Ley lines are the perceived alignments of a number of places of significance or interest, such as ancient megaliths, within a
given geographical area. Their existence was first suggested in 1921 by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins, whose book
The Old Straight Track first brought the notion to the attention of the wider public. The existence of these apparently
remarkable alignments between sites is easily demonstrated. However, the causes of these alignments are disputed.
According to proponents of some ley line theories, the early inhabitants of Great Britain determined the placement of Stonehenge
and various other megalith structures, buildings, monuments, or mounds according to a system of these lines, which often pass
through, or near, several such structures. Some of these theories believe leys to have had some astronomical significance, or to
relate to traditional religious beliefs associated with these sites. Others simply see leys as marking trade routes. Some have claimed
that these points resonate a special psychic energy. These theories often include elements such as geomancy, dowsing, or UFO's.
Skeptics of these ley line theories believe that they belong in the realms of pseudoscience. Most skeptics believe that ley lines
can be explained completely by chance alignments of random points that appear intuitively unlikely, but can be demonstrated to be
unsurprising coincidences. Some skeptics are investigating if these points have electrical or magnetic forces associated with them.
The concept of ley lines was first propounded by Alfred Watkins. On June 30, 1921, Watkins visited Blackwardine in Herefordshire, and
riding around near some hills in the vicinity of Bredwardine, he noted many of the footpaths therein seemed to connect one hilltop to
another in a straight line. He was studying a map when he noticed that a number of significant places were in alignment. Some people
have portrayed this as being some sort of mystical experience; however, William Henry Black gave a talk entitled
Boundaries and Landmarks to the British Archaeological Association in Hereford in September 1870. Here he speculated that
"Monuments exist marking grand geometrical lines which cover the whole of Western Europe". It is possible that Watkins's experience
stemmed from some half-recollected memories of an account of that presentation.
Watkins believed that in ancient times, when Britain had been far more densely forested, the country had been crisscrossed by a
network of straight-line travel routes, with prominent features of the landscape being used as navigation points. This chance
observation led him onto a line of theorising which he made public at a meeting of the Woolhope Club of Hereford in September 1921.
His work referred back to G. H. Piper's paper presented to the Woolhope Club in 1882 which noted that "A line drawn from the
Skirrid-fawr mountain northwards to Arthur's Stone would pass over the camp and southern most point of Hatterill Hill, Oldcastle,
Longtown Castle, and Urishay and Snodhill castles." The ancient surveyors who supposedly made the lines were given the name 'dodmen.'
Watkins published his ideas in the books Early British Trackways and The Old Straight Track; however, they were
received with skepticism in the archaeological community. The archaeologist O. G. S. Crawford refused to accept advertisements for
the latter in the journal Antiquity, and most archaeologists since then have continued to be dismissive of Watkins's ideas.
The discovery of the Nazca lines, which demonstrated easily observable man-made long straight tracks on the plains of Peru, caused
a resurgence of interest in anthropological explanations of ley lines in the 1970's.
Nevertheless Watkins's contribution has helped stimulate new approaches in archaeology: Alexander Thom has offered a detailed
analysis of megalithic alignments specifically geared to providing evidence complex astronomical information being incorporated in
such sites as Stonehenge. Yet he avoids using the term ley line which has become too much identified with the New Age theories and
Ufology.
Watkins's theories have been adapted by later writers. Some of his ideas were taken up by the occultist Dion Fortune who featured
them in her 1936 novel The Goat-footed God. Since then, ley lines have become the subject of many magical and mystical
theories.
The two British dowsers, Captain Robert Boothby and Reginald Smith of the British Museum have linked the appearance of ley-lines
with underground streams, and magnetic currents. Ley-spotter / Dowser Underwood conducted various investigations and claimed that
crossings of 'negative' water lines and positive aquastats explain why certain sites were chosen as holy. He found so many of these
'double lines' on sacred sites that he named them 'holy lines.'
By the 1960's, the ideas of a landscape crossed with straight lines had become conflated with ideas from various geomantic traditions;
mapping ley lines, according to New Age geomancers, can foster "harmony with the Earth" or reveal pre-historic trade routes.
John Michell's writing can be seen as an example of this. He has referred to the whole face of China being heavily landscaped in
accordance with the laws of Feng Shui. Michell has claimed that Neolithic peoples recognised that the harmony of society depend on
the harmony of the earth force. And so in China, ancient Greece and Scotland men built their temples where the forces of the earth
were most powerful.
Some skeptics have suggested that ley lines are a product of human fancy. Watkins' discovery happened at a time when Ordnance Survey
maps were being sold to the leisure market, making them reasonably easy and cheap to obtain; this may have been a contributing
factor to the popularity of ley line theories.
According to proponents of some ley line theories, the early inhabitants of Great Britain determined the placement of Stonehenge
and various other megalith structures, buildings, monuments, or mounds according to a system of these lines, which often pass
through, or near, several such structures. Some of these theories believe leys to have had some astronomical significance, or to
relate to traditional religious beliefs associated with these sites. Others simply see leys as marking trade routes. Some have claimed
that these points resonate a special psychic energy. These theories often include elements such as geomancy, dowsing, or UFO's.