#091 Is Top Gun Maverick really a Star Wars remake?

In this festive season blog edition, we take a different trail. Taking an off-beat foray into my love of cinema and the enjoyment of a good yarn.

Here I proffer and attempt to answer the weighty question: Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?
Uh oh, no no no, far too controversial.
No, the real question we'll delve into today: Is Top Gun: Maverick really a remake of the original 1977 Star Wars movie?

First, lets look at why ask this question. Top Gun: Maverick, released in 2022, was the much anticipated sequel to the 1986 blockbuster, Top Gun. All the ingredients are still there, the planes, the action, ripped athletic physiques, home side relationship tensions and big egos. 
The stories and larger than life characters could have been taken from the boys comic books of my youth. In 1986 it was the planes that stole the show, hurtling across the cinema screen, afterburners roaring. 

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

From the beginning Top Gun: Maverick felt like a swansong and on first viewing it was from clear how this story would end. We were quickly re-introduced Pete Mitchell, a pilot with phenomenal instinctive ability. But when out of the aircraft, is burdened by his experiences. His early tussle with Rear Admiral Cain (Ed Harris) sets the tone: 

"The end is inevitable. Your kind is headed for extinction". 
This leads to the film's iconic response from Tom Cruise's character, Maverick:
"Maybe so, sir. But not today"

Tension between the top brass and lower ranks is an often used trope. Top Gun: Maverick unashamedly draws on many inspirations and is all the better for it. We neither want or expect the painful restraint of The Remains Of The Day. Instead, we're treated to a host of 'Easter egg' movie connections.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Spoiler alert: Early in the film Maverick pilots the fictional hypersonic Darkstar aircraft, based on real-world concepts like the SR-72 "Son of Blackbird," developed by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works. He pushes the speed to an improbable Mach 10, which causes the aircraft to break up. In reality, ejecting at that speed, the pilot would be killed instantly due to the relative weight and density of air.

The Right Stuff (1983)

However, we'll not let the matter of physics spoil a good story. We next see Maverick, wearing his singed flight suit, entering a dusty desert diner. This sequence bears a strong resemblance to The Right Stuff (based on real life), where pilot Chuck Yeager has ejected from his rocket assisted Lockheed Starfighter after the controls became aerodynamically locked, the aircraft entered a flat spin and it plunged to earth. During ejection, a piece of propellant struck Yeager's helmet visor. Injured, with burnt rubber clinging to the side of his face, his parachute  lands him near a desert road where he is greeted by a somewhat horrified boy. 

You can read the full account of the Yeager's F104 crash here...
https://www.chuckyeager.org/nf-104-crash/

Stay on target, now where have we heard that before?
Gold Five: Stay on target!
Gold Leader: We're too close!
Gold Five: STAY ON TARGET!

It was Angus MacInnes as Gold Leader flying in the Death Star's fortified trench, during the finale battle.

Star Wars: A New Hope 1977)

In Top Gun: Maverick, we hear Lieutenant Natasha "Phoenix" Trace (portrayed Monica Barbaro) say exactly the same words, in flight.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Top Gun: Maverick has several parallels to Star Wars:
A highly defended canyon, low level, narrow approach, with a target requiring precision bombing. And protagonists requiring a spiritual command of self: Skywalker using the force, Goose summoning Maverick's don't think, just fly mantra, when the laser targeting system malfunctions.

But, if you think this all started with Star Wars, then you're in for a surprise. 

Back in 1964, director Walter Grauman used eight retired RAF De Havilland Mosquitos to make 633 Squadron. A fictional story of a mission to destroy a Nazi V2 rocket fuel factory. Flying at low level through a Norwegian fjord bristling with ack-ack guns, then dropping a bomb just in the right place to collapse the cliff above the factory. The 633 Squadron attack sequence heavily influenced director Stephen Spielberg's trench run choreography in Star Wars.

