Swinton's Druids Temple

Swinton Druids Temple is neither a temple nor built by Druids. In fact it was built circa 1820 by nobleman William Danby, a very different kind of folly.

New Swinton Hall is a mile or so to the west of Masham, near Ilton. It was built by the owner himself, Danby (1752 - 1833). His next project was the labour intensive work of creating another Stonehenge, with a shilling a day paid to the workers, who he employed as unemployment was high in this part of Yorkshire in the early 19th century.

An enormous oval of altars, menhirs, dolmens, sarsens and other phallic and neo-Druidical paraphernalia was raised on the Yorkshire moors. Several solitary standing stones lined a ceremonial avenue leading to the temple. It is well preserved in the middle of Forestry Commission land.

A guide to the district dated 1910 claimed that "the builder of the temple offered to provide any individual with food, and a subsequent annuity, providing he would reside in the temple seven years, living the primitive life, speaking to no one and allowing his beard and hair to grow. It is said that one man underwent this self-imposed infliction for four-and-a-half years, at the end of which he was compelled to admit defeat.