Tournerbury Woods

Tournerbury is a big enigma: there is almost no information out there about this very eerie woods - other than it was probably a Celtic site, classified as a hill fort despite being at sea level on the still rural and undeveloped eastern shore of Hayling Island. 

It’s now heavily wooded, but you can clearly see the deep moat surrounding the near circular site of 8 1/2 acres. Some records refer to an ancient burial ground outside the 'bury' (old English for Fort). But it is the legends of witches and strange appearances within these woods that make them so special.

Excavations have uncovered a 'crinoid stem' that was an old folklore charm against witchcraft. There are many pieces of lore connected with the Bury Ring, if you walk (or run) seven times (sometimes running backwards or anti-clockwise) around it on a dark or moonless night (one account says Midsummer at sunset, another May Day Eve, another at midnight, during the time it takes a clock to strike midnight) without stopping, the Devil will appear and offer you a bowl of milk, soup or porridge (reports vary). Some say that if you accept, he will take your soul, or grant you your dearest wish. Some Folklorists claim this is folk memory of dancing around the Ring, though as walking around something seems to be a Celtic tradition, it's seems probable that it has survived the Saxons, Normans and the Reformation to the present day.

A previous group who stayed over night in the Bury experienced the sensation of being continually watched as they camped within the Bury. The sounds of someone moving round the outside of the ring made the group leave the camp. They pursued the noise until it disappeared at the site of the burial ground.

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