Avebury Stone Circle (Aveburyhenge) - Avebury - TravBuddy

Avebury Stone Circle is a huge complex of standing stones located in the heart of Wiltshire. It is less famous than Stonehenge, and lacks the moody moor location and impresive lintels, but personally, I prefer it.

At some point in the middle ages, a village was built slap in the middle of the ring complexes. This means that there is no point whatsoever in any busy body government agency roping off the circle and making you stand half a mile away. The village itself is pretty, and there is a nice church with an interesting font. There is also a pub - the red lion - that does nice lunhes, good real ale, and doesn't mind if you walked over the ridge and have muddy boots.

Whilst not quite as impressive at first glance, Avebury is larger than stonhenge and has the added bonus of earthworks you can climb up. Just watch out for the sheep poo. Sheep graze here, and they're quite friendly but sheep poo is quite slippy. This affords the opportunity of watching tourists in flip flops fall down the hill. Comedy gold. Sorry! The stones must have been huge at one time, and it is good to try to imagine how it would have looked.

Entrance to the village is free, although the car park is very pricey and the museum costs the earth. The other option would be to park at nearby Silbury Hill and walk in, which would be free and mean you could look at Silbury Hill too; a large, pimple shaped man-made hill. I always wonder about the leadership that must have taken - before any iron tools, let alone machines, some guy announces they are going to build a hill in the middle of the downs, and everyone goes along with it. Genius. I'd like to see Branson or Trump do that!

I digress. Avebury is well worth a visit, as is the pub. Stonehenge has no pub. Just wear sensible shoes, and watch out for the poo.

Avebury henge is a lovely piece of pre-history which is lesser known that Stonehenge, but once stood much more magnificient. The henge is just apart of the 'avebury complex' which has Silbury hill (the largest man made earth mound in europe) and lots of many burial mounds and barrows.

It is indeed a very spiritual place, and its easy to imagine how primitive man would have felt impressed walking along the stone avenue which leads to the circle. However, as with most things, it had to be ruined at some point. During the 1700's christians devoted alot of time to the destruction of the stones, and now a good half of the circle is gone, and in the centre a small village is built.

However you can take full advantage of the destruction as there is a gift 'henge' shop and pub. There is a museum, but it costs around £5-6 for entry, if you are really interested in the history i would suggest buying a book on Avebury and actually taking the time to walk about the stones.

Parking can be an issue, they will charge you around £5 for the use of the purposely used carpark (field.) There is however free parking to the west of Silbury hill and a convenient footpath which goes over a hill and gives a splendid view of Avebury on the way.

On a whole, its probably not the greatest place to go to if its your soul destination unless your into new-age or paganism but it would make an excellent picnic area on a long journey and is very interesting to think that man made such an amazing structure 4500 years ago.

Other than the main circle there is the Long Barrow near West Kennett (a 10 second drive from Avebury) Silbury hill as mentioned, and further east of Silbury hill opposite a pub on the main road there is a collection of burial mounds which resemble mini-silbury hills.

(There are also camping facilities near by and a B&B in Avebury, but due to the location its likely to be very expensive.)

This was one of my favorite stone circles that we visited in England. The town of Avebury is surrounded by several large stone circles. It is one of the largest Neolithic monuments in Europe dating to around 5,000 years ago. Many of the large stones were used to build some of the town buildings so they have cement markers to represent the missing stones. Apparently back in the day there was fear of pagan rituals which were associated with the site so the town’s people buried the stones. Then later the guy, Alexander Keiller came and dug up most of the stones and re-erected them in the 1930s.

We visited the stones in the early morning around 8:30am and we were lucky enough to have a hazy fog. This made the entire place feel really eerie and the photos came out great!

A great rock formation that is not as famous as Stonehenge, but just as great. This is one that people can actually touch and sit on, etc. It was amazing.