Avebury to Pewsey: The route continues through the extensive Neolithic and later landscape, passing several major monuments including Silbury Hill and several long barrows, then there is a steady climb up and over the next chalk ridge with tantalising signs of early Ridgeway routes and the much later Wansdyke, before dropping down to a valley along which runs the Kennet and Avon canal, which we follow east to the Pewsey.
Maps: OS Explorer 157 Marlborough & Savernake Forest
Length: 12 miles/19 km
Difficulty: Mostly fairly gentle rises and falls. Some muddy footpaths at low level and uneven chalk paths at high level. A couple of very short stretches of busy roads.
Getting there and away
To Avebury, the X5 bus from Swindon to Salisbury via Marlborough stops right in the village. Roughly hourly except Sundays.
If not staying overnight, Pewsey has a GWR rail station on the line from Reading to Westbury and points west, but trains are infequent – mostly every 2 hours. It’s possible to get a bus to Marlbrough and then the X5 to Swindon or Salisbury as above.
Along the way
See Day 9 for Avebury itself. Nearby:
Silbury Hill: Clearly man made and almost as big as the Great Pyramid, this monument is mysterious but clearly had some religious-power significance. Originally faced entirely in white chalk, it would have been seen for miles around. A platform near the top was presumably used for some sort of ceremony. A smaller version was built first then entombed in this larger version, which was completed around 2300 BC, and it’s estimated it would have taken 7500 man years to construct.
West Kennet long barrow: Well worth the slight detour to see this one of the best preserved and largest burial mounds, with six internal chambers open to the public. It is much older than the other main monuments in the area, from around 3600 BC and contained the bones of men, women and children of the early neolithic culture. Further on at Walkers Hill before Alton Barnes there’s another barrow on a very prominent hill, called Adam’s grave (Woden’s barrow in Anglo saxon times).
The Wansdyke: This is a substantial ditch and dyke defensive line (more than 5m top to bottom at this point and running from Savernake Forest in the east then nearly 9 miles/14 km west, with a further section beyond south of Bristol and Bath) here it runs right along the ridge. Best guess by historians is that it was a Romano-British defence against the invading Saxons after the Roman withdrawal, a major effort but soon abandoned. But no-one really knows. The name is a corruption of Woden’s Dyke. As usual anything inexplicable to a new culture gets blamed on a deity or the devil.
Kennet and Avon canal: This joins navigable sections of the Kennet river, east of Hungerford to Newbury where it joins the Thames, to those of the Gloucestershire Avon, which joins the Bristol Channel. Not to be confused with the Avon that rises in the Vale of Pewsey, which will be followed on Day 11, and which flows south to Christchurch. There are at least 11 River Avons in Britain: Avon or afon is just the Celtic for river!
Remnants of the Ridgeway: Today’s walk follows or comes near to several ancient sections labelled Ridgeway on the OS map. These presumably were recorded by local historians as such and support the theory that there was indeed a route from the old stone roads across the Berkshire Downs and here the Marlborough Downs. The route would then have followed a marshy stream from present day Alton Barnes to where it joins the Christchurch Avon at a point where it becomes navigable. Travellers to Stonehenge were believed to have come down the Avon to Durrington Walls (see Day 12) from where they would have walked the 2 miles to Stonehenge.
Directions
From the Red Lion in Avebury, go west and take the footpath south (sp Sarsen Way here and along the way) beside the ditch, following this round and through the car park, then across the road, following the diminutive River Kennet. Silbury Hill comes into view and you can climb this or continue ahead with the river on your right. Cross the main road to the small car park. Sarsen Way continues to the left but it is well worth climbing up the hill to West Kennet long barrow, before returning to the route across fields and a short muddy track then through the village of east Kennet. At the end of the village where the road bends left continue on the track up the hill. After a short distance take the turn off left with the new woods on your right, rather than the tractor track ahead further down the slope (the OS map shows the line of the footpath incorrectly between both of these). The lane continues through a small wood past the remains of the Wansdyke, then slowly down though a number of fields with gates.
Continue past a small car park by the Alton Barnes road and up to Adam’s Grave barrow on the top of Walkers Hill (or follow the contour round the north side of the hill). From here you can see ahead to the village of Alton Barnes, following the path along the ridge and then the road. Pass the village and continue to Honeystreet and join the towpath of the Kennet and Avon canal. A few hundred yards west is the Barge Inn (see below). Going east, however, the way is straightforward, continuing all the way along the towpath (crossing over on the way to the north bank at a bridge) to Pewsey Wharf.
Now follow the road into Pewsey (it mostly has a pavement) to the train station, or continue into Pewsey itself if you are staying there.
Breaking the walk
At Honeystreet (about 7 miles/11 km in) there is the Mill cafe, near the canal behind derelict barns, and a few hundred yards west along the canal towpath, there is the Barge Inn, a very pleasant pub with crop circle connections, a fairly standard pub menu and a nice garden by the canal.
At Wilcot (10.5 miles/ km) there’s the Golden Swan pub and in Pewsey itself there’s the Royal Oak pub with occasional pizza outlet in the garden and there’s also an Indian restaurant and Chinese take away and a tiny alehouse, the Shed.
Accommodation
Very limited options: The Byre, a self catering unit and Circles has rooms (not B+B).