Glastonbury, situated about 6mi/10km southwest of Wells, has magnificent ruins of an abbey steeped in legend. A thorn bush which flowers at Christmas grows on the spot where St Joseph of Arimathia is said to have sunk his walking stick into the ground. According to legend Joseph also laid the foundation
stone of the first Christian church in the country. He is said to have buried the Holy Grail, the cup which contained the Blood of Christ at the Last Supper, at the foot of Glastonbury Tor, a 526ft/160m-high hill, from which the Chalice Well with its glistening reddish spring waters flowed. Glastonbury is alleged to be the "Isle of Avalon" of the legend of the Holy Grail, into which the mortally wounded King Arthur disappeared.
The hills of Glastonbury, referred to by the Celts as Yniswitrin or Avalon, were inhabited as early as prehistoric times. Discoveries in the Lake Village Museum in the High Street provide evidence of prehistoric and Ice Age moorland settlements, when the Bristol Channel extended as far inland as here. Boats have been discovered which were used to reach stilt dwellings (lake villages) built on hilltops. They are thought to have been inhabited from the third century B.C. until the arrival of the Romans. It remained an island until the surrounding moorland dried out.
Glastonbury is a noted centre for religious tourism with New Age shops specializing in crystals and the occult co-existing with the Catholic heritage.
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