THE WATSON FAMILY - On a road trip to Glastonbury, the magic Dinobot picks up signals left by Merlin the Magician, from Ley Lines pointing to Camelot.

Ley lines are straight alignments drawn between various historic structures, prehistoric sites, and prominent landmarks. The idea was developed in early 20th-century Europe, with ley line believers arguing that these alignments were recognised by ancient societies that deliberately erected structures along them. Since the 1960s, members of the Earth Mysteries movement and other esoteric traditions have commonly believed that such ley lines demarcate "earth energies" and serve as guides for alien spacecraft. Archaeologists and scientists regard ley lines as an example of pseudoarchaeology and pseudoscience.

The idea of "leys" as straight tracks across the landscape was put forward by the English antiquarian Alfred Watkins in the 1920s, particularly in his book The Old Straight Track. He argued that straight lines could be drawn between various historic structures and that these represented trade routes created by ancient British societies. Although he gained a small following, Watkins' ideas were never accepted by the British archaeological establishment, a fact that frustrated him. His critics noted that his ideas relied on drawing lines between sites established at different periods of the past. They also argued that in prehistory, as in the present, it was impractical to travel in a straight line across hilly or mountainous areas of Britain, rendering his leys unlikely as trade routes. Independently of Watkins' ideas, a similar notion—that of Heilige Linien ('holy lines') —was raised in Germany in the 1920s.

During the 1960s, Watkins' ideas were revived in altered form by British proponents of the countercultural Earth Mysteries movement. In 1961, Tony Wedd put forward the belief that leys were established by prehistoric communities to guide alien spacecraft. This view was promoted to a wider audience in the books of John Michell, particularly his 1969 work The View Over Atlantis. Michell's publications were accompanied by the launch of the Ley Hunter magazine and the appearance of a ley hunter community keen to identify ley lines across the British landscape. Ley hunters often combined their search for ley lines with other esoteric practices like dowsing and numerology and with a belief in a forthcoming Age of Aquarius that would transform human society. Although often hostile to archaeologists, some ley hunters attempted to ascertain scientific evidence for their belief in earth energies at prehistoric sites, evidence they could not obtain. Following sustained archaeological criticism, the ley hunter community dissipated in the 1990s, with several of its key proponents abandoning the idea and moving into the study of landscape archaeology and folkloristics. Belief in ley lines nevertheless remains common among some esoteric religious groups, such as forms of modern Paganism, in both Europe and North America. Though in many films, such as The Da Vinci Code, and Ghostbusters, ley lines feature prominently.

SOUTH-WEST DRAGON SITES

The St Michael line of traditional dragon sites in south-west England, is remarkable for its length and accuracy. It appears to be set between two prominent Somerset hills, both dedicated to St. Michael with ruined churches on their summit. These two hill are Glastonbury Tor and "The Mump" at Burrowbridge some ten miles to the south-west. It is doubtful that these historic sites, seperated in time could have been deliberately surveyed. It is more likely that the builders simply felt the locations were right, for no other reason than that. A gut feeling, the views and proximity to resources or human settlements. We are sure you will have fallen in love with a location, just because it makes you feel good. But, in religious terms and beliefs, those practicing may have been prone to stronger feelings. Especially, before the civilization rinse that has overtaken many of our primeval instincts. Though it may just be a series of coincidences, the frequency of such apparently unconnected sites, all on the same line, cannot be dismissed entirely.

KEY ALIGNMENT SITES

St Michael's Mount Grid Ref: SW 52456 29857 - St Michael’s Mount is a small island off the coast of Cornwall where the archangel Michael is said to have appeared to fishermen in the 8th century AD. It was once a Benedictine Priory and is now owned by the St. Aubyn family.

Carwynnen or Giant's Quoit Grid ref: SW 65006 37187 - This is thought to be a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age dolmen tomb. It collapsed in an earthquake in 1967 and there intention of re-erecting this at some stage.

Ladock Church Grid Ref: SW 9446 51062 - The village of Ladock is named after the patron saint of the parish church, St Ladoca.

Bofarnel Downs (Tumuli) Grid Ref: SX 11817 63367 - A group of round barrows probably dating to the Bronze Age adorn the top of this hill.

The Hurler's Stone Circle Grid Ref: SX 25837 71298 - An early Bronze Age monument comprising three circles aligned approximately south-southwest/north-northeast. The name of the Hurlers stems from the legend that the three circles here were men turned to stone for sporting on the Sabbath. The granite stones have been dressed to shape and have roughly level tops. A floor of granite crystals was discovered in the middle ring whith a diameter of approximately 41 meters.

The Cheesewring Grid Ref: SX 25762 72478 - This is an option to The Hurler's stone circle and a much more likely alignment point than the Hurler's stone circle near by. This weathered granite outcrop standing several meters high provides a very distinctive feature that could have been seen from a considerable distance and most probably from the next point on Dartmoor, the Great Links Tor.

Great Links Tor (Dartmoor) Grid ref: SX 55073 86753 - This is one of the most impressive Tors on Dartmoor. From its high vantage point of 586m there are excellent views over Cornwall and parts of Dartmoor. The Tor is crowned by a number of protruding granite plugs, giving it a very distinctive appearance.

