After another lovely full cooked English breakfast we headed north to see the Cerne Giant. It is a picture of a man carved into the sandstone hillside, measuring about 60m tall. There are lots of theories of when and why he was carved, the one I like is that was done by the Royalist and is of Oliver Cromwell after the Civil War (thus not supposed to be nice). However the giant does have a big club in his hand and had an huge todger.
Next stop was an old castle, the Sherborne Old Castle. Not Sherborne Castle, which is the new castle.
The Old Castle was built in the 12th century and as all old place here, it has gone under a variety of changes and renovations. In the 1592 Sir Walter Raleigh wanted to live in it and as he was in with the Queen at the time, got what he wanted. Then he set about renovating it, decided that it wasn’t good enough and built the New Castle on the other side of the lake. The Old Castle, during the Civil War, was taken by the Parliamentarians, but taken back a few years later by the Royalist, then taken back a few years later by the Parliamentarians. They then destroyed the castle on orders from Oliver Cromwell. He seemed to do this a lot.
We stopped for a nice light lunch in Sherborne town, not at a pub. We went for a wander around the Sherbone Museum, which whilst small and kinda dodgy looking, was good. It has all kinds of things from ammonites (shell like fossils), old horseshoes, bits of old castles and the Sherborne Missal. Well not the real one, but they’ve taken photos of it and though a touchscreen you can have a look at it. It is a 15th century illustrated manuscript, apparently quite famous but stunningly illustrated. There is also a great abbey.
Time to start heading home (we were only 50miles away). We went to Portland Castle, which is a fort that Henry VIII built to help protect the southwest coast from invasion. It was simple and effective, 12 foot thick walls and three tiers of cannons.
Time for an ale in one of the many pubs here.
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