Watership Down locations

[sholio]

To go along with the Watership Down reread - feel free to add your thoughts here! - I went looking for a website I found ages and ages ago, with photos of the real-life locations. I didn't think it would still be online and it's not (this was like 1999 or something; I was young enough to be shocked and amazed because I didn't know the places in the book were real - it was like seeing photos of Middle Earth).

But I did find a site with closeup maps with locations marked and a walking tour of Watership Down and its environs with some photos.

I wish I could find something analogous to the original page, because it was really comprehensive and lovely, with pictures of the power pylons and the river and other places, not just the downs, which is all that seems to be online now.

Anyway, hopefully this will be nice for some visuals for the reread, and if you know of any other good sites like that, please chime in!

Edit: Found on the Wayback Machine by ratcreature! Some of the images don't load, but enough of them do to get a pretty good feel for a lot of the places in the book. I highly recommend checking it out.

Comments

[rachelmanija]

I remember that site! Maybe it's on Wayback.

[sholio]

I thought of that, but I don't remember enough about the site to look it up! Do you know if you can just search Wayback google-style?

Edit: Also, it's really cool that you remember it too! Finding it was so mindblowingly cool for me.

[rachelmanija]

I'm not sure. I was hoping to find a broken link I could feed in, but I don't remember what it's called.

This go-round I've been looking up a bunch of the specific plants that get referenced.

Woundwort

Cowslip

The primroses were over.

[sholio]

Oh, neat! I hadn't realized Woundwort was a plant, although of course it would be; I think I just never really thought about it in that much depth. Also, it looks like an appropriate plant for him.

I was amused by Toadflax being used for a random throwaway bully rabbit that no one likes. You were doomed from the start with a name like that, Toadflax.

[sholio]

Found on the Wayback Machine by ratcreature! (See below.)

[ratcreature]

Was it this site?
https://web.archive.org/web/20010602104126/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~talami/watershp/index.htm

I haven't visited it back then, but clicked through a couple of links of archived Watership Down websites from around 2000.

[sholio]

Yes, that's it!! Excellent sleuthing! Sadly it looks like not all of the images load, but most of the ones I've looked at so far do. This is great; thank you so much!

[ratcreature]

You're welcome, I'm glad I could help. It didn't take long to find.

Maybe the missing images are available in other archived snapshots from later dates?

[sholio]

Maybe! It's few enough that I'm not too bothered by a few missing ones, but I can try that if there's one I really want to see. Thank you for the suggestion - and thanks again for finding it! What a fun trip down memory lane.

[rachelmanija]

Ahhh! That's it!!!

[sovay]

Edit: Found on the Wayback Machine by ratcreature!

"There have been: Hrair visitors to this page."

[sholio]

Oh, I hadn't even noticed that! How clever and fun.

[sovay]

How clever and fun.

I was charmed!

(I am not participating in the re-read because my copy is in storage, but I am enjoying everyone talking about the book and may contribute opinions backed up by memory if that's not missing the point.)

[sholio]

(I am not participating in the re-read because my copy is in storage, but I am enjoying everyone talking about the book and may contribute opinions backed up by memory if that's not missing the point.)

Please do! Commenting from memory is fine and very welcome.

[rachelmanija]

Yes, please do!

[anna_wing]

I had no idea it was a real place, thank you for this post!

I knew someone in Chile who had a rabbit called General Woundwort. They originally bought him to eat - he was one of those giant rabbits bred for meat -, but found him too intimidating to kill. So they made him their watchrabbit, and he had his special high-security cage on their verandah (he chewed his way out of regular hutches), which he would rattle noisily whenever anyone came into the compound. Died of old age, intransigent to the end...

[krait]

Awww, how sweet!

Years ago the shelter I work at took in 20 rabbits from a hoarding case, and one was a big black rabbit with a chunk missing from his right ear. Of course I called him Blackavar! :D

[sholio]

Ha, that's perfect!

[rachelmanija]

But of course!

[sholio]

Sure, I'm glad to help! It was also a surprise to me! And that is really cool to know about the real-life Woundwort rabbit. :D

[rachelmanija]

How perfectly in-character.

[winter_elf]

English countryside is just sooooo beautiful and lovely and wow. (I live in a desert - dirt/cactus)

Which brings up a funny thing which happened when me and a friend did a bus tour after graduating college back in the 1988. We'd never been out the country, so definitely didn't know how to get around, so paid for the whole bus/planned route and all. It was nice - though mostly of our tour group was old folks - luckily, pretty spry ones, with a few younger/parents age.

But - we had a stop at Dartmoor. Utterly lovely, ponies, hedges, mist, rolling hills, and the guide was going on about how "Desolate" and open and 'could get lost and not see another house'.... and we looked around - house there - ponies there, sheep there, sheep dog there, another house in the distance, road. We laughed soooooooo hard. This is "Desolate" - that the next house in just in sight and there is lots of wildlife???

but yea. Those photos are like some I took at Dartmoor - that English countryside is just so awesome. And now that I've been to England twice - I do need to re-read Watership down because I can visualize it now.

[sholio]

That sounds like a great experience, and also, LOLOLOL. Desolate is very much in the eye of the beholder!