These files have been tested on both the stable (v3) PC and beta (v4) Mac versions of Google Earth on both Mac and PC. However, if you encounter any problems—or have suggestions for ways in which it could be improved—please post them in our forum. His voice was rich, velvety and ever so slightly posh; Cope was unlike anyone I had ever seen or heard before. In the grim meat-and-potatoes land of late-90s fashion, he looked like he had landed from outer space. And not in a contrived way either, though truth be told he did look like a bit of a berk. What he said that night connected with me on a superficial level. Why would we travel halfway around the world to visit the Nazca Lines or Chichén Itzá, when there were equal treasures on our doorstep, he asked. Easy for you to say that, I thought to myself, when I could barely afford the bus fare into town that night, never mind a trip to the Isle of Lewis to look at some old stones. However, my interest was piqued, as I had recently devoured a copy of Head-On and thought perhaps there was something of interest in what the Arch Drude had to say. According to Cope, Avebury, in the Marlborough Downs, was as culturally significant as The Stooges, which gave me cause to investigate his claims further, and even now, 22 years later, I am still chipping away at this idea.

Ah me, what Stukeley started! For this Lincolnshire rector was the most successful antiquary of the mid-1700s. His books – grandly illustrated publications every one – were lapped up by the population. To watch the migration of Stukeley’s thoughts from 1723’s overly Romanised Itinerarium Curiosum – via Stonehenge and Abury – to his posthumous (and entirely megalithically revisioned) Itinerarium of 1776 is to view at first-hand the manner in which the Celts have seduced the romantic imagination. Julian Cope at Silbury Hill, Wiltshire by Cat Stevens. All other photographs courtesy of Adelle Stripe within that transformed the assumed banality of the English landscape into something magical and eternally compelling. Cope’s Notes 5 explains the precise impulses that sent the Archdrude off life’s urban highways into the nether regions of Ye Olde UK, and how he extricated himself from the Music Biz long enough to bring forth this monster tome.

The Painted Youths of Cothiemuir Wood Bring Gifts and a Special Feast to the Builders of their New Stone Circle My all-time favourite prehistoric artefact’: the silver Gundestrup cauldron, uncovered in 1891 in Denmark. Photograph: British Museum This book shines a powerful light onto the past of a nation hoodwinked into believing that its history began with the Roman conquest. Cope’s deft prose examines our prehistoric beginnings through the evidence of megalithic remains and their surroundings, allowing us for the first time to reconcile the tapestry of our past with modern life.

Here at the museum is the greatest Celtic find of all: the legendary Gundestrup cauldron. It’s my all-time favourite prehistoric artefact: huge, silver, magnificent. Wonderful castings of Norse gods, men, animals and mythological beasts festoon its sides, while a recumbent bull guards its basin. The cauldron is striking for its characters and stories (most Celtic art is non-figurative) but I long ago decided it was pointless trying to itemise these snake-gripping figures, as the Celts had so many local pantheons. Unzip this archive and open the 'TheModernAntiquarian-20231125.kml' file with the Google Earth application. Climbing aboard the 1781 bandwagon created by Iolo Morganwg’s brand new Society of the Ancient Druids, towns across Britain revived or even invented their own Celtic-styled festivals, my personal favourite being the “ancient” Cornish street theatre of Padstow’s Obby Oss, first recorded in 1803. An ornate silver, gold and amber brooch found in Hunterston, Scotland, from 700-800AD. Photograph: National Museums Scotland This, another of Wales' 'White Cairns', is almost completely subsumed within seemingly impenetrable forestry covering a minor hilltop to the west of Pumlumon. So much so that The Citizen Cairn admits to having a pretty hard time locating it, despite the monument apparently being some 50ft across. However, all's well that ends well, as they say. If not exactly 'all-white'.To be fair, owners of the 1:25k map will note that three of the linear alignment of monuments are named... so perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised, but there you are. This, the 'Yellow Cairn' crowning 1,070ft Pen-crug-melyn at the eastern extremity, is pleasingly bathed in an orangey/yellow(ish) glow as the sun briefly reasserts its dominance following a couple of hours of intense downpour. So, needless to say, the locals know where they're at. As usual.