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West Kennet Longbarrow, Wiltshire
West Kennett, Marlborough SN8 1QH
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West Kennet Long Barrow is one of the largest and most accessible Neolithic chambered tombs in Britain
The barrow stands on a ridge above Wiltshire's Vale of Pewsey and was built around 3650 BC. Its five stone-lined chambers held the remains of nearly fifty people, their bones rearranged over more than a thousand years of use in ways that suggest ritual far beyond simple burial. Unusually, you can walk inside standing upright — a rare closeness to a monument more than five thousand years old.
From the top of the mound, the view stretches across to Silbury Hill and the wider Avebury landscape.
The book Magical Britain tells us that folklore describes a great white dog with blood-red ears entering the barrow at dawn on midsummer's day — a figure familiar from British fairy tradition. West Kennet is on both the Avebury Day Pilgrimage and near the Great Stones Way. It is managed by English Heritage with free access, and forms part of the Avebury UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read more about the site on English Heritage.
Amenities
Key facts
Britain’s Pilgrim Places
This listing is an extract from Britain’s Pilgrim Places, written by Nick Mayhew-Smith and Guy Hayward and featuring hundreds of similar spiritually charged sites and landscapes from across Britain.
Proceeds from sale of the book directly support the British Pilgrimage Trust, a non-profit UK charity. Thank you.
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Tom Jones
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Tom Jones
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