We have had a fantastic two days at Avebury, the greatest megalithic temple in the world. It’s a giant circle of stones surrounded by a deep ditch and embankment combining to an impressive thirty feet or so in places. When it was built four thousand ago the embankment and ditch probably reached up to sixty feet in total depth from the top of the embankment down, all a bright white because of the chalk rock concealed beneath the grass.
We walked to the circle from the Hackpen Hill white horse, visiting Devil’s Den and the Sanctuary on the way, then following the twisting path of the avenue to the stone circle itself. I think this is the very best way to arrive at Avebury as it is most likely that the Neolithic builders of the site did the same thing.
Devil’s Den is the remains of a chamber made from three huge boulders, one balanced on top of the other two. A very small chamber is created beneath them. Either this is the smallest chamber in Britain, or it’s been robbed for its stone so extensively that almost nothing remains, or it’s a fanciful Victorian “reconstruction”. Regardles, it’s a beautiful site now, truly a romantic haven.
I can’t post pictures today, so I’ll find a wifi place tomorrow and add something to the blog.
