The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

       

Windmill Hill

Causewayed Enclosure

<b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by ChanceImage © Alexander Keiller Museum
Well preserved Neolithic causewayed enclosure, built around 3675 BC comprising three concentric rings of ditches enclosing an area of 21 acres. Each ditch is broken at intervals by crossing points or causeways.

The site was reused as a Bronze Age round barrow cemetery of a mix of bowl and bell barrows, the largest of which is known as Picket Barrow.

On open access land managed by the National Trust.
Also known as:
  • Picket Barrow

Nearest Town:Calne (9km WSW)
OS Ref (GB):   SU087714 / Sheet: 173
Latitude:51° 26' 27.64" N
Longitude:   1° 52' 29.32" W


Show map   (inline Google Map)

News

Add news Add news

The Neolithic Dairy


Stone age man drank milk, scientists find
By Steve Connor Science Editor
28 January 2003
The Independent

Early britons drank milk as far back as 4,500BC, according to a chemical analysis of pottery fragments unearthed at several stone age sites in southern England... continues...
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
28th January 2003ce
Edited 28th January 2003ce

Images (click to view fullsize)

Add an image Add an image
Photographs:<b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Zeb <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by postman <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by juamei <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thelonious <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by A R Cane <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by A R Cane <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by A R Cane <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by A R Cane <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by ginger tt <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by ginger tt <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by ginger tt <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by ginger tt <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by earthstone <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by drbob <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by photobabe <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by photobabe <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by photobabe <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by sam <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Hob <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Hob <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Hob <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Moth <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Moth <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Moth <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Moth <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Moth <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Moth <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Moth <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Jane Maps / Plans / Diagrams:<b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance Artistic / Interpretive:<b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by A R Cane <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by texlahoma <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance <b>Windmill Hill</b>Posted by Chance

Fieldnotes

Add fieldnotes Add fieldnotes
I parked to the immediate east of Windmill hill, just off the A4361, opposite East farm, leaving my weary daughter on car protection duties, then made my way up the white horse trail. You only have to follow the path across two or three fields and already it has taken me unseeingly close by three barrows, I did see a lady who looked like she spends a lot of time sitting around ancient places. I could slip into her shoes or wellies as they may be, quite easily. In short time I reach the top, a National trust sign informs me I am at Windmill hill, tell me something I don't know, another more faded sign shows me there are more barrows up here than I had anticipated, something I didn't know.

Once through the gate the first barrow is almost on top of you, naturally, I got on top of it and had a look around. Oh dear, there's much more up here than I had thought. Close to me are more barrows, with ditches winding around and through and off away around the hill. I thought there may have been a couple of barrows at best, I'm not going to have enough time.
Then I make for a barrow shape, only to find it's one of them funny reservoir thingies. Humph!
From there I make for the big barrow at the top of the hill, only to get beaten to it by a whole family, first on the scene was a little girl who had as much energy and enthusiasm as a football team made of modern antiquarians, she was dancing and spinning round, rolling down the barrow, poking her nose into rabbity holes and everything. Don't see that very often.
Most of the family left quickly, leaving one adult overseeing the exuberant child, who was playing in the deep ditch of the barrow, I don't think I've ever seen such a good ditch around a barrow before, reminds me places like Bryn Celli Ddu and Maes Howe.
Time had passed by like I was stuck in a time warp, making it time to get going, I left the hill top to the next generation of barrow rollers, and passed out of view. Then we went home, the motorway was crap.
postman Posted by postman
1st January 2017ce

21/03/2015 – Early morning start from Aberdeen. After travelling by taxi, plane, coach, bus and Shanks's pony we made it to Windmill Hill. We had decided to make the trip south to see Avebury a few months back and the excitement of finally being here was a little overwhelming. After reading the many fieldnotes on TMA about the various sites around Avebury I knew I wanted to see the landscape for the first time by walking over Windmill Hill. We got off the 49 (great bus) at Winterbourne and made our way west then south to make the short climb to the top of Windmill Hill. The top has a lot of interest but my eyes went straight to Silbury Hill . Familiar from photos, but seeing it for the first time was something quite special. We stood for ages just trying to take it all in. Just such a lovely landscape and the weather was kind to us. Finally we made our way round the top looking at the enclosure and many barrows. What a great site, location and view! Heading south we made our way down to enter Avebury stone circle for our first time. A wonderful day. thelonious Posted by thelonious
31st March 2015ce
Edited 2nd April 2015ce

This is another (once) local site that I haven’t visited for probably decades, but today I’m here with my sister making our way from Avebury Trusloe the day after we’d been down to Devon for an uncle’s funeral. The weather looks like it’s on the point of raining all afternoon, but today we are lucky and it holds off and the air is suffused with the fresh smell of Spring. Walking through the hamlet the first thing that strikes us is the number of large sarcens in peoples garden walls (particularly Swan house in Bray Street) and, given the proximity of Adam and Eve across the adjacent field, we can’t help wondering if some of these stones came from the Beckhampton Avenue? Maybe not as whole stones, but perhaps pieces from destroyed stones.

