Ley Lines: The Greatest Landscape Mystery

Product Information

The combination of architectural structures engineered to cross specific paths in geometric patterns and all of it linked to ancient customs and cultures.

It gives a detailed history of the subject from its Edwardian roots, through the hippy revival of the 1960s and 70s, to the rational and multidisciplinary approach of the late 1990s. Looking north west from the crossroads towards Croft Ambrey hill fort, he noticed a striking alignment of historic and prehistoric features that ran, via a short stretch of old lane and over various hilltops, to the spot where he stood and then beyond to Risbury Camp and an archaeological dig unearthing Roman remains. I discovered The Old Straight Track in the mid-1970s, the era of the Stonehenge free festivals and a time when Watkins’ ley lines were the height of countercultural fashion. 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. Born in 1855 into a well-to-do farming family, Watkins was also an amateur archaeologist; it was while out riding in 1921 that he looked out over the landscape and noticed what he later described as a grid of straight lines that stood out like "glowing wires all over the surface of the county", in which churches and standing stones, crossroads and burial mounds, moats and beacon hills, holy wells and old stone crosses, appeared to fall into perfect alignment.In his 1961 book Skyways and Landmarks, Tony Wedd published his idea that Watkins' leys were both real and served as ancient markers to guide alien spacecraft that were visiting Earth. A prominent example of this was the work of Christopher Tilley, who devised the idea of phenomenology, or using human senses to experience a landscape as a means of trying to ascertain how past societies would have done the same. 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.

A 130 paged book designed to run as a parallel piece to my moving image and image-installation To a line, to expand and explore the themes further. The Abacus edition of 1970 was reprinted up to 1999 at least, and carries a copyright dated 1970 "Allen Watkins and Marion Watkins". 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". Above: here you can see a black spiral of energy from an underground stream or geological fault which causes the lead sheet above a bed to change colour.Hutton suggested that some of the enthusiasm formerly directed toward leys was instead directed toward archaeo-astronomy.