Tag Archives for Olympics

Barbury Horse Trials: Stonehenge (ish) of Fallen Beech

Photo © Andy Hooper for the Mail Online

Don’t bother to look at the horse. Ignore the young woman with her dress flying up provocatively in the back. Yes, the important part of this picture is the trilithons! Sent in by alert reader, Welsh academic, shaman and author Mike Williams (we are honoured, sir), this Wiltshire setup, referred to as the Stonehenge Jump, was featured here once before, but we had no inkling that it was still being used until this morning. Be sure to have a look at this link to the article accompanying the picture above, especially the video part way down the page. Surprised they didn’t use the hymn Jerusalem as a background!

A couple of weeks ago, we were shown a picture of a recent crop circle in Wiltshire and all we could look at was the Stonehenge-like thing near it. That mystery appears to be solved–it was this circle of trilithons. We love when little mysteries solve themselves!

At any rate, we have already scored this at 5 ½ druids back in 2009. Seems right. The Daily Mail Online article says, “The Stonehenge jump, made from fallen beech, is the stand-out feature of the Barbury International, which will be staged on Marlborough Downs, Wiltshire, between June 28 and July 1.”

It was a lead-up to the Olympics, which also had Stonehenge jumps. It is too bad that crazy golf isn’t an Olympic sport. We could have been seeing Stonehenges all over the place during the games! At least Jeremy Deller’s wonderful bouncy Stonehenge is still touring. And elsewhere people are busy building Stonehenge replicas hoping to have it finished by winter solstice. We know the henge-oraks (combination of henge and anorak, our new word for the day! The thrill of it.) are out there somewhere and we look forward to hearing about their creations.

In other news, we hear a rumour that Achill Henge is bringing in enough money to give the good people of County Mayo pause. Is there yet hope that it will be permitted to stand? Oh, the tension, beauty and excitement of the world of Stonehenge replicas! One can hardly bear it sometimes. Other times one has a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Wait. What’s that you say? The horse is painted? Why so it is. We hadn’t noticed. Let’s hope the girl didn’t get any of that chalk on her dress. Or anywhere else. Messy business, these horse events! Until next time, gentle readers, happy henging!

Olympic Horse Hurdle Henge: Has the Empire Fallen So Far?!

Olympic horse event Stonehenge

This is not a post so much as an alert. Hengefinder General (E class) Glastonbury’s keen eye noticed these hurdles at one of the Olympic horse events.

I think we can say with some confidence that this is not where your Olympic millions have gone. Still, we post Stonehenge replicas, so here it is!

Another view, taken from the television

We knew there would be Stonehenge replicas connected with the Olympic summer in England. We were tickled with the bouncy Stonehenge, disappointed with the choice of Glastonbury Tor for the opening ceremony. Now we have these.  The stones are very squared off, of wrong proportions (too thin for their height), painted like a secondary school theatre set, and of course, set up like horse hurdles. A little pathetic, but another sign of the hengemania seizing the world!

Our thanks to Pete Glastonbury for noticing these and taking the pictures from the telly. We’re glad that King of the Mountain is not an Olympic sport. We shudder to imagine the muddy little Silbury Hill replica they might have produced!

And until next time, happy henging!

Bouncy Stonehenge: Nothing Less Than the Culmination of All of Human Endeavor!

Screen shot from this BBC video . Don’t not watch it!

All of our faithful readers know that we are quiet and moderate in speech. We avoid hyperbole even if it takes the strength of ten thousand atom bombs, because we know that hyperbole is the greatest threat the universe faces. So when we say that this bouncy castle Stonehenge built by Jeremy Deller is the ultimate culmination of the entire history of human civilisation, nay, of everything that has happened since the Big Bang, you know you can believe what we say and repeat it without fear of embarrassment.

A bouncy inflatable Stonehenge.  We have been calling for an inflatable Stonehenge since at least our second (or was it third?) Spinal Tap post, in October of 2009, and for a bouncy Stonehenge since the Irish bouncy dolmen post, in July of 2011. And it appears that the universe, or perhaps Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, was listening!

One man in the video is asked. “Is it art?’ and answers, “For me–aye.  It’s as good as it gets, isn’t it?” Another fellow says he would like one in his backyard and the BBC presenter asks, “You would like an inflatable Stonehenge in your backyard?” and the answer is, “Yes, I would. Yes. Who wouldn’t?” (Italics are ours.)

Those two men may never have read the Clonehenge blog, but they are honorary friends of Clonehenge and would be given full member privileges if they ever visited the Clonehenge Private Club and (mini) Golf Course. They understand true greatness when they see it. No wonder the world is going to end in 2012. Mankind can reach no greater height than this!

We are not told in this video where this Stonehenge is right now [we are now told it is Glasgow, which leaves more questions, like—why?], but apparently it will be traveling around the island of Great Britain during the Olympics. Happy to know that at least one interesting thing will be happening there in 2012! What a shame we can’t add this to our list of 72 Large Permanent Replicas, but that would require quite a lot of puncture repair kits!

Our hope is that eventually many of these bouncy Stonehenges will be made and placed in prominent places in cities, and backyards, around the world. Let’s hope they keep it to Stonehenge, though. No one wants a bouncy Rosslyn Chapel or a bouncy Angkor Watt, do we? ….

…. Or do we?! Hmmm. Taking comments on that.

At any rate, it is clear now that this is what English Heritage should have at the Visitor Centre, with smaller ones available in the gift shop. As to score, well, it seems obvious that out of a possible score of ten druids, this one goes to eleven. It’s one louder!

P.S.: Our thanks to the Mike Pitts Digging Deeper blog for giving us a mention. He says “Good places to start to see some of these are at Wikipedia and – best of all – Clonehenge.” We wish we were humble enough to say he is wrong.

And so until next time, Clonehengians, happy henging!