633 Squadron (1964)

In movie terms, charges against impossible odds are a recurrent theme. The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1968, directed by Tony Richardson, starring some of the most acclaimed actors of the era) unusually depicted a military disaster for the British....into the valley of death rode the six hundred, cavalry impossibly outgunned against Russian cannon in the Crimean War.

Charge Of The Light Brigade (1968)

If we're looking for an origin story of this film genre, the surely we need look no further than the 1955 depiction of the 1943 raid led by Guy Gibson, immortalized in The Dam Busters (director Michael Anderson). A low altitude bombing run, with a highly technical approach in a 17 ton, four engine behemoth, which required unwavering courage under withering fire.

The Dam Busters (1955)

The tactical aspects of the climactic raid shown in the film, were another of Spielberg's inspirations for the Star Wars rebel attack on the Death Star, the Empire's planet-destroying battle station.

For all these references and if we suspend the production playing fast and loose with realism: Would an recently ejected pilot really be in any condition to embark on another extreme-G mission within a few days? Then Top Gun: Maverick is a very worthy sequel to the original, in which the planes are still the stars.

Certainly, the most emotionally charged scene is one where there wasn't much acting needed. Tom Cruise's on screen reuniting with an obviously unwell Val Kilmer is loaded with barely restrained real-life feelings. Indeed it was reported that Tom Cruise didn't want to do 'Top Gun 2' unless there was a part for Val. Sadly Val's reprise of Tom "Iceman" Kazansky was his last role and he died, age 65, three years after the film's release.

Val Kilmer (1959-2025)

So, is Maverick really Luke Skywalker? The answer depends upon your viewpoint regarding movie DNA. In the iconic role of James Bond, Daniel Craig draws upon many of his previous roles, such a Layer Cake. Javier Bardem's scene stealing monologue, introducing villan Raoul Silva in Skyfall has it's origin in Collateral. Which also stars Tom Cruise in a less heroic role as the morally ambiguous anti-hero assassin, directed by Michael Mann. In these respects, performance is culmination of an actor's experiences, rather than something plucked out of the ether.

Collateral (2004)

Of course, second spoiler alert, in Top Gun: Maverick the good guys win. With no direct reference to 'Vladdie the Baddie', the sinister new Russian made 5th generation MiGs are taken out, creatively! Character tensions are resolved with high fives, man hugs and lots of whooping. Tom Cruise, err I mean Maverick, flies off into the sunset with the lady (Jennifer Connelly) in his own vintage P-51 Mustang.  

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

But what did you expect, its Top Gun.
And all the better for it!

Stu Westfield
December 2025

#088 The Bullroarer

WARNING: The following blog features photographs and sounds of actual  indigenous aboriginal artefacts and items inspired by these cultures.

The bullroarer: A cultural artefact which you might think you've never heard of, but there's a good chance you will recognize when you see it in use.
Remember Crocodile Dundee II? When Paul Hogan's character says he's going ask for help from his aboriginal friends through the 'bush telegraph'.

A bullroarer, also known as a rhombus or turndun, is typically a length of wood, sometimes lozenge shaped, with an aero foil cross section. Several feet of twisted cordage are tied to one end. To make the bullroarer 'sing' the user winds up the cordage then spins the wooden lozenge at arms length in a circular motion. A pulsating, whirring sound emits as the lozenge cuts through the air. Varying the cadence of rotation emits different tones and tempo of pulses, which can be used to communicate messages over long distances. 

The Croc Dundee films are 'of their time' and include humour stereotypes which mean they probably wouldn't be made in the same way today. But at the time, they did as much as any campaign to bring indigenous Australian culture to a mainstream audience. And the screenplay is careful that we laugh with the aboriginal actors and at the ineptitude of the interlopers.

Intaglio work in progress. Created by Stu

Since the 1980's, attitudes towards indigenous rights have come a long way. At sporting events, respect is given to the lands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first peoples of Australia. In television and film, similar consideration is given when featuring images or sound recordings of the deceased. That said, there is still much to do make amends for the wrongs done during and since colonialism.

