The Burton Dassett Hills

The Burton Dassett Hills in Warwickshire lie just north of the Edgehill ridge, along the course of an ancient routeway which passes sites such as the Rollright Stones, and are associated with a range of strange phenomena.

The hills are a beautiful place with wide views across the countryside in all directions, and have a particularly powerful atmosphere which most visitors consciously or unconsciously sense and draws them back over and again. Ley hunters attest to a powerful current of earth energy flowing through the area.

The view from Bonfire Hill

The hills have long been associated with fiery apparitions, once identified as angels or saints, and in more scientific times as geoplasma or earthlights, which appear as person-sized orbs or columns of light in darkness or as misty clouds in daylight. These apparitions float across the ground, spiral into the sky, and can disturbingly set fire to wooden buildings. Their appearance clusters around periods of heavy rain, and scientists believe the ironstone bedrock combined with underground flowing water creates the phenomena.

Burton Dassett Holy Well

The hills in Roman times were known as the Phoenix Hills, a legendary bird born of fire, which perhaps links to their eerie apparitions. The northernmost hill, Bonfire Hill, was the site of Twelfth Night bonfires in the Middle Ages and was perhaps used as a beacon site long into pre-Christian times. Surprisingly, there are no remains of any prehistoric settlement or ritual sites on the hills, although it certainly seems as if the hills were of special significance.

Some of the stone carvings in the church

A holy well – where an orb of geoplasma once appeared and set light to a gatepost – and a Medieval church known as the ‘cathedral in the hills’ stand beside the ancient route to the hills. The church is popularly described as an especially powerful location, and its pillars are adorned with intriguing carvings including a green man, a winged beast with a human face, a fighting dragon and lion, and other more ordinary animals. Some people would link them to the hills’ tradition of fiery apparitions, but their explanation remains a mystery.