West Kennet Long Barrow

Wiltshire


England's finest burial mound dates from around 3500 BC. Its entrance is guarded by huge sarsens and its roof is made out of gigantic overlapping capstones. About 50 skeletons were found when it was excavated; finds are on display at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes. The barrow is a half-mile walk across fields from the parking layby.

A footpath also leads from Avebury Stone Circle to West Kennet (2 miles), passing the vast earthwork of Silbury Hill en route.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Wiltshire attractions

1. Silbury Hill

0.57 MILES

Rising abruptly from the fields just south of Avebury, 40m-high Silbury Hill is the largest artificial earthwork in Europe, comparable in height and…

2. Barber Surgeon Stone

1.29 MILES

Named after the skeleton of a man found under it – the equipment buried with him suggests he was a barber-cum-surgeon.

4. Dovecote

1.44 MILES

A 16th-century, Grade II–listed dovecote.

5. Swindon Stone

1.49 MILES

A massive 65-tonne stone, which is one of the few at Avebury never to have been toppled.

6. Lacock Abbey

11.54 MILES

Lacock Abbey is a window into a medieval world. Founded as an Augustinian nunnery in the 13th century, its deeply atmospheric rooms and stunning Gothic…

7. Fox Talbot Museum

11.65 MILES

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–77) pioneered the photographic negative. A prolific inventor, he began developing the system in 1834 while working at…

8. Woodhenge

15.41 MILES

Woodhenge is a series of six concentric rings that would once have been staked out by wooden posts (today, concrete markers do the job), and may have…