Ley lines

Burrow Mump

According to some people there are mystical lines crossing the UK at various points, joining up a string of places of special significance. We were reminded of this idea during our recent trip south west, when we encountered a map of such a line in the pub at Avebury.

It goes without saying that many of the points on these routes - known as ley lines - are stone circle sites or other ancient monuments.  Naturally Avebury is one such point, so it was no surprise to find a map there. But what came as a surprise was the fact that several places we had visited that week were marked as significant.

The so-called St Michael's ley line runs from Land's End in Cornwall to a point on the Norfolk coast. It passes through Avebury, as well as Taunton and Glastonbury. It also passes through a place called Burrow Mump, close to the site of the Battle of Sedgmoor. We found the Mump during our travels. You can't really miss it. It's a huge spot on an otherwise flat landscape. And there are the remains of a church on top of it.

Like many other churches along the line, it was dedicated to St Michael. We had no idea when we discovered the Mump that it had any supposed mystical status. I just liked the idea that there was a huge bump in the middle of nowhere with a wreck on top - so we climbed up to take a look at the tumbledown church, and the view from the top. Both were impressive.

The view from the top

There used to be a church on the hill in medieval times, but the current ruin dates from 1793. It was planned to have a west tower, three-bay nave, and a porch, but the project ran out of money. So it was replaced with a new church at the bottom of the slope.

The hill and ruin have been owned by the National Trust since 1946, when they were donated, with the proviso that the building should serve as a memorial to the 11,281 Somerset men and women who died in two world wars. It is now a scheduled ancient monument.

So is there any truth in the idea of ley lines?  It's theoretically possible to draw a line across any part of the UK and link up villages that are situated more-or-less on top of it. Particularly if you take liberties with the map - like this one.

Photo from Discussion World Forum

If you check out the layout you'll find that the places marked on it aren't actually in the right order. (You can find a bigger version of the map by clicking here.) It looks very clever, but it's wrong. It was fun though, to think we'd been traveling along some ancient magical trackway, even if we weren't.