© 2010 Roger Carrington

     Original oil on canvas

              9 inches x 12 inches

Glastonbury Tor is a teardrop-shaped hill at Glastonbury, Somerset England, with its only standing architectural feature the roofless St Michael’s Tower of the former church. Tor is a local word of Celtic origin meaning 'conical hill'. The Tor has a striking location in the middle of a plain called the Summerland Meadows. The spot seems to have been called Ynys yr Afalon by the Britons, and it is widely believed to be the Avalan of Arthurian legend.

The slopes of the Tor appear to be quite regularly terraced. Some believe that this formation is the remains of an ancient, perhaps Neolithic, sacred labyrinth. Others attribute the terraces to natural ruts formed everywhere on grassy slopes by generations of grazing animals, which are slow to disappear if the grass cover is left undisturbed. The generally accepted explanation is terracing for farming, possibly by medieval monks.

http://www.glastonburytor.org.uk/mysterytor.html-Glastonbury Tor – That Strange Hill

Glastonbury Tor