Clava Cairns is a prehistoric complex not far from the Culloden battlefield. There are actually two parts to it. At Balnuaran are three well-preserved burial chambers, two with entrance passages, each one surrounded by standing stones. The cairns are of a type of which around 50 examples have been found in the Moray/Inverness region. They
The village of Avebury is surrounded by an enormous prehistoric stone circle and at the centre of extraordinary set of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites that apparently represents a vast sacred landscape. These include West Kennet Avenue, West Kennet Long Barrow, The Sanctuary, Windmill Hill, and Silbury Hill. These sites can be reached by foot
The multivallate Iron Age hillfort of Garn Fawr on the Pencaer/Strumble Head peninsula dominates the surrounding landscape, which is peppered with prehistoric remains. At 699 feet (213m), Garn Fawr is the highest point on the peninsula and there are spectacular views from the top – arguably the fort’s best feature. The craggy terrain was formed
Happisburgh (pronounced Haze-bruh) is an ancient and attractive village, mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086, on the north Norfolk coast. It has a medieval church and working lighthouse, built in 1790 and the oldest working light on the Norfolk Coast, but is perhaps best-known as the site of the oldest evidence of human presence
Whitesands Bay is a rock-flanked wide, sandy, blue-flag beach popular with families, surfers, canoeists and body-boarders – particularly the northern end closest to St David’s Head. At very low tides, the remains of an ancient forest have been seen, and bones of deer, aurich and brown bear have been found. Traces of a 6th century
West Kennet is a large, chambered, Neolithic tomb dating from around 3,650BC. It is approximately 100 metres long by 20 wide and was in use over, roughly, a 1,000 year period. Five burial chambers once contained the remains of around 50 people. The tomb can be entered and is an eerie place, the atmosphere not
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Castell Henllys is a reconstructed Iron Age village, or fort, but the only one in Britain built on an original Celtic site. So the idea is that you walk in the footsteps of the Demetae tribe that lived there 2,000 or so years ago. It is very much geared to schoolchildren, but it is fascinating
Cleopatra’s Needle is one of several interesting monuments on London’s Embankment, not far from Westminster. It is an Egyptian obelisk, one of a pair originally made for the Pharaoh Thutmose III in c1500 BC, erected in Heliopolis and moved to Alexandria in 12 BC. The link to Cleopatra is spurious. It is a single piece
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Silbury Hill is the largest man-made prehistoric mound in Europe. It was built in around 2,400BC, roughly at the same time as some Egyptian pyramids, and is about 130 feet (39 metres) high and 1,640 feet (500 metres) round. Its purpose is completely unknown. One story (with variations) is that Silbury Hill was created when
Mitchell’s Fold Stone Circle is just inside the English border with Wales, a 3,000-year-old relic of the Bronze Age, constructed of dolerite stones from Stapeley Hill nearby. There are 15 stones arranged in a rough circle, with a couple more prominent than others. It is thought there were once 30 stones, that the tallest had
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Chysauster is one of the best-preserved ancient villages in Britain. A small community lived and worked here for around 400 years, from about 100BC until the third century AD – by which time much of Britain was under Roman rule. The villagers lived in stone-walled houses, each with a number of rooms arranged round a
Glastonbury Tor is a magical place, with links to Celtic mythology and the legend of King Arthur. Some say this almost perfect cconical hill, rising from the Somerset levels, is the Isle of Avalon. Now topped with the roofless tower of 14th century St Michael’s church, there is evidence of other structures on the site
