Southwestern Britain Tour Summary

A Journey Through the Mists of Time
from Avalon to Camelot

Tour operated in cooperation with Gothic Image Tours

SOLD OUT

June 6 – 15, 2012

This journey is a once-in-a-lifetime experience in the enchanted realms of Arthur, Merlin and Morgan le Fey.

Experience the history, the mystery and the magic of the landscape and legends of ancient southwestern Britain.

On this tour we visit some of the key sites of the mythic Arthurian legends – Cadbury, Glastonbury and Tintagel.

We also visit some of the most impressive prehistoric temples of southwest England, including Avebury, Stonehenge and Boscawen-un.

At the world-famous Stonehenge we gain private access to do a Druidic dawn ceremony.

Avebury is the world’s largest stone circle complex, with the largest man-made prehistoric mound, Silbury Hill.

Boscawen-un in Cornwall is special because it is a rarely intact and living stone circle, with one stone of solid quartz.

Join us as we visit the sacred shrines of our ancestors whose spirit dwells in these natural sanctuaries.

A special feature of this trip will be to meet and spend time with some of Britain’s most respected teachers, authors and ceremonialists who share with us their knowledge and insights into our pagan and christian heritage. Their insights and understanding of the history, myth and legend of this sacred landscape, will be invaluable.

We meet Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst, co-authors of the ground-breaking books The Sun and the Serpent and The Dance of the Dragon – the first explores the long-distance Michael and Mary lines that cross southern England.

We shall spend time with Geoffrey Ashe, the international authority on Arthurian history and legend, and Sig Lonegren, dowser, prehistorian and labyrinth expert.

We begin our pilgrimage at Glastonbury, the ancient Isle of Avalon, known in former times as England’s ‘holyest earthe’. We climb the incredible Glastonbury Tor, home of the King of the Fairies, with its stunning views and its three-dimensional labyrinth dedicated to the Great Goddess.

We trace the footsteps of the Essene Joseph of Arimathea, on Wearyall Hill, drink deeply of the healing waters of Chalice Well, and absorb the spiritual energies of the ‘first ground of God’ in the green pastures of Glastonbury’s Abbey ruins. We visit an ancient Druid grove where lie the majestic ancient English oak trees, Gog and Magog, with their astonishing simulacra.

Nearby, across the ten mile King’s Causeway, is that most impressive of hillforts, Cadbury Castle, known as Camelot, King Arthur’s citadel, festooned with massive earth and stone ramparts and enchanted woods.

Onwards to the legendary site of King Arthur’s birth – Tintagel, its castle ruins, sacred island and Merlin’s cave full of magic and atmosphere, where dwells his spirit amidst the craggy rocks and roaring tides.

Few natural sanctuaries in Britain are as numinous as St Nectan’s Fairy Glen where we pause in wonder at the marvellous waterfall and keive. Here we can swim in the healing waters which have created a natural bowl. We visit the Saint’s hermitage and shrine before we venture further to Rocky Valley with its awesome labyrinth rock carvings. We lunch and enjoy the quaint village of Boscastle.

Thence we travel to Trencrom Hill – the hill of angels – with its rocky holy well, and meet with Hamish Miller, the Laird of Trencrom, and his partner Ba, who guide us around their home lands. Hamish will teach us how to dowse with particular reference to earth energies and, with Ba, will share his home with us.

Onward to the wild and moody district of West Penwith where we visit two powerful stone circles: Boscawen-un and the Merry Maidens along with two delightful holy wells at Sancreed and Madron. Here we will have time to pause and reflect on the wisdom of our Neolithic ancestors in some of the most unspoilt and evocative sacred landscapes in the British Isles.

As we travel back upcountry, back towards London, we stop on Bodmin Moor at Jamaica Inn and visit the legendary Excalibur site of Dozemary Pool. Onwards via a 12th Century hostelry for lunch to the pretty market town of Marlborough.

The following morning we arise and travel to Stonehenge (with special access) for a unique vigil to greet the sunrise within the temple of the stones. Here we will have a Druid ceremony in which we can all participate.

Later we visit the enormous ancient stone circle complex of Avebury – so large that it has a village in the middle. We also visit the magnificent West Kennett Long Barrow and Silbury Hill, part of the Avebury complex. Our tour concludes with a farewell dinner at our Marlborough hotel.