Robin Hood's Ball

Neolithic wall painting from Tell Bouqras at the Deir ez-Zor Museum, Syria

Neolithic causewayed enclosure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, approximately 5 mi northwest of the town of Amesbury, and 2+1/2 mi northwest of Stonehenge.

- Robin Hood's Ball
Neolithic wall painting from Tell Bouqras at the Deir ez-Zor Museum, Syria

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Stonehenge, the most famous antiquity on Salisbury Plain

Salisbury Plain

Chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering 300 sqmi.

Chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering 300 sqmi.

Stonehenge, the most famous antiquity on Salisbury Plain
Rough map of military training area (green) on Salisbury Plain within Wiltshire (blue) (it accounts for about half the area of Salisbury Plain)
Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain
Military use makes some areas of the plain inaccessible to the public.
Typical grassland at Netheravon Down.
The burnt-tip orchid (Neotinea ustulata) can be found on Salisbury Plain
The Duke of Burgundy butterfly (Hamearis lucina)
The cuckoo bee Nomada armata
The fairy shrimp Chirocephalus diaphanus
The stone curlew

In the Neolithic period, Stone Age people began to settle on the plain, most likely centred around the causewayed enclosure of Robin Hood's Ball.

Garrison Church of St Alban the Martyr

Larkhill

Garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England.

Garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England.

Garrison Church of St Alban the Martyr
Memorial to Capt Loraine and Staff-Sgt Wilson, killed 1912, outside the Stonehenge Visitors' Centre (December 2013)

Robin Hood's Ball, the Stonehenge Cursus and the Lesser Cursus lie close to the garrison.

Stonehenge in July 2007

Stonehenge

Prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, 2 mi west of Amesbury.

Prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, 2 mi west of Amesbury.

Stonehenge in July 2007
Plan of Stonehenge in 2004. After Cleal et al. and Pitts. Italicised numbers in the text refer to the labels on this plan. Trilithon lintels omitted for clarity. Holes that no longer, or never, contained stones are shown as open circles. Stones visible today are shown coloured.
Stonehenge 1. After Cleal et al.
Graffiti on the sarsen stones include ancient carvings of a dagger and an axe
Sketch showing the tongue and groove and mortise and tenon joints used in the outer Sarsen circle
Plan of the central stone structure today; after Johnson 2008
Computer rendering of the overall site
The southwest face of the Heel Stone in May 2016
The sun behind the Heel Stone on the Summer solstice, shortly after sunrise
The oldest known depiction of Stonehenge, from the second quarter of the 14th century. A giant helps Merlin build Stonehenge. From a manuscript of the Roman de Brut by Wace in the British Library (Egerton 3028).
The earliest-known realistic painting of Stonehenge, drawn on site with watercolours by Lucas de Heere between 1573 and 1575
Farm waggons near the site, c. 1885
10th Battalion, CEF marches past the site, winter 1914–15 (the First World War); Background: Preservation work on stones, propped up by timbers
Sunrise at Stonehenge on the summer solstice, 21 June 2005
Dancing inside the stones, 1984 Stonehenge Free Festival
Stonehenge at sunset
The visitor centre at Stonehenge
17th-century depiction of Stonehenge from the Atlas van Loon
As painted by John Constable, 1835
An early photograph of Stonehenge taken July 1877
The monument from a similar angle in 2008 showing the extent of reconstruction
A contemporary newspaper depiction of the 1920 restoration

Salisbury Plain was then still wooded, but 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic, people built a causewayed enclosure at Robin Hood's Ball, and long barrow tombs in the surrounding landscape.

Sketch of Whitehawk camp, a causewayed enclosure

Causewayed enclosure

Type of large prehistoric earthwork common to the early Neolithic in Europe.

Type of large prehistoric earthwork common to the early Neolithic in Europe.

Sketch of Whitehawk camp, a causewayed enclosure
Causewayed enclosure at Burham, Kent.

