Glastonbury today if one mentions Glastonbury, the music festival immediately springs to mind. This is a sad refection on todays values, for Glastonbury has a lot more going for it than a music festival. For Glastonbury is an revered and holy site for Christians, and a place pilgrims have visited for thousands of years. For it was here in the Saxon period 670 -678 AD, the great abbey was established as a Benedictine monastery; by Beorhtwald, its first Saxon abbot,  The abbey church was enlarged in the tenth century by the Abbot of Glastonbury, Saint Dunstan, the central figure in the tenth-century revival of English monastic life: who instituted the Benedictine Rule at Glastonbury. Dunstan became Archbishop of Canterbury in AD 960, King Edmund was laid to rest at Glastonbury. In 1016, Edmund Ironside, who had lost England to Canute: but held onto the title of King of Wessex, was buried there too.

At the Norman Conquest in 1066, the wealth of Glastonbury made it a prime prize. The new Norman abbot, Turstin, added to the church, unusually building to the east of the older Saxon church and away from the ancient cemetery, thus shifting the sanctified site. Not all the new Normans were suitable heads of religious communities. In 1077, Thurstin was dismissed after his armed retainers killed monks right by the High Altar. In 1086, when Domesday Book was commissioned, Glastonbury Abbey was the richest monastery in the country. Abbot Henry of Blois commissioned a history of Glastonbury, about 1125, from the chronicler William of Malmesbury, whose De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae is our source for the early recorded history, and much awe-inspiring legend as well. Then as now, legend worked more strongly than raw history to bring the pilgrims who sustained the Abbey's reputation and contributed to its upkeep.

Glastonbury Abbey is set in 37 acres of beautifully peaceful parkland in the center of the ancient market town of Glastonbury, and the most visited historical religious site in the country. Legend, has it that the Holy Thorn tree that can be seen in the grounds originated from Joseph of Arimatheas staff and others are convinced that King Arthur ( the warrior King of the Saxons, who defended England, against the Danish raiders better know as the Vikings) who united England, after the Roman invaders departed, is buried in the Abbey beside his lovely wife Queen Guinevere. Whether one believes of these facts or not, the ruins are unique and of great historical importance. And the grounds of the Abbey provide one with a feeling of peace and tranquility in an otherwise hectic world. And if the weather is poor Glastonbury has provided a new Visitor's Center with an award winning Museum which includes a model of the Abbey as it might have looked in 1539, together with a display of the Town waiting for your perusal. The Abbey is truly a jewel in the crown of English history and rightly should be preserved for the generations to come to gaze and wonder at it: just like we do to-day.

Legend has it that  Glastonbury Tor is home to Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Fairies. Glastonbury is located on the Isle of Avalon in the Somerset Levels. It rather lively small town; despite its spiritual overtones. Today it has a unique, atmospheric and is home nearly 10,000 people, with a mixture of locals, incomers visitors and pilgrims for even to-day as they have done for many centuries, people still arrive in Glastonbury seeking seeking spiritual guidance peace and solace .The Abbey aside there are many places of interest. Wearyall Hill is an low hill located to the southwest of the town. And it is said that it was on Wearyall Hill that Joseph of Arimathea placed his staff in the ground when he landed tired from his momentous journey from the Holy Land. It is said that the staff he laid down sprouted and became the Holy Thorn, the descendants of which still blossom today and at Christmas there is an tradition that involves taking a cutting from the Holy Thorn which then is sent just before each Christmas to grace the Queen's table. The hill is open to the public, and the view from Wearyall Hill will show you visually all that Gladstonbury has to offer including a wonderful overall view of the unique Isle of Avalon!

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