Welcome to Glastonbury

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Glastonbury - Britain's most legendary town - possesses a vibe like no other place in the country. Drawing people from a breadth of backgrounds and a wide variety of beliefs, Glastonbury trully is a cosmopolitan place to visit and explore.

Ancient trees planted by the Druids of old, Faery portals into magickal realms, mystical springs with reputed healing properties, historical buildings of religious significance and New Age shops offering a plethora of tools and books to aid in personal growth and awareness all await the visitor to Glastonbury.

With these and so much more (like the famous starling spectaculars and the musically and culturally famous Glastonbury Festival) to discover and enjoy in Glastonbury, it is little wonder how the town and surrounding countryside casts its powerful spell upon those who take the time to bathe their souls in the area's unique atmosphere and resources. Once enraptured, few forget the treasures and spiritual energies offered by Glastonury. And for many people, their visit to Glastonbury is but the first of many, many return trips.

Let Welcome to Glastonbury, written and illustrated by someone charmed by the area in just such a fashion, guide you through Glastonbury's legends, history, tourist attractions and unique natural beauty. And please feel free to leave your mark by adding your own comments to this and/or any of the other pages on this site. Together, let's try and illuminate the wonders of Glastonbury for all the world to see and take delight in.

Starling Displays

2009-03-10T09:33:00.003Z

Glastonbury Tor from Westhay

The Glastonbury Festival

2009-03-06T10:46:00.003Z

Glastonbury 2007 Report

A Glastonbury Wishing Tree Wish

Despite the great start to the Glastonbury Festival 2007 - sat at the stone circle with my family as the swollen evening sun settled on a blissful Midsummer's Solstice (where I even managed to get myself a bit of a tan), the weather was to prove more than a little unkind as the festival progressed over the next few days.

The heavens had opened during the night and the rain had already started to form large puddles on the unforgiving clay-bed fields by the time we awoke the following morning. Although only the occasional shower blighted the remainder of the day, every centimeter of water that fell meant another centimeter added to the growing puddles - Glastonbury used to be an island and the surrounding land (including Worthy Farm - on which the Glastonbury Festival is held) certainly seemed intent on returning to its sub aquatic origins this week. After a day of squelching around all the stalls and displays, we retired to our camp to relax around an open fire, looking forward to the start of the music part of the festival the following day but fearful of the extent Glastonbury's infamous mud might blight our experience of it.

The rain was falling heavily when Friday dawned and the forecast was for worse to come. Nevertheless, armed against the elements in our wellies and kagools, we stepped out from our tent and into the mud and made our way to the music which had already started to thunder from the Pyramid Stage. During our travels from stage to stage (there were dozens of them scattered over the small city-sized site) and around the various attractions, we discovered that there were two types of mud to be negotiated - which we labelled 'Good Mud' (loose, watery stuff which splashed but could easily be waded through) and 'Bad Mud' (thick, sticky, quagmire stuff which held you fast and tried to steal the wellies from your feet). Unfortunately, it was this latter, spirit-draining mud that predominated at this year's Glastonbury Festival.

Mud...

And Even More Mud...

Despite this, we all had a great time and caught some amazing gigs and acts. Amongst our personal highlights were Kasabian, Bjork, Mark Ronson, Bat for Lashes and the Manic Street Preachers as well as the stand up comedian Bill Bailey. My children also enjoyed Mika, the Circus Tent and the various activities in the Kidz Field. And as we lay down to sleep on our very last night at the festival, we all agreed that, given the opportunity, we would all love to visit the place again next year. Of course, that was before we had to pack our tent up at five in the morning in the torrential rain, had to drag our stuff through half a mile of foot-deep, flooded tracks just to reach our return coach home and then, when we got back to Swansea, had to ring round for a lift back to our house as we were all still too wet and muddy to get accepted into a taxi.

Balance

Alan Parsons

Bill Bailey

Billy Bragg

Carrying the Cross

The Kaiser Chiefs

A Moment's Respite

Waiting for Kasabian to Begin

Glastonbury People

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Glastonbury Abbey

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Glastonbury Cafes, Pubs and Restaurants

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Blue Note Cafe
Cafe Galatea
Lalune
The George and Pilgrim

Cat and Cauldron

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Venus

2009-02-20T15:34:00.001Z

Crystals

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Crystals, Glastonbury

Shopping in Glasonbury

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Glastonbury is one of the increasingly rare British towns where shoppers are not swamped by the large multinational businesses which have turned most other towns and city centres into clones of one another. With the exception of Woolworths, whose appearance on Glastonbury's High Street does somewhat spoil the look and feel of the place, the experience of shopping in Glastonbury does feel totally and genuinely unique and one can find items there which are rare, if not otherwise impossible, to source outside of the internet.

