Stonehenge and Avebury: an honest guide to Britain's stone circles
Stonehenge is the most famous prehistoric monument in Europe, and the first surprise is how small it looks, with a main road running past it. The second surprise is 25 miles to the north: Avebury, a stone circle so big that a village grew up inside it, where you can walk among the stones for free. Here is how to see both, and why many visitors end up preferring the one they had never heard of.
Key facts
- Stonehenge tickets: adult about £27 booked online (this includes an optional donation); more at the gate; English Heritage and National Trust members free, but still book a time slot
- Stonehenge hours: daily from 9:30; winter until 17:00 (last entry 15:00), summer until 18:00 (last entry 16:00)
- The catch: the visitor centre is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the stones; a shuttle bus is included, or you can walk. You view the stones from a path around them; you cannot walk among them on a normal ticket
- Avebury: free, open in daylight every day, and you can walk among and touch the stones. You only pay for the car park (free for members)
- Time needed: 2 to 2.5 hours at Stonehenge; half a day for Avebury and its surroundings
Stonehenge: what you actually get
Stonehenge was built in stages over about 1,500 years, beginning around 5,000 years ago with a circular bank and ditch dug with antler picks. The giant sarsen stones were raised around 2500 BC, aligned with the sunrise at the summer solstice and the sunset at the winter solstice. Why it was built is still argued over: a temple, a calendar, a place of the dead, or all three.
A visit starts at the visitor centre, with a good exhibition of finds from the landscape and reconstructed Neolithic houses outside. From there the shuttle bus takes ten minutes to the stones. Walking the 1.5 miles across the fields is better: you approach the circle as people did thousands of years ago, past Bronze Age burial mounds.
At the stones a rope keeps you on a path around the circle. Up close the sarsens are huge, but you never get inside. The A303 road runs just beyond the fence, and you will hear the traffic. A long-planned road tunnel to hide it was cancelled by the government in 2024, so the road stays.
Where the stones came from: Wales and Scotland
Stonehenge is a monument of the whole island, not only of England. The big sarsens came from the Marlborough Downs, about 15 miles to the north, near Avebury. But the smaller bluestones were dragged or rafted about 150 miles from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, west Wales. And in 2024 scientists showed that the great Altar Stone, lying at the centre, came from north-east Scotland, more than 400 miles away. How Neolithic farmers moved a six-tonne stone the length of Britain nobody knows.
More on the nations the stones came from: Wales and Scotland.
Avebury: the stone circle you can touch
Avebury is the largest stone circle in the world. A great bank and ditch, now grassed over, encloses a ring of huge stones, and inside it are two more circles. It is so big that a medieval village, with its church, manor house and pub, grew up inside and across it. A road runs through the middle.
It is managed by the National Trust for English Heritage, it is free, and it is open every day in daylight. You can wander among the stones, touch them and sit against them with sheep grazing around you. It is the opposite of the Stonehenge experience. The Alexander Keiller Museum explains the excavations, and Avebury Manor and its garden can be visited for a fee.
Many stones are missing. In the Middle Ages villagers toppled and buried them, and later broke them up for building, and you can still see stone fragments in the village walls. In the 1930s the archaeologist Alexander Keiller dug many back up and set them upright, marking the lost ones with concrete posts.
West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill
- West Kennet Avenue: a stone-lined ceremonial path running south from the circle. The stones still stand along the first 800 metres.
- West Kennet Long Barrow: a burial tomb about 5,600 years old, older than Stonehenge. You can walk right inside its stone chambers, where around 50 people were laid to rest. Free, open in daylight, reached by a footpath uphill from the A4. Bring a torch.
- Silbury Hill: the tallest man-made prehistoric mound in Europe, about 39 metres high, built of chalk about 4,400 years ago. Nobody has found a burial inside, and nobody knows why it was built. You cannot climb it, but you can see it from the lay-by on the A4.
All of these can be walked from Avebury village in a loop of about three miles.
Stonehenge or Avebury?
If you want the icon, go to Stonehenge, but book ahead, walk at least one way and accept the rope and the road. If you want atmosphere, go to Avebury: bigger, older in parts, free, and you can touch the stones. Best of all, do both in one day. They are about 40 minutes apart by car, and many tours combine them.
Getting there
- Stonehenge by train: London Waterloo to Salisbury (about 1.5 hours), then the Stonehenge tour bus from Salisbury station.
- Avebury by public transport: difficult. There is no station; the nearest are Swindon and Pewsey, with a local bus from Swindon. A car or a tour is much easier.
- By car: Stonehenge has parking for ticket holders; Avebury has a National Trust car park in the village.
- From London in one day: a tour is the realistic way to see both. Many also add Bath or Windsor.
Tours to Stonehenge and Avebury
The popular one-day combination from London is this Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath day trip. Entrance fees are included in the tour price; tips are not included but are always welcome.
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