When I asked him about his beliefs, I was expecting the usual stream of New Age gibberish; what I got surprised me.

Terry the Druid does not believe in God, nor even in the gods.

"There is a lot of debate in the pagan community," he says. "Some of them work with gods and goddesses.

"I take a Dawkins view of the world."

What, Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist, arch-atheist and scourge of believers of all shades? Surely not.

"Yes, him. I agree with him totally; evolution and all that."

So you don't worship gods and spirits and things?

"If I worship anything, I worship the Earth," Terry says firmly.

That and ancient motorcycles, which he has a good business restoring.

What about virgin sacrifices, I ask.

Surely you have those?

"Nope, can't find any virgins."

SO what's Silbury all about then?

Again, surprisingly, Terry takes a practical view.

"It's a barometer," he says, claiming that the whole mound is some sort of primitive device to measure slight changes in air pressure, which in turn affect the ground water levels in the compacted chalk.

That and the fact that the River Kennet rises just 200 yards away suggests, say the Druids, that the mound could have also been part of a water-goddess cult.

To be honest it sounds no sillier than the official view - which dismisses Terry's idea as "nuts".

The truth is, we still have no idea what Silbury was for.

Terry the Druid may be just as right as the scientists, and English Heritage plead with me to keep him out of my report for some reason.

Barring a massive earthquake or a meteor strike, Silbury will probably be here for another 4,000 years and who knows what archaeologists then will make of the strange tunnels that were dug and then, only a few decades later, filled in.

No doubt they will come up with as many theories to explain our actions as we do to explain what went on more than four millennia ago.

And no doubt they will bear just as little relation to the truth.

Copyright: DailyMail