I swear that Google Earth is the biggest chronivore yet developed.
Upgraded to Google Earth Plus, and downloaded the beta of version 4. This allows me to save paths, which is a great help.
Anyway, I was up on Sidbury Hill yesterday afternoon, OS map in hand, figuring out the path of the solstice alignment south-west back towards Stonehenge.
On the far horizon, maybe 30 miles away I could make out a distinctive oddly shaped hill. It seems that Stonehenge is on the solstice alignment line between that hill and Sidbury.
Projecting the line between Sidbury and Stonehenge back towards the south-west, the first hill encountered which is high enough to project against the skyline from Sidbury Hill (224m) appears to be Melbury Hill (236m), a couple of miles south of Shaftesbury.
Here's a screenshot (you may want to open the full size version from the Attachments link below, if you're following along in detail):
The .kml placemarks for Google Earth for Melbury and Sidbury Hills are attached below.
Also on or very close next to this alignment are some interesting other features:
Chicksgrove
Grovely Castle (white line is the path of the alignment)
Stapleford Castle
and of course:
Stonehenge
If it wasn't tipping down with rain right now, I'd be on top of Melbury Hill with a map and a camera :-) Next week maybe.
Of course this means that, come Winter Solstice, I'm going to have to be up on top of Sidbury Hill to watch the sun set into Melbury Hill, 30 miles away.
--
simon
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