Pages

25 Jul 2024

The Pagan Sites of Europe Remembered (32): Druid's Temple, Ilton


Part job creation scheme, part neopagan LARP, the Druid's Temple at Ilton in North Yorkshire is a little over 200 years old, but it is nevertheless a sincere attempt to invoke Britain's pagan religious past, so it can be regarded as a semi-authentic pagan site.

The "temple" was the inspiration of the English writer and local landlord William Danby (1752 – 1833). Round about 1800, during an agricultural depression, Danby paid unemployed farm labourers to build a version of the famous Stonehenge stone circle. His attempt to hire a full-time druid to occupy the temple was less successful. To be honest, it would be hard to imagine how he would employ his time.