West Kennet Long Barrow — Attraction in Avebury

One of the jewels in the Avebury landscape, worth a visit as you can enter the barrow and have a good explore inside, a great way to spook the kids! Firstly, the boring stuff. If you're visiting by car, park in the layby on the A road. It's signposted, usually lots of space. Alternatively, you could walk it in a few mins from the car park by Silbury Hill. The path to the barrow from the road takes about 15 mins to walk. You need to get through a couple of gates which can fit buggies or smaller wheelchairs through. The stretch uphill is on unpaved ground, so depending on time of year/weather, it can get quite muddy. The barrow is in a prominent position on the brow of the hill. It helps put a bit of context around Avebury, as you can look down towards Avebury past Silbury. The barrow itself is open to the public, it's dark and damp, which is great during a heatwave. A couple of "windows" in the ceiling let a bit of light in. The stones have a slight boney look to them which adds to the atmosphere. I loved visiting, recording nlike Stonehenge, you actually get to touch the stones, and explore inside the barrow into the earth. Without sounding like an old hippy, this can only help you in trying to understand what our ancestors were up to here thousands...

To some people this will just be a hole in the hillside but if you appreciate our ancient history and the opportunity to actually walk inside a burial mound, then it's definitely worth the walk up the hill, if only to see how our ancestors buried their dead. Looking across to Silbury Hill, it's hard to believe the latter was constructed 1,000 years after the burial mound. It's not an especially steep climb up to the barrow but not being 100% healthwise it took me a while, something to be aware of, especially if you've walked to it from Avebury (which is a couple of miles). From the A4 you walk through a gate, across a field (which may have grazing cattle), through another gate, left for a short distance before turning right to go up the hill. Note: The path isn't clearly signposted where you need to turn right (up the hill) and had we not had a map that we picked up at the National Trust unit in Avebury, it would have been easy to just carry straight on and get lost, as another couple did. If you're lucky there will be other people already walking up/down and you can follow them but the important thing is that after the second gate you need to head up the hill. Perhaps the National Trust could put a second signpost at the turning, which would...

Looked after by English Heritage this Historic site is one to see if your interested in our stone/bronze age past. Entry is FREE.😊 and its open all year round during daylight hours.

There is no dedicated car park, instead you park in the lay-by on the main A4 and walk to the site which is approximately half a mile or so away. I would point out that the walk to the site is across farmers fields and very uneven. For wheelchair users its doable but certainly not easy.

The barrow dates to about 3,500 bc and sits in the landscape like a lighthouse in a calm pond. You cannot miss it and the same must have been true back when it was built. Inside the Barrow is erie as well as dark, spooky when your a lone. Certainly its a change of trousers job when someone arrives and says anything at the entrance when you thought you were alone 😊.

There is No cafe, No toilets and No sovineer shop but its still a very interesting place to visit, I certainly recommend you pay a visit if your in the area. (it would be...