Wednesday 9 October 2013

Avebury and Silbury Hill



Map reference  SU 00448  61832
          
Distance 0 miles

Total 173 Locks 7 Tunnels

Running total mileage 179.2

Today was a day off from Narrow-boating for a trip to Avebury, and a fascinating trip it was. Unlike the more famous Stonehenge which seems to have been fully sanitised in that you walk around the boundary fence dutifully admiring the stones, at Avebury, a far bigger construction, you actually walk among the stones. This give a far greater feel for the size of them and the enormity of the task of constructing them into a circle given the limited tools that were available at the time (4,400 years ago). The full walk that we made encompassed the Avebury stone circle, Overton Hill barrows (not quite so impressive, West Kennet barrow (which WAS impressive and more than made up for the disappointment of Overton Hill) and finally Silbury Hill alongside the A4 road. This looks like one of the old coal mining slag  heaps but the work that would have gone into building it almost defies belief, again given the limited tools that were available. It seems amazing that during this period (over 4000 years ago) throughout the world different cultures were all apparently pointlessly moving massive stones around, Egypt with the pyramids, France with the standing stones at Carnac and here in the UK at Stonehenge and Avebury, what WAS going on!


 Also included in the walk, as a sort of by-product was a stroll along part of The Ridgeway National Trail (OK only about  1 mile of it out of the 87 available miles).  Hope to return later to complete the other 86 miles.

Tomorrow will be a chance to look around Devizes before moving on by Friday towards Seend taking in the impressive Caen Hill Flight.

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