Durrington Walls, Wiltshire: Walk of the week

1102AM GMT twelve March 2010

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View Durrington Walls Walk of the week in a incomparable map Link to this video

THE EXPERT"S VIEW

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Mike Dando, Head Warden "The travel starts at the largest henge relic in the nation and takes you past really old monuments such as Round Barrows and the "Cuckoo Stone" where it is easy to suppose the landscape as it was a little 4,000 years ago. The travel takes in pleasing grazed grassland, strips of grown up Beech trees and offers illusory views opposite the Stonehenge Landscape.

Download an OS map of this travel Reproduced by accede of Ordnance Survey. All rights reserved. OS looseness no. AL 100018591

"My prime piece of this travel would have to be on foot past the New King Barrows, the large Bronze Age funeral mounds. A stop here on a comfortable summers" day, listening to the skylarks and the beech leaves rustling, is tough to beat, generally on tip of the perspective over to Stonehenge itself.

"Unique to this travel is the clarity of being in an really old and dedicated place; the multiple of the healthy and ancestral sights is simply spectacular. My tip tip for initial time walkers would be to move binoculars to take in the wildlife and views."

ESSENTIALS

Start Woodhenge car play belligerent

Grid ref SU151434

Map OS Landranger 184

Getting there

Bike National Cycle Network lane 45 runs south-east of the property. See www.sustrans.org.uk Bus Wilts & Dorset 5 or 6, in in between Salisbury, Pewsey, Marlborough and Swindon. Service sixteen from Amesbury, ask stop at WoodhengeRail Salisbury station, 9 miles from Woodhenge car parkRoad Woodhenge car play belligerent is 1 miles north of Amesbury, follow signs from A345

Distance, turf and accessibility

4 mile (6.4km) opposite open entrance land, together with Rights of Way, with gates, at multiform points. The belligerent is disproportionate in places, with a couple of short, high slopes. Sheep feed on grass the fields and there are ground-nesting birds, so greatfully keep dogs underneath control.

Local facilities

Picnic area (not NT) and report row at Woodhenge car parkWCsOutdoor cafPicnic area (not NT) at Stonehenge car park, 0.75 miles from this on foot route. THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

Durrington Walls The largest finish henge in Britain is 500m in hole and encloses a healthy valley. It once contained joist circles and what crop up to have been shrines. The area outward the embankment and bank was once a settlement, might be containing hundreds of houses, creation Durrington Walls potentially the largest encampment in north-west Europe at the time. People trafficked for miles to take a break and take piece in ceremonies, probably at the midwinter solstice. Woodhenge stood circuitously as an considerable joist round surrounded by a bank and ditch.

The Cuckoo Stone This station mill right away lies on the side, but over millennia it has been a concentration for Bronze Age vessel burials, an Iron Age range line and Roman remains. It is done of sarsen, a kind of sandstone, the same as the largest stones in the Stonehenge mill circle. The reason for the name stays a mystery.

The Stonehenge Avenue A dual mile prolonged rite approach joining Stonehenge with the River Avon and channel King Barrow Ridge. Interestingly, Durrington Walls is additionally continuous to the river, streamer experts to hold the Avon symbolically related the dual monuments, combining piece of a protocol journey; might be streamer to the afterlife.

DIRECTIONS

Download an OS map of this travel Reproduced by accede of Ordnance Survey. All rights reserved. OS looseness no. AL 100018591

1. At Woodhenge car park, go by the embankment nearest to you and in to a field. Walk downhill in to Durrington Walls (taking caring of rabbit holes).

2. At the centre of Durrington Walls, seeking around you, you can conclude the inlet of the henge as an included in a mailing valley. Standing here 4,500 years ago, you would have been observation multiform "shrines" around the slopes. Next, spin left and travel to the dilemma of this field. Pass by gates possibly side of the road, streamer towards a low rock.

3. The Cuckoo Stone is one of really couple of stones in the area that is done from sarsen majority internal stone is marker or flint. From here, go on forwards to the subsequent gate.

4. You are right away on the lane of the old troops railway in in between Amesbury and Larkhill; spin right and follow the path.

5. When you reach a crossroads and National Trust pointer to King Barrow Ridge, spin left and follow the shadowy bridleway.

6. At the junction, spin right by a embankment to go on along the ridge, channel the Stonehenge Avenue on your approach to a line of 200-year-old beech trees and a excellent perspective of Stonehenge. At winter solstice, Neolithic people might have noted the arise of the midwinter nightfall at Stonehenge, prior to travelling to Durrington Walls to applaud the new sunrise.

7. Continue brazen to New King Barrows, a excellent row of Early Bronze Age funeral mounds, creatively capped in white marker so they would have been perceivable from a far distance. Return to point 6, spin right and follow the hard lane to point 8.

8. Take a left spin by a opening in the hedge, to stick on the old troops railway once more. This leads behind to the embankment in the dilemma of the Cuckoo Stone field.

9. Head opposite the grassland to Woodhenge and behind to Woodhenge car park.

Find some-more disdainful National Trust walks at www.telegraph.co.uk/walks