by Dr.Adam Stout
Abstract
Eccentric, acerbic, always unique, George Watson Macgregor Reid put mystical Druidry at the heart of the Stonehenge solstice. As the founding ancestor of much modern Druidry, many people are familiar with his name, and yet very little is known about him. Where did his ideas come form? What made him don the Druid’s garb and take his message to Stonehenge? The answers are not obvious, particularly since he was not one to leave a good tale unembellished. This paper is an attempt to unravel some of the threads of Reid’s fascinating and complicated life.
Dr Adam Stout’s pleasantly chaotic meander through life has included stints as a cowman, Green Party activist, environmental campaigner, psychogeographer, local historian and writer, hedge-hobo and lost-it mystic, festival organiser and full-time four-year old. At the age of 38 he took himself off to university to study archaeology, got lots of gold stars and a three-year Government grant to investigate the relationship between ‘fringe’ and ‘mainstream’ views of the ancient past, and the fragile nature of ‘truth’ in such matters. Latter-day Stonehenge druidry was one of the topics he looked at, from which developed an enduring fascination for George Watson Macgregor Reid, whose zany and forceful personality, and unique utterances put Druidic mysticism at the heart of the Stonehenge solstice.