Avebury fields forever

Views of the fields around Avebury from the top of the bank—another very good reason to avoid the ditch.

The Heel Stone

This sarsen stone stands a few hundred feet from the stone circle, outside the earthworks, on what would have been the avenue approaching the monument.

It's placed to align with the sunrise at the midsummer solstice, and the sunset at the winter solstice. You can get tickets to go inside the monument to watch the sunrise and sunset during the hours when the monument isn't open to the public, not just at the solstices.

More Stonehenge

Salisbury Plain

It's a little over a mile from the visitor center to the stones. There's a shuttle bus, but I opted to walk across the fields with the archaeologist who was leading the group. The land is so flat the Dakotas would be envious, and we didn't pass that many people on the path—unlike at the monument, which was of course very crowded. Lots of sheep though.

It was fun to imagine how the people approaching Stonehenge thousands of years ago would have seen a landscape not that different from the one we were walking through, and how amazing that first glimpse of the stones in the distance must have seemed to them. I mean, I knew it was coming and it was still a thrill.