Gnomesteads Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

GnomeGames: The gnomes are now hibernating for winter
Picked up container remnants and now archiving
Thanks to all who solved this and found the cache

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Hidden : 5/24/2017
Difficulty:
3.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

“Gnomesteads”

For many years man has been baffled by some marks on the ground in the Wirral countryside. They could tell they were not natural, but did not understand what they were, and who (or what) made them. It was only in recent years whilst talking to the Elders of the Wirral Gnomes that man learnt they were the location of the Wirral Gnomes homestead, or what they called a “Gnomestead”.

The location of the Wirral Gnomestead

Each Gnome community had a gnomestead to protect it’s members from wild animals like bears, wide boar, wolves and foxes. They were similar to man’s castles, but made of vertical timbers sharpened to points. As much timber was beneath ground level as above it so that they could not be uprooted or pushed over by large animals.

The size of the gnomestead was determined by the size of the community. The more members, the larger the safe village area needed. This was always circular. Around this was an outer triangular structure with three equal sides. Unlike man’s square castles, a triangular structure was thought to be stronger, needed fewer walls to be made, and importantly only needed three lookouts, one at each corner, probably stood on raised platforms so they could survey the surrounding land.

Mans 4-sided castle

Circular village area within a Gnomestead

The weakest point in the three outer walls of a gnomestead was in the middle, but these points were reinforced as the circular village wall touched the outer wall at these points, thus giving double strength. Building these structures was achieved by twisting vines together to make ropes. One rope would be pegged and then the circular village wall marked around it using the rope like a primitive compass. The outer walls were easy as these were straight lines, and once the vine/rope length was known, all three walls were easily marked out.

Plan of a Gnomestead

With this gained knowledge, archaeologists have now found the location of a similar structure in Cheshire, the Gnomestead of the Cheshire Gnomes. It is far smaller than that on the Wirral indicating a much smaller community. This is in the Delamere/Oakmere area, but it’s exact location is not being revealed whilst archaeologists are doing further investigations.

The Gnomestead geocache is hidden at N 53° 12.NNN W 002° 36.WWW, which is not far from the (secret) location of the remains of the Cheshire Gnomestead.

NNN is the lengths of each of the three outer walls (in metres) of the Wirral Gnomestead, knowing that the village area was 1891.5 square metres
WWW is the village area of the Cheshire Gnomestead (in square metres) knowing that the three outer walls were each 51.89 metres long

In these calculations, if either value is less than 100, just add leading zeros e.g. 7 would be 007 and 23 would be 023.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Tabzrfgrnqf unir Fgvyr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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