The bridge is described as “the place the satan would sunbathe”.
Tarr Steps is believed to have been inbuilt 1000 BC (Picture: -)
Deep within the countryside of Exmoor Nationwide Park lies what is usually described because the UK’s oldest bridge, a exceptional crossing constructed from monumental stone slabs greater than three millennia in the past. The construction, often called Tarr Steps, spans the River Barle in Somerset and is without doubt one of the best-known examples of a “clapper bridge” – a easy design made by putting flat stone slabs on high of stacks of rocks with out mortar.
Some historians consider the bridge may date again so far as 1000 BC, which means it might be round 3,000 years previous, though the precise date of its building stays unsure. The bridge stretches for about 55 metres (180ft) and consists of 17 spans, with the slabs resting on teams of vertical stones set into the riverbed. Every of the massive slabs can weigh as much as two tonnes, making the construction each easy and surprisingly sturdy.
The steps are actually a preferred vacationer attraction (Picture: Western Each day press)
Typically known as “the place the satan would sunbathe”, fantasy dictates that Devil himself constructed the bridge and nonetheless holds sunbathing rights to its stones.
One native legend claims the Satan supposedly used the stones as a spot to sunbathe earlier than being chased away by a neighborhood clergyman.
Regardless of its historic design, Tarr Steps has survived for hundreds of years and stays one of many largest clapper bridges in Britain.
Consultants say the bridge’s origins are nonetheless debated. Whereas some theories counsel it might date again to the Bronze Age, official heritage listings classify the present construction as medieval, which means elements of the crossing might have been rebuilt over time.
Over the centuries the bridge has repeatedly been broken by highly effective floods on the River Barle, with a number of of the massive slabs swept downstream during times of heavy rainfall.
The steps are mentioned to have been a spot for the Satan to sunbathe (Picture: Getty)
Regardless of this, the construction has at all times been restored utilizing the identical conventional design, with the stones rigorously lifted again into place.
Main repairs have taken place quite a lot of occasions in latest a long time after winter storms brought about elements of the crossing to break down.
Tarr Steps is now probably the most fashionable historic websites in Exmoor Nationwide Park, attracting walkers, cyclists and vacationers exploring the wooded Barle Valley.
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The encircling space kinds a part of the Tarr Steps Nationwide Nature Reserve, identified for its historic oak woodland and wildlife.
Guests can nonetheless stroll straight throughout the stone slabs in the present day, a lot as travellers and merchants are believed to have finished for hundreds of years.
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