beyond the circle
Avebury, Silbury Hill and West Kennet: the landscape around Stonehenge
Three Neolithic sites that are part of the same UNESCO World Heritage listing as Stonehenge, and part of this tour.
Reserve the evening tour ↗The sites, roughly dated
| Site | Roughly when |
|---|---|
| Avebury's bank and stone circles | About 2870 to 2200 BC |
| West Kennet Long Barrow | About 3650 BC |
| Silbury Hill | About 2400 to 2300 BC |
| Stonehenge's outer sarsen circle | About 2600 to 2400 BC |
One World Heritage Site, several monuments
Stonehenge and Avebury were inscribed together by UNESCO in 1986 as a single World Heritage Site, recognising the wider prehistoric landscape rather than Stonehenge alone.
Avebury: a village inside a henge
Avebury's henge is far larger than Stonehenge's, with an outer bank and ditch more than 330 metres across and two smaller circles inside. The modern village sits within the monument itself, which is part of what makes a guided walk worthwhile.
West Kennet Long Barrow
Built around 3650 BC, this chambered tomb is around 100 metres long. Its chambers are unusually tall for a monument of this age, tall enough that visitors can stand upright inside.
Silbury Hill
At almost 40 metres high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric artificial mound in Europe, built from roughly 2400 to 2300 BC. Archaeologists estimate it took the equivalent of 500 people working for 15 years to raise it.
How it connects to the evening at Stonehenge
Seeing these sites earlier in the day gives the evening's special access some context: Stonehenge wasn't an isolated monument but part of a landscape that generations kept building on for well over a thousand years.
What this tour does and doesn't cover
The itinerary takes in Avebury, Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow on the way to Stonehenge. It doesn't cover every monument in the wider landscape, such as the Avebury avenues or other nearby barrows.