How neo-Nazi groups are using National Trust sites to hold ceremonies

British neo-Nazis are using National Trust sites to conduct sinister rituals, it emerged this weekend.

A far-Right group that promises followers reward in the afterlife if they die in the ‘struggle for freedom’ has vowed to ‘take back’ ancient locations.

The National Trust said it was aware such groups had used Avebury, a World Heritage site in Wiltshire with prehistoric stone circles, to carry out rituals. It has reported this to police and said it would step up security at Wayland’s Smithy in Oxfordshire, a Neolithic burial chamber it manages on behalf of English Heritage, after swastikas were carved into trees.

It is believed a group calling itself Woden’s Folk has carried out masked torchlit rituals at both Avebury and Wayland’s Smithy and has boasted of launching an ‘English resistance’ at the two sites. One of the rituals was also attended by members of the violent neo-Nazi group Combat 18, and the now banned organisation, National Action.

Woden’s Folk calls itself Odinist, the same ancient Norse religion worshipped by Anders Breivik, who slaughtered 77 people in Norway in 2011, and Brenton Tarrant, who shot dead 51 in the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand earlier this year.

A video of Woden’s Folk performing a ritual at Wayland’s Smithy was recently removed from YouTube.

The group’s founder, who calls himself Wulf Ingessunu, has written blogs filled with hate-filled racist ideology and called for ‘Aryan laws’ to be introduced to Britain.

The National Trust said Wayland’s Smithy and the Avebury stones were open countryside sites and it was hard to monitor access and activity 24 hours a day. It called on staff and local people to be vigilant.