Lets start at the beginning... What is a Ley-line? What were they used for? Could it all just be random?

Ley-lines are alignments of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths. The phrase was coined in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins, in his books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track.

One of the largest Leys in England, the St. Michaels Ley, is aligned along the path of  the sun on the 8th of May (The spring festival of St. Michael) - it passes through several megalithic sites before it reaches Glastonbury and then on to the Avebury / Silbury complex.

The following natural and man-made features were suggested by Watkins to be reliable ley-markers:

Ancient Mounds, Long-barrows, Cairns, Cursus, Dolmens, Standing stones, mark-stones, Stone circles, Henges, Water-markers (moats, ponds, springs, fords, wells), Castles, Beacon-hills, Churches, Cross-roads, Notches in hills, and Camps (Hill-forts).

Any true "Watkinsian ley" requires it to have a start (or finish) point in the shape of a hill, and a minimum of four points...

What were there original purpose?

I am not here to re-invent the wheel! The Ancient Wisdom website provides an excellent background and description of the various theories concerning these alignments. There are various developed theories on the supposed purpose of ley-lines, some of which include:

• Pagan religious ceremonial pathways - walk ways associated with old Pagan religious customs, such as the administration of funeral rights, or to mark a life events, such as "coming of age" fertility rituals at Easter, etc. Also known as spirit ways, death roads, or funeral paths - this links astronomical alignments below; 
• Feng-Shui / Dragon Currents - observing energy flows linked to the Earths Magnetic Field, the ancient Chinese built temples and monuments at particular points upon these energy lines. They were not always straight, they meandered across landscapes and were associated with alternative masculine and feminine energies according to their "charge"; 
• Astronomical Alignments - the fact that ancient monuments (such as Stone Henge or the Pyramids of Giza) are linked to astronomical observations is irrefutable. The alignment of monuments with the celestial paths of the Sun, Moon and stars is easily observable and links back to theories concerning the use of ley-lines for Pagan religious ceremonial rights; 
• Geometric Alignments - geometry might be involved in the orientation of some ley-lines. It could be argued that this may be a result of astronomical alignment creating 'automatic' or 'accidental' geometry within the layout of certain sites, but this does not explain geometry between sites. As noted on the Ancient Wisdom website, an example is the geometric alignment between Stonehenge, Grovely (Grove-ley) castle and Old Sarum, where these form a perfect equilateral triangle with sides 6 miles long. 
• Traders Tracks - Watkins postulated that the "Old Straight Tracks" may have had a functional use, linking important sites of resource (such as salt, ore or flint) to the market (such as at important cross roads, where people gathered to trade) or a transportation hub (such as a dock or seaside town). Interestingly, Watkins theorised that place names upon alignments could also denote their functional use, in brief: "white", "whits,", "wicks" indicating a salt track; "Red" indicating a pottery track; "Knaps" and "Chap" indicating a flint track; and "Black", "Back", "Burnt", or "Bel" indicating a beacon fire alignment.

Is it all just Randomness??

The main criticism regarding ley-lines are the sheer volume of relevant sites in and around the British isles that produce alignments.  It can be shown that 137 random points can produce eighty 4-point alignments, therefore illustrating that straight lines between any number of points can be due to chance and not to design.

In order to reduce the risk that a ley-line is purely down to chance, I look to find alignments that start and end on a geographical sites (i.e. a hill or point that cannot be moved or easily manipulated by human intervention), and contain artificial markers (i.e. placed there by people) to mark the alignment between those geographical sites - to date, I have been quite successful in finding such alignments... which I will show on a future blog...

Other important ley-line questions for future blog posts...

We have covered the definition and theorised about purpose of ley-lines, but an equally important question that spring immediately to my mind is "who built them" and "when were they built"... these extremely important questions are topics for future posts...

Concerning Winter Hill...

Winter Hill is a 456 metre high hill in Lancashire, England, on the border of the boroughs of Chorley, Blackburn with Darwen and Bolton.  A part of the West Pennine Moors, it is most Westerly point of the Penines.


View North to Winter Hill, from Two Lads (SD65521329)

This hill is special! 

