West Kennet Long Barrow ★★☆
A 5,600-year-old Neolithic passage tomb near Avebury
For 1,000 years, starting around 3650 BC, at least 46 people were entombed in the five burial chmabers of this oblong artificial limestone hill raised on the grassy chalk countryside of Wiltshire.
Around 2,000 BC, the passage was filled in and the entrance blocked with Sarsen stones. Why? No one knows.
Maybe it's my love of Tolkien, but calling these passage tombs "barrows" makes them just that more exciting to weave past the uneven flat stone monoliths guarding the entrance like so many broken teeth, hunker down, and crawl into the stone-lined 5,600-year-old tomb imagining what ghosts (or barrow-wights) might lurk therein.
Your day trip starts with a morning pickup from Salisbury Train Station or your accommodation in Salisbury. En route to Stonehenge, learn the wonders of the medieval city of Salisbury before travelling a scenic route to Stonehenge. You will see thatched cottages and learn about the surrounding area.
Once you reach the world famous UNESCO Heritage Site of Stonehenge, marvel at human endeavour which is testament to the sophisticated engineering skills of prehistoric people. Follow in their footsteps as you approach the monument of Stonehenge and explore the many other prehistoric remains across the landscape.
Just after noon, depart Stonehenge and begin your journey across the Wiltshire countryside. You will cross the Kennet and Avon Canal and learn of the transition between the Canals and the first trains before seeing a magnificent chalk carving in the hillside, Alton Barnes White Horse. You then travel through Lockeridge, the home of the Sarcen Stones (the largest of the stones at Stonehenge), and you soon arrive in Avebury where you have free time for lunch (own expense).
In Avebury, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, you will learn of the true definition of a henge and as your guide takes you around this Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles you will be able to touch and feel the stones themselves. You will try your hand at Divining for the spiritual leylines before leaving Avebury.
Departing Avebury you will travel to West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill, where you can take a short walk to one of the largest, most accessible Neolithic chambered tombs in Britain. Built in and around 3650BC, it was used for a short time as a burial chamber, nearly 50 people being buried here before the chambers were blocked. You will have a great view from here of Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in Europe. Mysterious Silbury Hill compares in height and volume to the roughly contemporary Egyptian pyramids. Probably completed around 2400BC, it apparently contains no burial.
At around 5pm you will depart Silbury Hill and begin your journey back towards your desired drop off location in Salisbury, where you will return at 6-6.30pm.
