The Ridgeway: Avebury

Friday 6th April 2018

Setting off from the Barbury Castle car park once again I began my last stage on the Ridgeway National Trial that I had started almost a year earlier in Wendover and was now nearing completion. After gorgeous weather for the previous day I now at best had rather dull, hazy sunshine but with a bitterly cold wind that forced me to wrap up tight as I made my way south along a byway. Compared with the previous day I only had a small distance left to walk along the Ridgeway, which was very welcome as my excessive walking of the past couple of days had left me feeling very tired and the ankle on my left leg was beginning to ache. The Marlborough Downs are covered in byways that are mixed in the quality of their surfaces with many having a firm chalky ground that is easy to walk upon, but some I found to be waterlogged and muddy. As I made my south many people were galloping horses in the nearby fields, making use of the forgiving ground in the area, but this has no interest for me so I left them behind until eventually I came across a road where I found a much nicer path to walk upon as it was narrower without the space for motor vehicles.

At the top of the path I found the route of the Wessex Ridgeway, which extends the Ridgeway south all the way to Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast and starts in the town of Marlborough not far from where I was now joining it. Heading west I entered the Fyfield Down National Nature Reserve where the ground is scattered with large sandstone boulders called sarsen stones, although these stones are known as Grey Wethers. My map indicates the area is full of ancient settlements and tumuli, but I could see nothing of interest except a few stones. Slowly the weather began to warm up and hazy sunshine was beginning to break through the clouds so by this point my fleece and woolly hat came off and the day slowly became quite pleasant though still with a cold breeze. It was a relief to be enjoying another day of good weather during this week of mixed conditions that had not been pleasant at times.

Eventually I crossed the Ridgeway and began descending into the village of Avebury where there are three stone circles including the largest in the world. These are not complete circles, and it is not as spectacular as Stonehenge, but it was still interesting to see these enormous stones standing on their ends, and to touch them and feel the history that has passed by in the view of these stones. I wondered what the country was like when these stone circles were being erected and what had provoked the ancient Britons to engage in such a monumental effort. Leaving Avebury I headed beside the River Kennet with the obviously man-made mound of Silbury Hill ahead of me. This is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and is one of the largest in the world, though its original purpose is unknown. I didn’t bother to investigate the mound but continued along the path over the busy A4 road and up to the West Kennett Long Barrow, but this ancient burial mound also didn’t interest me as I had my eyes only on the start, or end, of the Ridgeway trail, which lies near the tiny village of East Kennett.

The original Ridge Way, the ancient road that lends its name to the National Trail does not end at this point but continued south to the Dorset coast. The person who created the modern trail decided to start it beside the A4 trunk road half a mile north of East Kennett, so after crossing the road I set off along the Ridgeway passing tumuli and other ancient remains to head north along the trail and finally complete my trek. By now my ankle was really aching so I just hobbled along the generally good track slowly making my way back to Barbury Castle. Eventually I reached the Iron Age hill fort and although I had parked near it the day before and at the beginning of this walk I finally walked through the circular ramparts and on to return to my car. This was a curious holiday that failed to engage my enthusiasm. I had not originally planned to spend the whole holiday walking the Ridgeway and had actually planned some walks beside the River Thames through Henley. However, once I had completed the Ridgeway I didn’t stay in the area for the last day of my holiday and instead headed home stopping at Bletchley Park again on the way.

My walk along the Ridgeway had originally started as an excuse to see bluebells and became a way of doing some walking south of home when usually I go north for my walking. The Chiltern Hills are a fabulous place for walking, especially in late spring and summer when the area is full of wild flowers, but during my walking last Easter there were few, if any, wild flowers due to the late winter and this detracted from the walking for me. The North Wessex Downs were not able to engage my enthusiasm like the Chiltern Hills, but neither of them were able to interest me in the same way as a good rock-covered mountain. That is principally where my interest lies and there is nowhere south of home where such terrain can be found, so I think in future I will still almost always be found either north, or west in Wales.