I've done a lot of photo-posting from my Wilts holiday this afternoon, and included one of the view I had from my seat in The Devil's Chair towards the summit of Waden Hill. After this [on the evening of 7/7/07], I walked to the top of Waden Hill to admire the view.
Following my recent visit to Wiltshire I wrote a long letter to my brother telling him about some of the highlights, including this part about Avebury, and my thoughts when I suddenly saw the significance of The Devil’s Chair and its view towards Waden Hill:
“. I roamed around filming and photographing, then sat in the Devil’s Chair…a huge portal stone on one side of the original entrance to the main circle inside the Henge at the South. This massive stone has a natural ‘seat’ feature in its southern face – over which the higher part of the stone forms a slight canopy.
I was struck by how, maybe, the ancient officiator at ceremonies during Avebury’s original important rituals might have sat here, waiting for something to happen – a ‘signal’, say, from the summit of Waden Hill, which [I measured with my compass that evening] was due South.
Waden Hill rises to the west of the West Kennett Avenue of standing stones, which leads sinuously south from Avebury henge/circle and used to end in a ceremonial area called ‘The Sanctuary’. If you climb to the top of Waden Hill you can look over to the mysterious Silbury Hill, a huge flat-topped mound (the largest man-made mound in Europe) like a collapsing sandcastle surrounded by a ditch, or moat, if it fills with rainwater. Silbury is also visible from ‘The Sanctuary’, and is visible from West Kennett Long Barrow, too. I’ve also seen it from the huge henge banks near the lane from the car park at Avebury.
It’s just possible that the summit of Waden Hill was the link to all these places.
It struck me while visiting West Kennett long barrow, that if someone important was being interred there, a ceremony on top of Silbury might start - maybe by lighting a fire? Meanwhile, anyone on top of Waden Hill, or to the East at The Sanctuary, would see this and start their own ceremony. Possibly a procession would set off from The Sanctuary and dance or walk up the Avenue? Likewise, anyone at the main henge at Avebury (and particularly someone sitting on the Devil’s Chair portal stone, who saw the signal given from the top of Waden Hill), would then start the accompanying ritual in Avebury’s sacred henge, knowing it would soon be joined by the procession from The Sanctuary.”
[Copyright: Angie Lake, July 2007] (for what it’s worth!)
I don’t recall reading this anywhere, though someone probably has already seen it?
I like to make my own mind up about things, then read about them later. Of course, all those 'built' features would have to be concurrent for my theory to work!
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road