Grimspound revisited

I’m writing this inside the main roundhouse in Grimspound on Dartmoor. I haven’t been here since Cerri and I initiated a couple of Grove members into the Druid grade, which was at least 5 years ago!
This place is so magical. As I sit here I can hear no sound of human activity. It’s a silence rarely experienced in this modern age, but one that the builders of this place would have known well. I think of all of the sites on this beautiful isle that I’ve visited this one I inspires me the more than most. I guess that’s why I wrote the song. And here I am sitting I the same spot 7 years on and it brings that same feeling once more. It really will be here for all to see, through the circles of time.

2 responses to “Grimspound revisited”

  1. This reminds me of a personal experience: About five years ago we visited Inishmore, the largest of the Aran islands. We stayed for a few days (which is highly recommended).

    One day I went on my own to see The Black Fort, not far from Kilronan. Ten minutes on a bike and twenty minutes on foot took me to the fort, which is situated in a lonely spot on the very edge of the cliff.

    It’s about a hundred meters straight down and the passage to the tip of the fort is no more than half a meter wide. To someone as afraid of heights as me, it was dreadfully scary. (My palms moisten just thinking about it.)

    But finally there, I sat down and did my best to relax. It was a quiet day in the middle of summer – sunshine and a little wind. Even so, the sound of the Atlantic breaking on the cliffs below was thunderous. It may have been a quiet day, but it sure wasn’t quiet.

    It was, to be honest, a scary experience, because I couldn’t help imagining the place in late autumn. And in earlier times.

    No one knows exactly what these forts were used for, but if they were used as a place to seek shelter in wartime, it must have been a terrible place to be. Safe, but horrifying.

    If it was mainly a religous place, a place to face the elements and the gods, it must have been very effective indeed. At least if they were scary gods. It sure reminds you that you are very small and nature and the elements are anything but.

    I took some rather bad pictures. Bad because there is no reference to make it clear how huge the surroundings are. It simply isn’t possible to grasp the size of the place.

    But I suspect it would be the perfect place to write a song.

    (There is a fairly good picture here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/wonderer/europe2004plus/1096377420/dscn0145.jpg/tpod.html)

  2. Phil & I spent some time there last year ~ it’s an amazing place, so wil & peacful, you can feel the spirit of those who lived there so long ago ~ they’re all around you, so strong & alive. Thanks for provoking the memory 🙂

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