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These can be found in ABAB’s Places.
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Silbury Hill is the largest man-made prehistoric mound in Europe. It was built roughly at the same time as some Egyptian pyramids, approx 2,400BC, and is about 130 feet (39 metres) high and 1,640 feet (500 metres) round. Its purpose is completely unknown.
Silbury Hill can be viewed from a path between Avebury and the A4 at West Kennet, but, to prevent damage, there is strictly no access to the hill itself. It is part of a prehistoric landscape that includes Avebury Henge, stone avenues and burial chambers.
Nr Avebury
Skara Brae is a preserved stone Neolithic village, unknown until uncovered by a storm in 1850. People were living here before the Egyptian pyramids were built and it is the best-preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe. There are the remains of nine, extraordinary, houses where built-in stone furniture such as cupboards and beds can be seen.
Part of a World Heritage Site along with Maes Howe, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness.
St David's Head, or St David's Peninsula, is a dramatic coastal headland where can be found the site of St Patrick's Chapel, the remains of an Iron Age settlement and defensive wall (Warriors' Dyke), field systems and a Neolithic tomb (Arthur's Quoit). Also renowned for its flora and fauna, including dolphins, seals and peregrine falcons. Take the coastal path heading north from the car park.
The car park can get full at peak times; buses are available from St Davids, 2 miles away.
End of B4583
Stonehenge is renowned the world over and, together with surrounding prehistoric monuments, is a World Heritage Site. It was begun in the Neolithic period, about 3000 BC as a circular ditch surrounding stone or wooden posts. The stones arrived about 500 years later, some (the Sarsen stones) from the Marlborough Downs about 16 miles to the north, other (the bluestones) from the Preseli Hills some 150 miles to the west, in Pembrokeshire. No one knows for certain why it was built - there is no shortage of theories. But it would have taken not only a lot of effort, but also a lot of organisation, to build Stonehenge. Further, it is situated in a landscape packed full of other monuments and reminders of our prehistoric ancestors. Stonehenge is extremely popular. There is a busy visitor centre with a compelling museum, exhibition gallery and reconstructed round-houses. You are transported part-way to the circle by shuttle bus, after which you can walk. The area has been landscaped so that the visitor centre is not visible from the monument. Note: Many visitors are disappointed by how crowded Stonehenge can be - and also that the circle is smaller than they have imagined.
Topping the hill above the White Horse of Uffington is an 8-acre hillfort, Uffington Castle, and the highest point in Oxfordshire. It was originally built in around 700 BC, a simple, but massive, ditch and bank, topped with chalk-filled timber ramparts. In about 300 BC, the timber was replaced with sarsen stones. The purpose of Uffington Castle is unknown. It might have been a gathering place of some sort, even a trading post. There are a number of Romano-British burials nearby and fairs were held in the fort in recent centuries.
Park in the National Trust car park for the White Horse
Waylands Smithy is a Neolithic long barrow, a burial site, dating from 3600-3400 BC and built in two phases. The remains of 14 people have been found from Phase 1. Phase 2 had been robbed but the remains of 8 bodies have been found. The site has long been associated with the Saxon folk figure-god, Wayland the Smith. The story goes that if a traveller left some money and his shoeless horse overnight, he would return to find his horse shod and the money gone. Waylands Smithy is accessible from the ancient Ridgeway footpath.
There is very limited parking on the closest road, Knighton Hill. More reliable is the NT car park for White Horse Hill - about 1.25 miles away - Waylands Smithy is signposted from there. A circular walk can also take in the White Horse of Uffington, Uffington Castle and Dragon Hill.
West Kennet Avenue is the remains of what was once 100 pairs of standing stones linking Avebury with the Sanctuary.
West Kennet Long Barrow is a large, chambered, tomb dating from around 3,650BC. Five burial chambers which once contained the remains of approx 50 people - you can enter the tomb. Visit whilst seeing Avebury nearby.
This part of the North Wessex Downs - a designated AONB (area of outstanding natural beauty) was a busy place in prehistoric times, with ample evidence of human activity since the Neolithic period. White Horse hill features Britain's oldest chalk hillside figures, a spectacular, highly stylised, carving of a gigantic horse believed to be some 3,000 years old. Some think it's not a horse, but a dragon; and below it is Dragon Hill, a natural lump (though it looks man-made) where patch of bare ground on the top is meant to be where St George killed the dragon and spilled its blood. Above the White Horse is Uffington Castle, a simple rectangular Iron Age structure dating from around 700 BC and the highest point in Oxfordshire. Behind it is the Ridgeway, part of an ancient trackway that stretched from Dorset to the Wash, parts of which are still in use.
Unfortunately, it is hard to photograph Uffington's White Horse - except from the air.
There is a National Trust car park nearby and a small disabled pull-in on Dragon Hill Road.
Uffington
Wolstonbury Hill is a 676 feet (206 metres) high hill on the South Downs, north of Brighton, with spectacular views. It is a scheduled monument, the site of a late Bronze Age enclosure, or hill fort, and other remains, as well as a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) notable for chalk downland flowers, including eleven different types of orchid, and over 30 species of butterflies. It also has the highest concentration of anthills on the South Downs and the remains of a 20th century rifle range allegedly used during World War Two. What more could you ask?
There is evidence that hilltop was also used during the Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods.
Extensive damage was caused during flint digging in the 18th and 19th centuries when, allegedly, some skeletons were unearthed. Other remains – animal bones, pottery and worked flint – were dug up in the 1920s. Overall, there seems to be a great deal of uncertainty about what, exactly, went on on Wolstonbury Hill.
There is some traditional association with nearby Danny House, a nearby Elizabethan mansion (not open to the public). During WW1, Lloyd George stayed at the house and is said to have mislaid some secret papers while walking on the hill. During the Second World War, the area was used by Canadian troops training for D-Day.
Access to Wolstonbury Hill is by footpath from various points – as identified on the OS map. Post Code is for Pyecombe, from which there is a bridleway leading almost to the top.
Pyecombe
If your favourite attraction is not listed yet, and you have a good quality digital photograph of it that you are able to freely send, please get in touch.