Easter Ramisis Hunt in the UK

[Lodgecrest]

I think I'm going round in circles with Goole!!!

I think we are meant to be looking for a Square

[steve]

So Steve, it is possible to identify the location from the photo without referring to Mr White?

I found the search site using only the photo in less than an hour, in fact I did not notice the Mr White reference until I re-read the forum after I had found the location and then I had to go looking for the Mr White lead.

I think we are meant to be looking for a Square

The written part of the clue only made sense when I visited the location, then it all seemed to made perfect sense.

[Batkaz]

Bank holiday w/end - spring weather- would to have a clue on this one.

[steve]

Mr White's old neighbour’s sister used to stay close to Rugby.

[cornettracing80]

Bank holiday w/end - spring weather- would to have a clue on this one.

E for effort ..cant blame a brother for trying
batkaz is gonna get one of these i know it!

[Toxophilite]

Just to save anyone a wasted journey

I FOUND IT THIS AFTERNOON:

[Dooners]

yeah, well done, I can't wait to know where this is, as it looked soo familiar - but had me beat!

[Batkaz]

Well done, beats sitting on google all day
I see the sun was shining, must be somewhere down south - been raining all day up my way.
Can't wait to read the story.

[walther]

Way to go!! That's 2 down

[steve]

Congratulations mate, I searched that hill top for 3 hours and couldn’t find it.
It wasn't in the square was it?

Please post the full story, including how you found the right place.

[Toxophilite]

Congratulations mate, I searched that hill top for 3 hours and couldn’t find it.
It wasn't in the square was it?

Please post the full story, including how you found the right place.

Thanks, when you said that you had been there I thought you meant in a virtual sense as I thought you lived in Scotland.
There was only one position where that picture could have been taken from and your back would be literally against
the wall. The square was in my opinion a rectangle but still pretty blatant. I PM'd PUZZ for approval to post the story
otherwise it will probably be at least Tuesday before I get a response from SW.

I don't think we have the same understanding of "Mr White", in my opinion it was key to finding the location. When I
saw that you had found it without this info it confused me for a while but then I realised that you may have made a cynical
assumption which paid off

[cornettracing80]

great job TOX!....

[Toxophilite]

Ade said it was OK to post the story so here it is:

The first thing I noticed was the filename of the image which contained the words "Mr White". I then did a bit of snooping inside the file and it appeared to have been taken at 3:00 pm on March 15th. The shadows of the trees point to the right which at that time of day is North East. So the view is looking North West ish. So I was looking for a steep bank or hill with a meandering river lying to the West, with that combination of country lanes and buildings and presumably something of interest on the top. My first thoughts on Mr White and a hill were the Cerne Abbas giant but I couldn't match the geography up. Then I tried the Long Man of Wilmington but again no joy. Then I thought that the name of the location might start with the first name of a famous Mr. White and I found a list of celebrities with the surname White on Wiki. It was when I was looking through these that Steve implied that Mr White would only make sense upon visiting the location so I gave up on that idea. This was a mistake as had I gone a couple of names further down the list I would have come to Rodney White the basketball player. Had I typed Rodney into streetmap.co.uk one of the few locations it brings up is Rodney's Pillar on Breidden Hill in Powys. The geography matches with the River Severn meandering to the West and checking out photographs on Flickr and Google Earth confirms beyond a doubt that it is the correct location. I'm not sure if this was the correct interpretation of Mr. White as the blatantly phallic pillar is a memorial to Admiral Rodney. I'm not sure if its true now but in his day the Royal Navy's most senior admiral was the Admiral of the Fleet and under him were three squadrons red, white and blue. The plaque on the pillar states that Rodney was Admiral of the White which may have been the correct meaning but I would never have found the location from that.

So after Steve said he had found it from the photograph alone I began looking for something more unique in the photo without any success. Then I thought maybe he assumed it was on Sonic Warp's doorstep, the early Isis hunts were in the vicinity of Runcorn (the old location) so perhaps this one was near Oswestry. I didn't have to look very far from Oswestry before I found Breidden Hill and its matching geography .

So I set off at 8:00 Saturday morning, miserable weather in Northampton but when I got to the hill it was glorious sunshine and stayed that way. I think the ascent from the car park is about 900 ft and it was a good cardio-vascular hike. These pictures show the more scenic part of the route and Rodney's Pillar in all its glory.




If you look to the left of the column base in the above photo you can see where some people are sitting. This is where the photo was taken from as there is another farm quite close to the base of the hill and all you can see in the photo is part of the roof through the trees. This means that you have to be well back from the edge and up against the base of the monument, any further forward and much more of the farm buildings would be visible in the picture. So if the coin is behind you it has to be in the brickwork on that face. This is a photo of that face:



The only thing approximating a square was the recess and I was interested by that moss filled crack (arrowed) in the 12 o'clock position. There were however two problems. Firstly that crack is much higher than it looks as the base of the column is obscured by the rocks in the foreground of my photo. Even if you climb up on the two terraces at the bottom of the column (getting you about 3 feet off the ground) you still have to reach up to it as it is well above eye level. Secondly there were a lot of people hovering around, taking in the view and taking pictures and if I was going to start clambering on a giant phallus I didn't want any spectators.

I made my first move when no one was looking by reaching up with a bent piece of wire in an attempt to flick anything out but all that came out was some fragments of moss. It was when I then stood back from the pillar that I though I could now see something shining in the slot. I set the camera on macro and had a second attempt reaching up to take a close-up of the slot. This was the picture:



So now no doubt that was the bevelled edge of the coin so I stretched up and grabbed it with two fingers, job done.

I got back to Northampton and it was pouring with rain again so Breidden Hill was definitely the best place to be that afternoon.

It really is a fantastic view from that hill, with the sky as clear as it was that day you can see the mountains of Snowdonia really clearly. I stitched some pictures into panoramas to give you an idea of what its like. It would be quite a gruelling walk if you're not into hill walking though, but well worth the effort.

These are quite big image files:

Looking towards England from Rodney's Pillar

Looking towards Wales from Rodney's Pillar

Rodney's Pillar in the context of the riddle photo

[xmarks]

Congratulations - I'd never have made it up that hill, I'm afraid of heights..maybe i should wait until there is a hunt on the flat

[Karen_G]

Great story Toxophilite and congratulations on your find

Karen