Paleo inspired bullroarers. Crafted by Stu

My interest in bullroarers rekindled at the time I was studying and practicing towards the NCFE Level 3 Bushcraft Award. One of the assessment tasks was to use knife skills to create some of items from wood. I chose to make a small sugar spoon and a couple of decorated bullroarers. 

Some online research offered up a picture of several bullroarers on display at the Pitt Rivers ethnographic museum in Oxford. I learned that versions of bullroarers have also been made in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. One of the oldest examples dating back to Palelolithic Ukraine 18,000 year ago.

Bullroarers are one of the earliest artifacts that can be classified as a musical instrument, having been used by many different cultures over nearly 20,000 years.   - Timothy S Y Lam Museum Of Anthropology 

In my work at the Peak Centre, I'm always keen to develop fresh experiences for our bushcraft sessions and to demonstrate a bullroarer would be a engaging way to connect to a non-digital way of communication. 

Bullroarers at Pitt Rivers - Photo: Stu Westfield

With so many variants on a theme, I was curious to understand what, if any, different sounds each type of bullroarer made. But first I wanted to see the artefacts up close, to appreciate the nuances of detail which do not readily come across in two dimensions on a screen. And so a trip to the Pitt Rivers was needed.

Papuan bullroarers at Pitt Rivers - Photo: Stu Westfield

On display were an amazing variety of bullroarers. Some of the most decorative and interesting examples were from Papua New Guinea. 

In the nineteenth century, the bullroarer was recorded as being used as a toy, or crow scarer, in Britain and Ireland. These examples sometimes had a serrated edge cut into the wooden spinner.

European bullroarers at Pitt Rivers - Photo: Stu Westfield

Papua New Guinea

Inspired by what I had seen, I set about making a couple of bullroarers in the Papuan style. As I worked each piece, ideas flowed from absorption in the creative process and the project expanded to further original designs.  

Papuan style bullroarer, Elema people, Orokolo Bay
 depicting a crocodile. Crafted by Stu

Used by the Namau people of the Puraru River Delta during funerals of important men, their bullroarer is called imuni viki (weeping spirit). The sound represented the sound of a spirit lamenting the person's death. As with aboriginal culture, bullroarers are considered 'men's business' and it is forbidden for women, children, non-initiates, or outsiders, to hear them. (ref: metmuseum.org)                                        

Papuan style bullroarer. Crafted by Stu

Scandinavia
In 1991, archaeologists excavating in Tuv, northern Norway, found a 6.4cm long piece of slate which was interpreted as a 5000 year old bullroarer.

Paleo bullroarer & Scandi longboat bullroarer (Front)
Notched edges design style with hand woven rope.
Crafted by Stu

Paleo bullroarer & Scandi Tanum Sundisk (Back)
Notched edges design style. Crafted by Stu

Northern America
Indigenous bullroarers were named 'groaning stick' by the Navaho, 'sounding wood' by the Apache. (ref: Fransciscan Fathers - An ethnological dictionary of the Navaho language. ref: Powell - Ninth annual report of the bureau of ethnology)

Mali 
The Dogon are best known for their mask dances, religious traditions, wooden sculpture and architecture. Bullroarers are used to announce the beginning of ceremonies during the Sigui festival. The sound is identified as the voice of an ancestor from whom all Dogon are descended.

Igbo tilapia fish bullroarer.
Inspired by the carved panels of the Igbo people, southern Nigeria.
Crafted by Stu.

Yoruba
The Yoruba are a major ethnic group of Nigeria, Benin and Togo. They call the bullroarer Ise Orn. Usually made of camwood or bamboo and can be decorated with figurative carvings. It is reserved for use by the elders or kept in a shrine which is sacrosanct, where only the initiated may enter.

