A Prehistoric Day: Part 1

Way back in December I booked to visit Stonehenge, but had to cancel the trip when we went back into lockdown. Yesterday I finally made the trip, six months late! With hindsight, the delay was a good thing. I have read more about prehistoric Britain, so was more clued up about what I was seeing, the weather was a lot better, and I was able to drive in daylight. I went on my own, as M is not interested in the history and going alone meant I could explore at my own pace without worrying about him being bored! 

I decided that if I got an early start I would have time to explore the prehistoric landscape at Avebury in the morning and Stonehenge in the afternoon. It took me 2 hours to drive to Avebury and I arrived just before 10. I remember going there as a child, stopping off for a break when we drove to Cornwall to visit relatives, but I don't think I have been there since. The whole area is a UNESCO world heritage site, with good reason. Avebury itself is a small village built both around and amongst the remains of the stone circle, which is the largest in the world. Many of the stones are missing - some were broken up to use as building stone for the village - but many have been replaced by concrete posts, to give an idea of where they would have been. The perimeter stones are huge, dwarfing anybody who stands next to them - I should think maybe 15 feet tall? 

The stone circle has an out ring of tall stones, with two smaller circular henges within it, all surrounded by a ditch and bank earthwork. It was built around 2850BC, and added to and altered over the next 600 years. An avenue of stones joined it to another area known as the Sanctuary, which is even older. 

After exploring the stone circle I walked down the avenue, though not as far as the Sanctuary - I didn't have time to do everything in a single day. Part way along I turned right, walked over a hill and towards another of the area's spectacular prehistoric features - Silbury Hill. This man made mound was built around 2400BC, over a period of about 120 years. It is estimated to have taken 4 million man hours to create, and to have needed about half a million tons of material (mostly chalk). Nobody really knows why it was built. It wasn't a burial chamber and there is no obvious purpose. It was clearly a communal effort involving people over several generations and from many locations - maybe that in itself was a large part of the point of it? 

The National Trust owns this land and much of it is now wildflower meadow, which judging by the amount of birdsong was home to a lot of skylarks. Even without the historic surroundings it would have been a lovely walk. I didn't go all the way Silbury Hill, but turned left and walked along the hedge in the photo above, heading for the other site I very much wanted to visit - West Kennet Long Barrow. Again, I have hazy memories of visiting as a child, but had not been back since. (Rather oddly, although I remember the stone circle and West Kennet, I have no memory at all of Silbury Hill, which is very prominently visible from the long barrow). 

To say this place was worth the walk is an understatement. Built around 3650BC, it is a thousand years older than the Great Pyramid. About 50 people were buried there, in small chambers just inside the entrance - most of the barrow itself is simply an earthwork. The stones at the end hide a small courtyard in front of the entrance. 

The barrow took my breath away. Cold, old, quiet stone. Even after all this time entering feels an intrusion. I met people coming and going along the path, but was alone when I went in. I didn't have a sense of anything fearful about it, just a sense of awe. 

A couple of small sky lights have been put into the roof, otherwise it would be dangerously dark away from the entrance. The chambers were hard to see in the dim light, but the camera on my phone showed me the detail - the picture below shows the only chamber that had a central stone. I loved that in a couple of places people had left bunches of wildflowers. 

When I left the barrow I walked back to Avebury in search of lunch.from the National Trust cafe before heading for Stonehenge ... I'll write about that tomorrow.