The Stone Circle and Village

My last two posts have been about my visit to Avebury. The first showed the inside of the Manor House and on Saturday I posted about the gardens. Today I am moving out into the village itself and the standing stones.

It is about 20 years since I last visited Avebury and had forgotten how the village and the main roads cross through the stone circle.

 We actually had a bit of a wander around when we arrived because we had a bit of a lunch disaster. The morning had started early with a planned trip to the vets who are a good half an hour away. Poppy was due to be spayed on what was not an ideal choice of day as we had visitors staying. It had to fit with three months after the end of her season as well as when the vet could fit her in before his holiday. We had chosen to have the key hole technique which just this one vet at the practice does. Anyway we dropped her off, rushed home, loaded everyone up and foolishly decided not to take a picnic. After all every National Trust property has a wonderful cafe, don't they?

We had a slow journey with roadworks hold ups in Chippenham but finally arrived and wandered over from the car park to what is known as the Old farmyard area. Undoubtedly a beautiful area with activities for the children and two museums and other buildings such as this dovecote to explore.

An ideal spot for a picnic in fact with outdoor and indoor facilities available behind this beautiful barn.

It was then that we discovered the cafe was closed until 2019 due to winter weather damage (!). We were directed to a pop up cafe that obviously couldn't cope. No savoury dishes left ....so then it was back to the high street to see if we could get anything else.

 Nobody had the sense to tell us there were further tea rooms at the back of the house so after a wander down the village high st admiring the scenic properties we were back at the pop up cafe settling for cheese scones and coffee. 

The day improved after that and after a visit to the Manor House (see previous posts) we headed off for a walk around the stones.

The stone circles (three in total) and chalk banks and ditches surround the village date back to between 2850 BC and 2200 BC. They are part of a far larger landscape which includes Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow and West Kennet Avenue, to name but a few.

There are four main sections divided by the roads. A lot of care is needed getting from one section to another.

An idea of the size of some of these stones is more obvious when seen with people stood by them.

It was of course an obvious place for trying out a photo for The Summertime Scavenger Hunt No. 9 Looks Smaller than You. The first attempt wasn't over successful.

Then we improved the technique.

This last one is definitely more realistic!