THE KILLING OF THE EARL OF RONE AT COMBE MARTIN

The Hunting of the Earl of Rone is an ancient ceremony in the village of Combe Martin in England which resembles the film “The Wicker Man”. Although local legend has it that the ceremony derives from the capture of the Earl of Tyrone who fled from Ireland in 1607, Survive the Jive demonstrates that it has clear parallels in European pagan customs and in Hinduism, which proves that the procession, the hobby horse, the fool, and the drowning of the straw idol originate in pre-Christian seasonal Anglo-Saxon rites.

The Pagan Sites of Europe Remembered (31): The Temple of Apollo, Taymouth Castle, Perthshire

Built in 1774, the Temple of Apollo at Taymouth Castle was part of the Neoclassical affectation that was then rife in much of Europe. Was it really a temple, we could well ask. Perhaps not in the sense of fanatical belief, but interest in Apollo, even in its 18th-century iteration, was something of a cult, with a focus on the intellect and the arts -- a more rarefied religion perhaps.