Whilst I should have been studying I decided to go off and do a tour of Wiltshire to include all the features of the UNESCO site. Stonehenge is obviously the main site and is a world famous tourist attraction so was even busy on an overcast Tuesday in February I have never been on a weekend in summer but I guess it can be exceedingly busy! I would strongly recommend actually paying the high amounts of money to get in to the enclosure, I have been a couple of time to just peer through the fence but nothing is quite as good as the first time when I went in had the free audio guide and could see the sheer size of the stones. This is what makes the whole site so impressive so please if you have made the effort to get here it is worth paying to get in! About a kilometre East of here is the site of Woodhenge, which is amusing but not really awe inspiring it is now a series of small concrete bollards in a field, but it does provide a brief talking point and gives a good idea of how these sites were arranged.

I also headed about 20km North up to the little village of Avebury (pictured) which actually sits in the middle of a stone circle. Here you can get up close and touch the stones allowing you the chance to fully explore! The circle is much larger than Stonehenge but the stones themselves are smaller. If you have the chance to get here it provides a pleasant alternative to Stonehenge. The area around here is littered with all the classical Southern English things; more stones, giant white horses carved into the chalky hillsides, burial mounds, manmade hills and in the summer crop circles!

The best way to get to the sites is to base yourself in Salisbury which has a magnificent Cathedral and bus links hourly to Stonehenge, and less frequent ones to Avebury, if you were just interested in Avebury it is easier to reach it from Swindon just of the M4 to London or the nice market town of Devizes.