Alfred Watkins

First published in 1925 THE OLD STRAIGHT TRACK remains the most important source for the study of ancient tracks or leys that criss-cross the British Isles- a fascinating system which was old when the Romans came to Britain. First in the Herefordshire countryside, and later throughout Britain, Alfred Watkins noticed that beacon hills, mounds, earthworks, moats and old churches built on pagan sites seemed to fall in straight lines. His investigation convinced him that Britain was covered with a vast network of straight tracks, aligned with either the sun or the path of a star. Although traces of this network can be found all over the country, the principles behind the ley system remain a mystery. Are they the legacy of a prehistoric scientific knowledge which is now all but lost? And was their purpose secular or religious?

Its Mounds, Beacons, Moats, Sites and Mark Stones

The Old Straight Track

These¬-if ancient-seem to be invariably on (not merely alongside) a ley, and in many cases are at the crossing of two leys, thus appropriating the sighting point to a new use. -from "Churches" Were the significant sites of ancient Britain deliberately aligned along an invisible web of power? Or is it a mere coincidence that so many locations associated with worship and arcane knowledge are situated in unique spatial relationship to one another? Self-taught photographer and anthropologist Alfred Watkins was the first to discover the "ley lines" apparently connecting the churches, megaliths, earthen mounds, holy wells, and other places of power in Britain, and he published his results in this 1922 book. Though he offers no extraordinary explanation of their meaning-except, perhaps, that the leys represent ancient trade routes-others have associated ley lines with UFOs, crop circles, dowsing, and other paranormal phenomena. Long out of print, this foundational work is a vital resource for students of the supernatural. British photographer and amateur archaeologist ALFRED WATKINS (1855-1935) was a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and served as president of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club in 1919. He also wrote The Old Straight Track (1925) and The Ley Hunter's Manual (1927).

Alfred Watkins

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