Cosdon Hill (Dartmoor) Grid Ref: SX 63598 91553 - The remains of five widely varying cairns can be found at the summit of Cosdon Hill, north Dartmoor, Devon. The alignment approximately follows the ridge of the hill in a north-south manner close to a stone row.

West Buckland Church Grid Ref: ST 17324 20518 - A Norman church dedicated to St. Mary standing in a prominent position on the western edge of this Somerset village.

Burrowbridge Mump Grid Ref: ST 35920 30528 - Burrowbridge Mump is a solitary hillock sticking up out of the southern Somerset Levels. Like Glastonbury Tor its visible neighbor a church dedicated to St. Michael and probably built in Saxon times, once adorned its summit.

Glastonbury Tor Grid Ref: ST 51180 38603 - Glastonbury Tor at the heart of Avalon, with it's remains of a church dedicated to St. Michael gracing it's summit. Glastonbury is associated with many legends including a connection with the early Christian Church. It is also reputed to be the resting place of King Arthur and his Queen Gwenevere.

Oliver's Castle (Hill Fort) Grid Ref: SU 00098 64687 - An Iron Age hill fort, on the edge of the escarpment, just to the north of the market town of Devizes. Round barrows close by suggest earlier Bronze Age dating to 2000+ BCE. Close to the castle on Roundway Hill a battle was fought in the English Civil War (1643) between the Royalists and Parliamentarians resulting a defeat of the latter.

Beckhampton Long Barrow Grid Ref: SU 08704 69107 - A significant Neolithic barrow dated to 3000+ BCE. The barrow is aligned approximately to the orientation of the St. Michael alignment with a northeastern entrance pointing to Avebury.

The Avebury Henge Grid Ref: SU 10269 69957 - The largest henge monument in Britain dating to circa 3200 BCE. This vast complex with its many hundred stones was the centre of a well organised culture that existed in Wiltshire in the late Neolithic period. Some of the stones weighing as much as 70 tons were brought from the nearby Marlborough Downs. This area is part of a World Heritage site.

Temple Farm SU 14849 72362 - Once owned by the Knights Templar from whom it derived it's name Temple Farm lies at the heart of the mystical twin circle complex that embodies the Great Pyramid design. It's post ion falls where the King's Chamber would be in the Great Pyramid design.

Drayton St. Leonard Church Grid Ref: SU 59660 96520 - The small village church in Drayton St Leonard, dedicated to St. Catherine has been worshipped in for over 800 years. Much of the Nave is Norman, with two fine doorways, although the Chancel was added later. Its most striking feature is the free-standing tower, built of massive oak and chestnut beams standing within the main building and rising through the roof to a height of 43 feet.

Pitstone Church Grid Ref: SP 94224 14929 - The Church of St Mary the Virgin, hidden away up an inconspicuous side road, has been closed for regular services since 1972 and is now vested in The Churches Conservation Trust. However the attractive 13th century building is still structurally sound and occasional services take place by special dispensation.

Ivinghoe Hills Grid Ref: SP 96219 16209 - Ivinghoe hills lie just to the south east of the beacon. Ivinghoe Beacon lies on one of the highest points of the Chiltern escarpment, which stretches from Goring Gap in Oxfordshire to Royston in Hertfordshire. The hillfort encompasses the entirety of the hilltop, creating a roughly triangular area. This is the start of the Icknield Path Way that leads to Knettishall Heath Country Park in Suffolk. In the other direction the Ivinghoe Beacon links to the sites in the Avebury area via the Ridgeway footpath.

Bury St Edmunds Abbey Grid Ref: TL 85905 64254 - The remains of the once great Abbey of St Edmund at Bury ruined following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, was once one of the richest Abbeys in England. Originally founded circa 633 by the first East Anglian martyr-king, Sigeberht, it later became the burial-place and shrine of the last East Anglian martyr-king, Edmund, one of the patron saints of England. The Abbey incorporated two churches St Margaret's and St James. This site is the last principal place on the alignment. The projected line passes into the North Sea at the southern end of Hopton on Sea.

SKEPTICS & PSEUDO-SCIENCE

Ley lines have been characterised as a form of pseudo-science. On The Skeptic's Dictionary, the American philosopher and skeptic Robert Todd Carroll noted that none of the statements about magnetic forces underpinning putative ley lines has been scientifically verified.

Williamson and Bellamy characterised ley lines as "one of the biggest red herrings in the history of popular thought". One criticism of Watkins' ley line theory states that given the high density of historic and prehistoric sites in Britain and other parts of Europe, finding straight lines that "connect" sites is trivial and ascribable to coincidence. Johnson stated that "ley lines do not exist". He cited Williamson and Bellamy's work in demonstrating this, noting that their research showed how "the density of archaeological sites in the British landscape is so great that a line drawn through virtually anywhere will 'clip' a number of sites".

Other statistical significance tests have shown that supposed ley-line alignments are no more significant than random occurrences and/or have been generated by selection effects. The paper by statistician Simon Broadbent is one such example and the discussion after the article involving a large number of other statisticians demonstrates the high level of agreement that alignments have no significance compared to the null hypothesis of random locations.

