Saturday Second Walk - Neolithic Wiltshire (II): SWC 255 Pewsey Circular (via Avebury)

This is for all you Pagans out there...flanking the longest day of the year, two expeditions to the most remarkable Neolithic sites in England

SWC Walk 255 – Pewsey Circular (via Avebury World Heritage Site)

Length:  34.7 km (21.5 mi)

Ascent/Descent:  560 m

Net Walking Time: ca. 8 hours

Toughness:  10 out of 10 

            or

Pewsey to Avebury (incl. out-and-back to Silbury Hill and West Kennett Long Barrow)

Length:  22.9 km (14.3 mi)

Ascent/Descent:  390 m

Net Walking Time: ca. 5 hours

Toughness:  6 out of 10 

            or

Pewsey to Avebury (excl. out-and-back to Silbury Hill and West Kennett Long Barrow)

Length:  17.2 km (10.7 mi)

Ascent/Descent:  368 m

Net Walking Time: ca. 4 hours

Toughness:  5 out of 10 

Take the 08.35 Exeter St. David's train from Paddington (09.03 Reading), arriving Pewsey at 09.38

Pewsey suffers from an infrequent train service, explaining the early start (the next train is at 10.35, arriving 11.34, just about early enough to make it to Lockeridge for lunch on the short options). Return trains: 15.45, 16.59 and 20.23 hours  (69-77 mins journey time)

Cheap Advance tickets are gone now, so… buy separate London-Reading return and Reading-Pewsey return tickets. !! And if you are using a Network Railcard, buy a discounted Reading return ticket and an undiscounted Reading-Pewsey return.!! If you are going to walk “just” to Avebury, the Bus #49 takes you from outside the pub in Avebury to Swindon Station in 25 mins (roughly hourly service until 20.36). Buy separate tickets as follows: London to Reading return (Network RC discount possible), Reading-Pewsey single and Swindon-Reading single!
Or make it a weekend: stay in or near Avebury for the night, visit the sights in your own time, and walk the second half of this walk on Sunday...

This is a strenuous excursion into the heart of Neolithic Wiltshire, a mysterious landscape full of pre-historic earthworks, standing stones, sarsen fields and hillforts as well as barrows – burial mounds of kings and warriors. The route passes through or past four of the most famous Neolithic sites in Britain: Fyfield Down Sarsen Stones Field, Avebury Standing Stones and Bank & Ditch Earthworks, Silbury Hill and West Kennett Long Barrow. You walk out of the beautiful Vale of Pewsey in a northerly direction over the southerly ridge of the Marlborough Downs, from where there are stunning far views over this land of wave-like hills, with its scarps, ridges and valleys, before heading to above attractions. Later the walk leads up to Wiltshire’s highest peak (Milk Hill) with its stunning Down. After a scenic descent into the Vale of Pewsey an undemanding stretch along the Kennet & Avon Canal leads back to Pewsey with its many tea options.

For the walk directions click here.

For a map, a height profile, gpx/kml files, and some photos click here.

The lunch pub is The Red Lion in Avebury (17.2 km/10.7 mi), or The Who'd A Thought It  in Lockeridge (9.7 km/6.0 mi), if you are walking one of the shorter versions of the walk at a leisurely pace (or if you take the later train). For the tea options in Pewsey check page 2 of the walk directions (the cafes will be shut by the time we get there, of course...).

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