On the north western edge of the Ibsley common part of New Forest 'plateau' there is a distinctive group of trees, a familiar landmark to those who know the area. 'Robin Hoods clump' is close to the smallholding where I live and so I have grown up with it. 'Robin Hoods Butt' is another name used for the little family of Scots Pines (Pinus sylvestris var Scotica).
In 50 years the trees have changed very little, a few branches have been shed and some natural (and unnatural) thinning has taken place. The trees are exposed to the full force of the westerlies and have something of the lean that you see in coastal areas even though we are 15 miles from the sea.
According to records the trees were planted in the early part of the 20th century to replace an earlier group that had been destroyed by an heath fire. The Somerley estate would have planted the trees as the clump was an important element in the landscape view from Lord Normanton's 'Mansion' on the other side of the Avon valley.
There are all kinds of stories about Robin Hoods clump...
it is said that the trees are on a significant Ley line, though I have never checked this out. There seems to be strong evidence that the disk shaped mound on which the trees have been planted is / was an ancient Barrow of a kind common in the locality.
The term Butt as in the alternate name 'Robin Hoods Butt' seems to refer to a mound for the siting of an archery target. I imagine in days gone by, when archery practice was complusory this may have been a location used by locals to hone their skills with the long bow.
As far as I know Robin Hood had nothing to do with this locality. There are many land marks with Robin Hood associated in their name, I can only guess that in days gone by there was a fashion for trying to bring some reflected glory to an area by attempting to engineer an link with the 'men in green tights'.
What I am sure about is that these trees are a challenging photographic subject. Their appearance changes dramatically as the seasons and the weather go from one extreme to another. Early morning or sunset is the best time to capture the atmosphere and show the clump in it's most romantic mood.
If you find yourself on the West side of the New Forest take the time to stroll up to Robin Hoods Butt and enjoy the view.
More pics in the gallery here
Nice article about Robbin Hood's butt, I had an interesting experience up there that I attribute possibly to the Ley lines that are said to be up there.
On my wanderings around the area with a metal detector I found bits of old barbed wire, buried bits or tractor, old cans and all kinds of other junk. These all give a positive reading on the metal detector. However when I used it on the north side of Robbin Hood's butt it gave a very strong negative reading, right off the scale! This is the ONLY place I have ever had a negative reading with my metal detector. years later I heard about ley lines and how many ancient significant sites are located on these lines of energy. Not sure I believe it, or that if they do exist, that anyone actually knows what they really are, but any way... I saw people using dowsing rods on TV, to find these ley lines, so I thought I'd give it a go. I butchered a coat hanger and made myself two dowsing rods and waited for a day when there were not too many people around up there to ask questions, I didn't really know what I was doing and didn't want to have to explain it to some slack jawed onlooker. So I set off, since this was going to be a "scientific" mission I took a note pad and compass, a ruler and pencil so I could record any observations. Dowsing rods in hand I wandered around the place where my metal detector had given the odd reading, sure enough the rods crossed, just like on TV. This had to be because I was expecting it right? so I tried walking away from the spot with my eyes closed, turning 180 degrees the walking back with my eyes closed until the rods crossed, I did this several times and they still crossed at the same point. If I missed the exact point and went the the left or right they would still cross to the north or south of the point. It indeed looked like there was a line extending each side of this point, very odd. So I filled my pockets with small white flint pebbles from a nearby track and proceeded to walk around randomly with my eyes closed, holding the dowsing rods. Where ever they crossed I'd dropped a pebble and kept going. (good thing I waited for there to be no one around up there) After I dropped about 20 pebbles and stepped in at least one cow pat I opened my eyes and was surprised to see that the pebbles actually did form a line. On closer inspection I found the line was not straight, as I had expected, but it had a turn of about 10 degrees in it, right at the point where the metal detector had given the strange reading. With my compass I took the bearing of each limb of the line and plotted them in my note book. When I returned home I plotted the bearings on an OS map to see if they went through any other interesting points. Well, wouldn't you know it, going north the line went though stone henge, and a number of other significant locations, and going south the line went through a place called Crow Hill, I think there was a tumulus marked on the map.
There are a number of conclusions that could be drawn from these results.
1. If you draw a random line line across the UK you are sure to hit some ancient significant site.
2. I have a good imagination and an amazing sense of space and direction.
3. There is actually something real going on, we are sensitive to it but don't understand it.
4. I should have been doing my religion home work and not messing about with this black magic stuff.
Whatever the case It was an interesting experience, I might try it again next time I am home.
Posted by: Tom | March 25, 2007 at 04:19 AM