A walking tour of Avebury.

A quick 2 hour drive and we were in the ancient World Heritage Site of Avebury in the county of Wiltshire. The walk we had planned was going to take in; West Kennet Long Barrow, the Avenue, the Sanctuary , Silbury Hill and Windmill Hill. We actually parked at the start of The Ridgeway ( a route I walked part of a few weeks ago from the Tring side). In actual fact the route today did not actually touch on The Ridgeway until the very last part.

The Ridgeway is definitely a route that I will be re-visiting in the future to complete a few more legs on.

West Kennet long barrow with Silbury Hill in the background

With all the recent rain and snow the going was very heavy in places so progress wasn't the quickest .... The first notable stopping place was West Kennet Long Barrow (3700 BC). Created by early Neolithic people there are around 14 burial mounds in a 3 mile radius around Avebury. They vary in length from 20m to over 100m. The longest and the longest in the British Isles is West Kennet long barrow. These were major projects , digging ditches through the chalk and moving huge stones to form chambers. The one at West Kennet is a perfect example and excavations revealed 5 chambers containing human remains.

From West Kennet Long Barrow there is a good view of Silbury Hill (2400-2000 BC). The hill is the largest prehistoric mound in Europe, around 37 m high, 30macross the top and around 500m at the base. It occupies a valley-floor position, close to where the River Kennet rises at Arrowowhead Springs. I would definitely have climbed it but public access is forbidden unfortunately.

Windmill Hill

So instead a photo with me standing in front will have to suffice. Despite various excavations have not been able to answer why the hill was built ? However they did uncover how it was made.It started small, a mound of clay and gravel and then a larger mound of turf and soil. Archaeologists calculate that it took 18 million man-hours, equivalent to 500 men working for 15 years to create. Earth worshippers believe that Silbury is, in fact, the swollen womb of the Earth Goddess and provides a symbol linking the harvest with the pregnant earth. Others suggest that the hill was built as a burial mound for King Sil and his horse, whilst some believe it to be a giant astronomical 'sun' dial. 

Adam and Eve

 At the far end of the Beckhampton Avenue there are only two stones left standing 'Adam and 'Eve'and are know as the 'Longstones'. Adam is the larger of the two stones, weighing an estimated 62 tons, and along with three others formed a four-sided cove.The Beckhampton Avenue was a curving prehistoric avenue of stones that ran broadly south west from Avebury towards The Longstones. Our walk took us to Windmill Hill, still about one and a half miles from Avebury Centre. it is the largest known causewayed enclosure in Britain. The weather had started to deteriorate and there was rain in the air giving the landscape a bleak foreboding look. However my walking companion was confident that we would see a sunset over Avebury before the day was done. A large barrow cemetery once stood ion Windmill Hill. Barrows being burial mounds of which there are numerous examples all around Avebury. They are quite a feature on the horizons and often had groups of trees planted on them and known as 'Hedgehogs' locally.



We arrived in Avebury via the Anglo Saxon churchyard. The Church of St James has an 11th-century Saxon nave in which two original Saxon windows survive. Our next stopping point was more welcomed 'The Red Lion' and a couple of pints of the local brew 'Avebury Well Water'. Avebury contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world.

 

Our thirst suitably quenched we set off to explore the three historic stone circles around the village. As well as a tourist attraction it is also a place of worship for modern day pagans. it is the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. The monument is made up of a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the middle. The surrounding ditch today is only around a third of it's original size when dug out of the chalk landscape. It is the giant stones though that create the long lasting impression. The local sarsen stones range in height from 3-6 metres and weighing up to 20 tons that formed the Outer Stone Circle. 53 stones remain, from around 85 in the original structure. Sarsen stone is a silicified sandstone found as scattered blocks on the chalk in southern England.

 

Even the trees seem to take on a magical air conjuring up images of some ancient gothic horror. Just briefly the clouds have parted sufficiently to allow the sun to shine some light through for the first time today. It is short lived but I did manage to capture it at least. Last leg of the journey now back to our starting point which involved some creative fieldwork to get back on to the right path just as darkness was beginning to fall. A cracking walk and probably a distance of at least 10 miles covered.