The Wansdyke & District Forums

ok slightly embarrassed to ask but. went up to the stones really early sunday to finally try the dawn photography thing everyone keeps recommending, and there was a figure in among the stones in a long robe, hood up, completely still, facing the sunrise. i did not hang about. proper hair-on-end moment. got home and read theres an old story of a druid priest that haunts the circle. did i see the ghost?? only half joking. only half.

Dave, I have wonderful news and slightly deflating news, and they are the same news. That was almost certainly me, or one of my grove. We greet the sunrise at the stones on the quarter days and around the solstices, and yes, we wear the robes, and yes, we stand very still facing the east, and yes, we have frightened the living daylights out of more than one early photographer over the years. I am sorry. We are not ghosts. We are just cold men in dressing gowns being solemn at five in the morning.

There IS an old druid-ghost tradition at Avebury, Dave, to be fair to you; the robed figure among the stones at dawn or dusk goes back well before Bran and his friends. But here is the lovely thing, and Bran will forgive me for it: nobody can ever tell the difference. A robed figure standing silent in the circle at first light is a robed figure standing silent in the circle at first light, whether it is a ghost of 1700 or Bran of last Tuesday. The modern druids did not invent that image. They stepped into one that was already waiting for them. That is rather wonderful, when you think about it.

this is the best answer to anything i have ever received online. so i was scared witless by Bran in a dressing gown, but also there genuinely IS a robed-figure tradition that he accidentally fits perfectly, so both things are true at once. i love this place. (it still took me a good ten minutes to walk back to the car though Bran, no offence.)