May Day tradition

No Morris dancing at dawn, or stone circle for us this May Morning - indeed, we slept well past the sun rise. But we did carry on a local tradition, that has long since died out.

In the evening we walked to the Pin Well. It's a natural spring in a small ravine at the bottom of Kettles Hill below the hill fort, and marked on the map as a wishing well. There are reports that in days of old it was visited every May Day by young and old, who dropped in a crooked pin as an offering to the fairy, and made a wish. By 1920 it seems that the well was regarded as a monument of" dead superstition". Interestingly, nearby is a hawthorn tree. Hawthorns are associations with Beltane, and are considered by some as Fairy trees, to be treated with care and respect so as not to disturb the fairies who live beneath them. We pass by the well quite often on our walks, and have never seen the fairy, but it's a magical place, especially in Spring when when the gorse is in full flower and the birds are singing!
All the same, we made an offering to the fairy of a single gorse flower, and made a wish...

Beltane Greetings, Blip friends!