Silbury Hill

After a hearty cooked hotel breakfast, which made a dent in my diet, we set off to do a 5 mile walk from Avebury Stones, Wiltshire. The English Heritage car park required a £3 charge for all day parking. My wife came back to the car with a paid ticket and credit card receipt that someone had paid for but not exhibited on their vehicle. A good start to the day as I hate paying for car parks!

The day was ideal for walking, dry and cool, so different to yesterday's rain. Within 20 minutes of starting we had Silbury Hill in view, of which todays photo is of. Shortly afterwards we walked to the top of West kennett Long barrow, a 5500 year old burial chamber that contained 47 bodies. The 5 mile muddy walk took in part of The Ridgeway, passing lots of tumuli, before getting back to Avebury.

The last time I was at Avebury was the snowy winter of 1980, when the landlord of The Red Lion Pub alllowed me to leave my blue Hillman Avenger in the car park for a few days whilst me and a friend, Steve Flynn, did the Ridgeway Walk to Oxford. It was snow and ice all the way, and we camped!

At the suggestion of Peahen we the drove to Marlborough town where we enjoyed refreshments in the church, and a leisurely walk around the lovely shops.


Silbury Hill is a prehistoric artificial chalk mound near Avebury in the English county of Wiltshire. It is a World Heritage Site.
At 30 metres (98 ft) high, Silbury Hill – which is part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury, which includes the Avebury Ring and West Kennet Long Barrow– is the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world; it is similar in size to some of the smaller Egyptian Pyramids. Its original purpose is still highly debated. Several other important Neolithic monuments in Wiltshire in the care including Stonehenge, may be culturally or functionally related to Avebury and Silbury.