Featured: Hare and Tabor T Shirts for discerning antiquarians

Hare and Tabor T Shirts for discerning antiquarians

Random Image

Roads and Trackways of North Wales

Roads and Trackways of North Wales

Who's Online

There are currently, 465 guests and 1 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

<< Our Photo Pages >> The Dongas - Ancient Trackway in England in Hampshire

Submitted by JimChampion on Sunday, 23 January 2005  Page Views: 12732

Multi-periodSite Name: The Dongas
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 1.519 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Hampshire Type: Ancient Trackway
Nearest Town: Winchester
Map Ref: SU491276
Latitude: 51.045661N  Longitude: 1.300972W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3

Internal Links:
External Links:

The Dongas
The Dongas submitted by JimChampion : January 2005. The 'Dongas' trackways in the foreground, steep sided gulleys running NW towards Winchester (seen in the distance). The hillfort on St Catherine's Hill can be seen on the left. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Trackway in Hampshire.

The 'Dongas' trackways are a series of ancient parallel hollows on Twyford Down, near Winchester. The herding of many thousands of animals over many centuries caused these deep hollows, named after a technical term for eroded gullies. When wet, the chalk becomes very slippery to negotiate and it is thought that when one track became too difficult to negotiate it was abandoned in favour of a new route. The trackway was well-established when the Romans occupied the area, and they built a road alongside.

The building of the M3 motorway in the early 1990s severed the Dongas from the main body of St Catherine's Hill. A community of "travellers" living on Twyford Down near the Dongas tried to resist the engineering work, and were given the name 'The Dongas Tribe' by a local paper. The protestors were unsuccessful, and a standing stone has been erected next to the Dongas, overlooking the M3 cutting, inscribed with the names of those responsible for "ravaging" the land.

The depth of these gullies is still impressive, and their current grassy covering is grazed by sheep. The site is part of a public nature reserve managed by the Hampshire Wildlife Trust (also an SSSI) supports a diverse range of wildlife. It is worth visiting for the impressive views of the surrounding countryside (if you can ignore the motorway).

Point of information from wikipedia: The name Dongas comes from the Matabele word for "gully". Somehow this word got attached to these deep drovers tracks.

Access The site can be accessed from St Catherines Hill via a bridge over the motorway. From the St Catherines's Hill "park and ride" (just off Junction 10 of the M3) you can walk up a side road (Morestead Road) along the route of the trackways, and cross over the motorway using the bridge. It is also possible to park right next to the site where a minor road from Morestead (which runs parallel to the Roman Road) bends sharply to avoid the M3.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.


The Dongas
The Dongas submitted by JimChampion : Looking down the deepest of the Dongas hollow ways, which has blackthorn bushes growing on its slopes. The area is part of the St Catherines Hill nature reserve, and this part (east of the motorway) is grazed by sheep. The trackways originally headed to a ford across the Itchen valley. The settlement that grew up around the fording place became Winchester (visible top right). (2 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

The Dongas
The Dongas submitted by JimChampion : Looking uphill at the Dongas from the point where they are bisected by modern paths, roads and motorways. (2 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

coldrum has found this location on Google Street View:

Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
SU4927 : Morestead Road climbs Twyford Down by Stuart Logan
by Stuart Logan
©2012(licence)
SU4927 : Sheep on Twyford Down by Jim Champion
by Jim Champion
©2007(licence)
SU4927 : Three-horned Hebridean ram on Twyford Down by Jim Champion
by Jim Champion
©2006(licence)
SU4827 : Track from Morestead Road to St Catherine's Hill by Peter Facey
by Peter Facey
©2009(licence)
SU4827 : Twyford Down memorial stone by Christopher Hilton
by Christopher Hilton
©2012(licence)

The above images may not be of the site on this page, they are loaded from Geograph.
Please Submit an Image of this site or go out and take one for us!


Click here to see more info for this site

Nearby sites

Click here to view sites on an interactive OS map

Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.


Turn off the page maps and other distractions

Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 143m WSW 258° Twyford Down monument* Modern Stone Circle etc (SU48962757)
 625m W 279° Mizmaze* Turf Maze (SU48482769)
 681m W 276° St Catherine's Hill (Hampshire)* Hillfort (SU48422766)
 1.8km NNW 331° Winchester Cathedral Wells* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (SU482292)
 1.9km NNE 28° Magdalen Hill Down* Barrow Cemetery (SU49992933)
 2.1km NNW 332° Winchester City Museum* Museum (SU4809729407)
 2.4km NW 324° Hampshire Jubilee Sculpture* Modern Stone Circle etc (SU477295)
 2.5km WSW 247° Compton Down Barrows* Round Barrow(s) (SU46762660)
 2.6km NW 323° Oram's Arbour Hillfort (SU475297)
 2.8km SSW 202° Twyford stone circle* Stone Circle (SU481250)
 3.0km E 81° Telegraph Hill Bowl Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU521281)
 3.5km E 88° Cheesefoot Head Barrows* Barrow Cemetery (SU52572777)
 3.6km W 261° Texas Barrows* Round Barrow(s) (SU4558926993)
 3.6km SE 130° Morestead Warren* Long Barrow (SU519253)
 5.4km SE 127° Longwood Barrow Long Barrow (SU534244)
 5.4km NW 325° Flowerdown Barrows* Barrow Cemetery (SU459320)
 6.8km WNW 287° West Wood Bowl Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU42522949)
 7.1km W 261° Merdon Castle* Hillfort (SU421264)
 7.9km WNW 283° Robin Hood's Barrow (Winchester)* Round Barrow(s) (SU41322927)
 8.7km NNW 348° South Wonston* Barrow Cemetery (SU4723736091)
 8.9km W 280° Farley Mount* Round Barrow(s) (SU403290)
 9.3km NE 44° Itchen Stoke Down Barrows Round Barrow(s) (SU5554334384)
 9.7km W 279° Withering Corner Barrow Cemetery (SU395291)
 9.9km NNE 26° Micheldever Wood Banjo Enclosure* Ancient Village or Settlement (SU53353658)
 10.1km NNE 25° Micheldever Wood Bell Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU53213678)
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< Boar's Den

Alphamstone >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Earthen Long Barrows, Field

Earthen Long Barrows, Field

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"The Dongas" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Re: The Dongas by coldrum on Thursday, 15 April 2010
(User Info | Send a Message)
Street View


View Larger Map
[ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>

We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.