Stonehenge is not to be missed, but the megalithic circle at Avebury and the many surrounding ancient structures are far better. It's easy to spend an entire day there exploring the many sites.
It is one of the finest and largest Neolithic monuments in Europe and dates to around 3000 BC. It is older than the megalithic stages of Stonehenge,
The village of Avebury is approximately midway between the larger towns of Marlborough and Calne, just off the main A4 road on the northbound A4361 towards Wroughton. It is about 32 kilometers north of Stonehenge.
The maps below are from the very useful UK Ordnance Survey site. The maps are links, click on them for full-sized versions.
The map at left (1:250,000 scale) shows Avebury's location with respect to other small villages in the area.
The map at right (1:50,000 scale) shows Avebury village and some of the ancient monuments.
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Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
These two maps (1:25,000 scale) show the village and the prehistoric monuments in more detail. The public right of way shown as green here are a fantastic feature of the U.K. — the public is guaranteed access to these footpaths!
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As for logistics, Avebury is a small village. The only accommodations available are B&B at the Red Lion pub at the crossroads almost at the center of the henge. It's relatively expensive.
I have visited Avebury as a day trip while staying at the Bath Backpackers hostel in Bath. Start by taking a bus to Devizes, and then buses run at least hourly between Devizes and Avebury. But be very careful with the bus schedules, the last bus back to Devizes may leave around 1900!
Click here for Wiltshire bus routes and timetables.
The Red Lion is the place for food and drink in Avebury!
The small village of Avebury was built within the protective earth banks around the stone circle. Now some small roads go through the circle.
The central monument is a large circular earthworks — a circular inner ditch and external henge, or circular bank, just over 420 meters in diameter. Within the henge is the Outer Circle, the world's largest prehistoric stone circle with a diameter of 335 meters.
Here you see a view from the top of the henge along the south-east side, looking down across the ditch and toward Avebury Manor just outside the west side of the henge. The A 4361 road cuts south to north through the henge.
The Outer Circle was originally made up of 98 sarsen standing stones, varying in height from 3.6 to 4.2 meters and some weighing over 40 tons. Carbon dates from the fill below them date to 2800-2400 BC.
Here you are looking across the northern edge of the Outer Circle toward the village church in the distance.
Within the Outer Circle were two separate stone circles of about 100 meter diameter.
Only two standing stones remain of the Northern Inner Ring, and the Southern Inner Ring is entirely destroyed.
Here you are standing on top of the henge on its south-east side looking to the north-east.
Traveling from outside to in (right to left in this pictures), you would first go up the steep outer slope of the henge, up to 10 meters above average ground level.
Then you would descend the henge and continue further down into a ditch, down to maybe 5 meters below average ground level.
Inside the ditch is the Outer Circle of monoliths.
Here I am in the stone circle as the full moon rises!
Silbury Hill is about 40 meters tall and was built in stages starting around 2,750 BC.
Silbury Hill is the largest man-made earthen mound in Europe, and it was the largest man-made structure in Europe until the Middle Ages!
Archaeologists have calculated that Silbury Hill took 18 million man-hours, or 500 men working 15 years to deposit and shape 248,000 cubic metres of earth and fill.
If you're using GPS, this is at UK grid reference SU 100 685 or 51°24'56" N 1°51'27" W.
See my page on the National Grid system and OS maps for details on how that works.
The base of the hill is circular and 167 meters in diameter. The summit is flat-topped and 30 meters in diameter.
A smaller mound was constructed first and much enlarged in a later phase. Recent surveys have shown that the center of the flat top lies within one meter of the center of the outer cone of the hill.
The first phase, carbon-dated to 2750 BC, consisted of a gravel core within a revetment of stakes and sarsen boulders.
Alternating layers of chalk rubble and earth were placed on top of initial core.
The second phase involved excavation of an encircling ditch and using the resulting chalk material to extend the core. The ditch was later backfilled, and the mound was extended to its present dimensions using material from elsewhere.
Here you see Silbury Hill from the top of the West Kennett Long Barrow. The village of Avebury is hidden behind the hill to the right.
So what was its point?
It's huge, but its shape is very simple and doesn't really suggest much. Of course that hasn't stopped people from coming up with all sorts of fanciful ideas!
The explanation that seems the most plausible, or at least the most possible to support, is that Silbury Hill and some of the surrounding monuments were designed with a system of inter-related sightlines. From Avebury and various surrounding barrows, a subtle step several meters below its summit aligns with hills on the horizon behind it or with hills in front of it.
The West Kennett Long Barrow is a burial mound of about 50 individuals, dating from around 3,500 BC.
It is classified by archaeologists as a chambered long barrow or Neolithic tomb structure. It has two pairs of opposing transept chambers and a single terminal chamber, all used for burial.
It's about 104 meters long by 23 meters at its widest. The four people at the left of this picture are standing on top of it looking toward Silbury Hill. The entrance is at one end, between the megaliths at right.
If you're using GPS, this is at UK grid reference SU 104 677.
Here you are looking directly toward its entrance and the large sarsen slabs used to seal entry.
Construction began about 3600 BC, some 400 years before Stonehenge, and it was used until around 2500 BC.
Some excavations allow you to enter behind those sarsen slabs.
Excavations have found burials of at least 46 individuals ranging from infants to the elderly. The skeletons were disarticulated with some skulls and long bones missing. It has been suggested that the bones were removed periodically for display or transported elsewhere with the blocking sarsens being removed and replaced each time.
Here is the view in from the entrance.
A narrow passage leads back to a larger chamber, with two transept chambers the terminal chamber forming a "T" or cross shape.
After use for around 1000 years the chambers and passage were filled with a variety of grave goods and earth and stone.
One archaeologist suggested that the grave goods had been collected from a nearby "mortuary temple", indicating that this site was used for ritual activity long after it was used for burial.
Here I am in the main chamber.
This is the view back toward the entrance from the main chamber.
This is the view from the top of the burial mound, looking roughly east in the direction of the opening.
And here, a view in the opposite direction, looking roughly west.
The Sanctuary is a stone circle site on Overton Hill around UK grid reference SU 1180 6805.
It started as six concentric rings of timbers erected around 3000 BC. A series of three increasingly larger timber structures were built, and then replaced around 2100 BC with two concentric stone circles. The site was largely destroyed in 1723, and today you mainly see short concrete posts marking the positions of the stones and timbers.
Here you see the markers of the original timber posts and stones. In the distance are two tumuli, seen below.
Tumuli just across the busy A4 highway from the Santuary, near SU 1195 6815.
The A4 was built on a Roman road.
When the Romans built their road, it went past these monuments that were already over 1000 years old.
The full Moon rises over some tumuli on a ridge.
Trees, frequently oaks, tend to grow from the tumuli.
The West Kennett Avenue, or simply "The Avenue", leads off 2.5 kilometers to the south of the Avebury henge toward the Sanctuary.
The B4003 road into Avebury was built parallel to it.
The Avenue was originally lined by about 100 pairs of stones dating to about 2200 BC based on Beaker style pottery found buried beneath some of them.
Traces of the Beckhampton Avenue extend to the west from the Outer Circle.
Continuing along The Avenue toward the Avebury henge, climbing the slight rise before you get to the stone circle.
Looking across The Avenue toward the rising full Moon.
Turning around and looking back down The Avenue from near the top of the rise.
Coming over the rise and seeing the Avebury stone circle ahead.
One of The Avenue megaliths, with a tumulus on the horizon and the full Moon rising above that.
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