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Wittenham Clumps is the common name for a pair of wooded chalk hills in the Thames Valley, in the civil parish of Little Wittenham in Oxfordshire (part of Berkshire until 1974). The higher of the two, Round Hill, is above sea-level. The Castle Hill is about south-east and was the site of an Iron Age hill fort.〔(Round Hill, Wittenham Clumps, Oxfordshire: Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results, Wessex Archaeology report 52568.09 (March 2004) )〕 A third hill, not normally considered one of The Clumps, is Brightwell Barrow, further to the south-east. The grassed slopes of The Clumps lead up to summits wooded by the oldest beech tree plantings in England,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Paul Nash and The Wittenham Clumps )〕 dating to the 1740s.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Oxford Conservation Volunteers : Nature Reserves )〕 Standing over 70 metres above their surroundings,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Walk - Dorchester-on-Thames - Wittenham Clumps - 4.5 Miles )〕 the Clumps have a prominent appearance and panoramic views, with the north slopes overlooking villages and towns whose sites mark some of the first settlements of the English.〔(Clark, O A, Clark A ''Seeing Beneath the Soil: Prospecting Methods in Archaeology'' 1997 (Routledge) p11 )〕 The view from The Clumps was described by the artist Paul Nash, who first saw them in 1911, as "a beautiful legendary country haunted by old gods long forgotten".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Early Works of Paul Nash )〕 The Clumps are the most visited outdoor site in Oxfordshire, attracting over 200,000 visitors a year.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Plans outlined for Wittenham Clumps reserve )〕 A car park was added in 1971, and the extensive network of paths are accessible by foot all year round. A path through the wooded area at the top of Round Hill has enabled access since 2005, after being closed for twenty years. The site and its surroundings are maintained as a Nature Reserve by the Earth Trust.〔(Wittenham Clumps trust re-named ''Witney Gazette'' 7 March 2011 )〕 == Toponomy == Strictly speaking, the name Wittenham Clumps refers to the wooded summits of these hills, which are themselves more properly referred to as the Sinodun Hills, the name Sinodun deriving from Celtic, Seno-Dunum, meaning 'Old Fort'.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Royal County of Berkshire History Home Page )〕 Alternatively, it has been suggested that the name is a scholarly creation, punning on the Latin 'sinus' (bosom).〔Coates, R. (2000), ''The Sinodun Hills, Little Wittenham, Berkshire'', Journal of the English Place Name Society, vol. 32, pgs 23–25〕 Other lesser-used and more colloquial names for the Clumps include the Berkshire Bubs (since the Clumps were formerly in the county of Berkshire – the boundary was redrawn in 1974) and Mother Dunch's Buttocks (after a local Lady of the Manor named Dunch). On Sinodun Hill is a hollow named the Money-Pit and a clump of trees named the Cuckoo Pen. The Money-Pit is supposedly the location of a treasure hoard guarded by a raven, and the Cuckoo Pen gets its name from the local belief that a trapped cuckoo would ensure eternal Summer. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wittenham Clumps」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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