Tuesday 8 April 2014

G is for Glastonbury Tor





A – Z OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

G is for Glastonbury Tor



Today we travel to Glastonbury Tor in the county of Somerset  

Glastonbury Tor is a 500 foot conical hill of clay with terraced slopes topped by the roofless St. Michael's Tower, the only remaining piece of a 14th Century church,  now a Grade I Listed Building managed by the National Trust. 

Glastonbury is steeped in history.  The terracing on the hillside is of unknown origin but artefacts have been found dating from the Iron Age to the Roman era. 

Earlier religious buildings were constructed on the summit from Saxon and early medieval times and were thought to have been an early church and monks’ heritage.
 
The Tor with the ruins of St. Michael's Tower 





 
The climb to the top of the hill


 The last few feet

Glastonbury Tor shrouded in mist





Photos from Wikimedia Commons


The Tor has many legends and myths and spiritual connotations mixed with it.  It is associated with Avalon and King Arthur since the alleged discovery of King Arthur’s and Queen Guinevere’s neatly labelled coffins in 1191 recounted by Gerald of Wales.

It is also reputed to be called a magic mountain, a faeries’ glass hill, a spiral castle, a Grail castle, the Land of the Dear, Hades, a Druid initiation centre, an Arthurian hill-fort, a magnetic power point, a crossroad of leys, a centre for Goddess fertility rituals and celebrations and also a converging point for UFOs.


A life time love affair

Arthur and Guinevere

The power plays of the day

Were not easy to keep at bay

Little did they know

They would always be on show

Centuries have come and gone

Their names live on and on

In myths and legends

Buried on an island

A spiritual place with swirling mists

Ghostly encounters of trysts

Imagined or real who can say anymore

People travel to the top of the Tor 
 
Not sure what they are looking for

Maybe they are changed forever more.


 


3 comments:

  1. Thank you for showing me to these lovely places that I would probably never see if you had not taken my there. Glastonbury Tor certainly beautiful and rich in history. I chose gymnastics for my G post. If you have time hop over the pond and visit my blog to see why.

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  2. Those are beautiful pictures, what an inspiring place full of mystery! Love the line, "Spiritual place with swirling mists". Thanks for sharing. :)

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  3. I agree about the photos. This makes me want to go back to England at once!
    Visiting from Australia and A-Z.

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