When people know that I am a Druid what comes to mind is an old man with white hair and a beard in robes with a cloak and a staff. I do visually fit that archetype

But also they tend to equate Druids with stone circles.

This picture by Stephen Barnes was based on me but let me tell you a secret.

Stone circles generally leave me cold, I often find it very difficult to engage with the aura that other people sense when visiting such places. There are exceptions, Avebury is a place that I do enjoy visiting but Stonehenge, whilst spectacular I just don’t get.

A few weeks ago I was on a druid retreat in the Kilmartin Glen which is located in Mid Argyll which is situated in South West Scotland and in this small Glen they have identified 800 prehistoric site many of which are associated with ritual burial. I was there with a 14 other druid types and we visited some of the better known sites, Temple Wood and Nether Largie linear cemetery and if I am honest I didn’t really get it but we also visited Dunadd which is an Iron Age hill fort which is believed to be where the Chieftains of Dalradia where inaugurated by placing their foot in a carved stone footprint which is still there. We did a particularly powerful ceremony there and yes I did get it. It is a wonderful location.

But the location that I fully connected with was Achnabreac which is the location of dozens of rock carvings, almost exclusively cup and ring marks. As I stood there it was as though the ancient people were present, sitting there grinding pebbles round and round to form the cup and then pecking away with small boulders to form the concentric rings. there was such a sense of timelessness and continuity. It’s a place that I must return to quite soon.

So I wondered why I find it so difficult and quite simply many of the sites are far too manicured. Just up the hill from where I sit typing this there is a Bronze Age tomb that has never been excavated with a huge Oak tree growing out of it and when I go there it’s as though I can see and hear the ancestors. Maybe I can!