Corfe Castle in Dorset, the inspiration for Enid Blyton’s Kirrin Castle. Photograph: Henk Meijer/Alamy
Corfe Castle in Dorset, the inspiration for Enid Blyton’s Kirrin Castle. Photograph: Henk Meijer/Alamy
From Boswell and Johnson bickering in Scotland to the coast that inspired Enid Blyton’s Famous Five
PeterFiennes
Mon 14 Jun 2021 02.00 EDT
Enid Blyton, Isle of Purbeck, Dorset
Enid Blyton took her holidays on the Isle of Purbeck (not in fact an island, but a chunky peninsula, with cliff-top walks, moors, hidden coves, a steam train, ruined castle and a lingering air of adventure
). She came up with the idea for The Famous Five when staying at the Ship Inn in Swanage in 1942, so that’s as good a place as any to set off for a bracing walk in the company of the hyperactive Enid.
The usually quiet sands were deluged by paranormal-seekers, and the National Trust was forced to dispatch rangers to the beach, which they own, to prevent overcrowding. Since then, monoliths have been found on Dartmoor and atop Glastonbury Tor, and, last weekend, at the centre of Merry Maidens stone circle, Cornwall.
AP/STUFF
Monoliths could fill the gap in the public imagination left by crop circles. In Utah, authorities did not reveal the pillar s location because they did not want to tempt amateurs on a dangerous desert hike - but internet sleuths found it anyway, with the help of Google Earth s geolocation tool.
The unexplained, shimmering monolith discovered last month in the red-rock desert, southeastern Utah
Credit: Terrance Siemon / AP
It is a fittingly wacky end to a truly bizarre year. Last month, in the rocky wilderness of the American Southwest, the birthplace of so many myths and cowboy legends, biologists surveying sheep in Utah’s Red Rock Country spotted a shiny object from a helicopter. Upon inspection, they discovered a shimmering, three-sided metal monolith, about 12ft high, in the middle of the desert. Images from Google Earth suggest it was placed there some time between 2015 and 2016.
Soon, copycat structures began sprouting up everywhere – at least 18 across Europe, the US and Australia, at the latest count. The trend reached Britain on December 6, when dog walkers on Compton Beach, on the Isle of Wight, happened across a mysterious reflective structure standing on a wooden plinth.
Augmented Reality Monolith At Ancient English Site Confuses UK Press
As the global fad continues, low-grade reflective monoliths have been discovered in the UK at Dartmoor, the Isle of Wight and Glastonbury Tor. The latest report grabbed by the tabloids is that Britain’s fourth monolith has been found at the Merry Maidens stone circle in Cornwall. However, unlike some coverage suggests, this monolith doesn’t and never did exist. Not physically anyway.
The error reported in some UK tabloids seems to have been prompted by a report by Cornwall Live , of a trial ‘augmented reality’ (AR) version of the monolith that has just been made available by scanning a QR code left at the center of the ancient site.
UK s fourth monolith appears at Cornish stone circle in spate of Brit sightings dailystar.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailystar.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.