Love Stonehenge? Try Avebury

Standing beside cool ancient stone, looking up at a block of rock upended from the earth and stood on end by prehistoric man is a mesmerising experience.
Even better, though, if you can touch it. Hug it even. And at Stonehenge, you can’t. 

But at Avebury, Wiltshire’s other prehistoric stone circle, touching the stones is positively encouraged. Here people have been living right inside the circle for millennia – and there is even a pub, the Red Lion, sitting surrounded by the stones. The circle here is far larger, the complex of stones far more sprawling. There isn’t the neat stacked circle you’ll see at Stonehenge but this is Europe’s largest neolithic stone circle and there is so much more to explore. And to touch. 

The centre of it all is right outside that pub, where a cluster of megaliths stands in a field shared with sheep – and possibly a pagan group or two, lost in quiet reverie. The largest stones here stand in a semi-circle along the field’s edge and at the far end of the row is the most famous, the Devil’s Chair. Quite why the devil need be involved is a mystery as dark and as ancient as that of the stones themselves, but the chair part is pretty self-explanatory – there’s a natural seat in this huge, almost rhomboid chunk of stone. Sitting here for a selfie is practically compulsory. 

Looking up from your chair you’ll see high earth banks encircling the site. Climb up here and you’ll get a view out over it all, walking above and around the 4,500-year-old circle and looking down through the trees at the stones, standing like frozen giants. Look the other way and you’ll be staring straight down the Avenue, a line of around 100 pairs of prehistoric standing stones that forms a winding trail from Avebury to the Sanctuary, 1.5 miles (2.4km) away across the fields. 

The landscape here is beckoning you outwards, away from the well-known stone circle and out into a prehistoric complex of sacred sites. The Sanctuary is just one of the ancient wonders a walk around this area yields, and a stroll down the Avenue between the stones is the best way to start. You’ll reach the 5,000-year-old Sanctuary first, a circular arrangement of concrete stones that mark out what was originally timber posts and later standing stones. This was most likely a burial site, but as with most prehistoric sites, its story remains shrouded in ancient mystery and supposition.

Romp a field or two to the west and you’ll find another Neolithic tomb – this one a chamber you can walk right down inside. West Kennet Long Barrow was built around 5,650 years ago and was in use for around 1,000 years. Large sarsen stones stand sentry over the entrance but pass behind this curtain of rock and you can delve into a 13-metre (42ft) passage divided into chambers. Few people venture far into the darkness – and few places on the Great West Way are as memorably atmospheric. Or as spooky.

Just across the A4 is perhaps Avebury’s greatest mystery – Silbury Hill. This cone-like mound stands amid rolling emerald fields like a beacon alerting us to all that we do not know. Because nobody has a clue why people in around 2400 BC decided to build an earthen mound roughly the same height and volume as one of the smaller Egyptian pyramids. No burial remains have been found here. So what on earth was it for? Your guess is as good as ours. 

All that we do know can be found in the Alexander Keiller Museum, back in the village of Avebury. The Stables Gallery here is home to one of the most important archaeological collections in Europe, while the Barn Gallery is a 17th-century threshing barn turned interactive exploration of the stones. Poke around the displays of Neolithic pottery, flint knives and arrowheads, and animal skeletons over 5,500 years old and make your own mind up about how all this came to be here. The mystery lives on.  

HOW TO:

Avebury is managed by the National Trust and is open throughout daylight hours, every day of the year. It is free to enter. 

By car: Avebury is just off the A4, a 12-minute drive from Marlborough. The post code is SN8 1RF. There is a charge for parking (free for English Heritage and National Trust members). 

By bus: Stagecoach bus 49 which runs from Swindon to Devizes and Thamesdown Transport bus 42 from Calne to Marlborough both stop at Avebury. 

By train: The Great Western Railway from London to Bristol calls at Swindon, where you can pick up the bus to Avebury.

By bike: National Cycle Network trail 403 passes through Avebury on its way from Marlborough to Calne. There are bike racks near the Barn Gallery. 

On foot: The Ridgeway National Trail ends at Avebury. The 87-mile route crosses the Chilterns and the North Wessex Downs to get here, both designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 

For more ideas around Avebury and the surrounding areas, take a look at our See & Do and Plan Your Way pages.