This famous hill figure on Windover Hill, at 226 feet tall, is the second largest image of a man engraved on the side of a hill anywhere in the world and he stands holding two staffs, or staves, the tallest of which measures 235 feet. Unlike many other hill figures the Wilmington Giant is quite lifelike in his depiction, though this may not always have been the case. Old descriptions of the Long Man suggest various differences in appearance, including a scythe and rake instead of staves, a plume on his head and different feet; they originally pointed away from each other. The image was originally cut into the chalk hillside, but was restored using bricks in 1874 to a slightly differing outline. The present concrete blocks which form the outline date back to 1969 when archaeological work was undertaken on the Long Man. The actual age of the Long Man is much disputed, he could be as old as the Iron Age, or date to the Roman occupation of Britain, an argument reinforced by the discovery of Roman tile fragments. Folklore describes the Long Man as a giant who died on the site of the hill figure. One story has it that the giant was killed by a shepherd who threw his dinner at him (!), another that he was killed by pilgrims travelling to Wilmington Priory and a third story has the giant fighting to the death with another giant, hurling boulders that left great craters in the ground (which are, in reality, probably old mine workings).