Camp Edge Alignments

Leys have always been a key feature of earth mysteries research. Over the last 80 years they have attracted a wealth of theories, some of them rather disconcerting!

Yet despite academic derision, persistent research has led to archaeological acceptance of deliberate alignment practice at prehistoric sites.

Recently there has been a move to return to ley, roots, and reassess the concept as originally identified by Alfred Watkins.

Here, Adrian Hyde discusses a tangential alignment pattern noticed by Watkins from Northern Earth 93.

In NE8I, in 'The Dire Necessity of Not Getting Lost', I emphasised the pragmatic underpinnings of aligned tracks as described by Alfred Watkins in The Old Straight Track (1925) and other works. However, some conceptual difficulties remain.

One variety of evidence concerning ley lines which needs to be taken carefully into account is that linear sections in the earthworks of camps, and particularly mounds in these earthworks, have been found to fall into straight alignments with other classes of sighting points.

More specifically, Alfred Watkins found several examples where three or more camps appeared to align in such a way that lines drawn through their edges converged slightly, appearing to meet at a point sonic distance away; in some cases this point seemed to be a mound or a church. One of these examples is shown in Appendix D, 'Brecon Camps', on p.226 of the 1925 edition of The Old Straight Track¹. Watkins went on to remark that with two alignments so close together, both cannot well have been trackways. While there are signs that one was a trackway, the second must have been to define the camp edges². So if these alignments are real, they may then have been laid out for sonic reason we do not know of but possibly mutual visibility was involved.

A problem can be seen with these camp lines just mentioned: if you take the appropriate 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey maps and check them, they are found to be not all straight. Let's look first at the Brecon Camps alignment: from the large mound marked as 'Motte', alias the 'Castle', to Pen-y-Crug fort, the line touching the camps' SE entrenchments is almost perfectly straight: but with lines drawn touching either the centre or the NW edge of the Castle' mound and the NW edge of Pen-y-Crug, the lines miss the edge of the Twyn-y-Gaer camp by 35 metres or more, and the edge of camp Fenni Fach by approximately 60 metres. Hence there is a big difficulty in considering this camp alignment as deliberately placed. The three camps in fact occupy hilltops which happen to line up. The summits are, from the SW, 367, 289 and 331 metres in height respectively.

Salisbury Plain has the main set of camp edge alignments which Watkins examined and showed details of³ If one checks these alignments by joining the four OS maps covering the area at 1:25,000 scale, some points will emerge:

Large areas of Salisbury Plain are generally peppered with tumuli and other prehistoric remains. Groups of several tumuli are common near Stonehenge. A line touching the SE edges of Castle Ditches, a hill-top fort, and Groveley Castle camp does not quite tine up with the centre-line of the Avenue at Stonehenge, though Watkins implied that it would do⁴. However, a line of around one degree difference in angle drawn from Castle Ditches' NW corner and crossing Groveley Castle would pass down the centreline of the Avenue.

In summary - and here one needs to consult the original sketch map - Salisbury Plain alignments which look impressive at 1:25,000 scale include K, the upper lines of J and E. and both lines of G (which touch edges of Casterley Camp. Yarnbury Castle and Bilbury Rings. distance 12.5 miles/2Okm). The western line of G also touches the aforementioned NW corner of Castle Ditches.

The unimpressive lines in terms of straightness are both lines of H and N and the lower lines of J and F. Edge alignment D from Bilbury Rings to Knook Castle via Codford Circle (5.5 miles/9km) appears to have a borderline degree of straightness, i.e. the edges of Codford Circle each lie around 20-25m from their respective lines. On the western line of D is the centre of another smaller camp. Church-End Ring, and two tumuli - one at Bilbury Rings and one 2 miles/3.5 km further NW on a ridge - lie precisely on the line.

With all claims of equidistant alignments, we would need to be sure of whether both leys are real. Neither should he a 'mare's nest.'

A mention of parallel leys in The Old Straight Track may be found on p.195. F N Gosling's report on leys in the Builth Wells area included 'several instances of close parallel lines'. Whether these lines were exactly or only approximately parallel would be relevant.

Part of Alfred Watkins' ideas about leys was that "As they crossed each other, no doubt users often transferred from one to another at the crossing and struck out in an altered direction"⁵. This is very much rooted in the idea of leys as trackways.

However, the parallel ley phenomenon has been considered by some to argue against the theory of leys as having been simply trackways. I maintain, though, that it must be borne in mind that there may be valid reasons why later Icy travellers chose slightly different routes from their predecessors - perhaps cultural, generational, or influenced by other factors such as the state of the terrain or prevailing climate. In other words, it is not in itself an argument against the idea of leys as trackways.

REFERENCES

1. Watkins. A. The Old Straight Track. Methuen 1925; Garnstone 1971
2. Watkins. A. The Ley Hunters Manual. Simpkin Marshall 1927. p.42
3. See Watkins 1927; p.45 shows 6 doubleline alignments on and close to the plain, and 3 single-line ones.
4. Watkins. 1925. p.104
5. Watkins. A. Early British Trackways, Simpkin Marshall. 1922. p.13
See also Adrian Hyde. 'The Dire Necessity of Not Getting Lost', Northern Earth 81

Home | Contact Us | Site Map | Search

© Northern Earth