As I was driving westwards along the A4 Sunday afternoon, I decided to stop in at the Devils Den for a look round, having not been there for many years - the stony delights a bit further west usually taking my attention.
Knowing it is difficult to park on the A4 in order to walk up the track from Clatford Bottom, I decided to take the little road to the north, I believe towards Manstone farm, where there is a fairly large car park near to the racing stables. From there it is a pleasant walk along the ridge before dropping down into the valley where the Devils Den resides, with some nice views over the site as a whole to be had on the way (it always strikes me what a strange place this is for such a monument, low down in the valley like it is).
Unfortunately, when down on the overgrown trackway along the sarsen scattered valley bottom, there was no way into the field of the dolmen, with fences, nettles and much scrub preventing access to its field. Even getting to a point quite close by is not recommended in shorts - quite a painful experience ! I can only assume that the landowners are perhaps letting a fairly large strip of land become completely overgrown in order to deter people from clambering over the fences to go for a closer look.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road