CHANCTONBURY RING: on the way back from going to Pallant House Gallery yesterday we stopped off in the South Downs for a walk. At the top of Chanctonbury Hill is a prehistoric hill fort with round narrows from the Bronze Age and dykes from the Iron Age to Roman period. You can see why Modern British artists such as Paul Nash liked such mysterious places and spoke of their genius loci or ‘spirit of place’ (although in his case it was the Wittenham Clumps in Buckinghamshire). At Chanctonbury two Romano-British temples were built in the hill fort's interior, one of which may have been dedicated to a boar cult. In the mid-18th century a ring of trees were planted. It is a special place, with views across the South of England to Brighton and the Isle of Wight. I hadn’t been here for many years, but the current situation makes me want to spent more time exploring our local landscape and the @southdownsnp which is full of such extraordinary places. On the walk up we passed @wistonestate - one of the vineyards that forms part of the @sussexmodern network of museums, galleries and wineries in Sussex. If we can’t travel abroad so easily these kinds of stop-offs might be just the thing that provides the space to think and escape for an hour in somewhere that feels outside of everything. #chanctonburyring #bronzeage #archaeology #westsussex #southdowns #sussex #southdownsway #southdownsnationalpark #sussexmodern (at Chanctonbury Ring) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAs78dUlTmG/?igshid=1wvdzvjmfqbc2