A study by David George Kendall used the techniques of shape analysis to examine the triangles formed by standing stones to deduce if these were often arranged in straight lines. The shape of a triangle can be represented as a point on the sphere, and the distribution of all shapes can be thought of as a distribution over the sphere. The sample distribution from the standing stones was compared with the theoretical distribution to show that the occurrence of straight lines was no more than average.

The archaeologist Richard Atkinson once demonstrated this by taking the positions of telephone booths and pointing out the existence of "telephone box leys". This, he argued, showed that the mere existence of such lines in a set of points does not prove that the lines are deliberate artefacts, especially since it is known that telephone boxes were not laid out in any such manner or with any such intention.

In 2004, John Bruno Hare wrote:

"Watkins never attributed any supernatural significance to leys; he believed that they were simply pathways that had been used for trade or ceremonial purposes, very ancient in origin, possibly dating back to the Neolithic, certainly pre-Roman. His obsession with leys was a natural outgrowth of his interest in landscape photography and love of the British countryside. He was an intensely rational person with an active intellect, and I think he would be a bit disappointed with some of the fringe aspects of ley lines today."

— John Bruno Hare, Early British Trackways Index

THE LEY HUNTING COMMUNITY

In 1962, a group of ufologists established the Ley Hunter's Club. Michell's publication was followed by an upsurge in ley hunting as enthusiasts travelled around the British landscape seeking to identify what they believed to be ley lines connecting various historic structures. Parish churches were particularly favoured by the ley hunters, who often worked on the assumption that such churches had almost always been built atop pre-Christian sacred sites. The 1970s and 1980s also saw the increase in publications on the topic of ley lines. One ley lines enthusiast, Philip Heselton, established the Ley Hunter magazine, which was launched in 1965. It was later edited by Paul Screeton, who also wrote the book Quicksilver Heritage, in which he argued that the Neolithic period had seen an idyllic society devoted to spirituality but that this was brought to an end through the introduction of metal technologies in the Bronze Age. He argued that this golden age could nevertheless be restored. Another key book produced among the ley hunting community was Mysterious Britain, written by Janet and Colin Bord.

Part of the popularity of ley hunting was that individuals without any form of professional training in archaeology could take part and feel that they could rediscover "the magical landscapes of the past". Ley hunting welcomed those who had "a strong interest in the past but feel excluded from the narrow confines of orthodox academia". The ley hunting movement often blended their activities with other esoteric practices, such as numerology and dowsing. The movement had a diverse base, consisting of individuals from different classes and of different political opinions: it contained adherents of both radical left and radical right ideologies. Ley hunters often differed on how they understood the ley lines; some believed that leys only marked a pre-existing energy current, whereas others thought that the leys helped to control and direct this energy. They were nevertheless generally in agreement that the ley lines were laid out between 5000 BCE and 2600 BCE, after the introduction of agriculture but before the introduction of metal in Britain. For many ley hunters, this Neolithic period was seen as a golden age in which Britons lived in harmony with the natural environment.

Attitudes to the archaeological establishment varied among ley hunters, with some of the latter wanting to convert archaeologists to their beliefs and others believing that that was an impossible task. Ley hunters nevertheless often took an interest in the work of archaeo-astronomers like Alexander Thom and Euan Mackie, being attracted to their arguments about the existence of sophisticated astronomer-priests in British prehistory. In suggesting that prehistoric Britons were far more advanced in mathematics and astronomy than archaeologists had previously accepted, Thom's work was seen as giving additional credibility to the beliefs of ley hunters.

Paul Devereux succeeded Screeton as the editor of the Ley Hunter. He was more concerned than many other ley hunters with finding objective evidence for the idea that unusual forms of energy could be measured at places where prehistoric communities had erected structures. He was one of the founding members of the Dragon Project, launched in London in 1977 with the purpose of conducting radioactivity and ultrasonic tests at prehistoric sites, particularly the stone circles created in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. The Dragon Project continued its research throughout the 1980s, finding that certain prehistoric sites did show higher or lower than average rates of radiation but that others did not and that there was no consistent pattern. Professional archaeologists, whose view of the ley hunters was largely negative, took little interest in such research.

It was only in the 1980s that professional archaeologists in Britain began to engage with the ley hunting movement. In 1983, Ley Lines in Question, a book written by the archaeologists Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy, was published. In this work, Williamson and Bellamy considered and tackled the evidence that ley lines proponents had amassed in support of their beliefs. As part of their book, they examined the example of the West Penwith district that Michell had set out as a challenge to archaeologists during the previous decade. They highlighted that the British landscape was so highly covered in historic monuments that it was statistically unlikely that any straight line could be drawn across the landscape without passing through several such sites. They also demonstrated that ley hunters had often said that certain markers were Neolithic, and thus roughly contemporary with each other, when often they were of widely different dates, such as being Iron Age or medieval. The overall message of Williamson and Bellamy's book was that the idea of leys, as it was being presented by Earth Mysteries proponents, had no basis in empirical reality. Looking back on the book's reception in 2000, Williamson noted that "archaeologists weren't particularly interested."

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