Glastonbury Tor is a hill near Glastonbury in the English county of Somerset, topped by the roofless St Michael's Tower, a Grade I listed building.
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16 Facts About Glastonbury Tor
2.
The Tor is mentioned in Celtic mythology, particularly in myths linked to King Arthur, and has several other enduring mythological and spiritual associations.
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3.
Glastonbury Tor is in the middle of the Summerland Meadows, part of the Somerset Levels, rising to an elevation of 518 feet.
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4.
Glastonbury Tor is formed from rocks dating from the early Jurassic Period, namely varied layers of Lias Group strata.
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5.
The uppermost of these, forming the Glastonbury Tor itself, are a succession of rocks assigned to the Bridport Sand Formation.
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6.
Sides of the Glastonbury Tor have seven deep, roughly symmetrical terraces, or lynchets.
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7.
Some Neolithic flint tools recovered from the top of the Glastonbury Tor show that the site has been visited, perhaps with a lasting occupation, since prehistory.
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8.
Excavations on Glastonbury Tor, undertaken by a team led by Philip Rahtz between 1964 and 1966, revealed evidence of Dark Age occupation during the 5th to 7th centuries around the later medieval church of St Michael.
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9.
The Tor was the place of execution where Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, was hanged, drawn and quartered along with two of his monks, John Thorne and Roger James.
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10.
In 1786, Richard Colt Hoare of Stourhead bought the Glastonbury Tor and funded the repair of the tower in 1804, including the rebuilding of the north-east corner.
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11.
Model vaguely based on Glastonbury Tor was incorporated into the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
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13.
The Glastonbury Tor has been associated with the name Avalon, and identified with King Arthur, since the alleged discovery of his and Queen Guinevere's neatly labelled coffins in 1191, recounted by Gerald of Wales.
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14.
Author Christopher L Hodapp asserts in his book The Templar Code for Dummies that Glastonbury Tor is one of the possible locations of the Holy Grail, because it is close to the monastery that housed the Nanteos Cup.
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15.
The Glastonbury Tor came to be represented as an entrance to Annwn or to Avalon, the land of the fairies.
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16.
Tor and other sites in Glastonbury have been significant in the modern-day Goddess movement, with the flow from the Chalice Well seen as representing menstrual flow and the Tor being seen as either a breast or the whole figure of the Goddess.
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