Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor rises with dramatic abruptness from the Somerset Levels, its conical form topped by the tower of St Michael's Church creating one of the most immediately recognisable landmarks in England and one of the most spiritually charged places in the British Isles. Standing 158 metres above the flat plain surrounding it, the hill is visible for remarkable distances across the Somerset landscape and the tower at its summit, all that remains of a medieval church, has served as a landmark, a place of pilgrimage and a focus of mythological and spiritual speculation across many centuries.
The Tor's significance in the wider story of Glastonbury and its legends is inseparable from the town below. The whole complex of myths connecting Glastonbury with Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail, the Arthurian legends and the oldest Christian foundation in Britain places the Tor at the spiritual centre of a tradition that has attracted seekers and pilgrims from many traditions for centuries. In contemporary spiritual culture the Tor is one of the principal sites of the pagan, Wiccan and earth mysteries movements alongside the more mainstream Christian pilgrimage tradition, and the combination of these overlapping traditions gives the hill a vibrancy of human significance unusual in any landscape feature of its modest physical scale.
The terracing on the slopes of the Tor, particularly visible on the southeast face when the light catches it at a low angle, has generated sustained scholarly and popular interest. Proposed explanations include medieval strip cultivation of the slopes, a prehistoric ritual spiral path ascending the hill, or simple natural erosion processes, and no consensus has been established despite considerable investigation.
The walk to the summit, approximately fifteen minutes on well-maintained paths from the National Trust car park in the town, passes through the terraced slopes and provides progressively expanding views over the Levels.