Thornborough Henges

I came across these henges accidentally, whilst searching maps for other places. I’d not heard of them, but they were relatively nearby and they looked very interesting…

Within a few months I got to hear of the place more and more; their images were appearing on websites and in the regional newspapers.

Older than the great pyramids at Giza and the largest costruction of it’s type outside the Wessex chalklands. Sounded impressive!

Lacking a large-scale map, trusting to a dog-eared road atlas, we set off to drive down the country lanes north of Ripon, one day early this summer.

After a quick cuppa and a go on the swings (!) at West Tanfield we headed in the vague direction we hoped would lead to the northern henge.

We must’ve visited the same day as the regional Suburu Impreza Owners Club. Every road we tried we met a column of souped-up, modern-day, four-wheeled codpieces. Eventually, after parking up by the roadside and walking down a public footpath past a stinking landfill site, we found it…

There are 3 henges, each about 240 meters in diameter. Each one consists of a circular bank with gaps on opposite sides and the echoes of ditches, both inside and outside the bank. This is pretty unusual, as is the siting and concentration of the monuments. They are placed in an alignment almost two kilometres long that some think mimics Orion’s belt. In fact, back in the days when these massive earthworks were in use, it’s reckoned the constellation would have risen in the gap in the henge banks at the time of the harvest, in late summer.

Not only does the region have these 5000 year old henges, the whole surrounding countryside is spattered with the marks of human activity from ages past. The entire landscape hereabouts seems to be integrated and part of a more widespread theme. To the south-east are 3 more henges at Cana, Hutton Moor and Nunwick. These and the Devils Arrows further south are likely to be interlinked and part of an overall ritual landscape. The remains of an even older avenue, called a cursus has been discovered beneath the central henge.

Axe-heads from Cumbria show that the place may have been an important trading site.

The northern henge is the best preserved. Probabley because it’s covered in woodland! It’s by the roadside and easily accessable; just wander through the sporadic hedgeline by the roadside.

The southern henge is the least well-preserved. It’s in the field opposite the central henge, it’s irregular outline just visible from the gate.

The central henge is by the road from Thornborough village to the tip and easily found, just follow the smell and the seagulls! It seems to me, inconceivable and ludicrous to allow a landfill site next to such an important historical site. But then, Yorwaste who own the dump are in turn 71% owned by the council. Hmmm.

The extraction of gravel nearby is also destroying valuable archaeological evidence. As you read this, the Nosterfield Quarry is eating up five of the seventy remains of ‘Pit alignments’ that occur in the surrounding sacred landscape.

What is going on here?! It's nothing less than a rape of the countryside. It beggars belief.

Huge, awe-inspiring and enigmatic. This place deserves respect.

The Central Henge hosting pagan Beltane celebrations.

Of all the mysterious, wonderful places I’ve visited, the Thornborough henges have a special quality for me that words can’t really convey.

They are irreplaceable.

I’d urge everyone who reads these pages to make an effort to see them… before it’s too late…

Update - Latest News!

"North Yorkshire County Council have granted Tarmac permission to expand quarrying within the ritual landscape of the Thornborough Henges. Despite the loss of hundreds of archaeological features dating back to the Mesolithic being destroyed within the current quarry, the couincil still accepted Tarmac's view that there would be no archaeology within the proposed area..."