Perhaps understandably, given the area's reputation for powerful spiritual energies and the hippie-inspired origins of the World famous Glastonbury Festival, the main focus of the majority of Glastonbury's shops seems centred upon New Age and other esoteric interests. Whilst this common theme does engender a certain degree of similitude amongst the various vendors, there is enough distinct character between each store to keep visitors curious enough to want to explore most, if not all, of the shops in the town.

Presented below is just a little taster to whet your appetite as to what one can expect from one of the country's most unique shopping centres:

Art of Africa | Bodbam | Burns the Bread | Cat and Cauldron | Central Somerset Gazette

Courtyard Books | Crystals | Dicketts | Dilliway and Dilliway | Enchanted Florals | Enlightenment

The Glastonbury Abbey Shop | The Glastonbury Music Shop | The Goddess and the Green Man

Gothic Image | Heartfelt Trading | Hemp in Avalon | Labyrinth | Lilith | The Magic Box

Man, Myth and Magic | Margaret Kimber | Natural Earthling | Now That's Weird (Closed 2008)

The Psychic Piglet | Serendipity | The Speaking Tree | Star Child | Stone Age

Summer of Love | Venus | Witchcraft Emporium | Witchcraft Limited | W.J. Ayles & Son

Yin/Yang

Wearyall Hill

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Gifts and Offerings Left at the Glastonbury Thorn (Wearyall Hill)

Gog and Magog

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Situated near the foot of Glastonbury Tor Hill, stand two ancient oak trees which popular folklore hold to be over 2,000 years old. The two immense and beautifully gnarled trees (named Gog and Magog) were once part of an avenue of oaks that lead up to Glastonbury Tor (and, according to some sources, beyond to King Arthur’s castle in South Cadbury). Planted in the pre-Christian era by the Druids of old, most of Glastonbury’s oak avenue was destroyed in the early 20th Century by a farmer either ignorant of their sacred history or else totally unenamoured by it.

Whilst the exact age of Glastonbury’s two remaining oaks from this avenue is under debate, it is believed that they well be ancestors to even older sacred trees (again named Gog and Magog) as it was the practice of the Druids to replace dying oaks with saplings grown from their own seed. The sacred lineage of Gog and Magog may well descend back into time immemorial.

Of the present day Gog and Magog, these two aged oaks have gained quite a reputation amongst New Age visitors, whom now customarily leave the trees gifts of jewellery, precious stones, money and other adornments. Some visitors have even reported seeing wise old faces in the gnarled, old bark which suddenly appear and disappear again quickly.

The oak trees gained their names from a legendary race of Pagan giants who were (save for Gog and Magog) slaughtered by Brutus and his Trojan army. Gog and Magog were marched to London where they were held chained to the city palace, now the site of the London Guildhall.
These original two giants have been immortalised at London’s Guildhall – scene of the Lord Mayors Annual Banquet – where they stand as two large wooden carvings.

As of December 2007, locating Glastonbury’s sacred oaks can be a little difficult for the casual visitor as they are not signposted and very little mention is made of them in popular tourist-orientated information leaflets. The trees are relatively easy to find with a little research, however, though parking may prove a little difficult along the long country lanes here. Here they are, as seen on Google maps:

Access to the trees can be made via the footpath which runs through the camping site here or from the lengthier but more sceninc route along the National Trust footpath which runs past two houses namesaked Gog and Magog before veering sharply to the right.

Unfortunately, as all new visitors to the site will discover, Gog has recently passed away but the remains of the mighty oak remain in situ and still attracts grifts from visitors.

The Glastonbury Conservation Society has recently replanted some oak trees to commemmorate the ancient Druid avenue that once stood proud and majestic here. It is unknown by the present author if they plan on growing a saplin from one of Gog’s old acorns on the site of its parent (or if any such acorns still exist) but it is difficult to imagine a more fitting tribute to the once proud and noble trees and to the Druids themselves.

Gog (Background) & Magog (Foreground)

A Short Video of Gog & Magog (Rec. Autumn 2007)

Shopping in Glastonbury

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Glastonbury Street Traders

White Spring

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St. John's Church, Glastonbury

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The Glastonbury Thorn in Flower Outside St. John's Church

The Interior of St. John's Church

Food & Drink

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The Blue Note Cafe

Outside Wall Decoration of the 'Truckle of Cheese' Shop

'Truckle of Cheese'

Hundred Monkeys Cafe

Miscellaneous

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Chalice Well Gardens

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Chalice Well Gardens Samhein Celebrations 2006

Storytelling

Songcraft

Glastonbury Samhain Videos:

Chalice Well Gardens Winter Solstice Celebration 2008

Chalice Well Gardens Yule Celebration 2008 Video:

Glastonbury Tor

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Glastonbury Tor, with its enigmatic St. Michael’s Tower perched like a sentinel at its summit, is the iconographical symbol of Glastonbury (which is why it features on this internet site’s header image). The Tor has commanding three and and sixty degree views beyond the Somerset Levels to the Mendip Hills and Well’s Cathedral, Steep Holm island in the Bristol Channel, Alfred’s Tower and Burrow Mump, the Quantock Hills and the Black Mountains in Wales and acts like a magnet to New Age pilgrims from across the world. Whilst many believe it is the tower of St. Michael which holds the fascination of visitors and local alike, it is, in fact, the curiously terraced tear-shaped Tor itself which excudes the spiritual energy which can be felt from kilometres around. Indeed, the original church that was built on Glastonbury Tor was constructed to dispell the notion that the Hill held supernatural and occult powers.

Plaque Detailing the Various Views Available from the Tor Summit

The Views Available from Glastonbury Tor

There are several routes available along the Tor for those wanting to climb its five hundred feet, one hundred and seventy metres to the 14th Century St. Michael’s Tower. The easiest is taken by catching the Glastonbury Tor bus shuttle service that departs from the Glastonbury Abbey car park (situated in the town itself). This drops off visitors outside of Moneybox Field (where there is also very limited parking for Blue Disabled Badge holders along the narrow country lane) at the bottom of Tor Hill.

Passing the gates, from the roadside into the field, several dressed trees shelter the curious Millennnium Stone monument (a recent tradition has already developed here to throw small stones or coins at the bell attached to this stone to make it sound).

The Millennium Stone in Money Box Field, Located at the Foot of the Tor

From here, a gentle to moderate climb leads around and up to the Tor in a beautifully curved fashion.

Whilst this is the easiest route to climb the Tor and takes around the half hour mark to climb and descent (if one were foolish enough not to spend any real length of time at the summit), there is another, more convoluted, route which takes a good five hours to complete. This second route, however, is the favoured path as it follows the ancient labyrinth which has been cut into the hill and which gives the Tor its distinctive shape as well much of its mystery.

This labyrinth has been the source of debate for some time, with some organisations, such as the National Trust for example, debunking its presence in favour of an easily dismissed explanation that the cut out terraces in the earth of the hill were made for agricultural purposes (if this were the case, the platforms would not have continued on the ‘dark side’ of the hill – which they do). Despite such few hesitancies in accepting the existence of the Tor labyrinth, today it is largely accepted as the most plausible explanation for the patterns made in the hill and that it was designed for ritualistic purposes during the Neolithic era in connection with the belief that the Caer Sidi – home of the Faery Folk – resided in the hollows of Tor Hill.

During the time when belief of Faeries was strong and this immense labyrinth was constructed, much of the Somerset Levels were underwater and Glastonbury Tor was an astoundingly beautiful island – so picturesque, in fact, that its appearance alone would make it no mean feat of the imagination to posture that such an island was home to such supernatural creatures. Glastonbury Tor was no ordinary Faery residence either for Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Faeries himself and Lord of the Underworld, was believed to hold court within the hill, which at this time took various names such as the Faery Glass Hill, Land of the Dead and the Spiral Castle. Ceridwen the Echantress – whose cauldron of Wisdom gave her immense powers of magic and premonition was also believed to have made her home within the hill.

Even though, in Pagan times, it was widely believed that the Faeries resided in Glastonbury Tor, it was no simple matter for a human to see the creatures. These Faeries, although present on and within the hill, resided in another realm or dimension within the physical space occupied by the hill and knowledge or ritual was needed in order for mortal eyes to perceive such marvellous spirits. Although many theories have arisen as to the direct purpose of the Glastonbury Tor labyrinth, it is this author’s firm belief that it was designed as a magical route through which a traveller could enter the sacred Faery realm (it is well known from studies of Shamans that (after consuming entheogenic substances) they are often guided into the spiritual realm along such convoluted routes by occult creatures. The Glastonbury Tor labyrinth could very well be a carefully remembered and mapped out sacred route to the Faery Realm where visitors would no longer need to summon spirit guides to show them the magickal and protracted path to the Faery world. Whilst the labyrinth route culminates at the same physical spot at the summit of the Tor as the easier route, walkers along the sacred path will not have only made their way seven times around the Tor but they would have also deviated into a different spiritual realm along the route.

Interestingly, the same labyrinth design, which can be easily tracked even today, is also traced on a pillar in Pompeii, on rocks at Tintagel in Cornwall and is found across time and amongst many cultures throughout history.

