Glastonbury Tor can be found outside Glastonbury, Somerset, England with the property being managed by the National Trust.
The singular building is the last remnants of St. Michael's Church.
Glastonbury Tor was recorded to have been named Ynys yr Afalon by the Britons which is believed to be the Avalon of Arthurian legend.
Artifacts found at the nearby
Glastonbury Abbey support that belief.
The slopes of the Tor appear to be quite regularly terraced. Some believe that this formation is the remains of an ancient labyrinth whereas others attribute the terraces to natural ruts formed everywhere on grassy slopes by generations of grazing animals.
The informational plaque inside St. Michael's Tower reads:
GLASTONBURY TOR
Glastonbury Tor rises from the lower Lias clays and limestones throught the middle and upper Lias to a deposit of hard Midford Sand on the cap, 521 FT. High. Known locally as Tor Burr, this is more resistant to erosion than the lower levels, making the slopes steep and unstable.
These steep sculptured slopes, rising dramatically from the Isle of Avalon in the flat Somerset levels, have encouraged much speculation about the origin of the Tor in legend. The earliest reference is a mid-Thirteenth Century story of St. Patrick's return from Ireland in which he became leader of a group of hermits at Glastonbury and discovered an ancient ruined oratory on the summit after climbing through a dense wood.
Scattered finds of prehistoric, Roman and later objects suggest the Tor was always used by man, but evidence for actual occupation from the Sixth Century AD was uncovered in the excavations of 1964-6. A second phase of occupation between 800-1100 was distinguished by the head of a cross and what were probably Christian monk's cells cut into the rock on the summit.
The tradition of a monastic site on the Tor is confirmed by a charter of 1243 granting permission for a fair at the monastery of St. Michael there. The present tower, though later modified, is essentially Fifteenth Century and is associated with the second of two major churches which stood on the summit. The second one was probably built after the destructive earthquake of 1275.
The monastic church of St. Michael, closely associated with the great abbey in the town below, fell into ruin after the Dissolution of Monasteries in 1539 , when Richard Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, was hanged on the Tor.