Procession to Giant’s Castle Maze
Programme illustration depicting Goblin Band iprocessing, by Layan Harman.
The Celebratory Reopening of Giant’s Castle Maze began with a procession. Folk musicians Goblin Band played at Old Town Beach to assemble participants under our mazey banners, before leading the walk along the cliff path out to Giant’s Castle Maze on Salakee Down. Salakee Down is believed to be a site of ritual importance for island people long before the pebble labyrinth was constructed there in the 1950s, as it is the site of two stone circles (one now lost and the other partly lost) and an Iron Age Cliff Castle. While it is impossible to know for sure what kinds of ceremonial practices these ancient people would have performed, ritual walks have long been associated with sacred sites, and it seems almost natural that humans would gather together to intentionally travel to such places. We also know that the May Day Festival - Scilly’s main surviving tradition, which has been practiced across several of the islands since the revival of a truly ancient practice in the 1800s - involved a procession through the town and the sounding of May Horns, and that - more generally - Scilly is the site of many pilgrimages, so holding a procession of our own to reach the labyrinth felt like an appropriate addition to the day’s new folkloric celebrations.
Pilgrims assemble at Old Town Bay. Formerly called Ennor Bay, Old Town Bay is the site of a Norman Church and Quay and a Medieval Castle. This site of constant human habitation on the islands was the perfect place to begin our procession, which drew on practices of the past to bring modern people together.
Our project dowser, Michael, carries a mazey banner.
Walkers assemble under the mazey banners.
Goblin Band sound their instruments to call our pilgrims to attendance.
The banner bearers lead the procession, followed by Goblin Band, and begin the walk out around the coast path.
Rounding Tolman Point, the walkers leave the houses and gardens of Old Town behind, marking the transition from the familiar world of the human to the wild world beyond.
The procession snakes through allotments and farmland to reach the wild coastal heathland.
The path winds along the edges of the cliffs and our Wayfinders Nico and Daisy ensure that no wayward pilgrims are led astray by mazy-creatures, to loose their footing and topple over to their doom. Piskies have been known to inhabit this area and Giant’s Castle Labyrinths was purportedly made by fairies, so you can’t be too careful .
As the crest the twin outcrops of Blue Carn, Sonny of Goblin Band blows a horn to signal approach to the maze.
The purple waveform heather and yellow gorse of high summer bloom across Salakee Down, welcomingly the wanderers.
The procession snakes over the last hill and approachs Giant’s Castle Maze, which sits beside the hulking cliff castle, at the convergence of ancient trackways and well trodden paths. They are met by two otherworldly characters - a jester and a giant snail at the centre of the labyrinth - who are apparitions of our new invented folklore for the site. We have no way to know if similar processions or rituals were performed out on this wild and rugged heathland in bygone centuries, but, as we gather together, it feels both magical and oddly familiar, as if we are tapping into some much older practices where humans of the past have also found imaginative ways of interacting with the land and the inherent magic felt to be present in places like this one.
With huge thanks to everyone who took part, the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust for their permission to hold this procession, and Inga Drazniece for incredible drone shots and photography.
