Mystery of the prehistoric ritual site at Avebury is heightened by an apparition seen among the stones
By Richard Holland
We will never know what beliefs, what ancient science led our prehistoric ancestors to choose the sites for their temples. Stone Age man was certainly more in tune with the landscape than we are today and many stones and burial mounds harmonise or align with natural formations and the contours around them. They may also have been sensitive to an energy grid, geological or psychical, that networks our land like the nerves of the human body.
This ‘Earth magic’ idea has found favour among many people since the 1960s and may have some bearing on the mysteries of ley-lines and dowsing. Do the enigmatic standing stones which have survived for thousands of years in the British landscape perform the same function as acupuncture needles, tapping into energy lines and releasing or harmonising that energy? The locations chosen by the megalith builders may be sites of special psychic resonance; certainly today they still possess a magical aura. It is no surprise to learn that many prehistoric sites have ghost stories attached to them.
One of the most spectacular prehistoric monuments in Britain is the Avebury complex in Wiltshire. According to Janet and Colin Bord’s ‘Guide to Ancient Sites in Britain’: ‘This unique site covers an area of some 28 acres (1.5 hectares) enclosed by a ditch 30 feet (9 metres) deep and 15 feet (4.5 metres) wide. The outer bank is nearly a mile round and its height was originally 55 feet (17 metres from ditch bottom to bank top; it is still very impressive.’
Huge sandstone boulders were set up to form a series of circles inside this ditch. Originally there were about 100 of them, alas today only 27 remain. In addition, two avenues of paired stones ran into the circles from west and east. The eastern avenue climbed up to another circle, the so-called Sanctuary, which was destroyed in the 18th century. It has been estimated that the construction of the Avebury enclosure would have required some 1,500,000 man-hours. In a greatly underpopulated England of Neolithic times this is an extraordinary feat. Silbury Hill, a 130 feet (39.6 metres) artificial mound of soil and gravel – the largest prehistoric mound in Europe – completes the scene. Archaeologists have calculated that Silbury Hill would have taken 18 million man-hours to construct. The mind boggles at the religious zeal that went into building these sacred sites, over several generations.
It is a tragedy for antiquarians that the village of Avebury developed among the stones, for most of them were destroyed to provide building materials. A B-road cuts right through its centre, too. Avebury is nonetheless a charming and unique village and its existence means that witnesses have been on hand to observe psychic phenomena here.
When compiling ghost stories first-hand for a book, keen local folklorist Kathleen Wiltshire learnt of an interesting experience had among the stones by a reliable witness. Miss J M Dunn, of the Lackham School of Agriculture, told Mrs Wiltshire that one starry night she was driving back from Swindon along the road through the stones when she had what she described as ‘a most uncanny feeling’. She saw, picked out in the bright moonlight, small figures moving among the stones. Miss Dunn was convinced that she had somehow for an instant been transported back to the time of the Ancient Britons, when rituals were carried out here. The ancient people were much smaller than modern man. ‘Small figures’ suggests fairies, too, and the fairies love ancient sites like this.
For more on mysterious happenings at Avebury see ‘Fascinating Village Full Of Ghosts’ and and ‘Mysterious Spooks of Avebury Trusloe’ in the Ghosts section.
[SOURCES: 'The Guide to Ancient Sites in Britain' by Janet and Colin Bord (1978), pp56-59; 'Ghosts and Legends of the Wiltshire Countryside' by Kathleen Wiltshire (1973) p 24.]
© Richard Holland 2008
