Prologue
It was September 23rd in 1981 that my father
first took me to see it, the date is, by all means, the easiest thing to
remember about that day as it was the Autumnal Equinox, a date that would later
be revealed to me as a specific one, but for now that does not matter.
I remember almost vividly the long walk across the long
calcareous grasslands as the sun set far over the horizon, this was when I caught
my first glimpse of the stones, they stood tall and dark, silhouetted against
the orange glow of the fading autumn sun. That image will stay with me forever.
As we walked I noticed the ground was strewn with holes and
wooden pegs, remains of food and a torn piece of paper titled “Daily Excess”, I
queried my father who then started to described a music festival that had been
held on site a few months prior, he spoke of musicians that I had barely heard
of at the time and who I had no interest of afterwards either, to me, I just
liked the thought that these were to become a history of their own.
My father rarely spoke at all as we approached the outer
circles of the Y & Z holes, seeing them in person was rather underwhelming at
first, my father had made a habit of recalling tales of his countless visits to
The Henge, a term that he assures me he coined himself.
As we entered into the inner horse of stones I myself fell
silent, but this is when my father came to life, he could barely keep himself
from shaking as he glanced around the enclosure, which by this time was barely
visible, being only lit by the dull rising moon.
I could hear him mumbling under his breath as he turned and
turned, “57” “58” “70a” “59b” and then he stopped, I could not take my eyes off
him as he ran his hands across the rough edges of the stone, “60” he said
aloud, as a child I was baffled by his actions but now I know what he was
searching for.
He rigorously inspected the stone, top to bottom, front and
back, he measured every hole and break in it, he was transfixed! Then he
stopped, I watched him closely, burning this moment into my memory. HE seemed
to have found a hole, no bigger than a kiwi, approximately 3 foot from the
ground on the south side of stone 60.
