Dogsthorpe Star Pit — Attraction in Eye

#wildlifebcn.org № 5. DOGSTHORPE STAR PIT.

Bottomless hole in which to throw unwanted reality TV contestants? No... sadly not. The truth is that that this is an old brick pit that lost some bricks, found some water, got all reserve-y of nature but then took a backwards step and became too inaccessible. Great for the nature, probably, not so much for people seeing it.

So, we entered from the White Post Road entrance, parking is barely existent if you drive here. The entrance has the usual propaganda promising an encounter with a sabre-toothed tiger and dodos with a little map.

The site is quite large, the 'pit part' is big, reedy and filled with water, is likely dangerous and deep and that might explain why all the paths that seemly once led down to it are barricaded with thorns. From above on Google Maps there looks like a star shaped pit that we couldn't get close to. There are good views over the site from the designated pathway (Pictured), but the designated pathway is a fraction of the area. We bombed round the entire thing twice in 20 minutes. Round of applause to the reviewer who made an entire day out of the place.

There are slight remnants of the previous industry here (Pictured), a half-buried wheel and small cart on a section of track (I'm calling it a railway to justify my 5 Star rating to myself!) The paths were... bricky.

As for the Wildlife... H.E. found a sizeable but friendly rat in the slightly wooded area and there were some ducks in the distance in the pits... do the horses in the adjacent field by the entrance count? They didn't seem too wild. Really, it's lucky we attended during the site's world renown Bikini Pinging Contest or else we might have been a little disappointed. Congratulations again to the Canadian Team, a deserved victory.

Summary:

Loved every minute. Bricky, pit-ty, dog sh**y. Pretty sure Nigel hasn't been here yet. Extensive railway infrastructure on site, oh everybody loves a train!

JB & HE...

I don’t know about this one there really isn’t any parking it’s a little dangerous if you’re cars nice or if you’re not great at parking or driving or reversing!

The whole thing we walked in like 20 minutes that’s going round twice and not very fast! You can’t actually get down to see anything properly because the water is too deep so you’re kind of restricted and kept out like Sleeping Beauty?! However we did see: ducks, horses, a train, a wheel half in the ground and a huge and I mean HUGE rat!! It was nice and we had KFC after so that was good too!

JB&HE...

Great place, been going for years on and off and sitting down for hours there, but a shame half the time you get prats on high powered motorbikes zooming up and down that old abandoned road, and recently nearly got knocked over by some kid on a scooter who didn't even bat an eye lid. The place needs...