Glastonbury Tor
This is the first in the series of blogs I plan to write about the mythical and magical lands of Glastonbury and in this blog we visit Glastonbury Tor. It’s somewhere I visit regularly because I feel a great affinity with the place. I’m talking about the town here and not the festival (although I have been and it was one of the very muddy years back in the 90s and quite frankly, it was a chore)! Glastonbury is a town filled with stories, wonder and magic. There’s always lots to see and visit and some really ‘out there’ people living in the town, so of course I love it. Last time I was there a wizard, dressed not unlike Dumbledor, was offering rune readings on the pavement and we smiled at each other as a young lad offered me a tomato on an ice cream cone. I did have to comment to them that ‘only in Glastonbury would you see this’ and we all had a bit of a laugh!
Luckily for me, it is also not far from where I live in Wiltshire. If I’m in need of a bit of hippy joy, Glastonbury is the place to which I head for a day or sometimes two.
There is a lot to tell you about Glastonbury. It involves history, folklore, mysticism, and surprise, surprise, some ghostly experiences! So, rather than create a blog the length of a book, I have decided to write a series and today is part one and we are heading ‘up the tor.’
Glastonbury Tor
Somerset (the county where you will find Glastonbury) means ‘summer settlement’. That’s because, back before the 12th century, Glastonbury Tor would have been an island as the land surrounding it was marshland and frequently flooded. The name Glastonbury comes from its original Saxon name Glastingebury, meaning Island of Glass. The tor which you would see from many miles away, showed you were near to approaching the settlement as it rose from out of the water. Since those days the Somerset Levels have been drained and managed somewhat and while they do still flood, it is not like those times many centuries ago.
There are so many stories that relate to the tor. It is an important place in the world of the Fae, has Arthurian connections, many historical elements and even St Patrick has been there. You won’t be surprised to find, quite a few ghosts stories are also associated with it.
The Ancient Isle of Avalon
Glastonbury Tor, once an island as we heard earlier, was thought to be the most wonderful and mystical island of Avalon. This is the place of Authurian legend where King Arthur’s sword Excalibur was cast. It’s also where the king was taken to be cared for by his fae-like enchantress of a sister, Morgan, and the nine sisters, following his terrible injuries in the Battle of Camlann (thought to have taken place in Wiltshire on Salisbury Plain).
Arthur, the ‘once and future king’ will one day return to save us and, in my opinion, if Arthur wants to turn up pretty soon I think this is the perfect time, given the state of our planet and how rancid much of humanity has become. Let’s not dwell on this though…
Avalon could also be another possible burial site for the Holy Grail, that most coveted of ancient artefacts. We’ll come to that in just a moment. These are all stories of course, created by the 10th-century storyteller, Geoffrey of Monmouth and expanded on by various other medieval writers over time. Some people will dispute these all being stories and truly believe King Arthur and all the associated characters and locations were all part of our history. Arthur may have been a mighty warrior who led the ancient Britons against the Saxon invaders in the 6th century, or he may have been just a legend. Historians are unable to agree. Whatever the case is, he is very much associated with Glastonbury Tor.
I should point out, there are plenty of Arthurian associations with Wiltshire. Some stories are told about Merlin being the creator of Stonehenge but that’s a blog for another day!
The Holy Grail
There aren’t many places outside of Jerusalem that can claim Jesus has travelled to their lands. Glastonbury can say this, but it is certainly just a claim (whether you are a Christian believer or not). Joseph of Arimethea was said to be an uncle of Jesus and he was a merchant that travelled to the Mendips on a trading mission with a young Jesus in tow.
Let’s skip forwards a few decades to The Last Supper. Joseph was the one who took away the chalice that Jesus and his disciples had drunk from, the much searched for ‘Holy Grail’. Jesus’ blood and sweat is said to have been collected in this magical cup and it is a vessel with miraculous healing powers. Depending on who you believe is may provide eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance. No wonder everyone, including Indiana Jones, has been searching for it ever since!
Joseph took responsibility for the burial of Christ and is an important character in the Bible. I won’t go into more of this story because this blog is about the tor so we’ll skip forwards in time again. Joseph, it seems heads off on a Holy Mission and something about the tor must have impressed him because it seems he did return and he bought with him something rather special.
