Source: Bored Panda
One agnostic went on a journey that tested his beliefs. Or the lack of them. Recently, Gawan Mac Greigair has bought an Ordnance Survey (national mapping agency in the United Kingdom) hiking map, and found a place of worship symbol in the “middle of bloody nowhere.” “It’s 4cm to 1 mile, so it’s the right scale to be able to include symbols for intriguing things in the landscape, including historic monuments, ancient earthworks, places of worship and so on,” Gawan told Bored Panda. Wondering what that particular one actually was, he decided to see for himself.
“I happened to have a free afternoon on that day, and there was heavy fog blanketing the top of the North Downs all day,” he said. “I couldn’t resist the chance of an otherworldly walk in mist.”
“The North Downs is a range of chalk hills in Kent (which give the White Cliffs of Dover their whiteness) – it’s classed as ‘Ancient Countryside’, and it is full of secretive nooks and crannies, and has a long history. I had seen this symbol on the map before and it had intrigued me because it seemed unusual that a place of worship would be located quite far from any village and that it would be right on the edge of a woodland.
”Gawan doesn’t consider himself a believer in heaven. The man, however, still appreciates places where other forms of reality become tangible, where past and present interlace. “This place is certainly one, helped by the apparent merging of this ancient human structure with the woodland crowding close.”
“The most memorable part was the moment when – after thinking I had lost my way in the wood – I was approaching where the symbol on the map seemed to suggest the place of worship ought to be. I was straining to find it through the mist, which was difficult given that I didn’t know whether to look for a ruin, a pile of stones or an actual church. I think I gasped at the moment when I realized I was looking straight at it.” Scroll down to join Gawan on his unforgettable journey and follow in his footsteps!
“I’m always moved by old woodbanks, knowing that they’ve acted as boundaries for centuries, and this wood was bounded by one, topped…
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