Wandlebury-Hatfield Loxodrome

The Wandlebury-Hatfield Loxodrome, Wandlebury Enigma, Wandlebury-Hatfield Heath Astronomical Complex, Line A Loxodrome or Cam Valley Loxodrome is a series of stone monolith markers placed 1,430 metres apart between the Earthworks at Wandlebury and Portingbury Warren Circle at Hatfield Broad Oak, in Hatfield Forest. 11 of the original 26 markers are still in place, with several of the other distinctive stones lying nearby with local records showing at least one moved due to it impediment of modern agriculture.
The line forms a perfect Loxodrome, so that wherever you stand on the line between Wandlebury and Hatfield Broad Oak, the North Star is always at the same oblique angle. This implies it's builders had knowledge that The Earth was round and also of it's approximate circumference. It was theorised to have been created in the Bronze Age by retired geologist Christian O'Brien in 1975, and was notable in the field of Archaeoastronomy due to some brief coverage in the major press.
O'Brien was following up a theory put forward by Alfred Watkins that the Wandlebury bank had astronomical purposes. From the exact centre, dents point to the North Star, the midsummer sunrise, the lunar summer maximum, etc. By factoring in the Earth's drift, he suggested the date of it's construction to around 2,500 BC. Despite the calculated probabilities in the order of many millions to one against so many alignments and markers being in the right place by pure chance, it met with mixed reveiws from Astronomers and Archaeologists.
Archaeologists, such as Professor Glyn Daniel of Cambridge University dismissed the paper as "nonsense" and could find nothing in the paper to revise the documented view of Wandlebury primarily as an Iron Age Hill Fort.
Astronomers, such as Professor Archie Roy of Glasgow University have expressed awe, admitting "in the absence of a more convincing explanation, this conclusion also has to be taken very seriously.”
Papers
* O'Brien, C.A.E., 1975, The Wandlebury-Hatfield Heath Astronomical Complex, Thaxted.

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