by Magi We have to thank Alfred Watkins for the discovery of ley lines. In the Old Straight Track he wrote:  "… imagine a fairy chain stretching from mountain peak to mountain peak, as far as the eye could reach, and paid out until it touched the 'high places' of the earth at a number of ridges, banks and knolls. Then visualise a mound, circular earthwork, or a clump of trees, planted on these high points, and in low points, in the valley other mounds ringed round with water to be seen from a distance. The great standing stones brought to mark the way at intervals, and on a bank leading up to a mountain ridge or down to a ford the track cut deep so as to form a guiding notch on the skyline as you come up. In a mountain pass, the road cut deeply at the highest place straight through the ridge to show as a notch a far off. Here and there and at two ends of the way, a beacon fire used to lay out the track. With ponds dug on the line, or streams banked up into 'flashes' to form reflecting points on the beacon track so that it might be checked when at least once a year the beacon was fired on the traditional day. All these works exactly on the sighting line."
Watkins started to plot lines of ancient sites and quickly got a feel for those which cropped up most frequently. He began to realise from the nature of these sites how the leys could have been constructed. It was well within the capability of Neolithic and bronze Age people to set down a straight line across hilly country using three surveying poles. Watkins believed that natural markers were used to set out the ley system. The most prominent of these were hill tops, and he fund that all leys had a hilltop for at least one of their traditional points. While the highest hill in an area would often be used, it was more important that it should have a distinctive shape or be prominent in relation to the surrounding countryside. Many of these hills have become known as 'holy' and were often beacon sites. Watkins saw the origin of the beacon in the fires used to lay out the original alignments. Other prominent sites acting as terminal points are rock outcrops, springs and holy wells. Watkins also considered that stone circles and hedges could act as terminal points. Markers were put in place to guide travellers. Thorn tress occur along leys, and planting would have been a way of establishing a mark with relatively little effort. Ideally, the marker tress would be of a species that was foreign to, or rare in, the area, and so easy to distinguish by form and size at all seasons. But tress are a weak point here, because if leys are prehistoric, any existing tress could not possibly be original. In upland areas, significant markers could be made fairly easily with piles of stones. These cairns could reach enormous proportions, those on the tops of hills being capable in some instances of being seen for many miles. Watkins also found much larger stones marking leys, particularly in valleys. Typically, these are unworried and were chosen for their distinctiveness. Markers can often be found on the roadside, in a bank or beneath a hedge. Watkins found them sited at intervals along a ley often at the crossing of two leys. In time, more elaborate structure were built on the lines, including mounds of earth and stones, burial chambers and dolmens or cromlechs. natural high point were emphasised by wounds, often slightly off the hilltop, so they could be seen from the valley bottom. In low-lying land, the ditch which often surrounded these markers tended to fill with water after rain, and Watkins saw a progression to the circular moats which were common in his district. Watkins is a key element in the ley system. It seemed to Watkins to have a role both in laying out the system and in guiding travellers. Its significance was in its reflecting qualities. If a pond and beacon were both on the line, you would only see the reflection of the beacon in the pond if you were on the line too. More generally, water will show up very well from a distance by catching and reflecting light from the sky. It is clear that long dead-straight tracks are found in many parts of the world, not just in England. Watkins know of the Chin tracks in India which follow the most direct line between villages regardless of gradient; the straight camel tracks of Palestine, sighted on tree clumps and ridges, notched where the line went through; and the skyline cairns of Egypt set up as landmarks or caravans. It is on the American continent that the most complete evidence is to be found. Watkins wrote of the Cree Indian tracks always being straight, and recent findings in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, confirm the existence of long straight tracks laid down by the Anasazi. In Bolivia, straight tracks up to 50 miles long can often be found aligned to a mountain top, and churches are frequently found on them. Watkins was not the only one to carry out research into leys. There are numerous examples from Victorian times onwards of work on the alignment of ancient sites. One of the earliest was the Reverend Edward Dale who, in the 1840s, found that several prehistoric sites in England, including Averbury, Sibury Hill and Stonehenge were aligned north-south with each other. He went further and tied the distances between sites with the known distances between planets in the solar system. Being lost in the mists of time, we shall probably never know for sure the true purpose of the ley lines. But many theories have been put forward. Are they simply tracks that prehistoric man used to travel from A to B? Certainly 'as the crow flies' is the quickest way to get around and of particular important when travelling on foot. Ley lines can be dowsed, suggesting they are lines of Earth energy, similar to the energy lines in the body which the acupuncturist seeks to manipulate and clear blockages from. It is recorded that Alfred Watkins came to see the ley mark points in terms of the elements: earth, air, fire and water. He believed that they could so perfectly fit this classification that one of their functions was for ritual or training purposes. Or are the related to UFOs as postulated in Skyways and Landmarks, a short pamphlet written in 1961 by Tony Wedd postulating a link between UFO sightings and mark points on the ground. So, how do you go about finding leys? For this you need three resources of mapwork, fieldwork and archive work blended with intuition. Good quality, accurate maps (such as the Ordnance Survey maps sold in the UK) are an essential. A scale of 1:50,000 is the most useful to start with. Any likely leys can then be checked on a 1:25,000 scale. Flat, rather than folded maps are preferred. Also, the older the map the better. See if you can consult one at your local library. Newer maps do not have nearly as much detail as older ones due partly to a real loss of features in the countryside as a result of modern agricultural practices. So, lay the map flat on a table. Think about the mark points that are most likely to indicated on the map: village churches (these were often built on older sacred sites), tumuli, castle mounds, stone circles and standing stones, wayside crosses and beacon sites. I'm sure similar markers can be identified in the US, just play around with the map for a while, together with a sharp pencil (but only if it's your map!) and a long transparent ruler. Let intuition take over and see if you can find some promising lines, passing through several of these points. If you find a likely line, see if there is confirmation by way of stretches of road following the line, road junctions, crossroads or fords falling on it. But this is only a start as many potential mark points won't appear on the map: at some stage you have to follow up with fieldwork. Sometimes following the track you have mapped is not possible, as care has to be taken to keep to public footpaths or ask landowners' permission. If you have your own transport, you could follow the line as closely as possible by public roads, stopping where the line crosses to observe and explore. In particular, the high and low points on the line should be noted and investigated for possible sighting markers. Draw a cross-section along the line by noting where the contours cross and gradually build up a profile on the ley on a separate piece of paper. The visibility of one point from another can then be determined and the likely spots found. For examples, are there clumps of trees in a straight line. With the fieldwork you are really looking for anything that might confirm the existence of a ley. Markstones buried in a hedge bottom or by the side of a road, tree clumps on prominent sites that can be seen from a distance, earthworks might be indicative of an old sunken way, or indeed anything unusual on the line. You will quickly pick up the feel of a ley and know when you are on it - try dowsing it. This may be a matter of intuition, but there is also a matter of visual rightness. It is a good idea to take photographs where possible as sties are still disappearing at a rapid rate. There are also many clues hidden among the archives of the local library or museum. The old Victorian antiquarians often observed much that would ignored today. The records of local Archaeological, Antiquarian or Historical Society often refer to features in the landscape such as stones or holy wells which have since vanished. There may be folklore legends attached to sites, which should always be recorded. The County Sites and Monuments Records give details of all archaeological sites. Aerial photographs can be another valuable source of information. So, good hunting! | 
