Visit to Inishmore

On Sunday, our ferry crossing to Inishmore was very choppy. It was good to see Shearwaters flying the waves together with diving Gannets but impossible to photograph with the ferry pitching and rolling. Inis Mór is the largest of the three Aran Islands and includes several ancient stone forts and churches among its antiquities. We took a minibus tour which included the impressive of the stone forts is Dun Aengus. Excavations indicated that people had been living at the hill top from c.1500 BC with the first walls and dwelling houses being erected c. 1100 BC It is semicircular, resting on the edge of a perpendicular cliff rising 100 metres out of the ocean. We also visited the Seven Churches site, which is the ruin of two main buildings, thought to be named after an inscription 'VII Romani' found on one of the stones.

Cerne Abbas - Marsh Fritillary and Adonis Blue Ticked

On Wednesday, we climbed up Giant Hill searching for two particular butterfly species and managed to photograph them - Marsh Fritillary and Adonis Blue (along with lots of 5- and 6-spot Burnet Moths and a jade green Forrester Moth.

The origin and age of the Giant are unclear. Some think it is an ancient construction, associated with a Saxon deity or a Celtic British figure of the Greek Hercules.There is archaeological evidence that parts of the drawing have been lost over time. The lack of earlier descriptions, along with information given to an 18th-century historian by the steward of the manor at the time, have led some modern scholars to conclude that it probably dates from the 17th century, and perhaps originated as political satire. 

Snailbeach Lead Mine Shropshire

Snailbeach was the biggest lead mine in Shropshire and it is reputed to have yielded the greatest volume of lead per acre of any mine in Europe. Underground mining ceased here in 1955 but it is reputed to date from Roman times. Great place to explore and photograph. 

Toft Time Team Day Two

 Sunday, day two of the archaelogical dig in our village, was even hotter but this did not deter the 11 teams from continuing the search with more digging, sieving, advice, sympathy and mobile refreshments. Alex, one of the two archaeologists from Cambridge University, inspects the contents of a core down deeper into a pit. Then it is time to measure the depth, bury something in the pit - preferably a coin rather than a child, fill in the hole, replace the turfs and write up final records before leaving the sites and congregating in the church for tea and cakes, final sorting under supervision of Kath, the other archaeologist, and debriefing. We were told that finds included a lot of Victorian, Mediaeval and possibly AngloSaxon pottery. We await the final results.

http://www.tofthistoricalsociety.org.uk/aos/