One Day in the Avebury Landscape: Henge, Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow

What the day is, and why it is not just the stone circle

Almost everyone who comes to Avebury visits the henge and drives away. That is a reasonable two hours and it misses the point of the place, which is that the circle is the centre of a designed landscape rather than a monument on its own.

Within two miles of the village there is a tomb eight hundred years older than the henge, the largest artificial mound in Europe, an avenue of paired stones running two and a half kilometres across the downs, and a causewayed enclosure where people were gathering before any of it was built. All of it is free and none of it needs booking.

What order should you do it in?

Circle first. It is the largest single block of walking, it is nearest the car park, and it is the thing you have come for. Doing it last, tired, in failing light, is how people end up saying an hour was enough.

Then the barrow, because it is the one leg the weather can take away. Then Silbury Hill, which is a ten-minute stop and works at any point. The Avenue and Windmill Hill are the optional extras that decide whether this is a six-hour day or an eight-hour one.

Morning: the henge itself

Park at the National Trust car park south of the village, SN8 1RF, and walk in rather than driving into the middle. Go up onto the bank and turn clockwise: the south-west quadrant first for the Barber Surgeon Stone and the longest restored arc, then the north-west for the earthwork at its clearest and the fewest people.

Cross the road into the north-east for the northern inner circle and the two surviving stones of the Cove, which are among the biggest on the site. That is ninety minutes at a walking pace and it is the part of the day that will not compress.

Late morning: the museum, and forty minutes well spent

The Alexander Keiller Museum sits in the village and costs £7. One ticket opens two rooms: the Barn Gallery, which sets the wider World Heritage Site out, and the Stables Gallery, which holds the finds — much of it excavated from Windmill Hill and the Avenue by Keiller's own teams in the 1920s and 30s.

Do it before lunch rather than after. The village fills between noon and three when the coach parties land, and the museum is the one indoor thing here that does not get busier when it rains.

Is West Kennet Avenue worth the walk?

Yes, and it is the most under-visited thing at Avebury. It leaves the henge by the south-eastern entrance in pairs of stones and runs towards The Sanctuary on Overton Hill. Keiller excavated and part-restored the northern stretch in 1934 and 1935.

Twenty minutes out and twenty back gives you the restored section and the sense of approach the monument was designed around. Nobody on a coach day does it, which means you will have it to yourself even in August.

Afternoon: Silbury Hill

A mile south on the A4 stands the largest artificial mound in Europe, probably finished around 2400 BC. It contains no burial and its purpose is unknown — English Heritage says so plainly rather than guessing.

You cannot climb it. There is no public access to the hill, in order to protect it, so the visit is the viewing area and the information panels. Ten minutes is enough, £2 to park, and coaches and minibuses cannot be accommodated at all, which is why guided days tend to slow down rather than stop.

What is the walk to West Kennet Long Barrow like?

Half a mile uphill across farmland from a free, signposted lay-by on the A4. The ground is uneven, it holds water, and there is an unguarded drop above the entrance. In proper shoes it is twenty minutes each way and entirely manageable.

At the top you can walk into a chambered tomb built around 3650 BC, where nearly fifty people were buried before the chambers were blocked. It is unstaffed, unlit and free. It is also the stop most people remember longest, and the one a London coach day will drop if the field is bad — see Avebury weather for what each month does.

Should you add Windmill Hill?

Only if you have the whole day and an interest in what came before the henge. It is a mile and a half north-west on a footpath from the village, and what is there is a set of concentric ditches in a field — a causewayed enclosure where people gathered and feasted centuries before the first Avebury stone went up.

There is nothing built to look at, which is the honest warning. Its finds are the backbone of the museum collection, so seeing the display first makes the field mean something. Everything on this list is described on things to do at Avebury.

What if it rains?

Cut the barrow and Windmill Hill, keep the circle, and move the museum to the middle of the afternoon. Wet chalk downland under low cloud is arguably the weather the place was built in, and the quadrants are still walkable in proper shoes.

Avebury Manor at £14 is the indoor option most people forget, and St James' church just outside the bank is free, usually open and the quietest ten minutes available.

A six-hour and an eight-hour version

1. 10:00 Park, walk in, south-west and north-west quadrants.
2. 11:15 Cross to the north-east for the Cove.
3. 12:00 Museum, both galleries.
4. 12:45 Lunch, before the coaches.
5. 13:30 West Kennet Avenue, out and back.
6. 14:30 Drive the A4: Silbury Hill viewpoint.
7. 15:00 West Kennet Long Barrow, the walk up and the chamber.
8. 16:15 Six-hour version ends here. For eight, add Windmill Hill or Avebury Manor.

Frequently asked questions

Doing all this without a car

Harder, but not impossible. Bus 49 puts you in the village, and the henge, the Avenue, the museum and the manor are all walkable from the stop. Silbury Hill and the long barrow are on the A4 and the walk out along the Avenue reaches the general area, though not comfortably in an afternoon.

That gap is what a guided day fills, and only some of them fill it: several routes include the long barrow and Silbury Hill, and several do not. The full argument is in getting to Avebury without a car, and the road and bus detail on getting there. Which routes reach which monuments is set out on Avebury Tours.

How much does the whole day cost?

Less than almost any comparable day out in England. Parking is £8, the museum £7 a head and the manor £14 if you want it. Silbury Hill asks £2 for the lay-by and West Kennet Long Barrow asks nothing at all. Two adults doing the circle, the museum and both A4 monuments spend about £24 between them for a full day.

That figure is the reason the honest advice to anyone already in Wiltshire is to drive here rather than book a tour. The fare on a guided day buys the driving and the sequencing, not the access — and on this particular itinerary the driving is only about four miles.

What is the one mistake people make?

Leaving after the circle. Almost everybody who comes here walks a quadrant or two, photographs a stone and drives away, and never learns that a tomb they could have walked into stands on the ridge a mile and a half south. The henge is the centre of the day, not the whole of it.

The second mistake is doing the barrow last, when the light is going and the field is churned. Do it while you still want to walk uphill. Everything about the ground and the season is on Avebury weather.