Having failed to get a glimpse of Stonehenge on the Saturday, Cary and I decided to have a ride around Avebury on our way back North after the Autumn Meet specifically to view the Stone Circle.
With a little help from Sol, producing a ready made route in the morning, and Ivan giving us further historical hints, we set off in high spirits on probably the nicest morning of the weekend with a route already planned.
The little village of East Kennet was our starting point and after a pleasant little meander through the fields we started off along the Stone Avenue, a sort of landing strip for the flying saucers which obviously used to land in the Stone Circle at Avebury! With very few people around we couldn’t resist riding up the avenue between the stones.
After marvelling at the stones we wended our way westwards, taking a route detour along the White Horse trail to Windmill Hill then along splendid bridleways to Yatesbury then along the cycle route past the derelict RAF hangar, now used for paint balling, to Cherhill.
A couple of friendly mountain bikers told us of the route up Cherhill Hill to the remains of the Iron Age Oldbury Castle and the Cherhill Monument, now in significant need of repair but a very interesting testament to a remarkable man - Sir William Petty - economist, scientist, philosopher and surveyor for Cromwell’s army. With views of the Eighteenth Century White Horse to our left and the Iron Age hill fort and Nineteenth Century obelisk above us we embarked up a chalky track but soon encountered the steps we were warned about. They won but as we neared the summit we were able to cycle on to the monument.
After admiring the views we decided we had to cut the ride short in order to get en route back home so set off down to the Wessex Ridgeway, the Old Bath Road. Unfortunately I chose the wrong track and after an interesting if frustrating detour in the woods we got back on track and bowled along down to the Gallops near Beckhampton.
A final detour along the River Kennet brought us alongside the mysterious and monumental Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in Europe, probably completed in 2400 BC. My observant companion was heard to say, “What mound?” as we cycled past it!
The only thing missing was a quaint Eighteenth Century Thatched pub for lunch back in East Kennett - we had to settle for the motorway services instead.
A splendid 16 mile historical ride with barely a mile on tarmac.
Rob Newton
More photos can be viewed on Flickr here:
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