Photo credit: Asianafricanart.com

The carving on this bullroarer is in relief, where the design projects from the background surface. The carver must therefore start with a thicker platen in order to have sufficient strength in the substrate material.

Yoruba bullroarer tribute, work marked up.
Crafted by Stu

Non-wood materials

References have been made to bullroarers made from slate. Perhaps this is a regional variation due to abundance of source material. I've acquired some Welsh slate to test the practicality of production and use as well as the effectiveness as a sound generating instrument. We'll see how this goes and I'll share an update.

Slate platens ready for detail work.
Crafted by Stu

Original designs

Fish swim through water with the same ease as a bird's aero foil wing rides on air. The fishy shaped outline of some bullroarers has given me inspiration for original designs. Thus far I've completed an Atlantic Salmon and am currently working on a Kenyan Kingfish bullroarer.

Kenyan Kingfish (top) / Atlantic Salmon (lower)
Original copyright design, crafted by Stu

To come...bullroarer video clips.

If you've liked this topic, I invite you to browse my other blog postings.

With a wide variety of stories and features including: Nature, conservation, history, culture, culinary treats, expeditions, trail running and guided adventures.

I also offer guided walks and quality outdoor adventures in small groups.
Here's your join-a-group dates and opportunities for 2026.

 

Stu Westfield
Ranger Expeditions & Ranger Ultras Trail Running

****

To join in my guided walks...
https://rangerexped.co.uk/

If you like your outdoors a little more fast paced...
https://rangerultras.co.uk/

#090 Shelters, Shrines & Stonework in The Peak District & Beyond.

In this edition we explore a delightful and eclectic selection of buildings and monuments of varying functions and ages. We start within the Peak District and then move our attention further afield, to places I have enjoyed visiting. All these structures have a theme of self-supporting corbelled roof construction or similar appearance and style.

Kazun roundhouse - Parsley Hay

In 2013 a round-house was built alongside the High Peak Trail at Parsley Hay, near Hartington. This limestone “Kažun” shepherds hut was constructed by Croatian traditional craftsmen using Croatian dry stone walling techniques.  It was a gift from the Republic of Croatia as part of a number of events to mark Croatia’s entry to the European Union.

In native Croatia, these circular shelters with conical roof, were built mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries for farm workers and animals in the limestone countryside of Istria.

Credit: Buxton Advertiser

The opening ceremony was documented in the Buxton Advertiser.
https://www.buxtonadvertiser.co.uk/news/croatian-round-house-symbolises-shared-tradition-in-peak-district-2336278

St Joseph's Shrine Goyt valley

The Shrine is situated in the landscape to the rear of the former Errwood Hall. The hall itself was built by wealthy Manchester businessman Samuel Grimshawe in the 1830's. But it was demolished in 1934 when the Stockport Corporation purchased the estate to build reservoirs which required the partial flooding of the Goyt Valley.

"Those who make the trek up the steep winding track do not go unrewarded, for the Shrine is glimpsed quite suddenly, hiding almost secretly among a few weather worn pine trees."

In peaceful seclusion, St. Joseph's Shine is a small round stone building with a conical stone roof and a strong oak door. When the oak door is opened, directly in view is the small altar with St. Joseph pictured holding Jesus as a baby.

The coloured glazed tiles, of Spanish origin, were set in a wooden frame before being assembled in the Shrine. Just above the picture of St. Joseph is a small marble slab with the inscription, in Spanish, translated as "No one asks in vain of St. Joseph, a token of gratitude" 

The initials D de Y, are those of Dolores, with the date 1889. Sister Dolores was Spanish and came to Errwood soon after the death of Samuel Grimshawe in 1883 as companion to his widow, Jessie. She set up the first school at the Hall and taught needlework and other subjects to  estate children.

