THE BASIC CONCEPT behind the idea of ‘ley lines’ is that all ancient sites were deliberately placed in the landscape to form part of a complex interlocking network of straight alignments. It is an established fact that many megalithic and early Christian sites do fall into straight lines, often across hundreds of miles, but the difference between the pro and anti ley argument is really whether this was done as part of a purpose-built, carefully thought out system, or whether alignments other than those required for obvious astronomical observations are due solely to chance.

A caution about the dangers inherent in ley line study was given by the editress of the local earth mysteries magazine*  who warned that, although a great stimulus could be achieved by getting people to look at the landscape in a different way, there was a not inconsiderable sloppiness of research. Richard Edmonds was the first local author to recognise that a number of antiquities were so positioned as to fall into straight lines and he mentioned three instances of dubious accuracy.*

At the turn of the 19/20th century Sir Norman Lockyear described*  a whole complex of astronomical sight lines fanning out from stone circles but failed to extend these beyond the visible marker and so missed many longer alignments. It was left to John Michell to examine local alignments in detail.

Michell came to West Penwith in 1974 and surveyed 53 sites for alignments. By walking some of Lockyear’s lines ‘in the field’ he discovered numerous other stones placed along them and listed 22 alignments in his published work.*  He concluded that the concentration of all kinds of ancient site in the area meant that West Penwith held the key to the understanding of the megalithic system – numerous attempts have been made to prove or disprove the accuracy of Michell’s findings and his conclusions.

A computer study in 1976 tested Michell’s 53 sites against a random selection of points and confirmed that all but two of his alignments were accurate to within a 10 metre wide band – seven were exact ‘fits’ – as well as finding several new alignments. The simulated data gave “far less direct hits” and it was concluded that results were sufficiently striking to justify further research.

Another survey three years later investigated 3 and 4-point alignments from 52 local sites. It was considered that the density of antiquities were responsible for the higher than chance number of ‘direct hits’ on 3-point alignments, but also that field work done in the past had revealed sites which had not been marked on Ordnance Survey maps – Michell’s leys were deemed to be “very accurately aligned”.*

Readers might well reason that if ancient sites were placed in straight lines, then ‘so what’, ‘what is so remarkable about that?’. Before reading further just pause for a minute; try to work out why a particular house or room or place in the countryside makes you feel relaxed and contented. Have you ever noticed how much difference to the ‘feel’ of a room can be made by moving a single item of furniture? It goes far beyond the simple visual satisfaction with the arrangement of material items.

Prehistoric monuments were carefully sited in the landscape to satisfy conditions of ‘feeling at home’.  Consideration was given not only to the living but also to the ‘comfort’ of ancestors whose spirits could still exert beneficial or malevolent forces on the community. Individual megalithic sites might be placed over a point where main lines of energy flowed through the earth and to where these ‘currents’ converged before flowing out again. This energy is the vital fertilising force of the planet closely associated with watercourses and magnetic activity, both of which are detectable by dowsing. This energy affects the nerve cells of animals and humans, as well as the germination and growth of plants.

Each site formed a link in a complex web of earth energies, the removal of any one of which might break the concentration of power, but which could, apparently, be enhanced by addition of monuments at a later date – sites on some alignments span many millennia.*

Some sites involved a huge amount of physical labour, engineering skills, and long-term observation of the heavens; they were frequently orientated towards significant celestial events so that real or imaged heavenly energies could be channelled through monuments to coalesce with energies underground. But dowsing has revealed that, although alignments might be straight, energy lines are not: they usually have a serpentine motion between ‘junction points’ where a sacred site might be located.

It is known that many ancient stones have disappeared over the past 4000 years but it is also true that many must still remain awaiting discovery; hidden away in hedges and the more inaccessible parts of the landscape.