Mystical systems
Glastonbury Tor
Direct answer
Glastonbury Tor is a steep, terraced hill in Somerset, England, topped by the roofless tower of a medieval church of St Michael and bound up with the legends of Avalon and King Arthur.
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At a glance
- Also called
- the tor glastonbury, isle of avalon, st michaels tower glastonbury
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Ley Lines, Labyrinth, Pilgrimage, Avebury
Glastonbury Tor is a steep, terraced hill in Somerset, England, topped by the roofless tower of a medieval church of St Michael and bound up with the legends of Avalon and King Arthur.
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Is Glastonbury Tor the Isle of Avalon?
The Tor rises 158 metres above the flat Somerset Levels, which were marsh and open water until they were drained, so that in wet seasons the hill once stood like an island. Its sides are cut into long terraces. Whether these are medieval field strips, natural banding of the rock or something older and deliberate has not been settled. On the summit stands a single tower, all that is left of a fourteenth century church of St Michael.
Glastonbury gathers legends. Welsh tradition made the Tor a home of Gwyn ap Nudd, lord of the otherworld. In 1191 the monks of the abbey below announced that they had found the grave of Arthur and Guinevere, and Glastonbury has been identified with the Isle of Avalon ever since. A later story brings Joseph of Arimathea here with the Holy Grail. Historians treat all three as legend, and note that the discovery came when the abbey needed pilgrims after a fire.
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What sets Glastonbury Tor apart
The Tor is a natural hill that looks made. Its cone, its ringed sides and its single tower give it the outline of a monument, and almost every reading of it starts from that look. The geology is plain: a cap of hard sandstone protecting softer clay beneath. Springs rise at its foot, one stained red by iron and one white with lime, and both were drawn into the Grail story. The maze theory of the terraces dates only from the 1960s, and the landscape zodiac from the 1930s.
- Height: 158 metres above sea level
- Tower: St Michael, fourteenth century; the nave is gone
- Earthquake: 1275, which destroyed the earlier church
- Early settlement: fifth to seventh century, found by Philip Rahtz, 1964 to 1966
- Arthur claim: the abbey's announcement of his grave in 1191
- Execution: Abbot Richard Whiting, hanged on the Tor in 1539
Often mistaken for something else: Glastonbury Abbey is the ruined monastery in the town, where the grave of Arthur was claimed; the Tor is the separate hill to the east, with its lone tower.
The story behind Glastonbury Tor
Excavations led by Philip Rahtz in 1964 to 1966 found traces of a settlement of the fifth to seventh centuries on the summit, either a chieftain's stronghold or an early religious community. An earlier church on the Tor was thrown down by an earthquake in 1275. In 1539, at the dissolution of the monasteries, Richard Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, was hanged on the hill. In the twentieth century the Tor became a centre of alternative spirituality, helped by claims of a zodiac in the landscape and of a ley line through the tower.
Why Glastonbury Tor matters
Few places show so clearly how layers of story settle on a striking landform: Celtic otherworld, Arthur, the Grail and modern earth mysteries, one on another.
How to read Glastonbury Tor
Pilgrims, walkers and festival-goers climb it at all seasons; many time a visit for sunrise at midsummer or the old quarter days.
Glastonbury Tor in practice: an example
On a misty morning the tower stands clear above a white sea of fog on the Levels, and the old name Isle of Avalon makes visual sense.
Where readings of Glastonbury Tor go wrong
The Arthur and Grail stories are medieval and later. They are good stories and are not evidence of what happened on the hill.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- glastonbury, the tor glastonbury, isle of avalon, glastonbury tor legend, st michaels tower glastonbury
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
Is Glastonbury Tor the Isle of Avalon?
It has been called so since the twelfth century, when the abbey claimed to have found the grave of Arthur. There is no evidence from Arthur's supposed time to support it, and the link is regarded as legend.
What is the tower on Glastonbury Tor?
It is the tower of the church of St Michael, built in the fourteenth century to replace one destroyed by an earthquake in 1275. The rest of the church was taken down after the dissolution of the abbey.
What are the terraces on the Tor?
Seven rough levels ring the hill. They have been explained as medieval strip farming, as natural erosion of hard and soft rock, and as a ritual maze. Excavation has not decided between them.
