June | 2017 | Stonehenge Guided Tours

It is now believed to be the first prehistoric “stone square” ever discovered – in Britain or continental Europe

One of Britain’s most famous prehistoric monuments – Avebury in Wiltshire – may be substantially more ancient than previously thought.

Investigations within the UNESCO World Heritage designated stone circle – the largest in Britain – have revealed a hitherto unknown, and probably very early, series of ancient standing stones, are arranged, not as a circle, but as a 30 metre by 30 metre square.

It is believed to be the first prehistoric “stone square” ever discovered – in Britain or continental Europe. It is conceivable that the newly discovered monument, which would have originally consisted of around 17 standing stones, was built up to a thousand years before both Stonehenge’s and Avebury’s surviving stone circles.

Read the full article in the Independent: David Keys Archaeology Correspondent.

We operate daily guided tours of Stonehenge and Avebury Stone Circle. Many going inside the inner circle. Join us on guided tour with our expert guides and learn more about this amazing discovery.

Stonehenge Guided Tours
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Est. 1995

Stonehenge Stone Circle News and Information

Although there was historically a Summer Fayre at Stonehenge held on traditional midsummer’s day of the 24^th of June, it was only comparatively recently that the association between Stonehenge and the Summer Solstice Sunrise was realised.

Before Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the summer solstice had slipped out of sync with the old Julian calendar by 11 days. This meant that the Sun didn’t appear to rise from the Heelstone on 24^th June. People somehow knew that they should be at Stonehenge on “midsummer’s day”, but the reason had long been forgotten.

Indeed, it was only in 1771 that the first link between the Heelstone and the Summer Solstice Sunrise was mentioned by Dr. John Smith, even though William Stukeley had identified that the Avenue lead off towards the solstice sunrise point some 30 years earlier. Smith churlishly didn’t even acknowledge Stukeley’s work in his…

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