Explore the real-world places that appear in World's End (Age of Misrule, Book 1) by Mark Chadbourn. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Salisbury Plain / Stonehenge, Edinburgh, Glastonbury Tor, Loch Lomond, Avebury Stone Circle and 7 more.
Wiltshire — A nexus of ancient power
Stonehenge figures as a potent symbol of the returning Old Magic in Chadbourn's world. The ancient stones represent the thinning of the veil between the mundane world and the realm of the Tuatha Dé Danann — the Shining Ones returning to reclaim Britain. The site embodies the idea that pre-Christian sacred geography is re-awakening as the modern world begins to collapse.
Stonehenge was constructed in phases from around 3000 BC to 1500 BC. It is aligned with the summer solstice sunrise and has been used for ritual purposes across millennia. It remains one of the most studied prehistoric monuments in the world.
Stonehenge is managed by English Heritage and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visitors can walk around the stones on a paved path; access to the inner circle is available on special ceremonial dates. It attracts over a million visitors annually.
Visit: Stonehenge (historic site)
Scotland — City under supernatural siege
Edinburgh represents one of the major British urban centres that begins to fracture as the Age of Misrule takes hold. The Fomorii — the monstrous dark gods — spread corruption and dread through cities as the technological infrastructure of the modern world breaks down. Characters move through a Scotland increasingly reclaimed by the old powers of myth.
Edinburgh has been a centre of Scottish political and cultural life since the 12th century. Its Old Town, built along the Royal Mile from the Castle to Holyrood, preserves a medieval street plan overlaid with centuries of history including the Scottish Reformation and the Jacobite risings.
Edinburgh is Scotland's capital and home to the Scottish Parliament. The Old Town and New Town together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse are major visitor attractions.
Visit: Edinburgh Castle (historic site)
Somerset — Hill of myth and the Otherworld threshold
Glastonbury Tor is one of the great mythic thresholds in British lore, and in the Age of Misrule it represents a place where the barriers between the human world and the Celtic Otherworld — the realm of Faerie — have grown paper-thin. The returning Tuatha Dé Danann are drawn to such sites of ancient power, and the Tor's associations with Avalon and the Arthurian tradition make it a focal point for the resurgence of magic.
Glastonbury Tor has been a sacred site since at least the Iron Age. It is associated with the legend of Avalon, the Isle of the Dead from Arthurian mythology, and is said to be the entrance to Annwn, the Celtic underworld. St Michael's Tower at its summit is a 14th-century church tower.
The Tor is managed by the National Trust and is freely accessible via footpaths. St Michael's Tower stands at the summit and the site draws both spiritual pilgrims and tourists year-round. Glastonbury town below the Tor remains a centre of New Age spirituality.
Visit: Glastonbury Tor (National Trust) (historic site)
Stirling/West Dunbartonshire — Wild water on the Highland boundary
The wild landscape of Loch Lomond represents the kind of liminal wilderness that becomes increasingly dangerous in the Age of Misrule as the Fomorii and other supernatural creatures spread outward from their ancient lairs. The Highland boundary — which Loch Lomond straddles — is itself a mythic threshold between the civilised lowlands and the old, dark places of Scotland.
Loch Lomond is the largest freshwater lake in Great Britain by surface area. It lies on the Highland Boundary Fault and has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Rob Roy MacGregor, the Scottish folk hero, was born near its eastern shore.
Loch Lomond forms the centrepiece of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, established in 2002. The southern shore is easily accessible from Glasgow and is a major outdoor recreation destination for walking, cycling, and watersports.
Visit: Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park (park)
Wiltshire — Neolithic sacred landscape
Avebury, even larger than Stonehenge and arguably more ancient in spiritual resonance, represents the kind of Neolithic sacred landscape that pulses back to life as the Blue Fire — the earth energy that underpins magic in Chadbourn's mythology — returns to the land. The village built within its circles embodies humanity's long cohabitation with forces it no longer understands.
Avebury henge and its associated monuments, including Silbury Hill and the West Kennet long barrow, were built between 2850 and 2200 BC. The henge is the largest in Britain and the village of Avebury was built within it during the medieval period, with many stones buried or destroyed.
Avebury is a UNESCO World Heritage Site managed by the National Trust. Unlike Stonehenge, visitors can walk among and touch the standing stones freely. The Alexander Keiller Museum in the village provides archaeological context.
Visit: Avebury Stone Circle (National Trust) (historic site)
Gwynedd, Wales — Mountain fastness of old Wales
Wales figures in the Age of Misrule as a Celtic heartland where the old magic never fully died. Snowdonia — Eryri in Welsh — is deeply embedded in Welsh myth: it is Arthur's country, the landscape of the Mabinogion, a place where the Tylwyth Teg (the Welsh faerie folk) were said to ride. As the Tuatha Dé Danann return, the ancient mountains of Wales become contested territory between the old powers.
Snowdonia has been inhabited since the Mesolithic period. Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) at 1,085 metres is the highest peak in Wales. The region is rich in Iron Age hillforts, Roman roads, and Arthurian legend — Dinas Emrys near Beddgelert is the site of the legendary battle between the red and white dragons in the Historia Regum Britanniae.
Snowdonia National Park was established in 1951 and covers 823 square miles. The Snowdon Mountain Railway runs to the summit and a modern visitor centre, Hafod Eryri, opened at the top in 2009. The national park attracts four million visitors annually.
