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Beltane At Thornborough
Well we had a wonderful Beltane weekend in North Yorkshire. For us it started on Saturday morning with a drive up to the neolithic site of Thornborough Henge, and the erecting of a tent! When I say tent erecting, it was actually more like kite flying at some points as it was a tad breezy up there. It is a beautiful setting though, up past Ripon, surrounded only by typical English countryside. We camped right up next to the Henge on the outside, with all the stalls being placed on the inside of the henge. Other campers from the group were also there, with yet others coming up just for the day on Sunday.
The whole event took place in and around the central Henge in a complex of three. Once we had got the tent up we had a wander round, looking at all the wonderful things on sale, before meeting up with some of the group and heading off for a trip to a very odd local site, the Druid’ s Temple at Ilton near the quaint little market town of Masham. That was quite a surreal experience!
We then returned to Thornborough and had a lovely evening drinking wine and chatting with good friends, while listening to the drummers, and to the pipers, piping the sun down. It was quite cold, but the friendship was warm, and the wine and mead helped too!
It was a chilly night, but we had taken enough bedding to keep an army warm, so we were fine, and woke early on the Sunday, eager to see what the day would bring, looking forward to the celebrations. We were not disappointed!
The opening ritual began at noon and was a druidic ceremony, which was a very pleasant surprise for me! The whole thing was started off by an introduction from the Jester, otherwise known as Oliver Robinson.