeastwards towards Gussage St Michael, along a bridleway lined with dog roses.

Onwards. And onwards.

This is what the landscape really looks like. Industrial agriculture. But, on the path, between the tall hedges, you are hiding in another world. One of wild flowers, and insects, and warblers singing.

The knapweed is already in flower, a month early.

And Knapweed Broomrape (Orobanche elatior). A new one to me! Orobanche meaning "legume-strangler". "To obtain nutrients, broomrapes parasitise the roots of different plant species through haustoria, which are structures that penetrate the tissues of the host and absorbs nutrients and water from it. Some species, such as common broomrape, can parasitise a wide variety of different plant species from many families, but others are far more specific, such as ivy broomrape (Orobanche hederae) which parasitises ivy, and related species, almost exclusively." https://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/plants400/Profiles/OP/Orobanche

The Empress of Gussage St Michael.

And onto an elderflower path...

... which brings you out by Lower Farm in the village of Gussage st Michael.

WE MAKE HOSES! An agricultural engineer's workshop in Gussage St Michael.

The church at Gussage St Michael, (which I visited back in 2019).

And from Gussage St Michael, back along the lane to Gussage All Saints. A lane, which, if it is boring, at least has the merit of being flat. No last minute hills. The church tower visible above the hedges, as encouragement to keep walking, though the day was growing increasingly warm.

Met some walkers coming out of the village as I was entering, and said "Good morning!" They all replied "Good afternoon!". When I got back to the car, it was indeed afternoon. How could it be half past one? It wasn't that long a walk! I suppose time moves differently in the vicinity of long barrows.