When talking of Faeries and the belief in them, it is very important to remember what is being spoken of. In Pre-Christian societies, there was no belief in heaven and hell or angels and demons. Instead, Celts and other pagans believed in the spirit realm which was ruled by Faeries – not the Walt Disney Tinkerbell type of creature but powerful beings of immense intelligence and supernatural capabilities. When Christianity reached Britain, so afraid of the population’s belief in Faeries was the Church that it demonised the creatures and condemned as evil the practices and beliefs the old pagan religions revered.

One such instance of how the Church disliked Faeries is revealed in a very interesting manuscript detailing the life of the Welsh St. Collen. Dated c. 650 A.D., the document tells of a Christian monk living on the Tor who was invited to visit the Faery King at the summit of the Tor. Invited for tea, this monk did not take a gift or token of thanks or respect for the Faery host, but instead took with him a bottle of Holy water which he proceeeded to throw over all he saw in the Faery Realm, including the food. The monk believed that he had cast the Glastonbury Faeries into hell with his extremely discourteous behaviour but the Faeries just removed the monk from their their spiritual realm so that he could no longer perceive it and, as many people still believe to the day, all the Faery folk still reside in the deep hollows of Glastonbury Tor.

Christianity was not happy just to dictate the people what they should not believe in. They also deformed the Tor itself at c.1000 A.D. by flattening its summit and constructing a small church there to demonstrate that Glastonbury Tor and Glastonbury as a whole was now a Christian populace. Whilst the building of the church, ultimately, did not deter Pagan beliefs in the Tor's power, it did destroy much archaeological evidence about early settlers on the hill. As if angry at it's presence, the building was destroyed in a massive earthquake in 1275. A further church, this time with a tower, was constructed on the site of the ruined building in 1323 but only it's roofless tower remains to be seen today, the rest of the building having fallen into disrepair by 1539 when its stones were removed for other local building projects. During its use, the church, dedicated to St. Michael, was used for the hanging of the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Rhichard Whyting. The remaining tower is a Grade 1 listed building and has been renovated by the National Trust.

To close, as many mysteries remain about Glastonbury Tor today as ever before. Buried treasure, secreted there by the monks, is said to exist somewhere in a hidden tunnel which connects the Tor to Glastonbury Abbey. Numerous anomalous lights, or UFOs, have been reported directly over the hill and the Tor continues to excude a magickal power over many people who climb it's summit, illuminating it's visitors with insights and resolutions to seemingly impossible problems and aiding them in their personal and spiritual growth. Given its recently discovered key role in the St. Michael and St. Mary ley lines, which conect many of Britain's important archaeological and Pagan sites, it seems Glastonbury Tor's fame and New Age significance will continue and grow well into the future.

Winter Solstice 2008

Glastonbury People

2009-01-15T12:58:00.003Z

Street Seller, Glastonbury

Busker

Glastonbury Starling Murmurations

2008-12-14T13:09:00.000Z

One of the greatest natural spectacles in Britain occurs near Glastonbury. Each winter, as many as starlings descend upon the reed beds of West Hay and Shapwick Heath, and to settle down for their nightly sleep. They approach the beds from all directions and as they congregate in the sky above the reeds they form a visually stunning areial display that really does have to be seen to be believed.

West HaySuch displays have always been popular but the public interest in viewing them have definitely peeked since Bill Oddie’s short film on the starling murmuration was screened as part of BBC’s ‘Autumn Watch’ TV series in 2006. Whilst this BBC film featured the starlings at in , such large displays can also be witnessed at several locations across Britain. Glastonbury’s starling displays number amongst the finest in the country and have, perhaps, been best recorded by local photographer on her excellent http://www.foxybiddy.com/ website.

It really is a quite remarkeable experience attending these starling murmurations. As the sun sets and the dusk begins to grow, the sky can appear quite empty. Then, from one corner of the sky, the first few starlings can be seen making their way to their nightly rests. Soon further birds appear, then more until the whole sky seems dotted with small black dots. At certain moments it is difficult to connect these moving patterns in the sky with the birds which create them and a quite surreal experience starts to unfold as their patterns swirl and shimmer and change form above and before the viewer.

Then, just as quick as it begins, the display fades as the starlings swoop down to the reeds to find a perch for the night and a chattering cacophany rises from their resting place as the birds communicate whatever business they have to share with their fellow bed mates.

Whilst the full spectacle of these displays can only be witnessed by attending the actual resting sites of the starlings, to kilometres from Glastonbury Town Centre, it can still be an arresting sight to catch glimpse of the huge flocks of the birds as they fly over Glastonbury Tor and Wearyall Hill and head towards the reed beds for the night.

The displays are best viewd on clearer nights during the months of December and January. More advice on the Glastonbury starling murmurations can be found on the http://www.foxybiddy.com/ website.

The Glastonbury Music Shop

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Enchanted Florals

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Dicketts - Bookseller & Stationer

2008-12-01T13:19:00.003Z

Glastonbury Street Traders

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Photographed 2008