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