Robin Hood's Ball near Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites

UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Wiltshire, England.

UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Wiltshire, England.

Stonehenge
Avebury Henge and village

Robin Hood's Ball (an associated monument just north of the WHS boundary)

Woodcut of Robin Hood, from a 17th-century broadside

Robin Hood

Legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film.

Legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film.

Woodcut of Robin Hood, from a 17th-century broadside
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, woodcut print, Thomas Bewick, 1832
Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood; the sword he is depicted with was common in the oldest ballads
Artist's impression of Robin Hood and Maid Marian
King Richard the Lionheart marrying Robin Hood and Maid Marian on a plaque outside Nottingham Castle
"Little John and Robin Hood" by Frank Godwin
The title page of Howard Pyle's 1883 novel, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Statue of Robin Hood near Nottingham Castle by James Woodford, 1951
"Robin shoots with Sir Guy" by Louis Rhead
The Major Oak in Sherwood Forest
Blue Plaque commemorating Wentbridge's Robin Hood connections
The site of the Saylis at Wentbridge
St Mary Magdalene's church, Campsall, South Yorkshire
'Robin Hood's Grave' in the woods near Kirklees Priory in West Yorkshire
The new church within the old. After All Saints' Church, Pontefract was damaged during the English Civil War, a new brick chapel was built within its ruins in 1967
Robin Hood Tree aka Sycamore Gap, Hadrian's Wall, UK. This location was used in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Elizabethan song of Robin Hood

A Neolithic causewayed enclosure on Salisbury Plain has acquired the name Robin Hood's Ball, although had Robin Hood existed it is doubtful that he would have travelled so far south.

White Barrow

White Barrow

Large Neolithic long barrow just below the crest of Copehill Down on Salisbury Plain, just south of the village of Tilshead in Wiltshire, England.

Large Neolithic long barrow just below the crest of Copehill Down on Salisbury Plain, just south of the village of Tilshead in Wiltshire, England.

White Barrow

It has never been fully excavated, but dating of materials found in and around it suggests that it dates from 3500 to 4000 BC, making it contemporary with other long barrows on Salisbury Plain, as well as the nearby causewayed enclosure called Robin Hood's Ball.

Boxgrove handaxes at the British Museum

List of prehistoric structures in Great Britain

There are many prehistoric sites and structures of interest remaining from prehistoric Britain, spanning the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

There are many prehistoric sites and structures of interest remaining from prehistoric Britain, spanning the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

Boxgrove handaxes at the British Museum

Robin Hood's Ball

Church of St Michael and All Angels

Figheldean

Village and civil parish on the River Avon, 3+1/2 mi north of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England.

Village and civil parish on the River Avon, 3+1/2 mi north of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England.

Church of St Michael and All Angels

Figheldean parish extends 3 mi east of the village towards Tidworth as far as Devil's Ditch and 3 mi westwards beyond Larkhill towards Shrewton as far as Robin Hood's Ball.

Knap Hill

Knap Hill lies on the northern rim of the Vale of Pewsey, in northern Wiltshire, England, about a mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Alton Priors.

Knap Hill lies on the northern rim of the Vale of Pewsey, in northern Wiltshire, England, about a mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Alton Priors.

Knap Hill
Map of Knap Hill showing the Cunningtons' excavations of 1908 and 1909. Letters A through D, and X through X3, mark trenches cut or areas excavated by the Cunningtons; E and F are building foundations, and G is where the Saxon sword was found. The two pits found under the long mound are each labelled P, and the short sections of ditch found at the eastern corner are labelled S. Dotted lines crossing the boundary indicate the location of the causeways.
Anglo-Saxon sword found in the plateau enclosure by the Cunningtons
Section through the ditch at cutting A-A in the 1908–1909 excavation
Knap Hill site, showing trenches (i through iii) and the excavated area (iv) from the 1961 excavation

Similar combinations of finds had been reported at Windmill Hill, Robin Hood's Ball, and Whitesheet Hill.