Sister Dolores
Credit: https://www.goyt-valley.org.uk/

Brown knoll stone igloo

Very little is written about the history of this structure. At various times it has been in a ruinous state, but subsequently reconstructed by skillful hands. I have shared the experience of sitting inside, serving hot drinks and tasty treats, with guests on my Winter Wonders Guided Walk. The annual pre-Christmas date is perfect for folks to get away from the all the commercialism and enjoy a relaxed pace, entertaining, mini-adventure. 

Dates to join Stu on the Ranger Expeditions Winter Wonders Walk.
Sat 13th December 2025
Sat 12th December 2026
https://rangerexped.co.uk/kinder-scout-winter-wonders/

Beyond the Peak District

In the archaeology of the British Isles, perhaps the most well known and certainly iconic example of corbelled roofing is the Maeshowe chambered cairn passage tomb on Orkney. I visited Maeshowe many years ago as part of a film making project, experiencing the numerous tombs and settlement remains of the Neolithic and early bronze age, discussing the motivations and cosmology of our ancestors.

Maeshowe is only accessible as a guided visit and photography inside is strictly curtailed. The cairn mound is large and imposing on the landscape, 24 metres in diameter and rising to 7.3 metres. It is estimated that it took up to 100,000 man hours to construct. Once at the entrance, you have to stoop or crawl along the 1 metre high passage for 11 metres. Was this intended as an act of reverence? What we do know is the passage was specifically constructed aligned to that sunlight illuminates the wall of the rear chamber at the Winter Solstice. 

The central chamber is tall enough to stand up in. It is constructed from slabs of local flagstone with huge buttresses in each corner. At about 1 metre above the floor, overlapping stonework begins, creating the distinctive bee hive vaulted ceiling of a corbelled roof. The Maeshowe architecture certainly created an atmosphere of theatre in which to frame the ritual performances of the Neolithic.

The exterior of Maeshowe (filming is not allowed inside) is featured in my self made film Neolithic Orkney Part 2 at 4min 59sec.

The Penmon Dovecote

Dovecotes seldom come more impressive than this. Built around 1600, it's huge domed roof provided cover for 1000 nest slots in the walls underneath. The pigeons and doves were an important source of meat and eggs in these times.

Inside the vaulted dome is a stone pillar some 12ft high, which would have supported a revolving ladder used to reach the nests lining the walls.

Stu Westfield
Ranger Expeditions - Guided Walks & Adventures
https://rangerexped.co.uk/

#089 Reimagining The Kinder Scout Ritual Landscape of Prehistory.

High on the slopes of Kinder Scout, Mermaids Pool derives its name from a fishy legend passed down through the generations. With slightly dubious variations on the ending: If you happen to see the Mermaid on Easter eve, she will either drag you into a watery grave, or bless you with eternal youth. Depending upon her mood.

We delve deeper into these tales on my annual Mermaids Pool Legends and Scandi Brunch guided walk, for which I schedule a join-a-group date around Eastertime each year. (And is also available on request as bespoke private guiding for individuals, families, groups of friends and corporate experience teams).

https://rangerexped.co.uk/kinder-scout-brunch/

Mermaids Pool is also said to be a holy well or sacred spring of pre-Christian ritual. 

We know from archaeological evidence discovered across the British Isles that Bronze Age (circa 2500 BCE to 800 BCE) ritual was intertwined with water and liminal places. This continued into the Iron Age (circa 800 BCE to 100 CE) where Bronze Age type ritual prevailed with reverence for the same places. Through ritual, People retained a sense of stability and continuity in a society that was changing and population increasing.

“Essentially Bronze Age rites were celebrated, but using Iron Age artefacts” – Francis Pryor

Among the votive offerings rediscovered through archaeological digs and by metal detectorists are ornate jewelry, daggers, swords, shields, carts and artefacts of domestic function. Often unused and pristine, it appears that items which were in some way special, were intentionally put beyond use. Some were purposely broken prior to deposition. Through these acts, people showed appropriate reverence for ancestors or spiritual beings as they thought of them in their beliefs.

