Visiting Glastonbury Tor

What To Expect For Visitors

Glastonbury Tor North Side
Glastonbury Tor North Side

Glastonbury Tor Overview & Getting There

Tor is the Celtic name for a cone-shaped hill. So Glastonbury Tor is a hill in Glastonbury. The hill is one of the icons of Glastonbury and can be seen from afar. Most people visiting Glastonbury will find the time and effort to trudge up the hill.


Glastonbury Tor is just to the East of the town of Glastonbury. A 10 minute walk from the High Street and Abbey (well signposted) will take you past Chalice Well to the foot of the Tor.

Its then a slog up a paved pathway up the south side of the Tor to the top.


There is a Glastonbury Tor Bus that regularly plies between the main car park in front of Glastonbury Abbey to Glastonbury Tor. The bus goes over to the north side of the Tor, pictured right which requires less of a climb up to the Tor but the footpath is not very well made

Glastonbury Overview
Myths and Legends
Wearyhall Hill
Glastonbury Abbey
Glastonbury Tor
Chalice Well
White Spring
Getting To Glastonbury
Public Transport
Day Tours From London
Within An Hour
Bath
Stonehenge
Lacock

The Tor is owned and cared for by the National Trust and there is totally free access.

Glastonbury Tor History

In ancient times, the Somerset levels were a shallow, marshy sea. Then, Glastonbury Tor was an island. Neolithic peoples in the region built platform villages linked by wooden causeways, arguably the first man-made roads.


At some point, no one knows exactly when, the Tor became a sacred site. Viewed close up, its slopes are subtly terraced, and some scholars speculate that it forms a remnant of a Neolithic labyrinth.

The Celts called it Ynys Witrin, or the Isle of Glass, and believed it was a gateway to the underworld. Later legend has it that the Tor is the Island of Avalon, burial site of King Arthur.


The tower on the Tor is all that remains of a fourteenth-century chapel dedicated to Saint Michael, a replacement for an earlier church destroyed by an earthquake in 1275.


The chapel is in itself evidence of the site's pre-Christian roots.

It was a common practice to build churches on pagan worship sites both to cement the ascendancy of the new faith and to give the people a Christian gathering place at a familiar spot.

Glastonbury Tor South Side

Such churches were often dedicated to Michael in his role as spiritual guardian.


In the recent 1960's excavations suggested that a sixth-century fortress or at least a stronghold stood on the site of the Tor, which for some supports another legend connected with the Tor, that it was the location of the stronghold belonging to 'Melwas', who is credited in one of the many Arthurian legends as the man who abducted 'Guinevere'.


There have over the centuries been offered many theories that the hill itself is/was hollow and that this in turn has led to the legends that it was the entrance to the underworld or the place of the 'Sleeping Lord'.


Dowsing methods have now traced many ley (power) lines in the earth that for centuries were known to folklore. These are natural geomagnetic lines in the earth.


One such ley line called 'The Michael line' is called that because most of the churches on it are dedicated to St.Michael, protector of the faith.

'The Michael line' flows down from the Tor and then passes through the other major Glastonbury sites – Chalice Well, the Abbey and Wearyall Hill - spooky eh?

Glastonbury is a long drive from London, by private car it will take around 3 hours. There are day tours from London though that operate several times a week by a couple of small group tour specialists. The large coach tour operators do not come to Glastonbury which only adds to its attraction.

International Friends King Arthur Tour - Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Avebury

Tour Highlights

- Entrance and tour of Stonehenge

- Glastonbury, entrance/tour to Glastonbury Abbey, Tor and Chalice Well Gardens

- Avebury stone circle and Silbury Hill


High quality tour in 16 seat luxury minibuses with pickups in the main hotel districts around 07:30 a.m. returning to London around 7 p.m.

Mid morning tour of Stonehenge is followed by lunch and early afternoon at Glastonbury with free time. A stop is made at Avebury henge on the return to London. Unlike Stonehenge, you can walk among and touch the stones at Avebury, it is totally open access.

Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Avebury Day Tour From London - More Details

Anderson Tours - Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Avebury Tour

This Anderson Tour runs the same route as the International Friends tour above with an almost identical bus and itinerary.


In our opinion the International Friends tour is of higher quality and is more comprehensive with its coverage of Glastonbury. However, the International Friends tour only runs once or twice a week and is more expensive than the Anderson Tour.

Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Avebury Day Tour From London - More Details