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 Glastonbury Town Centre
Glastonbury is a quaint little town steeped in legend and history, situated near the Mendip Hills and somewhere on the fringes of alternative culture.
 St Michaels Tower - Glastonbury
There is a strong sense of serenity at Glastonbury, a town whose tranquil charm has strong associations with early Christianity, Arthurian Legend and with New Age culture, either through the town’s spiritualism or the Glastonbury music festival.
Iron Age settlements were established at Glastonbury around 450 BC when the surrounding marshland where connected by tidal channels to the sea. The town was an important trade route between the early Celts into south Wales and Cornwall and even the Mediterranean. It later became a key religious site in early Christian times when Glastonbury Abbey was built between the 4th and 5th Century.
Glastonbury is a place entwined with fascinating tales and legends. One of the most enduring is that Joseph of Arimathea brought Jesus Christ here as a child and later returned one Christmas morning with the Holy Grail, this holiest of Christian relics is held to have been buried on the hill of Avalon. Also reputed to be buried here is the legendary King Arthur , whose body was carried to Avalon by Merlin after he was mortally wounded in the Battle of Camlan. In 1191, the bodies of King Arthur and Guinevere, his Queen were reputed to have been found in the Abbey cemetery and re-interred in the church, however their tomb was destroyed during the Dissolution and the site is now marked with a plaque.
 Glastonbury Tor
High above the town is the Glastonbury Tor, a local landmark and main spiritual site. On top of this 160m hill are the remnants of a tower of a 14th Century church. Archaeological finds on the Tor date as far back as the 5th Century and the area is regarded as an important point in the earth’s spiritual and cosmic forces, to which visitors flock to tune on to its radiating ley lines.
Glastonbury is a friendly town and a heady mix of medieval architecture and colourful New Age fashions, where visitors will no doubt find enlightenment of some kind.
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