According to the legend, Joseph hid the Holy Grail, somewhere in the well at the base of the tor, hence its name, The Chalice Well. It is from the tor that two springs come forth, the red spring and the white spring. Could it be that the iron-rich red tinted water of the red spring is coloured so because of its connection to The Holy Grail and the blood of Christ?
Joseph then went on to build the first church in Britain, made of wattle and daub, on the site that was to become Glastonbury Abbey. He is responsible for the growth of the Glastonbury Thorn on Wearyall Hill which sprang up after he drove his staff into the ground there.
Whether the Holy Grail is still hidden somewhere in the tor, or perhaps it is still somewhere in the Holy Land, or maybe somewhere completely different, we may never know. It’s a timeless and wonderful mystery though and Glastonbury is so well suited to have such a connection.
Glastonbury Tor and the Fae
Back in the times of the ancient Celts, fairies were unknown creatures of another world, souls of unbaptised babies and souls of the dead who remain in this realm. Gwynn ap Nudd, the Lord of the Faires (Lord of the Underworld), was said to be found atop of the tor, engaging in high revelry, feasting and partying through the hours of darkness. But, don’t think you can just pop up for an evening for fairy fun, for those thinking they have been the fairly realm for just a short while often return and find they have been gone for considerable amounts of time, years even.
St Collen, lived by the spring at the bottom of the tor. He believed the world of the Fae to be that of the Devil and had heard about the evening parties up the tor. He warned the locals not to get sucked into the pagan ways, but in return St Collen was warned about what he was saying, badmouthing the King of the Fairies. But Gwynn ap Nudd had already heard. And he was not so happy and wanted to speak to the saint. He invited St Collen to his party several times and tried to get him to join in with the banquet. Eventually St Collen attended, coming across a most majestic and wonderful castle, rising from the mists. Dancing to the jolliest of music, laughter and chatter, filled the air. When the guests, both humans and fairies, had danced themselves out they sat down to a huge feast. Gwynn tried to encourage St Collen to join in. He knew, if the saint was to feast with them, he would be stuck in the fairy world forevermore. The Fairy King was insulted by St Collen and started to get angry but St Collen wanted nothing to do with what he regarded as Devilish intentions. He pulled out a vial of Holy Water and sprinkled it around him. As he watched, the castle and Gwynn disappeared before his very eyes, fading away.
Even to this day, when the tor rises from the mist of a foggy morning, the locals point up and wonder if Gwynn ap Nudd is having one of his fabulous parties up there.
Fairies have a strong association with hills and it was Gwynn who was said to dwell in the hollowed out tor, the inner realm called Annwn or Avalon. The secret entrance is still somewhere on the tor itself and inside there are caves and tunnels, some of which are still hidden from us.
There are other Fae stories associated with this huge hill rising from the mists of Avalon, so just beware. The advice is, as it has always been, avoid them and let them be. It’s best not to mess with fairies!
Ghosts of Glastonbury Tor
Whether you think Arthurian history part of folklore or a true part of our history, could one of the regular ghosts of the tor, a ghost surrounded by golden light and flowing hair, be the ghost of Guinevere?
Quite a few of the supernatural experiences from the tor involve apparitions. One account exists of a girl and her dad visiting the tor at sunset. Coming through a heavy and creaky gate they walked past a couple doing yoga on the hill. They passed the couple by but turned around to see them but a few steps later and both people had completely disappeared.
They said the whole tor had a strange atmosphere they couldn’t really pinpoint. There were people around but they did not hear one word or noise uttered while up on the tor. Almost like they were witnessing a ‘scene’ rather than experiencing real life. It unnerved the travellers sufficiently that they left swiftly and have not been back since.
A couple had a very scary experience as they walked up the tor. A feeling of many spiritual figures, drawing close to them, giving them a feeling like they weren’t at all welcome. They never reached the top of the tor, they were that scared that they turned back around and were also followed all the way back to the edge of the town by the strange crowd of spirits they felt.
