The soft green hill of the Tor, crowned with its enigmatic tower, has become a symbol of Glastonbury. It dominates the town and the surrounding landscape, and is the first sign to the traveller that Glastonbury is drawing near.



Centuries of legends and folklore have gathered around this Tor. In their various ways, these tales all demonstrate one thing that the Tor is a place where the veil between the worlds is thin. Strange experiences here are usually interpreted according to the beliefs of the times. An otherworldly being met on the Tor might be called a fairy in one century, a nature spirit in another and ET in more recent years.

Like Glastonbury, the Tor has come to host a large variety of mystical beliefs. Nature mythology, paganism, Christian legends, and newer ideas about life the universe and everything have all found a comfortable, nurturing niche for themselves within Tor lore. Its as if the genius loci of the Tor is an especially powerful spirit of place: able to attract and foster all kinds of ideas, but bigger than all of them like a giant ancient tree with its ever-changing population of little birds and squirrels.

Its certainly ancient. Modern archaeology agrees with the folklore about that. Many thousands of years ago, the Tor may have been one of seven islands that were left unsubmerged by a great flood. This would make it an important focus of regeneration and life, both symbolically and practically. It may even have been designed as such by those who foresaw the flood, and who deliberately infused the Tor with extra power and intent, thus making it our direct link to an ancient lost world.

Legends say that the top once sported a stone circle like Stonehenge. In the 1970s a West Country seer, who prefers not to be named, described her vision of how it might have been: "The Tor is not the same now as it was then. It has had a portion taken off the top, and there was a temple built on the top, like a Greek temple, but circular. Within it was the most beautiful mosaic type of floor, and it was set out like a zodiac. There were twelve columns around it, whitish in colour. Under the flooring there was a hidden vault. The top was domed. There were seven guardians there in pale blue robes. The white temple was on top of the Tor with trees and rushes and water all the way round. There was a very fragrant scent there. Just being on that islet was restorative in itself."

Since writing this, an exciting development has taken place. On 22.2.2002, archaeologists Nancy and Charlie Hollinrake of the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society announced that they have unearthed on top of the Tor the foundations of what looks very much like an ancient circular temple!

The Tor was an islet for centuries, as the floodwaters took a long time to recede. 'Somerset' is short for 'summer settlement' because the area was too flooded to inhabit in winter. The Tor was called 'Ynys Witrin' or 'Isle of Glass' (or Isle of Seeing), connected to the mainland by only a narrow strip of land at low tide. The people who recognise it enhance the power of any sacred place. This long period of semi-isolation may have not only preserved the otherworldly nature of the Tor, but also added to its aura of specialness through the eyes of the people.

In archetypal symbolism, hills and high places are like bridges between earth and sky. They represent a link between material reality and the unseen dimensions. The early Celts thought of high places as gods powerful beings in a world where all nature was inhabited by conscious entities. Roman influence later modified that idea, saying its not the hills that are alive, but the gods who live in them. The combination of these beliefs with the special qualities of the Tor made it almost inevitable that Glastonbury Tor would come to be seen as the home of many strange beings.

Canon 450D, f5.6,1/125,ISO100,123mm