What is your favourite place you have been?Summer and Immy (8)

Hi Summer and Immy,

My favourite place, huh?

Well, I’m going to assume you mean my favourite archaeological place.

Just like many YAC members, I’ve visited loads of places as a member of the public from Pontefract Castle, where our YAC is based, to the British Museum in London, so picking a favourite is pretty tough, so I’ll name a few!

The Orkney Islands: so much to see! Fantastic stone circles (see my photo), incredible burial chambers, brochs, castles and the ongoing excavation of a Neolithic temple(?) complex on the Ness of Brodger. It’s simply stunning prehistoric archaeology. 

Northumberland: particularly Hadrian’s Wall. Some brilliant Romano-British sites to visit including the Roman forts of Houseteads and Birdoswald on the wall and the supply fort of Vindolanda inside the wall. There are also some great prehistoric rock art sites to visit in the area.

And then of course the ancient kingdom of Wessex with Stonehenge, Avebury, wonderful Roman villa sites and chalk-cut figures in the hillsides.

As for my favourite working place I would have to say that my current site out on Anglesey is hard to beat. I have a henge, prehistoric burials and a Romano-British village to dig. I’m a very lucky archaeologist!

Happy travels,

Phil

Answered by:

Phil Weston

After almost 20 years in field archaeology, Phil finally hung his trowel up and he became a Cultural Heritage consultant with Arcadis. In this role Phil uses his archaeological knowledge to help major developers gain planning permission for huge infrastructure projects. He still remembers his days in the trenches fondly and his favourite sites were an Iron Age village in Sawtry, Cambridgeshire and a Neolithic henge on Anglesey.

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