Knowlton
Knowlton: one of the spookiest places in Dorset. A ruined Norman church set in the centre of a late Neolithic circular earthwork.
Knowlton, on the edge of Cranborne Chase, actually has a whole complex of Neolithic earthworks, but most of them have been destroyed by the plough, and can only clearly be seen in aerial photography.
There are five large circular monuments at the heart of the complex, most of which can be tentatively classified as henges or having traits common to henge monuments. The most well-preserved of all the monuments is the so-called Church-henge, whose survival as an upstanding earthwork is largely due to its later adoption for the location and construction of a twelfth-century church. The church, although abandoned in the eighteenth century, continued to provide protection to the earthworks which today represents one of the best preserved monuments of its type in Britain.
'Prehistoric Dorset' - John Gale
To the east of the church, a pair of yews grow close together, their branches forming a cave:
