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Ancient monument

Avebury

Avebury, Wiltshire

The largest stone circle in Britain, with a whole village built inside it.

Avebury's outer circle is so big that a village, a pub and roads sit inside it. In the Middle Ages, locals toppled and buried many of the stones, perhaps out of fear of their pagan past.

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When
c. 2600 BC
Where
51.4286, -1.8544
Group
Circles & monuments

Visiting

National Trust. Free to walk among the stones at any time.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
From the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

In Wiltshire there is a stone circle so large that a village has grown up inside it.

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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