Winter Hill dominates the landscape across the whole Lancashire Plain - it can be clearly seen from afar.  On a clear day the hill is visible from the South Lakes, Lancaster, the Fylde, Liverpool, North Wales, Anglesey, Snowdonia, Cheshire, the Peak District, and Manchester - the TV transmitting station on its summit (known locally as the "Mast") makes it light-up like a Christmas tree at night, and therefore easily identifiable in relation to the other hills in the area.

So much has happened here over the years - from pre-historic landmarks, old folklore tales of ghosts, medieval and modern mining activity,  brutal murders, aeroplane disasters and even UFO sightings; this hill has always been a hotbed of human activity.

Where did my fascination come from?

I was born and raised in Doffcocker, Bolton in the early 80's.  From a very young age I remember looking out of my window and seeing Winter Hill, with the Mast on full display - this view both excited and terrified me...

Walking up the hill was a typical family outing on a hot Summer's day - we would walk from our house on Chorley Old Road, passing through Moss Bank Park and Barrow Bridge.  We would head by Coal Pit Lane, reaching the summit via Green Nook Reservoir and Counting Hill - a real adventure with nothing but a bottle of pop and a tuna sandwich!

However, I also had nightmares about the hill as a child.  Specifically, I would dream that the mast would fall over and come crashing down onto my house!  Of course, we lived much too far away for this to actually happen - the mast is 309 m tall and my house was 4,820 m away as the crow flies - but to my child's mind the threat was very real!  I used to think that "evil things" lived up there on the harsh hill... it scared me to think that it was so close to where I lived, I felt like it was a savage and brutal place, a foreboding place that captivated my imagination.

In the mid 90's my family moved to Horwich (a small town at the Southern base of the hill).  I spent a lot of time exploring Winter Hill from there, learning about its landscape and history - as I grew older I became more interested in its pre-historic past.  It fascinated me to think that pre-historic man stood on the very spot where my feet walked and probably felt the same affinity to this sacred place as I did.  The hill is littered with ancient sites, including bronze-age burial mounds, stone cairns, beacon hills, and carved stones... a treasure trove of landmarks.

Linda Server, in her book titled Lancashire's Sacred Landscape (2010), notes that the words "sacred landscape" are not normally associated with Lancashire!  Those words are more likely to conjure images of Glastonbury Tor, Stone Henge or the Pyramids of Giza.  However, anybody who has been to Winter Hill will agree with me that that the place has a certain sacredness about it.  A feeling that draws people to it, perhaps as like a moth to a flame?

If you don't understand what I am talking about, you simply need to climb atop of the Pike on Easter Sunday with the thronging masses, or track the sunset from Noon Hill Slack as it falls into the streams of the Irish Sea on the Summer Solstice, or perch and watch the fireworks over the Lancashire Plain from the Two Lads on Bonfire Night - then you will understand.

So, what am I going to blog about?

Do the ancient landmarks on Winter Hill hide a secret?  Do local legends and folklore contain clues as to the un-written past of the hill and its community?  I believe they do!

I have identified that Winter Hill (if that is its real name!?! to be discussed on a future blog...) may have played a crucial role in the pre-historic development of the surrounding conurbations - specifically, I have found what I believe to be potential alignments of the landmarks on and around Winter Hill, including an alignment that stretches more than 50 km and passes through some local places of interest (again, I will explain all in a future blog...).

I am not looking to re-write any history books here -  I am not an historian, nor an archaeologist - nor am I a new-age nut looking for lines of energy in the Earth or something!  By profession, I am a Forensic Accountant and so am used to identifying relevant facts from investigation and research, and applying them to a theory with assumptions that builds a picture of what might have been - Hampson explained something very eloquently in his book, History of Rivington (1893), that captures my intent in writing this blog:

"History cannot be written, it can be only copied... there must remain the original bust, and though cloaked by traditions, and surrounded by the "folklore" of a bye-gone age... we may perchance... find some pristine gem, unveil some lost sign, and in loch, wood, hill and glen, discover some calligraphic sign that guide our investigations, or some hieroglyphic that may lead to success..."

I hope you enjoy reading... please let me know what you think!