DAC is away
This used to be a 'hidden' option within the monstrous (to some) Pewsey Circular via Avebury walk, until I split it out and altered the outbound route to make it a very very decent walk route even without those stones, but with the unfortunate feature of having bus journeys at both ends. But what little price to pay that is for a walking visit to Avebury with only a 5/10 effort to show for...
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Length: 24.2 km (14.7 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 297m
Net Walking Time: 5 ½ hours
Toughness: 5/10
Take the 09.05 Newbury train from Paddington (09.33 Reading)
to Newbury, change onto the 10.11 Bedwyn train, arrives Hungerford
10.22. From Ealing, go via P’ton.
From Hungerford, take Bus Line X22 from the Library at 10.52,
arrives Marlborough/Lloyds Bank at 11.10.
Return buses are on 17.10 and 18.10, arriving Bedwyn Station
at xx.28.
Taxis won’t cost the earth…
Return trains from Bedwyn are 17.41, 18.43, 19.46, 20.35
and 21.24.
Buy a Bedwyn Return!
This is a fascinating excursion into the heart of Neolithic Wiltshire, a
mysterious landscape full of pre-historic earthworks, standing stones, sarsen
fields and barrows – burial mounds of kings and warriors. The route passes
through two of the most important prehistoric sites in Britain: Avebury
Standing Stones and Bank & Ditch Earthworks and Fyfield Down Sarsen Stones
Field. Other significant sites nearby (Silbury Hill, West Kennett Long Barrow,
The Sanctuary and Windmill Hill) can be explored on extension loops.
You walk out of the historic market town of Marlborough with its
extra-wide High Street onto the Marlborough Downs, passing some horse gallops
of the famous Manton Park stud and go through some small and medium-sized
fields scattered with sarsen stones. Briefly follow the Ridgeway and turn down
it scenically to Avebury, where the route passes all notable features within the
village boundary, as well as a short stretch of the West Kennett Avenue of
Standing Stones.
The return route retraces the route back to the Ridgeway and descends through
the Fyfield Down Sarsen Stones Field, which contains the largest train of
sarsens in Britain (about 25,000). You then pass the Devil’s Den, the
impressive remnants of a dolmen burial chamber, before crossing the Kennet
River a couple of times and passing Marlborough College with a mini Silbury
Hill and a shell grotto in its grounds.
Walk Options:
Buses 42 and 49 serve Avebury, enabling a
start or finish there:
· Line 42 (Calne - Marlborough) runs 7 buses on weekdays and 6 on Saturdays (in
Marlborough connect to lines 20/22/X22 to Bedwyn or Hungerford Stations);
· Line 49 (Devizes-Swindon) runs hourly Mon-Sat and two-hourly Sun (Swindon is
on a different train line than Bedwyn and Hungerford!).
Two Extension Loops from Avebury village to
outlying sites are possible:
· Avebury to Windmill Hill adds 5.3 km and 52m ascent/descent;
· Avebury to Silbury Hill, West Kennett Long Barrow and The Sanctuary adds 5.2
km and 75m ascent/descent.
Lunch: Circles Restaurant
(11.2 km into the walk) or The Red Lion (11.8 km, food all day) in Avebury.
Tea: The Oddfellows (2.4 km from the end of the walk).
Plus numerous options in Marlborough, see the walk directions for
more details.
1 comment:
3 SWC walkers emerged from the train at Newbury (plus a bunch of Blackheath Ramblers en route to Bedwyn) and made their way across to get onto the delayed Bedwyn 'Express'. That left us with 25 minutes to kill in Hungerford, after locating the bus stop by the Library. Not a problem, as there is a lovely High Street, leading down to a bucolic stretch of the Kennet & Avon Canal.
Marlborough High Street was closed to traffic due to the Mop Funfair taking place (originally granted in AD 1204), cue some massive helter skelters and similar structures taking over this 2nd widest High Street in the land. The bus dropped us off some way short of the centre and we walked on up to the Common, then onto the Downs, with fine valley views, soon supplanted by views along horse gallops to more Downs and wooded ranges.
The sun was shining, but the wind was fierce and northerly, ie cold.
Fields with Sarsens were encountered not long after and before we knew it, Avebury was in view off of The Ridgeway. The Red Lion was suffering from that modern disease: under-staffing, meaning they were not taking any food orders from walk-ins for another 75 minutes, so I walked back to The Circle (NT) Restaurant for a sandwich and some very decent Austrian white wine (the other 2 were frugal picnickers and walked on without me ---> 17.41 train for them).
I tried to contact walker n=4 who had missed the train and started 45 minutes behind, but poor reception meant I only got in touch when we were both ready to move on, at 3 pm.
Inbetween a massive rain cloud had marched through, forcing me into ordering a coffee and a shortbread.
There were two more rainclouds in our way, both preceded by advancing rainbows, but the rain itself was mild in these cases. When we passed through Manton, we knew we'd be between buses in Marlborough, so decided to spend the 30 minutes or so we had in The Oddfellows rather than on the Funfair. And that was a very good decision: what a nice community pub with a great selection of Wadworth's finest Real Ales! 18.10 bus ---> 18.43 train.
w=sunny-with-a-cold-wind-and-some-showers
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