Glastonbury Tor
Somerset, England

 

 

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Glastonbury Tor

Glastonbury Tor, Somerset county, (a conical hill in the Celtic language) rises out of a plain in England's south west is thought by many to be the site of King Arthur's legendary base, Avalon.
Neo-hippies, party people and music lovers of all sorts, on the other hand, know the area as the site of the legendary, mud-spattered and annual Glastonbury Music Festival which is actually situated in Pilton, some 7 miles away from Glastonbury, and nothing to do with the Tor, apart from being embedded in the same mud on rainy days!

Currently garnished by St Michael's Tower - the last remnant of a medieval church - the Tor shows signs of fortified occupation over many hundreds of years, from primitive earth defences in Neolithic times (early Britons are believed to have called the place 'Ynys yr Afalon'), through Roman forts to sturdy churches.

One enduring Glastonbury mystery resides in the seven terraces circling the Tor.
Some think that these were constructed for crop development purposes, but this does not explain why the sunless north side - where little would grow - sports the same rings.

Farmers say that grazing cattle can trample out terraces over considerable time but knowledgeable rural folk point out that in that case the rings would be less defined and more more aligned with the contours of the hill.

 

The path running from the Tor down to Glastonbury town.
© Matthew Collngwood

An obvious possibility is that the terraces were the remains of defensive earthworks but the traditional Neolithic earth fort involved three ditches fronting three banks of earth while Glastonbury Tor appears to comprise only simple terraces with little defensive capability. In addition, the space on top of the defended area (the Tor) was too small to support a village. (See Maiden Castle pictures for traditional Neolithic earthworks)

A final theory is that the Tor markings form a labyrinth, a popular though laborious concept in Neolithic days. And the purpose of a labyrinth would be...?

Ley lines: Some people (with heads firmly in the sky) believe that Glastonbury Tor lies on spiritual/mystical Ley lines, connecting it to other magical global locations such as Easter Island or the Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.

Lovely feel-good theory but archeologists point out that ancient cultures used straight paths between important points, whether they be towns or pyramids, obviously because that would be the shortest distance. In addition it's not too difficult to connect the worldwide super-culture/artifact dots with lines, especially if you're flying at hyper-velocity in an outsize saucer and your brain was grown on Pluto.

 

 

 

And Glastonbury town crouching beneath the power of the Tor. Next, Bath Pictures.
© Mark Eastment

 

 

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