Ritual deposition of artefacts
Various bronze swords, systematically put beyond use - 1000 to 800 BCE
The Great Torc - Snettisham - buried around 100 BCE
Shield facing in sheet bronze - from the River Witham, nr Lincoln - 400 t0 300 BCE
Photo: S Westfield, taken at the 2022 World Of Stonehenge exhibition
Montage images not to scale

Using phenomenology and clues from the Bronze Age, we take an imaginative journey of an initiate undergoing a coming of age ceremony along the Kinder River. As much as possible, we put aside modern predispositions to recreate a metaphorical and literal rite of passage through the landscape. 

The journey starts at the bottom of the valley within the realms of daily life in the Bronze Age.

Accompanied by elders and perhaps other age-set clan members, our initiate follows the river upstream. Through woodland where deer and wild boar might have been hunted.

Processional ceremonial monuments from the Neolithic (circa 4100 BCE to 2500 BCE) are well documented in the form of cursus earthworks and henges. Perhaps their roots lie even earlier in the lives of the Mesolithic hunter gatherers. We know from the orientation of features that along with themes of exclusion and transformation, celestial alignment was of deep importance to Neolithic cosmology, which continued into the Bronze Age. As land usage changed, the ritualization changes too, as illustrated by the various phases of repositioning the megaliths at Stonehenge. 

The next phase is cold immersion in the cleansing pools as preparation for the next stage of initiation. From this point onward there is visible and physical separation from the uninitiated.

Cleansing ritual has many ethnographic parallels in religion and indigenous culture. While we should be careful of drawing unsubstantiated inferences, which may never be provable, the essence of cleansing and transformation seems an innate aspect of the human condition. There are many examples: Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan, Wudu washing before prayers in Islam, washing of feet in ancient customs symbolizing hospitality and humility, and of course the ubiquitous washing of hands before a meal. There is a practical element to these acts, but to separate the practical from the spiritual is to miss half the context.

In 2025 Bruce Parry returned with a new series of Tribe. He visits the Waimaha people of the Amazon, to learn more about their spiritual beliefs and forest rituals. But before he can participate he must prepare with a several rounds of what has to be deeply uncomfortable purgative cleansing.  

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/mar/30/tribe-with-bruce-parry-review-he-loses-his-mind-on-drugs-and-it-doesnt-disappoint

Our initiate approaches the next phase with some trepidation. A trial by endurance to prove strength and worthiness. To stand under the pounding cascade of the waterfall. Not to flinch from the frigid flow until the shaman is given a sign by the ancestors that the initiate has undergone the required metamorphosis. 

The waterfall is a large natural feature which can be seen at a distance for many miles around. But as one walks upstream, it is mostly hidden from view until close up. It is approached from the shady northern facing side of the valley. It is a foreboding place. The cliff faces either side, narrowing, amplifying the noise of the water and adding to the sense of enclosure. A southwesterly wind blows up the valley, causing the water to curl back upwards, before falling again. A mist of cold spray saturates the initiates before they reach the cascade.  Those which pass the test, proceed to the warm sunlit southern face and on to Mermaids Pool.

In the whole of the British Isles, the population during the Neolithic is estimated at just 100,000. Which rose to 250,000 in the early Bronze age. So, no doubt, these structures had a practical use in bringing bands of people together for intermingling of genes, the rekindling of bonds and bartering items. As well as certain rites of passage. But the separation of the practical and ritual, domestic and worship, are projections of our own modern lifestyles. In prehistory, these aspects of life would have been interwoven, even indistinguishable. To isolate and separate them may have been unintelligible to the minds of people in the Neolithic, Bronze and early Iron Age. 

Evidence of shamanism in the Mesolithic?
A woman buried with a ornate headdress, 
laid upright in a crouched position and covered in red ochre.
She was 25-35 years old and accompanied by a baby of 4-6 months.
Photo: S Westfield, taken at the 2022 World Of Stonehenge exhibition.