Visit: Snowdonia National Park / Snowdon Mountain Railway (park)
Wiltshire to Hertfordshire — Britain's oldest road
Ancient trackways like the Ridgeway serve as routes of power in the Age of Misrule — corridors along which the Blue Fire flows and along which both human characters and supernatural beings travel as the old world reasserts itself. The Ridgeway's continuity from the Neolithic to the present makes it a living thread connecting the age of myth to the collapsing modern world.
The Ridgeway is one of the oldest roads in Britain, estimated to be at least 5,000 years old. Running 87 miles from Overton Hill in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon in Hertfordshire, it passes numerous prehistoric monuments including Avebury, White Horse Hill, and Wayland's Smithy.
The Ridgeway is a designated National Trail managed by Natural England and the Ridgeway National Trail Officer. It is open year-round for walking, cycling, and horse riding. The trail passes through Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in both Wiltshire and the Chilterns.
Visit: The Ridgeway National Trail (park)
Somerset — Roman sacred spring of Sulis Minerva
Bath's sacred hot springs, dedicated by the Romans to the goddess Sulis Minerva — herself a syncretism of a Celtic deity with Roman religion — represent the kind of ancient sacred site that crackles back to life in the Age of Misrule. The spring was a place of offering and petition to a goddess for two thousand years, and as the Shining Ones return, such sites of persistent devotion become charged with renewed supernatural significance.
The hot springs at Bath were sacred to the Celtic goddess Sulis before the Roman conquest. The Romans built the elaborate baths and temple complex around 70 AD, calling the site Aquae Sulis. Thousands of lead curse tablets cast into the sacred spring by supplicants have been recovered by archaeologists.
The Roman Baths are one of Britain's finest ancient monuments and a major tourist attraction. The adjacent Thermae Bath Spa allows visitors to bathe in the natural geothermal water in a modern facility. Both sites are in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Bath.
Visit: Roman Baths (museum)
Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides — Remote northern threshold
The Callanish stones on the remote Isle of Lewis represent the furthest reaches of the mythic geography Chadbourn draws upon — the Celtic Atlantic fringe where the Norse and Celtic worlds overlap and where the sea itself becomes a border with the Otherworld. In the Age of Misrule, such isolated northern sites are among the first places where the barriers between worlds begin to dissolve, far from the protective noise and distraction of modern civilisation.
The Callanish Stones were erected around 2900–2600 BC, predating Stonehenge in their current form. The cruciform arrangement of stones with a central circle is unique in the British Isles. Local legend calls them 'Fir Bhreige' (false men) — giants petrified for refusing to convert to Christianity.
The Callanish Stones are managed by Historic Environment Scotland and are freely accessible at all times. A visitor centre with a café and exhibition is located near the site. They are considered one of the most spectacular prehistoric monuments in Europe.
Visit: Callanish Standing Stones (historic site)
Square Mile, London — Heart of the collapsing modern order
London — the great engine of modernity — is one of the primary urban casualties of the Age of Misrule. As electricity fails, communications collapse, and the Fomorii spread their corruption through the population, the City of London with its towers of glass and steel becomes a haunted place, its confident modernity revealed as a thin veneer over something far older and stranger. The characters must navigate a capital city becoming alien to itself.
The City of London — the 'Square Mile' — is the historic core of London, founded by the Romans as Londinium around 50 AD. It was the medieval mercantile heart of England and remains the primary financial district. The area was devastated by the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz of 1940–41, yet continuously rebuilt.
The City of London is home to major financial institutions including the Bank of England and the London Stock Exchange. The area is also a historic site with Roman remains, Wren churches, and the Tower of London on its eastern edge. It is largely a weekday business district but welcomes tourists.
Visit: Museum of London (now Museum of London Docklands) (museum)
Cornwall — Birthplace of Arthur, threshold of legend
Tintagel — the legendary birthplace of Arthur according to Geoffrey of Monmouth — sits at the intersection of the Arthurian and Celtic mythological traditions that Chadbourn draws upon throughout the Age of Misrule. Cornwall's wild Atlantic coast, its deep Celtic identity, and Tintagel's dramatic cliff-top ruins make it a site where the returning Tuatha Dé Danann and the old Britain of legend feel entirely plausible.
Tintagel's connection to the Arthurian legend comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae. Archaeological excavations have revealed a significant 5th–6th century post-Roman settlement on the headland — the period often associated with a historical Arthur. The medieval castle ruins belong to the 13th-century Earl of Cornwall.
Tintagel Castle is managed by English Heritage. A dramatic footbridge connecting the mainland site to the island headland was opened in 2019. The village of Tintagel has numerous Arthurian-themed shops and visitor facilities.
Visit: Tintagel Castle (English Heritage) (historic site)
County Meath, Ireland — Palace of the Tuatha Dé Danann
Newgrange — Brú na Bóinne in Irish mythology — is the mythological home of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Shining Ones at the heart of Chadbourn's Age of Misrule. In Irish mythology it is the síde mound of the Dagda and later of Óengus. As the Tuatha Dé Danann return to the mortal world, such passage tombs serve as doorways between their realm and ours — the very architecture of the Otherworld.
Newgrange was built around 3200 BC, making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. The passage tomb is famously aligned with the winter solstice sunrise, which illuminates the inner chamber through a roof-box. It is one of the world's most important prehistoric monuments.
Newgrange is a UNESCO World Heritage Site managed by the Office of Public Works. Access is by guided tour from the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre and is extremely popular, with a lottery for winter solstice chamber entry. It is one of Ireland's most visited sites.
Visit: Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre / Newgrange (historic site)
More by Mark Chadbourn: All Mark Chadbourn books
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