Illustrated Fortean Wanderings.

[Spookdaddy]

I'm always after an excuse for a bit of flanerie, urban or rural, and it struck me that there might be some mileage in a thread a little less random in content than the Post a Pic Part DEUX thread for those of us who like to get our boots muddy - and take our cameras with us when while do it.

Landscapes, specific sites, places we know stories about, places we don't know stories about but would like to, famous sites, infamous sites, places only we seem to know about or that resonate with experiences we've had - who cares? Maybe if we then stumble across particular sites which seem to warrant a thread of their own we can ask the nice mods to get the scissors out.

So, at the risk of repeating a post of mine on the aforementioned thread, just to get us started -

The hill in the middle is Shutlingsloe viewed from Back Forest. Shutlingsloe is the setting for the final confrontation in Alan Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingamen. The hill is sometimes known as the Pyramid of the Peak because of its distinctive shape (which is actually much more apparent when viewed from the north and east - this photograph is taken from the south). It also marks a southern point of what appears to have been an isolated Celtic enclave on the western edge of the Peak District. The origins of many of the place names in this area are rather ominous - the area is full of demons and phantoms, and I've often wondered if this wasn't a clever bit of propaganda by the natives. From the flatlands of the Cheshire plain it's only a short distance to the highlands of the Peak, which in some places rise ominously, dark clouds spilling off them into the sunnier climes of Cheshire as if the whole plateau was some kind of weather factory (which, I suppose, it is to some extent) and it's not hard to imagine the locals reinforcing the image with a few choice names in order to convince the Legions and the odd Saxon horde that they might just be better off sticking to the flat stuff - on yer way boys, nothing to see here, it's wet, it's cold and it's full of feckin' spirits.

The strip of woodland you can see in the foreground is part of Back Forest -the location of Lud's Church.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Lud's Church is a narrow chasm which is a magnet for legends and is thought by some academics to have been the setting used by the medieval writer of Gawain and the Green Night. (Note - that's not the place of origin of the legend, but the poet's source of inspiration when transcribing the legend for his audience). Followers of Wycliff, as well as other religious sects are supposed to have met there, as have loombreakers and labour organisers during the Industrial Revolution (there's an old mill down in the valley), there is a simulacrum of a medieval knights head on the eastern wall, and I've heard several ghost stories associated with it.

It's got a definite atmosphere which is hard to convey in pictures (well, it is for me anyway) but this is a view walking north from the southern approach (and I've only just noticed that the Green Man appears to be glowering at us from the middle of the picture) -

A general view looking upwards

And this is the northern entrance -

 

[plusk]

Really like your first picture spokdaddy. may i download it as a screensaver?

 

[Spookdaddy]

...Im a big fan of Alan Garner, and I keep thinking I should head over that way (living in Crewe its fairly close). I've beed to Alderley Edge, but you're inspired me - I'm definitely going to gfo to Ludds Church this year.

In which case you could maybe go and have a look at Errwood Hall while you're in the area. The house and grounds, which sit on the western side of Errwood and Fernilee reservoir, are derelict and overgrown, although they've been tidied up quite a lot since Garner used them as part of the setting for The Moon of Gomrath. Can be a bit touristy but it has a satisfying air of neglect and that liminal atmosphere that many once occupied, now deserted, places carry with them.

Really like your first picture spokdaddy. may i download it as a screensaver?

'Course you can.

 

[rynner2]

Similar stuff here:
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22285

 

[Timble2]

I've lived about 10 miles from here for 11 years and finally got round to having a look on Wednesday.

The unicursal turf maze (55 feet in diameter) at Hilton Cambridgeshire, cut by William Sparrow, at the age of 19, in 1660 to celebrate the restoration of Charles II. It's supposedy based on a lost maze in another village (Comberton). The pillar at its centre, obviousy erected around 70 years later has an inscription:
"Gvlielmvs Sparrow, Gen., natvs ano. 1641. Aetatis svi 88 qvamdo obiit, hos gyros fornavit anno 1660" ("William Sparrow, Gentleman, born in the year 1641. Aged 88 when he died, formed these circles in the year 1660").

