Visitors to Glastonbury Tor will find an unusual maze pattern around the sides of the hill and there has been much speculation as to the origins of these rings. Agricultural and defence purposes have been explored, as has the similarity of the pattern to that of Cretan labyrinths.

The waters of the sea lapped at the foot of Glastonbury Tor up until 2000 years ago with the first significant occupation believed to date from c500 – 1000 AD (early middle ages). The second phase being between 900 and 1100 AD. A charter of 1243 granted permission for a fair to be held at the Monastery of St. Michael on the hill, thus firmly dating a monastic community to this period. 

The original monastic church of St. Michael is widely thought to have been destroyed in the powerful earthquake which shook this area in 1275. The church was then rebuilt in the 14th century, of which only the tower now remains. St. Michael’s monastery fell into disrepair following the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII in around 1535 during the English Reformation. Richard Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury was hung on Glastonbury Tor on 15th November 1539.