Avebury complex

Photo by Mike Pitts (from a postcard!)

Avebury is an amazing place - anytime. The village of Avebury is partly inside one of the most important and largest megalithic monuments in Europe - the great stone circle is enclosed by a large ditch and external bank and approached by a long & dramatic avenue of pairs of stones. Many of the stones were re-erected in the 1930s by the archaeologist Alexander Keiller. Go to Mike Pitts's site on Avebury: www.hengeworld.co.uk/avebury.html for some of the best information, and the Avebury Sights site has some good photos. Click here for an excellent aeriel photo by Martin Reed.

 

With much of it owned by the National Trust and also supported by English Heritage, there is also a small but excellent museum, and plenty of visitors. But it is so big, it can't fail to impress - and you can get a good stroll just by walking around it.

 

If you want a more demanding walk, you can head East up to the Ridgeway (and on across Fyfield Down to Marlborough if you relish a long walk), South to the extraordinary Silbury Hill, the spooky West Kennet Long Barrow (and on to the Wansdyke) or North West to the neolithic camp at Windmill Hill.

Avebury Photo: Ashley Goodall, 1997
Silbury Hill Photo: AFCG, July 2001
Avebury Stone & Ditch Photo: AFCG, Jan 2001
Tree (AFCG, Jan 2001)