 

[Spookdaddy]

The unicursal turf maze (55 feet in diameter) at Hilton Cambridgeshire, cut by William Sparrow, at the age of 19, in 1660 to celebrate the restoration of Charles II. It's supposedy based on a lost maze in another village (Comberton). The pillar at its centre, obviousy erected around 70 years later has an inscription:
"Gvlielmvs Sparrow, Gen., natvs ano. 1641. Aetatis svi 88 qvamdo obiit, hos gyros fornavit anno 1660" ("William Sparrow, Gentleman, born in the year 1641. Aged 88 when he died, formed these circles in the year 1660").

How synchronic (sp?). I've literally, this minute, just finished listening to an audio-book reading of M R James short story, Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance.

I don't suppose the orb that tops the pillar at the centre of this maze is of the celestial variety? I don't suppose it's made of copper? I don't suppose, ulp, it is unnaturally hot to the touch?

 

[Timble2]

Unfortunately it's just a plain stone ball, though I expect MR James was aware of the Hilton maze, as it's only around 12 miles from Cambridge, and one of his unfinished storiies is set in Fenstanton which is only about 3 miles away.

 

[Spookdaddy]

I never realised the hall was real. I should have guessed I suppose.

Thats on my itinerary then. Thanks for the tip

I'd buggered around with the exposure compensation on my Canon that day and forgotten to reset it, as a consequence of which most of the pictures I took of Erwood Hall are too moody to be very informative. But here's a couple which maybe convey a little bit of the atmosphere of the place -

I can remember when the whole area was totally overrun by vegetation. The paths were basically tunnels through impenetrable walls of rhododendrons, some of which you literally had to crawl through, and one area was accesible only by crawling in water through a culvert. I'm sure you can imagine that as a child of an adventurous bent this and the presence of abandoned buildings, the remnants of the stone walls that separated the once formal gardens form the surrounding moorland and a tiny, deserted highland graveyard, made the place a hugely satisfying place to lose a day.

It's all been tidied up a bit now and more accesible, which isn't necessarily a good thing - but, as I said before, it still has a certain atmosphere.

This...

...gives an idea of the surrounding landscape viewed from the SW approach over the moors around Shining Tor.

 

[Spookdaddy]

The Black Mausoleum, Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh. Home of the Mackenzie Poltergeist - allegedly.

 

[_Lizard23_]

What a lovely thread! They're all great pics.

I shall now ruin everything by boasting about my exotic travels.

I really liked Kathmandu, the name is almost mythical to me somehow, and I was not disappointed spending a month there.

I am about as psychic as a brick and hardly ever really feel 'atmospheres' the way other people seem to, but Pashupatinath, home to Nepal's holiest temple and the city's 'burning ghats', genuinely awed me with its weirdly calm and 'spiritual' ambience.
It is certainly a very strange, solemn and oddly beautiful experience to watch the rather grisly-seeming Hindu funeral customs - the family lay the body on a sloping slab and wash it with water from the Holy (but rather minging) Bagmati river and anoint it with milk and oil while the dom chops wood. Once the body has been reverently wrapped and carried onto the pyre, circumambulated the correct number of times and prayed over, a close family member ceremoniously sets fire to the face while the dom sets the fire proper underneath.

Because there are distant corpses I will link this picture - it's not actually that gruesome, but I do not wish to offend - HERE

The platform just to the left where one man is standing is where the Nepali royal family are cremated .... a busy spot in 2001 when the prince massacred ten people including many members of his family in a drunken rage before apparently shooting himself in the head.

I did feel a little uncomfortable watching this, let alone photographing it, but such was the strange serenity of the place that I was far from alone - this picture shows the opposite bank of the river, below where I was standing when I took the previous photo. The boys in the river have magnets on strings and are trawling for coins and other offerings that get thrown or fall into the water.

