Walk #24 Avebury, Wiltshire

A section of Avebury Stone Circle

Walk 7 out of 100

Walk #24 - Avebury 
Wiltshire 

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Moderate

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪

Suggested Time - 4 hours

Actual Time Taken - 4 hours

Distance in book - 12.8km

Map my walk Distance - 15.89km

National Trust car park Start/Finish

Part two of my trip was in the beautiful prehistoric site surrounding Avebury village. I apologise in advance for the waffle you are about to read, being a historian I get a little bit carried away when talking about history! If you have a National Trust membership park here>>> if not, then prepare to be stung with a £7 charge for parking.

I've given this walk a four star, the history was definitely the deciding factor in giving this walk a high rating. There are several Neolithic sites in the area which the walk includes: Avebury Stone Circle, Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow, and Windmill Hill.

Silbury Hill

The first two prehistoric sites seen on the walk are Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow. Silbury Hill is an artificial chalk mound completed around 2,400BC and the reason this hill was built is unknown. The mystery behind it makes the largest man-made mound in Europe rather intriguing.  

West Kennet Long Barrow

A short walk from Silbury Hill is West Kennet Long Barrow, a chambered Neolithic tomb built around 3,650BC and the resting place of around fifty people before being sealed.

Silbury Hill from West Kennet Long Barrow

Inside West Kennet Long Barrow

Stone Avenue leading to Avebury

Avebury itself is a village built within an ancient stone circle. Built between 2850BC and 2200BC, there is one large stone circle with two smaller circles enclosed within. Part of the village, including a pub are the more recent additions to the stone circle. Again, the purpose of the circle still baffles Historians which makes it all more interesting!

The Red Lion, Avebury

St James's Church

Windmill Hill on the horizon.

The final site the walk includes is Windmill Hill, a Neolithic 'causewayed enclosure', with three concentric but intermittent ditches. It is estimated that it was first occupied around 3800BC.

View back towards Silbury Hill from Windmill Hill

This walk was very enjoyable, the history was fascinating and the scenery beautiful. It wasn't a difficult walk apart from maybe the small climb up Windmill Hill so I would recommend it for anyone. Even if you didn't want to walk and just wanted to view the history, you can drive between most of the sites. 

Thanks to Neil for being my travel companion, and as always thanks for reading,

Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991

Walk #38 Stow On The Wold, Gloucestershire

Walk 6 out of 100

Walk #38 - Stow On The Wold
Gloucestershire 

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Challenging

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪✪

Suggested Time - 5 hours

Actual Time Taken - 5h 25m

Distance in book - 17km

Map my walk Distance - 20.63km

Stow On The Wold - Start and Finish

For walk number six I chose something a bit different from the previous five. Instead of climbing hills this walk took in six delightful Cotswold villages. I can say before even starting that the Cotswolds is a beautiful part of the country and would highly recommend visiting! My first top tip: Tesco car park in Stow, FREE for 72 hours, meaning I could have got lost for 3 days without being fined!

Icomb

So I have given this walk a three star rating, very picturesque villages, beautiful countryside, many houses that I would love to be able to buy but would need to win the lottery or have a long lost great uncle leave me his fortune. As for the not so good, I'm a sucker for stunning views and this one didn't quite live up to some of the others from previous walks. The route was very easy to follow, until a rather intimidating herd of cows edged us into the wrong corner of a field...

St Mary's - Icomb

This is the first time I've done a walk over the guide time which surprised me a little bit, probably something to do with the extra 3.5km the book seemed to miss out on the route. Not quite sure why the book called it a 'challenging' walk when it was easy to navigate and there wasn't any steep sections. I guess it may be because of the length of the walk, that or the fact you may find it challenging to accept how poor you are walking past all the amazing houses! 

St. Leonard's - Bledington

One of the perks of doing the walk in spring was that the flowers, blossom, and general pretty...ness, made everything a little bit more enjoyable. It also allowed me to test out the macro setting on my camera. 

Racehorses a plenty being near Cheltenham

Another walk I'd give a recommendation for, particularly if you like pretty little villages over climbing big hills. 

Thanks for reading,

Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991