Glorious Glastonbury Tor, Somerset (Image: Michelle Cowbourne / SWNS)
A majestic shaft of light illuminates one of Britain’s most sacred landmarks, awakening legends within.
This stunning sunset bathed Glastonbury Tor in a mystical golden hue as the first signs of spring emerge.
Steeped in legend the evocative landmark offers magnificent views of the Somerset Levels, Dorset, Wiltshire and Wales.
The Grade I listed roofless St Michael’s Tower is all that remains of the 14th-century church of St Michael.
The site is managed by the National Trust and has been designated a scheduled monument. The Tor is mentioned in Celtic mythology, particularly its links to King Arthur.
Glastonbury is said to be The Isle of Avalon, where the fabled leader of the post-Roman Britons went after his last battle.
Jesus also is said to have come to Glastonbury as a boy, travelling here with his uncle Joseph of Arimathea, and legend has it the Holy Grail lies here in a myth that inspired William Blake to write the famous poem Jerusalem.
Photographer Michelle Cowbourne, who captured the jaw-dropping scene on the green and pleasant land, aptly named her shot The Beam.
She joked: “There was a strange glowing object in the sky…I think it was called the sun! It was bitterly cold up there but so worth it.”
Photographer Michelle Cowbourne captured the stunning sunset at Glastonbury Tor (Image: Michelle Cowbourne / SWNS)
Low-lying damp ground around the ancient site can produce a visual effect known as a Fata Morgana when the Tor appears to rise out of the mist. This optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are strongly bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed. The Italian term Fata Morgana is derived from the name of Morgan le Fay, a powerful sorceress in Arthurian legend.
Despite the serene setting Glastonbury Tor, which rises to 518ft (158m), has a grisly past and was where Abbot Richard Whiting was executed in 1549 on the orders of Thomas Cromwell, the first Earl of Essex.
It sits just a few miles from Worthy Farm where in June veteran rockers Neil Young and Rod Stewart will headline the annual festival as hundreds of thousands of revellers hope to enjoy a spiritual awakening of their own…and have fingers crossed for sunshine like this, rather than the mud baths the jamboree has become famous for.