Silbury Hill 180
Image by nigelswift

Julian suggests that it is named for Suil because of the "eye goddess" game it plays with wanderers in the Avebury ceremonial landscape. Suil, Julian argues (and I agree) is the name of an ancient Sun (and eye) goddess.

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/user_profile.php?id=3401&show=weblog&weblog=11528

I love your etymosophical theories TomBo. I love the way that if you stop and look - I mean REALLY look - at the language we use, so much of our history is still alive in it. Thrilling stuff.

Presumably you've read a bit of Joseph Campbell?

Michael Dames came up with this theory in <I>The Silbury Treasure</I> (when Mr. Cope was in short trousers, being taught by my mate's Mum in Tamworth).

It's a shame I just took the book back to the library, because there's loads of stuff about the Suil connection in it. For a long time a chap called King Suil was thought to be buried under the hill. As I recall, this idea gained favour after Charles II visited and climbed Silbury. The suggestion is that the King Suil story was essentially Royalist spin on something older.

Kammer x