Avebury Circle in Wiltshire, England

The car park is located before you get to the Village. There is a small fee to park, though I am not sure what it was. English Heritage and National Trust members park for free. One thing to note is the gates to the car park close at 6:30 pm. I think you can see the stones anytime (or as English Heritage says, “Any reasonable time”), and for free at that. But if you’re going to hang around longer than 6:30 pm, it would be worth inquiring about longer-term parking.

Avebury Circle is larger than Stonehenge–the bank and ditch enclose an area of 28.5 acres. Construction of the site probably began around 3100 BC. The stones used in the circle are the same Sarsen (or sandstone) stones used at Stonehenge. Only at Avebury, the rocks are natural and unworked. According to English Heritage, Alexander Keiller, a marmalade heir, restored a number of the stones in the circle in the 1930s. Many of the stones had been buried during medieval times because they were associated with devil worship.

I think the best part about Avebury was being able to walk with the sheep! Ok, so that’s only part of it. What I should really say is that I feel like Stonehenge is more like art. It’s roped off, and you can see the whole thing at once, which is really nice. Avebury, on the other hand, is more interactive (and more fragrant). You can walk inside the circle, you can touch the stones, and the sheep provide a soundtrack of sorts. Before you leave Avebury, be sure to visit the National Trust shop and buy a postcard featuring an aerial view of the area. It will help you really appreciate the magnitude of this monument.

These days, the sheep mainly use the stones as backscratchers.

The surrounding ditch is impressively large, especially if you imagine people digging them out with prehistoric tools. Here’s Roxi running down into the ditch.