The Gallery

Avebury and Stonehenge Guided Tours Gallery

We feel very lucky to be offering guided tours in one of the most spectacular and picturesque areas of the UK. As an Avebury and Stonehenge guide I couldn’t have a better area to show off and, as a local, I know all the hidden corners and lesser known monuments of the World Heritage Site and the surrounding area, The region is filled with extraordinary ancient sites, towns full of remarkable medieval and Georgian architecture and a landscape that is unsurpassed in its natural beauty.

We are featuring some of our favourite places in this gallery. We do very much hope you enjoy looking through the photographs but nothing beats the real thing. Please get in touch and we will look forward to showing you around. 

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is probably the UK’s most iconic monument and has to be a great place to start for any photo gallery. Because it is so photogenic whatever the season I have literally thousands of photographs of this unique place.

First, some classic views:
Stonehenge guided tours
Stonehenge looking at its best on a glorious day in May.
Stonehenge guided tours
Stonehenge in pastel February evening light
Serene stones as viewed from the entrance
And now for a few of us having fun whatever the weather:

Avebury

The largest stone circle in the world and it is very, very impressive whatever the weather. People sometimes try to compare Stonehenge and Avebury: which is more impressive, which is older, which is more atmospheric or energetic. For me they are just different and if I have to place them: first equal!

Avebury and Stonehenge guided tours

Read more about Avebury

West Kennet Long Barrow at Avebury

This 5,500 year old tomb is an extraordinary place. Most people cannot believe we are allowed inside what has to be one of the most important places in prehistoric Britain. The setting is spectacular and the atmosphere affects everyone that visits it.

Read More About West Kennet Long Barrow

Silbury Hill at Avebury

Possibly the most enigmatic monument in the area and also the most recent being only 4,500 years old! Excavations have shown that it isn’t a burial mound, so what is it? There are plenty of theories but it is always worth bearing in mind that beneath the thin layer of grass it is made of chalk so would have been white when finished. Quite stunning and just as photogenic as Stonehenge.

Read More About Silbury Hill

West Kennet Avenue – Avebury

Not as enigmatic as some of Wiltshire’s monuments you may think because it clearly demarcates a route. However, then it gets a bit more tricky! Firstly, does the avenue lead from The Sanctuary to Avebury or from Avebury to The Sanctuary? Secondly, was it for people (initiates, celebrants or a privileged priesthood caste?) to process up or down? Or were all living people excluded? Perhaps it was a pathway for the souls of the ancestors? …you see, nothing here is quite that straightforward! Straight forward? Why does the avenue meander? Is it like a Japanese temple approach, designed to disorientate devils who can only move in straight lines? Alternatively is its winding route mimicking the course of a river?

Read More About The Avebury Avenues

Durrington Walls – near Stonehenge

Durrington Walls is the site of one of the largest henge monuments in the UK. An enormous bank and ditch surrounds an area that was once an extremely important ceremonial site. At least two circular timber ‘temple’ structures stood in the centre of the only stone age village we know of in England. Archaeologists are sure that the people who lived here built Stonehenge, the ruins of which are just two miles away.

Read More About Durrington Walls

The Stonehenge Cursus

The cursus really is a truly mysterious monument. Just to the north of Stonehenge there is an elongated rectangle formed of parallel banks and ditches that runs from east to west across the landscape. It predates the earliest work at Stonehenge by about 700 years and, being nearly 2 miles long and 300 feet wide, it evidently served an important function. But what was its purpose?

The Sanctuary near Avebury

The Sanctuary was once a very important timber and stone monument which was linked to Avebury by the West Kennet Avenue. Perhaps it was where initiates gathered before processing to take part at ceremonies within the Avebury henge. The monument was completely dismantled in the early 18th century but was rediscovered in the 1920s by Maud Cunnington, a local archaeologist. She marked the positions of the timbers and stones with the concrete cylinders that are still there today.

Your tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site can be greatly enhanced by a visit to one of the world class museums in the area. Click on a logo to visit their websites.