Drive Through Stone Circle

Avebury, England

What happens when you have a stone circle that encapsulates a whole town? In Avebury, England, that is the case. On our way back to Coventry from our day trip to Stonehenge, we drove through Avebury. Our drive took us through the largest megalithic stone structure in the world. The impressive structure encircles most of the village of Avebury. It is all the more impressive when you realize that people have gone about their daily lives and built the village within the stones. There is a major road (A4361) that is quite busy and goes through the stones. It was difficult to find a place to pull over to take a quick photo. We tried to park at the Red Lion Pub, but the pub’s car park was strictly for customers. With my experiences in England so far with cameras and automated parking, I knew that every parking lot tracked cars that entered by camera, and since this was my next-to-last day in England on this trip, I really did not want to get any kind of parking ticket or violation before heading home.

There is a car park on the outskirts of the village where you can park and then walk amongst all the stones. The stones of Avebury are quite impressive, weighing many tons and standing here for thousands of years. These stones had genuine meaning and purpose to the people who lived here thousands of years ago. As we took a little longer than expected driving to Stonehenge, we had very limited time at Avebury.

The most impressive part of the stones is their sheer size, and knowing what kind of planning it took to get these stones in place so that day could operate as a calendar or for spiritual rituals, I want to come back to this part of England to revisit the Avebury stone circle. I want to have a drink at that pub amongst the stones. I really want to walk the place and absorb the impressive scale of this location. My main piece of advice is that if you do try to visit Stonehenge on the same day, or if you visit in the winter as we did, try to stay closer to the area. Coventry is a two-hour drive, and since there was massive flooding in England the day before we visited, we had to take several detours to reach the places we wanted to see. If you’re trying to visit both Stonehenge and Avebury on the same day, make sure that you’re booked on the bus tour of Stonehenge, as it will save you time that you don’t have to use walking to and from the stones. It is definitely easier to visit both of these sites when the days are longer. I will say it is a cool experience driving through and realizing that the stones around you were placed by humans five thousand years ago. Avebury was a great stop, although I wish we had spent more time here on our trip.