Pub Crawl

[Mick Harper]

I hardly think a rockpool along a cliff path is suitable for watering animals.

[hvered]

A rock pool owned and managed by a village inn is very accessible (to paying customers).

[Ajai]

In keeping with the Pub Crawl motif, the animal drinking may be more benign, signalling a place where drovers can water their animals (and themselves).

Dor or door = deer.

The nearby town of Dorchester illustrates this very well, the whole area looks like a pound or pen surrounded by tumuli and earthworks. The layout is even clearer at Dorchester-on-Thames; here the river abruptly turns south and where the old abbey stands there are earthworks that resemble dykes. No-one knows their function though the usual explanation is "flood defences", being on a water meadow.

[macausland]

Perhaps archaeologists and trainee archaeologists should all have to do an 'outward bound' course run by Ray Mears or someone similar. They would learn how to read the landscape from a hunting perspective through practical experience of building traps etc.

[Boreades]

Perhaps archaeologists and trainee archaeologists should all have to do an 'outward bound' course run by Ray Mears or someone similar. They would learn how to read the landscape from a hunting perspective through practical experience of building traps etc.

That's an excellent idea!
Lesson 1: Building basic traps
and then:
Lesson 2: What do to with captured deer (see the enclosures)

In case anyone asks why would you put enclosures for deer on hilltops. The answer is simple, for anyone who has seen how wild deer behave. When startled, they always head for higher ground. So hunters would set fences or beaters to deflect then towards the preferred part of higher ground.

[hvered]

Yes, when you come across a structure miles from anywhere at the head of a valley such as St Melangell's Church it suggests a trapping scenario.

Castles and stately homes are often in or next to a medieval deer park. The central mound or motte is obviously artificial but unless the building is destroyed or badly damaged archaeologists are unlikely to excavate the foundations. In less hilly areas there are places e.g. Windsor Castle overlooking a bend in a river, ideally suited to cornering deer.

[Jools]

Seems like a lot of effort for a work of art though. Maybe artifice is more apposite than art. Perhaps a 'door' which is a recognisable symbol had a practical (territorial?) function.

Sounds like Durdle Door was the doorway through which deer were driven. I don't know how much land along this stretch of coast is now under water but it's reasonable to assume the Door was part of the earthworks at Scratchy Bottom, a dry chalk valley leading to Swyre Bay (Swyre apparently means 'hollow between two hills, a vale, esp. with a road running through it')



The layout is familiar, clearly nothing to do with 'defence'. In Far From The Madding Crowd, Scratchy Bottom is where Gabriel Oak's sheep were driven over the cliffs.

[Boreades]

Obstinately staying on topic (Pub Crawl), last week I dragged my family to one particular pub in Devon just because it was called The Miners Arms. Near Plympton. I was sadly disappointed. They had no idea why it was called such, or where the local mines were. Bah. Anyway, I think we've already covered the topic somewhere i.e. mine workings had so much spoil washed downstream that it blocked old ports.

[hvered]

Sounds like Durdle Door was the doorway through which deer were driven.

A 'door' wouldn't be necessary to direct a herd of deer but it could be an important visual signal for human (or avian?) navigators.

Another "natural" rock arch has popped up on Sanda Island, just off the south-east tip of the Mull of Kintyre. There are two in fact, the most famous one is next to 'The Ship', the island's lighthouse.



The island has a ruined chapel, said to have been built by St Ninian of Whithorn, and a reputedly holy well. {To keep on track as per Boreades' example, there was also a pub -- now a restaurant.}

[macausland]

I see that one of the very near islands is called 'sheep island'. Would that have anything to do with herding and driving animals?

I also read that Sanda has been bought by a Swiss millionaire who has now closed it to the public.

There's a very interesting video on youtube by David Childress on megaliths of South America and the Pacific. Very straightforward and full of detail, especially of construction techniques that seem to have been used in every country where these structures were built.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFtxOvRJVC8

No mention of pubs though.