The ancient British hillside giant with a ‘real masculine vibe’ is getting a makeover

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As It Happens6:39Volunteers restore giant naked hillside figure to his former glory

The people of Cerne Abbas are very fond of the fully naked, well-endowed, club-wielding giant who has loomed menacingly over their British village for centuries.

But a series of warm, wet winters means the 55-metre chalk figure, carved into the Dorset hillside, has become overgrown with grass, and his usually crisp white lines are covered with algae.

So more than 100 volunteers with the U.K.’s National Trust are working diligently on a steep hill in the brutal summer heat to restore the Cerne Abbas Giant to his former glory.

“It’s really hard to describe how backbreaking the work is,” Liz Flight, the National Trust’s senior visitor experience officer, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. “He is much loved.”

Mysterious origins

The giant is one of several hill figures found across the U.K., most of which date back many centuries.

Also known also as “The Old Man” and “The Rude Man,” he was once believed to hail from ancient Roman times. But a 2001 National Trust analysis revealed he’s a bit younger than that, originating in the late Saxon period, between around 700 and 1100AD.

People walk around a hillside, some working on the ground and others carrying large bags of white chalk on their shoulders — Liz Flight of the U.K.’s National Trust says it takes ‘backbreaking’ work to keep the Cerne Giant looking fresh. (Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)

“Who he’s depicting, why he was ultimately there and what his story is, we don’t really know,” Flight said.

“Some people think that he might have been created in the image of Hercules because Hercules is a very masculine figure and our Cerne Giant has a real masculine vibe going on about him.”

High maintenance

The National Trust works to keep the country’s hill figures preserved, and Flight says they usually touch up the Cerne Giant every 10 years.

“We can’t be going onto the giant all the time to re-chalk him because it damages the landscape, and also there’s a lot of archaeology underneath him,” Flight said. “So we’ve got to be very mindful of this balance between protecting the archaeology, the conservation, but also the cultural heritage of the giant.”

A large white figure of a naked, axe-wielding man carved onto a scenic green hillside overlooking a village — The hill figure has loomed over the village of Cerne Abbas for centuries. (Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)

This is his fourth re-chaulking. The last one took place in 2019, so this year’s is well ahead of schedule.

For that, Flight says, you can blame the weather. Several warmer-than-usual winters have created perfect conditions for grass and algae to give the drawing a faded appearance.

So volunteers are pulling out grass, clearing out the nasty old chalk, and filling it up with fresh white rocks. The work began last week and will continue this until it’s done, which, again, depends on the weather.

“The heat has meant that we’ve had to cut the afternoons shorter, so we’ve lost a bit of time,” Flight said. “But people have been working really hard. It’s been incredible.”

This is Flight’s second time working on the giant. While it’s exhausting to lug bags of chalk up and down the hill, she says it’s worth it.

“He is standing proud on the hillside with us,” she said.