Mitchell's Fold

 

A ring of standing stones, an open border hill

The sky a brightly turning dome of air that’s never still

You can see the Marches spread below,

Feel them breathing soft and slow

Hawk circles above – the ring turns

There’s a sudden shining thrill

 

And just for a second a door is opened

Inside are seven stars

Four seasons, one universe

And then the moment’s passed

 

How old’s this hill, how old the valley - when did this landscape form

Precambrian, the dawn of time, born out of fire and storm

Out of chaos this hill rose high,

Linked horizon, land and sky

The infant world, this landscape now – a unity is born

 

And just for a second a door is opened

Inside are seven stars

Four seasons, one universe

And then the moment’s passed

 

How many further ages passed before a man embraced

With a ring of granite stones this awesome dreadful place

Who changed the stark horizon and the sky’s tremendous roll

Who understood this place so well he dared to make a whole

Whose timelessness can reach to the bottom of my soul

 

Lie down at the centre here and stare up at the sky

Watch the endless turning of the hawk above so high

Circles circles simply feel

The turning of the ageless wheel

Echoes above, echoes below that speak the reason why

 

And just for a second a door is opened

Inside are seven stars

Four seasons, one universe

And then the moment’s passed

 

At Mitchells Fold alone at peace in perfect summer weather

My soul can sing the music with the spinning wheels together

But always in a moment the harmony has gone

I turn back to my old sad song

How to catch that turn, how to hold on tight

And move with it for ever

 

And then in the heavens the door will be open

Inside are seven stars

Four seasons, one universe

And a moment never passed

 

See Aubrey Burl's 'The Stone Circles of the British Isles' pp264 - 267 for the full lowdown on the five stone circles of the Corndon group. Only Mitchell's Fold and Mr Booth's Hoarstones at Black Marsh are visible now -

 

"..it has been speculated that these hills

could have been, in the prehistoric mind, places of magical import within whose ambience a stone circle would become the more powerful."

 

Call my mind prehistoric if you will, but the magical import of these hills is still very real to me.