The West Kennet Avenue

The West Kennet Avenue leading to the Avebury circle can easily be seen whilst driving to and from Avebury on the whilst travelling along the B4003. Originally there would probably have been around 100 pairs of standing stones.

Each pair arranged roughly  20-30cm from the next pair with the stones of each pair standing around 15m apart. The Avenue ran for about 1.6 miles from the southern entrance of Avebury henge to a double stone circle on Overton Hill, now known as the Sanctuary.*

There is a second avenue, The Beckhampton Avenue, leaving Avebury by what it now the high street. This was a similar pairing of stones leading from what is now the hamlet of Beckhampton. In 1999 stones from this avenue were rediscovered as part of a project by three universities to test for its existence. There is also speculation that there might once have four avenues but so far there is no evidence to confirm this.

The West Kennet Avenue

The West Kennet Avenue

The West Kennet Avenue

Seeing the car in the first photo is a little poignant because that car was on its  final holiday adventure.

*From National Trust 2008 guide book to Avebury revised 2011.

14 Comments CherryPie on Oct 16th 2014

14 Responses to “The West Kennet Avenue Avebury”

  1. james higham says:

    Why would they have thought there were four?

  2. Ginnie says:

    You’re helping me realize there’s much more to this place than what I saw when I was there a few years ago, Cherry. It wouldn’t hurt for me to go back!

  3. ....peter:) says:

    This is such an interesting presentation Cherie… you have great photojournalism skills… thanks….peter:)

  4. Natalie says:

    That last one looks like a head to me!

  5. Mandy says:

    This is so fascinating Cherie. When you speak of four possible avenues, I imagine lanes of stones emanating out from a central point. It makes me think of crop circles and alien landing strips!

  6. J_on_tour says:

    I thought that the last one looked like a horses head too before I read the comments.