アテルハンプトンの天然記念物・トップ6

Quite casually, you'll find yourself standing in the middle of a millennia-old place, which Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans have repeatedly reshaped to suit their culture and needs. Those familiar with Old Sarum will recognize or compare many things (Salisbury). Two information panels allow you to immerse yourself in this tranquil place.

The ‘Dish’ is a ‘swallet’ (sinkhole) about 90m in diameter, 40m deep with steep sides. It was named after the herbalist Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654). It is impossible to photograph it in entirety due to the size of the mature trees growing in it! Swallet holes, or dolines, are circular depressions formed when the underlying chalk is dissolved by the overlying acid sands and gravels which eventually collapse to form an inverted cone.

Once you're at this well-known junction, also known as the Dorsetshire Gap, it doesn't matter which direction you head because the landscape in this area is breathtaking.

Amphitheater with a long history. In prehistoric times it was probably a place of sacrifice in the style of Stonehenge, adapted by the Romans as an amphitheater for the entertainment of the encamped soldiers. In Hardy's Major of Casterbridge a place of various meetings, and today still used for local festivities.

The Dorsetshire Gap is a very atmospheric location, very easy to imagine Medieval traders passing through it. Be aware that the bridleways too and from it are tough, the tracks marked on the maps may not exist on the ground, cycling can be hard an slow, Still worth a visit.

Maumbury Rings began life as a Neolithic henge over five thousand years old. A large circular earthwork, 85 metres in diameter, it is now a public open space and hosts events.

Has a metal railing fence around the outside with gates for pedestrians. Best to lock your bike to the railings rather than try to get in with it

Wondeful views down to the Frome Valley and Dorset downs from Poundbury Hill Fort a scheduled Prehistoric and Roman archaeological remains and includes evidence of a Neolithic settlement, a substantial Bronze Age occupation site and an Iron Age hillfort. There are also late Iron Age burials and a section of Roman aqueduct. On the eastern side is an earlier Romano-British farmstead; and an extensive later (possibly Christian) cemetery, belonging to the Roman town Durnovaria.