Distance: 4.7km
Accessibility: Steep hills that require hiking boots. Path not looked after, and lots of tripping hazards. To visit the monument you will have to go off road track for twenty minutes, and scramble up a stony track.
Landscape: Woodland.
Does anywhere have everlasting importance?
Think about the places deemed valuable to our society. How they have an intrinsic aura of worth. Smashing the window of a church is worse than breaking a door in a garden center.
But how many places that share this reverence are forgotten? Many of the hills and divots you drive by on the countryside may have tombs and temples buried within them. We think of the landscape as natural, yet in so many places these are abandoned human structures.
My destination was one of these hidden corners. Stan Miere is the location of a temple to an unknown deity dating back thousands of years. An Ango-Saxon church once stood here too, but both are now lost to the woods. A few stones remain, revealed in an archeological dig at the turn of the last century. Like the hills, Stan Miere is a patch you can walk past without realising any significance.
You have to park in a layby, and follow a scabby public footpath dotted with weeds. Not even a small brown sign marks the location, or show you the way. The walk is pleasant enough, but if someone accused you of trespassing they might be justified in their claim.
The ground changes to a slippery hill upon arrival at the remains of the ancient site. Perhaps there were steps here once. Now you have to traverse on your hands and knees.
I held onto the forest for support, and my hands nearly brushed a thatch of mushrooms on a nearby tree. Each was like a thin white finger poking from the bark. A similar bloom appeared on every tree on the way up.
Mushrooms always remind me of the Butter Mouse. One of my favourite stories ends with the gang eating soup made from mushrooms they picked in the field. In retrospect this probably was not the safest activity suggestion for a kids, but never mind.
Archie was never a fan of mushrooms. I once took him to some kind of publishers soiree that clashed with our babysitter schedule. He took two bites of risotto ai funghi, and spent the next ten minutes pushing the rest round his plate. An American writer laughed about this all evening.
I was about to move won, when this collection of mushrooms displayed a remarkable biological feature. When my hand got close to their caps, the stalks bent back, and pulled away from my fingers. Why did this happen? To protect from predators maybe? How did they know I was there?
Another aspect of the region to research.
After more clambering, the hill levelled out, and I touched a summit visited by humans for at least the last two millennia. Stan Miere may be disregarded, but for at least the next hour, this place still had value to one more person.
:::Please see the photo below Barbara. Interesting bunch of mushrooms eh? Still can't find anything about why they retract, but added to the research pile. Lovely green on the moss anyway!
Finally some Butter Mouse and Archie references as well. I will make sure this continues. Can't remember if you were at that party. Strange to think about all events now. They are a long way from my house in the woods::
