Wayland Smithy

Four great sarsen stones guard the entrance to the passage and chambers with dry stone walling topped by a capstone.

Wayland was a smith of scandinavian mythology who had supernatural powers. It is said that he would re-shoe a horse that had lost a shoe if it was left overnight at his barrow, with a coin left at the stones for payment.

Legend claims that the White Horse of Uffington comes to be reshod by Wayland in his smithy once every hundred years. The surrounding chalk downland of southern England offers ideal conditions for the creation of such hill figures