, 3 Stonehenge Cottages, King Landscape walk Barrows, , , SP4 7DD Explore the link between two of the most important TRAIL enclosures in the country in Walking a less well-known part of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. GRADE While the Stonehenge Stone Easy Circle is known to have been a place of burial in times, DISTANCE Durrington Walls was a place 4 miles (6.4km) where people lived for part of the year and held feasts and rituals. TIME Both sites were in use over 4,500 2 hours and 30 years ago. minutes Terrain

OS MAP A circular walk across open access land and along rights of way, with pedestrian gates. The ground is Landranger 184; uneven in places, with a few short, steep slopes. Dogs are welcome on a lead and under control, as Explorer 130 sheep and cattle graze the fields and there are ground-nesting birds.

Contact Things to see 01980 664780 [email protected] Facilities

Henges The Durrington Walls

Henges are large enclosures with This former standing stone The largest complete henge in an inner ditch and outer bank, now lies on its side, alongside Britain is 640ft (500m) in diameter http://nationaltrust.org.uk/walks built in the Neolithic period around its original natural site. Over and encloses a natural valley. 4,500 to 5,000 years ago. They're millennia it has been a focus It may have been built to 'close believed to be ceremonial rather for urn burials, an off' the area once it fell out of In partnership with than defensive and may contain boundary line, and use. This area contained timber standing stones, a stone circle or Roman remains. It's made of circles and what seem to have timber posts. Stonehenge actually sarsen, a kind of sandstone, the been shrines. The area outside has its bank and ditch the other same as the largest stones in the ditch and bank (and partly way round, so is not technically a the Stonehenge stone circle. under it) was once a settlement, henge. The reason for its name remains perhaps containing hundreds a mystery but probably relates of houses, making Durrington to such a large rock being an Walls potentially the largest anomaly in this area. village in north-west Europe at the time. People and their livestock travelled from across the country to feast and take part in ceremonies. 3 Stonehenge Cottages, King Barrows, Amesbury, Wiltshire, SP4 7DD

Start/end

Start: , parking on roadside, grid ref: SU151434 End: Woodhenge, parking on roadside, grid ref SU151434 How to get there

By bike: National Cycle Network Route 45 runs south- 1. About 100m west of the Woodhenge car park, a little further on from the entrance to Woodhenge itself, go through the pedestrian gate into the Cuckoo Stone field (more on this later!) and head south- east of the property. See west to the far corner. Sustrans

By bus: Wilts & Dorset X5, 2. Go through the gate and turn left, heading down a hedge-lined path known as the Apple Track. between , Pewsey, This was once the route of a military railway between Amesbury and Larkhill, and is so-named Marlborough and ; because the soldiers would throw their apple cores out of the carriage windows and the pips service 16 from Amesbury, subsequently took root. request stop at Woodhenge By train: Salisbury station, 9 3. When you reach a gap in the hedge, turn almost completely back on yourself and follow the gravel track, sign-posted “Old King Barrows”. Follow this long, straight track west for about ¾ of a mile, miles (14km) from Woodhenge taking time to view and read about the Nile Clumps along the way. car park

By car: Woodhenge is 4. Eventually the track turns north on a right-angle. Shortly afterwards, turn left through the gate and 1.75 miles (2.8km) north of follow the path, passing Old Kings Barrows and crossing on your way to a line of Amesbury, follow signs from 200-year-old beech trees. A345 5. Amongst the old beech trees is a fine row of early-Bronze Age burial mounds, known as New King Barrows. Originally capped in white chalk, they would have been a visible from some distance and offer a fantastic view to the west of Stonehenge itself. Return to Point 4, turn left and continue north along the gravel track.

6. When you reach a crossroads with a field gate ahead of you, turn right and continue along a grassy footpath. http://nationaltrust.org.uk/walks

7. Now back at the corner of the Cuckoo Stone field, head back through the gate you came through earlier but don’t go back the way you came earlier - head directly north, keeping the fence line on your left hand side.

8. Close to the edge of the field lies a fallen sarsen known as the Cuckoo Stone. It is one of very few naturally-occurring sarsen stones in the area. Local legend says that the Devil stole Stonehenge from the Old Lady in Ireland and on bringing it to Wiltshire he dropped some of the stones, including this one, on the way. When you reach the road, pass through the gate, carefully cross over and go through the gate opposite into Durrington Walls.

9. At the centre of Durrington Walls you can appreciate the nature scale of this monument. Standing here 4,500 years ago you would have viewed shrines around the slopes and, at certain times of the year, a bustling hive of human activity. Head back across the grassland to Woodhenge to complete your walk.