Glastonbury is perhaps best known these days for its famous festival but it has been famous as a religious and spiritual centre for many hundreds of years. Glastonbury Abbey used to dominate the surrounding Somerset Levels and was, according to tradition, the birthplace of Christianity in England. Legend has it that Joseph of Arimathea journeyed here from the Holy Land and that the Holy thorn tree was originally Joseph’s staff that took root. The Abbey is also reputed to be where King Arthur is buried with Queen Guinevere.
You can now walk around the spectacular ruins of the Abbey in the heart of Glastonbury, still majestic so many centuries later.
Rising above Glastonbury is Glastonbury Tor, now owned by the National Trust, and surrounded by myth and legend. It is reputedly the home of the King of the Underworld and is where fairies live. The Tor is also reputed to be the remains of a great neolithic labyrinth still walked by many in a ‘sacred manner’. Apparently, the foundations of an ancient temple were unearthed on top of the Tor in 2002. The tower that still stands atop the Tor is the remains of a church, ruined by an earthquake in 1275, rebuilt with the tower, but only the tower survives.
The Tor also marks the convergence of geomagnetic lines in the earth that connect ancient sacred sites and have apparently given rise to strange inexplicable phenomena. In fact, there are many who visit Glastonbury for the ‘charge’ it gives them. There’s certainly no-where else quite like it.
So, when you’re staying with us here at The Castle, a trip over to Glastonbury ought to be on your schedule and, if you’re visiting this ‘alternative centre’, then to stay at this wonderful luxury hotel near Glastonbury would complement your visit admirably.
Other beautiful features of Somerset worth visiting include: Glastonbury, Dunster, Exmoor, the Blackdown Hills and the Brendon Hills, the Lorna Doone Secret Valley, Forde Abbey, the Mendip Hills, Porlock and Porlock Weir, the Quantock Hills, the Somerset Levels and Wells. |
