Friends of Bride's Mound: Gathering, Archaeology, Hedge-Laying

C/O Glastonbury Opportunities, Unit 7 Abbey Mews, BA6 9DY.

Email; friendsofbridesnew@yahoo.co.uk 

January 2017 Newsletter

IMBOLC – Wednesday 1st February 2017 

The Friends of Brides Mound invite you to join us for the day, the feast day of St. Brigid. 

9.30am White Spring opens (tbc)

 10am Ceremony at the White Spring (tbc)

12 noon Meditation at the Well Head at Chalice Well

10.00 – 1.00pm Refreshments available at Chalice Well

1pm Walk to Bride's Mound with Serena Roney-Dougal; 

Meet outside the White Spring, where the White and the Red springs join.

Wear clothing and footwear suitable for wet and muddy conditions! 

2.30pm Gathering around the fire on Bride's Mound.

AGM.  The Library of Avalon, Glastonbury 22nd March from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.  All welcome.

Archaeology on the Mound 

Somerset skeletons are oldest evidence of monks found in UK

As you might have seen on the national news, Richard Brunning of Southwest Heritage Trust led a team doing the first archaeological dig on the mound since Philip Rahtz’s dig in the 1960s. All very exciting!

Songs of Bride: Fundraising CD for Friends of Bride's Mound

"Songs of Bride" arrived today. I was afraid I wouldn't like it -- a lot of pagan music is rockier than I enjoy. But saving Bride's Mound is a worthwhile project and I'm happy to kick in a little now and then to help pay off the bank loan, which is what earnings from this CD are meant to do. (Though regular old donations probably do still more in that regard. Or membership sales.)

I was pleasantly surprised. The music is good, well performed and well presented, and appeals to me (as a bonus). The cover is graced with lovely artwork, and the words are included. Very pleased to have these love songs to Brigit.

From the Friends of Bride's Mound website:

Songs of Bride: CD of music honouring Bride by various artists including Jana Runnalls, Julie Felix, Silver on the Tree, Triskelian... Cover art by Dorrie Joy and sleeve art by Jill Smith. This CD has been produced to raise funds for the Friends of Bride's Mound and all the tracks have been donated free of charge by the artists.

Hello and Welcome to Friends of Bride's Mound TM Bride's Mound is a mound to the West of Glastonbury, just near the foot of Wearyall Hill (on the right in the photo). Small it may be, but its history is great, being known as the western gateway to Avalon where pilgrims would stay in vigil through the night before passing on up the processional way to Avalon proper - and to the Tor. The mound appears to have served this function through a seamless transition into the Christian period, as this is the legendary site of a pre-Christian bruga - a Druidic hostel/college. Such an established spritual community would have been a fertile source of recruitment for monks at the fledgeling abbey. Later, King Arthur is said to have had a vision of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child here, and that St. Brigid of Kildare (Brighde) stayed here in 488 AD. Two stone chapels were dedicated to her and built, consecutively, on the same site where, as legend would have it, stood a much earlier wooden structure - the Shrine of Saint Mary Magdalene- during Brigid's time. As so often happens on the Isle of Avalon, the results of archaeological investigations turn out to be remarkably consistant with ancient legend. Download our January 2008 Newsletter Here (pdf file)