What is a thin place? It’s a location where the gap between this world and the spiritual one is at its thinness. In my experience, Dale Abbey is such a place. Not the Abbey itself, forlorn, forgotten ruin that it now is, but the cave nearby. Legend has it that in the 12th century there was a baker living in nearby Derby who was a very holy man. He decided to give up his livelihood, and become a hermit. He travelled to the village and made his home in a cave which today remains in good condition as the photograph shows.
His reputation spread, to such an extent it is said that the Abbey was founded to be close to this holy man. The cave/hermitage is easily accessed though the path up to it is steep in places. Inside the cross carved by the hermit is clearly visible, and the sounds of the outside world die away. I stopped there for several minutes, and said a prayer in the stillness, easily imaging the presence of that holy man.
As I left, the stillness of the day was broken by a small gust of wind that came and went, stirring the leaves at my feet, as though to say , “Welcome friend, may God be with you.” It was special moment in a special place, a thin place indeed.
Stuff on Celts, Druids, Standing Stones and suchlike. 