West Kennet Long Barrow

West Kennet Long Barrow is a chambered tomb built around 3650 BC on a chalk ridge south of Avebury, visible from the stone circle across the fields. The entrance passage and five side chambers are still intact and can be entered — stoop through the low doorway and stand inside a space that has been sealed and opened repeatedly over five millennia. The chamber walls and ceiling are massive sarsen slabs.

The walk from Avebury takes about 30 minutes across farmland, following the West Kennet Avenue south. Nearby Silbury Hill is visible from the barrow — the two monuments are roughly contemporary, and their relationship to each other and to the main henge is still debated. The barrow is managed by English Heritage and free to enter.

things to do sight historic site
A story
West Kennet is one of the longest Neolithic burial chambers in Britain at 100 metres, yet only the eastern end contained burials. When excavated in the 1950s, the bones of at least 46 people were found, interred over centuries. The remains had been arranged and rearranged — skulls grouped together, long bones separated — suggesting the chamber was repeatedly opened for new burials or ritual activity over a period of around a thousand years.