Avebury

Avebury, with all its Arthurian and mystic connections, is one of those places that can genuinely be called fascinating without any fear of travel writer’s hyperbole. Far less famous than its less impressive cousin Stonehenge, the Avebury stone circle is actually the largest in Europe and, again unlike Stonehenge, is completely accessible, both by road and by air. It is a place with a unique atmosphere and an ability to make hairs stand on the back of the most cynical of necks. As the site covers 28 acres it is difficult to appreciate it as a whole from the ground

From Wycombe Air Park the journey is quite straightforward and as it is within driving distance it is ideal as a ‘Plan B’ destination when weather wipes out flying trips elsewhere. Only by air can you appreciate the overall plan of the site, only on foot can you feel the atmosphere and touch the stones. Ideally you should do both.

Archaeologists tell us that prehistoric Avebury took shape over 600 years, eventually becoming a huge monument consisting of two small stone circles surrounded by a large stone circle of at least 98 stones, some weighing more than 60 tonnes. This outer stone circle is surrounded by a ditch with a high bank. The circle of stones is visible from the air, but more striking is the huge ditch and its accompanying mound. Excavations have shown that the ditch is now only a third of its original 30 foot depth, while the earth work surrounding the circle would have towered a good twenty to twenty five feet above that, a huge project for people who had only primitive tools to mould their monument from the surrounding chalk.

Stonehenge, which is now so famous that it is impossible to visit or fly over, would fit inside the Avebury circle approximately 130 times.

Avebury suffered in the middle ages when local people found a way to break the huge standing stones and carried them off to incorporate in buildings. Other were virtually buried under the rubbish of the era, yet enough remained to leave the site impressive, and King Charles II visited it and walked up nearby Silbury Hill early in his reign.

Two avenues of stones completed the monument and linked it with others which (although no longer visible) made up a huge Neolithic complex, such that some have speculated that Avebury was the capitol of the country in prehistoric times.

The mystery of Avebury is its purpose. Although it is possible to find many astronomical alignments in relation to the stones, no-one is certain what the circle was for especially since at the time of its construction its most striking feature would have been the ditch and surrounding mound, not the stones themselves. It is strange to think that when the Romans conquered Britain, bringing with them roads and other aspects of ‘civilisation’, the stone circle at Avebury was already unbelievably ancient, dating from around 2500 B.C

Later legends have associated Avebury with King Arthur, his father Uther Pendragon and the earlier kings. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the originator of many of the King Arthur stories does not distinguish between Avebury and Stonehenge. Given the age of the stones it does not seem surprising that if Merlin were to choose a place of great significance to declare the young Arthur King before all the lower Kings of Britian, Avebury may have been that place. Hence the stones take their place with Tintagel and Glastonbury in the Arthurian legend, fuelled further by the existence of Merlin’s mound, where the legendary magician was imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake, just a few miles away in the grounds of Marlborough college. Marlborough itself, one of the most ancient boroughs in Britain, supposedly takes its name from the hill or as it was known, Merlin’s Barrow.

We all learn about the ancient Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans in school history. We learn about the Norman’s, the War of the Roses, the Tudors, the Stewarts and onwards to modern times, but the ancient peoples of this island are largely ignored, their culture still shrouded in mystery. Avebury is a site which reminds us of this islands long history, the builders of Avebury laboured long before Boadicea, before Rome, before even Homer, yet the monument remains relatively unknown, in the shadow of its smaller sister at Stonehenge.

It is likely that in the future this monument, like Stonehenge, will be fenced and protected. We suggest you visit while you still can.