Glastonbury Tor

Rising abruptly from the Somerset Levels, Glastonbury Tor is an outlier hill of Jurassic limestone topped by the roofless tower of St Michael's Church — the sole remnant of a 14th-century chapel. Long before Christianity, the hill was revered by the Celtic peoples of Britain as a sacred high place associated with Gwyn ap Nudd, king of the faeries and lord of the underworld in Welsh mythology.

The Tor's seven terrace formations have been variously explained as medieval plough terraces, an ancient maze or labyrinth, or deliberate landscape shaping for ritual procession. The surrounding lowlands were once a tidal estuary, making the Tor an island — the likely origin of its identification with Avalon, the mythical island to which King Arthur was borne after his final battle. A spring near the base, the Chalice Well, has run continuously for 2,000 years and is associated in legend with the Holy Grail.