Wiltshire

Places to visit, attractions, heritage and things of interest in or about Wiltshire in the south-west of England.

Ten of the best in the west

Polperro, Cornwall

South West England has two main draw-backs: it is popular and, as it’s on the west, it can suffer from wetness – particularly at its extremities.  Other than that, it has pretty much everything, including mystery, prehistory, history, cuteness, grand vistas, impressive buildings and plenty of things to do.  For an introduction, see A Bit […]

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St Cyriac and the tour party

Lacock church, St Cyriac, Wiltshire

Had I led a better life, perhaps spending more time with saints than sinners, maybe I would have heard of St Cyriac before stumbling ignorantly into his church in Lacock.  For the benefit of anyone else who has somehow managed to cope thus far without this knowledge – and I’m sure there’s at least one

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Through cloisters and gardens – a visit to Lacock Abbey

Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire

For some, Lacock Abbey will always be associated with the invention of photography; for others, it is the Tudor-Gothic-Victorian house that gets the juices flowing; for me, the real pleasure was in wandering through cloisters and gardens. It was September and a stroll beyond the inevitable National Trust shop took us past pastel-shaded cottage-garden style

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West Kennet Long Barrow

West Kennet Long Barrow

Tumuli, tombs or burial chambers, in varying shapes and sizes, litter the British Isles.  Long barrows are (roughly) rectangular tumuli, ranging from about 60 feet to more than 300 (28 – 100 metres) in length, usually with a stone (or wood) burial chamber at one end, the whole covered with soil and rubble dug from

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A bit about South West England

St Michael's Mount, Cornwall

Including Bristol and Bath, the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and the Isles of Scilly. I keep returning to the West Country.  Somerset’s worth visiting for the place names alone – where else would you find such choice tongue pleasers as Wyke Champflower, Huish Episcopi, Shepton Beauchamp, Great Shitting (I made that

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Avebury Henge

Avebury, stone circle, Wiltshire

There’s a kind of benign magic about Avebury; it’s the sort of place where you can have fun communing with your ancestors.  Like faded signposts painted in a language we do not understand, the remains they have left behind are scattered across the countryside in these parts.  They point to unknown places and alien lives. 

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