This is the Ring Stone found within Avebury Stone Circle. Hundreds of Handfastings have been carried out here over the years, including my own, conducted by the great, late Terry Dobney; the Arch Druid and Keeper of the Stones, my beautiful friend.
Even though it works perfectly as an altar during Handfastings, it is not called the Ring Stone because of these unions. Terry told me that it was originally one of the tall megaliths that formed the circle, and would have had a hole in it, giving it its name. There is also an interesting, albeit sad, story about how it came to be a smaller rock.
Avebury is part of a set of Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial sites, and the recumbent Ring Stone had come to be used for pagan wedding and fertility ceremonies until it was smashed by a church minister who was enraged by it. I’m not sure exactly when this is supposed to have happened, but for ten years after the stone was smashed there were no babies born to newly married couples in the village. Concerned villagers realised that the minister had made a huge mistake in breaking up the rock; and so they collected up as many pieces of the smashed stone as they could find, burying them together. This action brought fertility back to Avebury, and babies were born once again.
When my husband and I were Handfasted by Terry we were given a choice - be Handfasted for a year and a day, using this time as a trial period, with the opportunity to repeat the process as many times as we wished; or pledge a lifetime commitment, which is exactly what we did.
You can see a picture of us being Handfasted by Terry at the Ring Stone a bit further down my Instagram page.
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