England’s Most Famous Naked Giant Will Glow White Again, Thanks to Help From Hundreds of People Performing a Ritual of Restoration

The Cerne Abbas Giant, a 180-foot-tall geoglyph in southern England, is getting a new layer of chalk

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

May 28, 2026 2:09 p.m.

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England’s iconic Cerne Abbas Giant—an enormous naked warrior carved into a hillside in Dorset—just got a facelift. Every decade or so, workers from the National Trust, a British conservation charity, replace the calcium carbonate that fills the medieval monument’s trenches. They make it so the “Rude Man” glows white against the surrounding green grass.

“Re‑chalking the Giant relies on techniques that haven’t changed for generations—carefully digging out older material and packing in fresh chalk by hand on a very steep slope,” says Luke Dawson, a lead ranger at the National Trust, in a statement. “It’s how we’ve kept him visible for centuries.”

The giant was last refurbished in early fall 2019, but only a few days after, autumn rainfall swept away much of the fresh chalk. Seven years later, the trust is carrying out its restoration work at the start of summer, instead, hoping for lasting results. Dawson cites storm erosion as one of the reasons the giant required an earlier-than-normal refurbishment, along with another climate-related phenomenon.

“We’ve noticed algae growth starting to dull the giant’s bright white outline,” Dawson tells the Guardian’s Steven Morris. “We can’t say for certain what’s driving that, but warmer, wetter conditions may be a factor. The milder winters and wetter summers make perfect growing conditions.”

The Cerne Abbas Giant is among the most famous of Britain’s geoglyphic chalk hill figures—trenches cut artfully into hillsides. Several of them are horses. The giant, stretching 180 feet tall, is unique. His simple outline is composed of a bald head, cartoonish facial features, uneven nipples and scored ribs. In his right hand is a large club, raised overhead. But the giant’s most prominent feature, which earned him the local moniker “Rude Man,” is an erect penis, extended upward to cover his belly button.

“It’s a beloved figure,” Dawson tells the Guardian. “Everyone in the village has a connection with the giant.”

For centuries, researchers have wondered who created the Cerne Abbas Giant, and when. Previous hypotheses included that the giant was prehistoric, or made during Britain’s Roman period, or was a 17th-century caricature of Oliver Cromwell. In 2021, though, National Trust researchers concluded through sediment analysis that the monument was carved between 700 C.E. and 1100 C.E.

The study’s results “flabbergasted” experts, reported the Guardian’s Mark Brown in 2021.

“This is not what was expected,” geoarchaeologist Mike Allen said to the Guardian at the time. “Many archaeologists and historians thought he was prehistoric or post-medieval, but not medieval.”

The researchers employed Optically Stimulated Luminescence to the trenches’ deepest layers to figure out when they were last exposed to sunlight. As National Trust senior archaeologist Martin Papworth said in a statement, “The archaeology on the hillside was surprisingly deep—people have been re-chalking the giant over a long period of time.”

It was likely the late Saxons, descendents of Germanic tribes that migrated to Britain in the fifth century C.E., who carved the giant, according to the trust. But the date range for its creation encompasses the tenth-century founding of nearby Cerne Abbey—a monastery that probably wouldn’t have approved of a naked giant. As Gordon Bishop, chair of the Cerne Historical Society, told the Guardian in 2021, “There’s obviously a lot of research for us to do over the next few years.” More recent research posits that Saxons carved the giant in the likeness of Hercules.

The National Trust has cared for the giant since 1920, reports BBC News’ Justin Rowlatt. This year’s re-chalking could take about two weeks. Some 300 staff members and volunteers will be handling about 19 tons of chalk. They’re mixing it with water to make a paste, then packing that paste into the trenches, hoping for longevity.

Volunteer chalker Chloe Baugh told BBC News, while working on the giant’s left shin, “It has really made me think of all the people that have worked to do this over hundreds of years.”

Sonja Anderson | Read More

Sonja Anderson is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian magazine who covers art, archaeology and culture, from newly discovered artifacts to the latest art heists.