Avebury walks II: The Winterbourne and Windmill Hill

This walk has the advantage of offering two possibilities, both of which can be managed if you have three hours or so to spare, or in less than one hour if time is short. As with walk I below, if you’re arriving in Avebury by coach or car you’ll probably get off in the main car park and then walk along the path to Avebury High Street. Once there, turn left away from the Henge itself and walk down the High Street, past the church on your right and carry on down to the end of the road where you’ll take a sharp turn to the right and then to the left. The road has now become a footpath and, after ten minutes or so, will bring you to a little bridge which crosses over the Winterbourne stream. There’s a bench there where you can rest and, looking south across the meadows, be rewarded with one of the loveliest views of Silbury that there is.

Silbury from the Winterbourne

I’ve sat for long periods there just taking in the view and the sound of the Winterbourne when it’s in full flow (as the name suggests however the stream does not flow at all times throughout the year). You may decide that you want to stay there for as long as you can or, if you have time, walk on to Windmill Hill.

There’s a signpost close to the bench indicating a route to Windmill Hill over the fields but my advice is to avoid this as the ground can often be waterlogged or occupied by cows or bullocks. Instead carry on up the lane until you reach the end and then turn right following the lane (then track) up the hill. The original settlement on Windmill Hill is thought to have been made some 5,500 years ago, making it one of the earliest known settlements in the Avebury area (the round barrows within the enclosure however date from the early Bronze Age). Take a moment to sit and imagine what it was like to live there thousands of years ago. If the weather is fine look southwards – you should be able to see Silbury in the distance.

See also Footprints through Avebury by Mike Pitts.

On this day William Stukeley died

“Stukeley was an English antiquary and one of the founders of field archaeology, who pioneered the investigation of Stonehenge.

“William Stukeley was born at Holbeach in Lincolnshire, and studied medicine at Cambridge University. While still a student he began making topographical and architectural drawings as well as sketches of historical artefacts. He continued with this alongside his career as a doctor, and published the results of his travels around Britain in 'Itinerarium Curiosum' in 1724.”

More here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/stukeley_william.shtml

World Megameet. Sunday, 17 July 2011

Heritage Action will be holding its 6th World Megameet this year on Sunday, the 17 July in Avebury.

More here -
http://heritageaction.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/avebury-world-megameet-sunday-17-july-2011/

Avebury Landscape Photography Workshop

The National Trust will be holding an Avebury Landscape Photography Workshop on Saturday, 26 March 2011.

“Professional photographer Mark Philpott will help you look at landscapes in an exciting new way. Learn how to get the best from your camera and be inspired by the Avebury landscape, its stone circle, cosy cottages, fine church and ancient trees.”

More here -

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/event-search-2/events/show?id=2108046427&direct=1

Fyfield Down: Geology and Landscape walk

This an opportunity to learn more about Fyfield Down (Site of Special Scientific Interest) with Peter Keene, formerly senior lecturer in geomorpology at Oxford Brooks University.

“The ability to ‘read’ landscapes or to have ‘an eye for the country’ adds a new dimension to our appreciation of our surroundings. On this walk, from Avebury via Overton Down to Clatford Bottom across the Fyfield SSSI we shall learn through discussion and investigation of the evidence that is observable in the field how the landscape, with its layers of chalk, sarsen rocks, streams and dry valleys, evolved in this part of the Marlborough Downs.”

The walk begins in Avebury at 10:30am on Saturday, 16 July 2011. More here – http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=607&prev=1

On This Deity. The re-discovery of Avebury

Avebury by John Aubrey

“Today, [7 January] we must celebrate John Aubrey’s dramatic rediscovery of Avebury – the world’s largest prehistoric stone circle – whilst out hunting with fellow royalists during the English Civil War, exactly three hundred and sixty-two years ago. For Aubrey’s heroic retrieval of this vast but (by then) long forgotten Stone Age temple confronted the then-accepted notion that only the coming of the Romans had forced a degree of culture upon the barbaric Ancient British, and also confounded the then-popular 17th-century belief – propounded by the highly influential Scandinavian antiquaries Olaus Magnus and Ole Worm – that all such megalithic culture had its archaic origins in Europe’s far north. Indeed, so rich were the cultural implications of John Aubrey’s re-discovery that – come the fall of Oliver Cromwell’s 11-year-long Commonwealth and the subsequent Restoration of the Monarchy – even the returned King Charles II would himself insist on taking one of Aubrey’s celebrated tours of the Avebury area. But how could the world’s largest stone circle have suffered such a total cultural extinction in the first place? “

Julian Cope

More here –

http://www.onthisdeity.com/7th-january-1649-%E2%80%93-the-re-discovery-of-avebury/

Avebury walks I: The Henge

The first in a series of features describing walks from the centre of Avebury that can be done in as little as 30 minutes or, if you have time, longer walks taking several hours.

If you’re arriving in Avebury by coach or car you’ll probably get off in the main car park and then walk along the path to Avebury High Street. Depending on how much time you have it might only be possible to visit the National Trust and Henge shops and then take in one or two of the quadrants of the Henge. If museums are your thing a visit to the little Alexander Kieller Museum is a must.

South-west quadrant

After leaving the Kieller Museum walk back to the High Street and from there enter the south-west quadrant of the Henge (above). You can then walk anticlockwise, following the stones, until you reach a gate that will take you across the road and into the south-east quadrant (look out for the massive stone called the Devil’s Chair). You might have run out of time by now so head towards the Red Lion pub and the High Street, and from there walk back to the path that will take you to the main car park. If you still have an hour or so to spare, however, climb the Bank in the south-east quadrant and follow it in an anticlockwise direction until you reach Green Street, and from there enter the north-east quadrant. From the north-east quadrant you can either carry on walking along the top of the Bank (which will give you a good view of most of the Henge) or cut across the quadrant towards the two tallest stones of the Avebury Henge which are known as the Cove. Cross the road from there and into the north-west quadrant (look out for the massive Diamond Stone by the road) and continue following the stones in an anticlockwise direction until you reach a gate which will bring you back into the lane that leads to the Alexander Kieller Museum in one direction and the main car park in the other.

See also Footprints through Avebury by Mike Pitts.