Welcome to the home of the Bardic Chair of Exeter

 
Based on records dating back to the 18th century, Exeter is one of approximately 30 ancient locations that have the right to elect their own Bard or “Bardic Chair” each year.

A Bard is a poet, songwriter or wordsmith in the Celtic Tradition. The most well known expression of this is probably the Welsh National Eisteddfod, and closer to home, the Cornish Bards- Gorseth Kernow.

This expression of the Bardic tradition has it’s roots within the Druid orders and societies that were popular in the eighteenth century, and who claimed to be a revival of a much older movement dating back to the original Druids of the Iron Age (and who, themselves may have been a continuation of an older still, shamanic order who were contemporary with megalithic monuments like Stonehenge).

The recent revival of previously vacant “Bardic Chairs”- as the locations are now known, was initiated by modern-day druids, most notably the late Tim Sebastian. The bardic movement transcends any one spiritual, or even non-spiritual belief system and is open to anyone who wants to be involved: in essence it “belongs” to the people who live in the respective locations, with the celebration of the arts as it’s prime objective.

The most successful of the revived “Chairs” are Bath (Caer Badon) and Glastonbury (Caer Ynis Witrin), though more are being brought back to life each year, and brand new ones are being created including one just over the border in Exmoor!

Exeter was reclaimed by Mark Lindsey Earley, a former “Bard of Bath”, who, in 2003 took on the role of “Druid Chair” or “Grand Bard” and who is responsible for setting up a competition to elect a new “Bard of Exeter”, who will preside for a year and a day before hosting a competition to elect his or her own successor.