Frugal Avebury’s stone circles

Among the 1,000 or so prehistoric stone circles in England, the best known and most visited is Stonehenge.

But seeing the stone circle at Stonehenge is a lot like seeing wild game in a zoo: the monument is set off from visitors, caged within a rope barrier. The scale of the stones is uncertain. Without an advance, scholar’s appointment, there’s no chance to walk among the stones or touch them. Signs warn: Stay on the path. Do not cross the rope barrier.

All this for $26.25, including the bus trip from nearby Salisbury.

Travel writer Rick Steves, among others, says the “connoisseur” stone circle experience is 20 miles away in Avebury, a tiny Anglo-Saxon village and site of the world’s largest stone circle.

Entry is free, access unregulated: a perfect – and frugal – daytrip from London.

No one knows why people built these stone circles some 4,000-5,000 years ago. A National Trust brochure about Avebury speculates “it may have been a place for celebrating important times of the year … for marking important times in people’s lives … making contact with ancestors, or with supernatural beings.”

Whatever the purpose, this much is agreed: Avebury, like the other stone circles, is a creative and engineering marvel. The quarter-mile-wide circle is chalk – by one estimate, 200,000 tons of it – heaped 15 feet high. The sandstone monuments within circle are sculptural, some aligned, others at random. The scale is human: some of the stones rise to the waist, others above the head.

Unlike Stonehenge, with its caged appearance, the stones at Avebury exist within a working sheep and hay farm, a small village, and the intersection of two, rural highways. The morning I visited, the bus dropped us in middle of it all.

You don’t “enter” the site as much as confront it in every direction.

Most of us started with the southeast sector, entering through a livestock gate. A sign on the gate was the first evidence that this wasn’t to be a sterile, zoo-like experience: “Where sheep graze, sheep poo.” Step carefully.

No one path guides your progress. Most visitors simply wander: along the top of the chalk path, below amidst the stones, taking in the experience sector by sector. I made a point of identifying a half-dozen of Avebury’s best known – often named – stones. Others did the same, taking notes, posing for photographs.

As I did, most visit on their own, guided by informal advice found online. But guided tours are also available. I stumbled past a group organized by the well-regarded Mad Max Tours. The guide was using L-shaped rods to explain how “ley lines” demonstrate the energy between the stones.

“So, what does this demonstrate,” I asked.

“Are you with me,” the guide replied.

“No,” I said, “Just walking by.”

“Come on my tour and I’ll tell you,” he replied.

What sets Avebury apart from Stonehenge is the potential to engage with the stones, and with what many regard as their spiritual properties. On the day I visited, a “movement meditation” group called Web Art Garden was practicing for a World Environment Day performance among the stones.

One group, practicing a dance called “Soapstone,” intertwined their bodies to form an oval around the base of a stone. A member of the group, Una Nicholson, invited me to return for the performance and sit with them.

Like Stonehenge, Avebury is a National Trust property. Similar, in fact better, National Trust amenities are offered. There are two museums and a shop. And, beyond the property, is the village with its Anglo Saxon-era Church of St. James Church and 16^th century manor house.

When the church’s noon bells signal it’s time for lunch, you have two choices. One is the Red Lion pub with typical pub fare. The other is the National Trust’s Circle Restaurant. I tried the restaurant and found its food tasty, nutritious and cheap: a sandwich of Somerset brie, spinach and a piquant cranberry sauce on whole wheat. With a Diet Coke and coffee, $7.35.

Visiting Stonehenge or Avebury isn’t a matter of either-or. Certainly, visit Stonehenge. It is, to many, a wonder of the world, what its World Heritage Site citations calls “the most architecturally sophisticated prehistoric stone circle in the world.” But a more intimate, less regulated, more fulfilling experience is in Avebury.

If you go:

Transportation: Take the First Great Western train from London’s Paddington Station to Swindon, about 55 minutes. Roundtrip, $22. Walk two blocks to the Swindon Bus Station. Take the #49 bus to Avebury, about 30 minutes. Roundtrip, $7.

Guidebooks: The National Trust’s Web site has a useful guide to Avebury. It’s here. A stone circles Web site has more detailed information, including photos and maps. It’s here. In the visitor center, take a look at the National Trust publication, “Avebury.” It’s $5.25.

Currency: Prices quoted in U.S. dollars based on the rate of exchange in May 2015, roughly $1 equals 0.64 British pounds.