Physical separation is a common theme in rituals associated with rites of passage. Within the Masai of East Africa, age-set groups embark on a symbolic journey - a temporary relocation to a designated manyatta built specifically for the occasion. This separation from their families represents the start of social detachment from childhood, preparing them for new responsibilities. The ritual process reinforces intergenerational knowledge transfer and collective memory, sustaining Masai identity.

https://masaimarapark.com/enkipaata-ceremony/

Acts of separation, enlightenment and transformation prevail in today's society. Just look at the tradition of young people leaving home to study at college and university, passing tests, then returning to join the echelon of the workers. In contemporary story telling the monomyth, encompassing the same themes, is the framework for so many best selling works of literature (see Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist) and iconic cinema (Saving Private Ryan, Shawshank Redemption, Life of Pi).

The shaman raises his stave. The initiate has passed the test. Although nearly paralysed with cold, he keeps his posture upright and face set with appropriate solemnity as he moves around to the sunlit side of the valley. The procession then continues to Mermaids pool.

When viewed from water level of Mermaid’s pool, there is a sense of the infinite. The water reflects and merges with the sky. It also faces westward. When the weather is favourable, the sun casts burnt orange hues across the plains and toward the sea. Where the mountains of Snowdonia are silhouetted. 

It is here that our initiate gives thanks to the ancestors and places a votive offering into the pool.

So the association of Mermaids Pool with a place of ancient ritual is not without reasonable foundation. But our journey does not necessarily end here. We can further explore themes of separation, exclusion and restriction through ascent. In winter and poor conditions, the top of Kinder plateau is a forbidding place. It would have been no easier an environment to traverse in the Bronze age than it is now. 

Our ancestors may have looked upon the plateau as a forbidden place. It’s watery bogs the realm of those who had passed into the spirit world. Where only those with the proper induction, knowledge and blessing from ethereal souls were allowed to venture. 

Our initiate has distinguished himself among his peers and the elders. He is selected to accompany the shaman on what will be the first of many instructive treks onto the plateau. The shaman first shows him the correct veneration at the great guardian rocks for safe passage through to the realm beyond. And then he is led to the source of the river. A place from where all the energy of the ancestors is reborn and flows to nurture the clan.

This fits a practical purpose of not becoming lost in the maze of cloughs and channels. But the bogs might be the imagined, or maybe literal, resting place of ancestor spirits. Closer to the sky and therefore worthy of reverence and respect. Again, the practical and ritual aspects of cosmology inseparable to how the landscape was seen and understood.

There have been no finds of Bronze-Iron age bog bodies on Kinder. Such as Lindow Man, just a few miles away on the Cheshire Plain, unearthed in 1984 by peat cutting. Having been ritually sacrificed and deposited in the bog sometime between 2 BCE and 119 CE. But a physical presence of the deceased on Kinder may have not have been as important as the belief of their residing in this ultimate boundary layer between earth and sky.

“I cannot believe these concepts arose fully formed and fresh…Certain places have roots that go back a very long way, but the ideas, stories, myths and legends that make these places so special may have origins that can ultimately be traced back…thousands of years”.  – Francis Pryor

You too can experience this wonderful journey, taking in the panoramic scenery from unique viewpoints. Trekking the river Kinder from its confluence with the Sett to its source. All in one very special day, guided with myself...

River Kinder Trek To The Source
https://rangerexped.co.uk/kinder-river-sett-to-source/

Stu Westfield
Ranger Expeditions & Ranger Ultras Trail Running

****
If you liked this topic, I invite you to browse my other blog postings.
With a wide variety of stories and features including: Nature, conservation, history, culture, culinary treats, expeditions, trail running and guided adventures. 

To join in my guided walks...
https://rangerexped.co.uk/

If you like your outdoors a little more fast paced...
https://rangerultras.co.uk/