A KW Journey round Figsbury Ring by Heather

As part of one of our KW escapes we visited this amazing historical site!

Figsbury Ring is 6.4 hectares of grassland on a chalk ridge to the northeast of Salisbury, Wiltshire UK.  It has never been fully investigated!

What we do know is that small portions of the site were excavated in 1924 by Ben and Maud Cunnington.  They thought the site was the remains of an Iron Age Hill fort. However, the presence of an mysterious inner ditch has led archaeologists to propose that the site may have begun as a late neolithic Henge. A small geophysical survey was carried out by Anthony Clark and John Gator in 1981 to try to establish if the site had been a henge, but their results were inconclusive.  In 1982 artifacts found during the 1981 survey were reassessed by Margaret Guido and Isobel Smith. Several artefacts, particularly Grooved Ware and Beaker pottery, proved that there had been occupation at the site much earlier than had previously been thought.

A further re-examination of the artefacts was carried out in 2003/04 by Philip Dunn, a student at Bournemouth University. This confirmed Guido and Smith's findings and went on to identify a number of flint artefacts that were indicative of Neolithic occupation. Following on from this study a larger geophysical survey was conducted which covered 46% of the interior.   The results of this survey were, again, inconclusive although traces of possible structures were detected, and it was proposed that the site may have even earlier origins.

View over Salisbury

We knew none of this when we visited, what I am about to share are our impressions from the energy we felt as we wandered around the site.

The whole area feels vibrant, happy and busy, definitely liking that people still frequent the area, as we were not the only visitors and there were also numerous local people waking their dogs. 

The large outer ring felt defensive, its outward face was still steep and almost impossible to climb.  The inner ring was not as high but had a deep ditch before the assent to the flat plateau in the centre, form which there are wonderful views of the surrounding countryside, including Salisbury cathedral in the distance.

The outer ring has three entrances, a small one to the east, a larger one to the south, then another small one to the west.  However, there was only one way to get to the central raised ground and that was opposite the entry to the west.  We felt that the larger one to the south may have been for ceremonial use.  The entry from the east did not supply us with much early energy, may have been made more recently, or as it leads to what is now the car park, the energy has just been overlaid with more recent activity.

The entry from the west was vibrantly busy.  We could almost see the traders with local produce set up along the inside between the rings, with the people from the interior having easy access to come to exchange, barter and buy any goods they needed, as this was the area of the only path up to that plateau.

Once up to the flattened area, the energy changed to one of homes, wood smoke and cooking.  It had a friendly, communal feel.   Here we envisioned people chatting as they went about their daily tasks, older people sitting, weaving, mending and helping look after the young ones.   From the energies we experienced we felt that this was a fortified dwelling place, probably quiet central to what was happening in the surrounding area.

An amazing place, with a history still waiting to be unearthed.