Another lady describes a daytime walk. As she descended the tor she noticed, a few meters down to her right, a man in a long black cloak. There was no specific path up the tor at this time. The cloaked figure disappeared behind a few trees and should have appeared from behind them, once again in front of the lady. But as she ground to a halt and watched for him, she realised he had disappeared. There was simply nowhere he could have gone. She looked all around for him and actually got quite spooked when she realised what she had actually seen was quite possibly a ghost.
I found an image taken from an anonymous account on Daily Motion so taken this with a very large pinch of salt. But, as I am willing to let my imagination take over at times (and why not? Modern life is rubbish!) I thought I would post it here, just in case there is a tiny, teeny chance it might be real!
Also included is a fun video taken on Glastonbury Tor. Again, take it with a pinch of salt because popular opinion (if that’s to be trusted) attributes it to camera flare. But, use your imagination here; it’s a creepy video.
Here’s another one which I would put down to camera flare too, but it does create a fairy-like light anomaly that behaves in a peculiar fashion.
Back to experiences on the tor. One lady describes her story of walking through what she felt was ‘The Mists of Avalon’ at the base of the tor and experienced something that she sort of described as, a shift in reality, with nothing around and nobody there. Cars on the lane disappeared, there were no people on the tor and as the lady descended, she didn’t see the lights of the town until she passed back through the bank of fog. She cannot describe her experience at all. Just that something was slightly ‘off’. I wonder if she experienced some kind of timeslip.
There are stories that tell of lights in the sky. Three ‘UFOs’ were spotted from the tor on a night of special astronomical alignment. Things are seen on and around the tor that cannot be explained.
The writer Sonia Smith recounts a tale told to her by a young couple, Robbie and Vilna, visiting Glastonbury in her book Paranormal Somerset. Her stories are great so I recommend you read the whole story yourself (it’s quite long). In short it involves the youngsters wild camping for a night at the base of the tor within the apple trees. After a few local ciders Robbie needed a midnight wee and crawled out of the tent. The night was brightly lit and after finishing his business he was about to return to the tent when he saw a curious sight. He could see a small group of men heading up the tor, dragging heavy loads across their backs. Intrigued yet scared he headed up after them, hearing their moans of despair as he got near and hid in the tower. He decided he could not let what was happening to these men continue, thinking it some kind of weird ritual or torture of the living. On stepping to the edge of the tower he looked out and saw something that would bring him to his knees with fear. Three bodies hung from their necks from the very logs they had been forced to pull up the hill. Terrified poor Robbie was beside himself with fear but as he watched something strange happened. Before him the whole scene just disappeared. All he could see was the sky and stars beyond.
It turned out, unbeknown to Robbie, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, the former abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Richard Whiting and two of his priors were made to climb the tor, their arms strapped to hurdles, before they were hung, drawn and quartered there after being accused of treason. A most savage and brutal end, simply because they stayed faithful the Roman Church.
Mysterious voices and the Black Rider
It seems there are far more experiences up on Glastonbury Tor and I came across a couple the other day on The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast. This is one of my favourite pods to dip into and is run by the enigmatic Jo Hickey-Hall. Here are a two of her episodes where she talks to people who have had strange encounters on the tor, including Dr Neil Rushton. I won’t go into details here, other than to say they involve strange women’s voices speaking in a language that cannot be understood, and a rather unsettling Black Rider, as in a motorcyclist type figure, who has appeared (and disappeared) up on the tor.
Here are the links. Have a listen:
https://www.scarlettofthefae.com/tag/modern-fairy-sightings-podcast
S-Tor-ies for another day
There are more spiritual, histological and esoteric subjects to explore which are connected to Glastonbury Tor that we are yet to explore. It has strong connections with astrology and there is said to be an ancient mystical maze-like path made out of terraces around the sides of the tor.
It has been and remains to be a highly important site for many, many people for many reasons. If you want more information, have a look at Atasha McMillan’s blog, Glastonbury Magical Mystery Tor, where she has created a whole blog devoted to the history and strange side of the tor.
There is much more to explore in Glastonbury, so I plan on returning later in the year to bring you part two in the Exploring the Ghosts of Glastonbury Series. Until then, peace out!
References
Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/topic/King-Arthur
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon
https://www.glastonburytor.org.uk/mysterytor.html
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