On a (slightly) lighter and quirkier note, here is old Kathmandu's 'toothache god', a gnarled tree stump entirely covered in nailed-on coins .... quite how effective a cure for toothache nailing a coin to it is I am not sure, as the streets all around are full of dentists' shops.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Found these marks on a wall in the Canonmills area while indulging in a bit of flânerie in Edinburgh a couple of weeks back:

Not particularly strange - you often find old masons marks, first attempts and doodles on old bits of stone in places far-removed from their original intended destination - but I always enjoy finding them. For some reason stumbling over little bits of information like this gives me more of a sense of how close we are to our past than traipsing around any number of cathedrals and castles.

Of course they could have been made recently - according to Symbols.com the cross could be a modern symbol but the weathering and the shallow enclosed loop of the two sixes (or nines) makes them look like pretty old marks to me.

(Incidentally, nice pictures/post, Lizard23 - for some reason I missed them at the time of posting.)

 

[Spookdaddy]

A few weeks ago, when I was back in Scotland for a few days, I noticed that the wall the above stone was part of - which was itself relatively recent - has been removed during works for the Waters of Leith Flood Prevention Scheme.

Building stone of this type is quite valuable and I would have thought unlikely to end up in landfill. I like the idea that this block may well end up in another construction somewhere else entirely and that someone else in an entirely different situation might wonder about the markings in the same way I did.

If the walls could talk.

 

[MercuryCrest]

I took this out at Cavalry Cemetery in Milwaukee. It's quite a fascinating place with its own unique aura.

In the background you can see the abandoned church on the hill. Ringed 'round it are the graves of various (gah! I forget...priests, reverends, whatever).

It's both spooky and elegant on the right day.

[Could someone kindly tell me how the hell to embed an image? It doesn't seem to be working (or maybe DeviantArt doesn't like forums....).]

Until I figure this out, you can see a pic here

 

[Mythopoeika]

There ya go:

 

[Mythopoeika]

MercuryCrest, if you click the Quote button on my last post, you can see what I've done with the picture's URL. I copied and pasted the picture's URL, and then selected it, and then clicked the Img button to add the img tags.

 

[MercuryCrest]

Ahhhhh. Thank you so much. Sometimes these things are self-explanatory and other times...well....

EDIT: It doesn't help that there are 8-million different copy/paste links on DA to choose from, either.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Talk of cemeteries reminded me of something I posted a while back in the Coincidences thread which is probably just as relevant here:

...While working in Edinburgh last month I idled away a few minutes reading and article entitled Pablo Fanque’s fair - which is on Mike Dash's excellent blog, A Blast from the Past. I'd never heard of Fanque before.

The next day (a Sunday) I went for a long and meandering walk down into Leith, which included in its entirely unplanned route a diversion around Edinburgh's Dean Cemetery. I've been before but had never noticed this remarkable memorial to a John Leishman:

I thought something like this might have caused a stir in stuffy old Victorian Edinburgh and searched the internet later that afternoon to see if I could find any references to it, and to the meaning - if any - of the weird subject matter of the design.

I didn't. Although I did find an online copy of an action in which Leishman - a lawyer - was involved. Directly below is notification of action in relation to Pablo Fanque's bankruptcy. (Here, top right.)

I love that memorial - there's something very pagan and slightly unnerving about it. I think it's the storks that do it for me. I'll try and get some close-ups the next time I'm in Edinburgh.

I'd love to know more about it.

 

[staticgirl]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/staticgirl ... 4121252714

This is a wooden cross near the little church of st Finbarr at Gougane Barra, Ireland. People have clearly pressed in coins into the wood for a very very long time. I always find these signs of religious devotion interesting.

St Finbarr's church: http://www.flickr.com/photos/staticgirl ... 4121252714