Day 12 : to Stonehenge

Netheravon to Stonehenge: The final section takes us to our destination: Stonehenge. From Netheravon it follows the Avon down the flank of Salisbury Plain, to Durrington Walls, entering the wide expanses of the Stonehenge landscape, filled with monuments and signs of activities over millennia.

Day 12 personal log

Maps: OS Explorer 130: Salisbury and Stonehenge

Length: 9 miles/14.5 km

Difficulty: Mostly easy with small hills. Some of the footpaths along the river are likely to be muddy after rain and in winter.

Getting there and away

Netheravon is on the X4/X5 Salisbury Red routes to Swindon and Salisbury and 210 to Devizes so it’s possible to do this section in one day if you don’t stay overnight before. Bus information.

To Salisbury there’s a Salisbury Red bus ST (The Salisbury Tour) hourly. This is not a regular bus service so concessions don’t apply. You can buy a single ticket from the driver (£11). There is also a regular bus X4 but mainly designed for workers on site and not very frequent. Bus information.

Along the way

Salisbury Plain: We enter the wider area of Salisbury Plain, the largest area of unimproved chalk grassland in northern Europe, with many nationally rare species. Large parts are dedicated to army training and you will see evidence of tank crossings on the way. Along the river there are several small villages with Saxon names. The church at Figheldene dates to the 11th century but much altered and extended over the years.

There is so much to say about Stonehenge and the wider World Heritage Site surrounding it, with hundreds of other associated monuments and remains in the area. I will write up notes in more detail soon to be added to the website.

Durrington Walls: It is a large Neolithic settlement and later henge enclosure that served as a stopping off point to Stonehenge itself, 2 miles/3.2 km away over the ridge. Pilgrims travelling along the Avon would round the bend to be confronted with the sight of this huge walled enclosure, a natural feature of the landscape sloping up from the river. The settlement may have originally had up to 1,000 dwellings and perhaps 4,000 people. It was settled for about 500 years, starting sometime between c. 2800 and 2100 BC. There is also evidence of an earlier Mesolithic camping ground nearby that may have been used intermittently for thousands of years.

Nearby was a huge circular timber structure, known as Woodhenge, now known only from its postholes. It existed between 2500 and 1800 BC and would have been seen on the horizon by visitors arriving on the Avon as they turned the bend towards Durrington Walls.

Stonehenge: the most famous neolithic monument needs no physical description. It was constructed, reconstructed and rearranged in several phases from 3100 BC to about 1600 BC (see timeline on the history page). The famous circle of large sarsen stones was placed between 2600 BC and 2400 BC and the bluestones, transported from South Wales, were placed in their current positions by 2200 BC. A further stone was brought from Scotland and it is clear that this site had an island wide importance for centuries, with evidence of massive feasting at Durrington Walls at midwinter. Famously the henge indicates rising sun positions at midsummer and midwinter, and also tracks movements of the moon. What remains today is as shown in this model in the visitor centre.

English Heritage

Directions

From the south end of the High Street take the road swinging round to the left (sp Milston, Figheldean). After the Avon bridge where the road bends left, take the footpath right across fields. Take a road half right then soon the road branching right (sp Figheldean). At St Michael’s church take the lane rising left passing the village, to Ablington. You emerge opposite Ablington Farm. The footpath is just to the right of their gate and passes across paddocks and a stile. This track continues to Brigmerston Corner. Go right on the road. Where it turns to the left the map shows a public footpath ahead but this has been blocked off. So continue on the road and soon after St Mary’s church and a bend take the footpath right. Cross a footbridge then take the path beside the river to emerge onto a very narrow road, The Ham. Turn right into Church Street, to All Saints’ church, left into Stonehenge Road to arrive at a roundabout with the Stonehenge Inn on your left.

Continue south on the pavement by the main A435 road a short distance and cross at the layby to follow the tarmaced path up to Durrington Walls and Woodhenge. Take the road beside Woodhenge west then the footpath south then west beside Strangways houses. Now a path south beside a tree shelter belt (or you can follow a track through the trees) almost to New King Barrows, then west along the line of The Avenue following this all the way up to Stonehenge itself. To enter though, you have to travel a further 1.25 miles/2 km west to the visitor centre.

If you have a pre purchased e-ticket you may be able to get in at the public footpath just west of the henge, monitored by stewards.

From the visitor centre there is a frequent free bus provided by English Heritage to and from the henge so you don’t have to walk back.

Alternative routes

Much of the World Heritage site is National Trust open access land so there are many routes available between Durrington and the visitors’ centre, some passing close to groups of burial mounds (some indicated in map above).