Medieval and Middle Ages History Timelines

Mystery

Old Wardour Castle and Stonehenge

There appear to be some strange connections between the fourteenth century Old Wardour Castle and ancient stone circle Stonehenge. The following series of pages describe these possible connections. They could all just be coincidences or there could be a good reason for them. You can decide.

Old Wardour Castle

Overview

The construction of Old Wardour Castle began in 1393 during the reign of Richard II. It was built for John, the fifth Lord Lovell, a patron of the arts. The architect was probably William of Wynford a Master Mason who worked at Winchester Cathedral. Design based on geometry (the hexagon and square).

Stonehenge

Photo copyright: Geoff Bath

Overview

An arrangement of standing stones and earthworks constructed in several stages culminating in the Sarsen Circle between 2000 BC and 1800 BC. Its true purpose is unknown but many theories have been put forward. The stones are aligned to the summer solstice.

The First Connection - Location

The first connection I discovered that links Old Wardour Castle and Stonehenge are their locations.

As part of the investigation into alignments of ancient sites Norman Lockyer and Alfred Watkins noted that Stonehenge is part of a line of ancient monuments stretching from the Charlton Clumps to the Clearbury Ring and beyond. This alignment also includes the ancient fort of Old Sarum and the Medieval Salisbury Cathedral. Commonly referred to as leys or ley lines, these lines connecting hill forts and ancient sites can be found all over the country. If they were created by ancient people their origin and purpose is not known.

Another line of hill forts stretches from the Sidbury Camp down to the Castle Ditches. It was when I extended this line to the south-west I found that it crossed the site of Old Wardour Castle. The distance between Stonehenge and Old Wardour Castle is approximately 15 miles as the crow flies.

The diagram below shows these lines.

Image showing the relative position of Old Wardour Castle and Stonehenge

It was obvious that Old Wardour Castle required further investigation. Click the alignment button below for details of the second connection.

3D Virtual Reconstructions

Transport yourself back up to a thousand years and explore historical buildings as they may have appeared in the past. Built using the popular game development tool Unity 3D, these reconstructions will run in the most of the popular web browsers on your desktop or laptop computer.