Making the gradual climb up to the top of Windmill Hill it seems odd that a hill as low and unremarkable as this seems to have been so important, acting as it were, as a springboard for the whole Avebury ritual landscape. So much activity in quite a small space though, as you begin to take in the faint rings of the inner circles, the lower tumuli beyond the outer circle and, most obviously, the large bell barrows nearer the centre of the monument. The position of the hill is also quite interesting as it affords views down on to Avebury (though you can’t see any stones due to the surrounding trees and vegetation, but maybe you could when it was being built), Silbury Hill to the South, the Ridgeway to the East and Cherhill Down and Oldbury to the South West.

Having walked around the outer ring we discover some recent mole activity and begin to kick over the little spoil heaps. Almost immediately I’m rewarded with a small piece of ceramic about 2.5 x 1.5cm in size and shaped roughly like the Isle of Wight. There are two very faint parallel grooves incised on its outside curve. In addition to this we find two small globules of iron that look like failed castings of musket balls (any ideas?). We sit for a while and contemplate our surroundings before making our way back down across the fields to Avebury and the circle. Just in time for tea.
A R Cane Posted by A R Cane
12th May 2014ce

Did a linear walk the other day which gave a different perspective to approaching Avebury as went via Windmill Hill. Travelled by 49 bus to Berwick Bassett then followed one of the North Wessex Downs AONB superb bus walks. The walk (see link below) suggests a small detour to see St Nicholas Church in Berwick Bassett - this is worth the effort however ambivalent you may feel towards churches as it is built from sarsen stone, the first church I've ever seen built completely with sarsen. Three of the gravestones are sarsen standing stones though all erected relatively recently.

The approach to Windmill Hill is along a right of way which takes you across two fields so it is visible for some time before you reach it. Interesting when you remember that Windmill Hill was a causewayed enclosure and a site of Neolithic gatherings long before Avebury was built - I could well have been walking an ancient route. Once on Windmill Hill it seems compulsory to sit on the main round barrow for a bit and contemplate the amazing landscape that stretches out all around you. The day I visited it was misty (though lifting) giving the view towards Avebury the mysterious appearance I love so much. Silbury only just discernible through the mist along with Cherhill Down on the right.

The walk down to Avebury from Windmill Hill was just so peaceful; the mist was lifting fast to reveal a perfect still November day. Hardly anyone at Avebury and on this occasion I went into the Alexander Keiller Museum which is a must for anyone visiting Windmill Hill for the first time.

Its strange that you when become too familiar with a place like Avebury, all it takes is approaching it from a different direction to bring it back into sharp focus again (even in mist). If you are able, I recommend this walk and I understand the 49 bus now runs hourly on a Sunday - use it or lose it.

http://www.northwessexdowns.org.uk/wba/nwd-aonb/NWDWebsiteV2.nsf/$LUcontent/8.1/$FILE/Walk%203%20EXP.pdf?OpenElement
tjj Posted by tjj
18th November 2011ce
Edited 20th November 2011ce

I fulfilled an ambition of many years today by finally making it up to Windmill Hill. Having been to Avebury lots of times over the years, this was the one part of the landscape I had not visited and it was well worth seeing. We did a circular walk starting from the church near the Alexander Keiller museum, when we got there walked up to the top of the largest barrow and found it very peaceful and atmospheric. One might say there isn't much to see, but it's unusual because it does some interesting barrows and it's a neolithic enclosure which is different to the many hill forts which are so ubiquitous in the area.
As an integral part of the Avebury landscape you can't fail to miss this if you have a serious interest in the place, or like me it's great for any completists who come back time and again and want to see more.
Circlemaster Posted by Circlemaster
24th April 2010ce

If, like me, you like to keep walking to a minimum, you can follow the lane about half way up the hill before parking at a suitable point. When I say suitable I mean a slightly wider bit of track! Be careful not to try to drive too far up as the track becomes increasingly narrower, rutted and unless you are driving a tractor undrivable. I tried to warn an American tourist about this as he drove past me. Needless to say he knew better...... Once you get to the top, over a gate and a flat walk to the several barrows to be seen. Posted by CARL
17th March 2010ce

We found getting here reasonably easy with a 3-wheel buggy. Gate rather than stile.

Only saw one other bod, in over an hour and a half, compared to the afternoon crowds at Avebury, it was bliss. Peaceful place, even despite the military transport droning overhead. The barrows are well defined, as are the ditches. We had a picnic as it seemed the thing to do at a causewayed camp.

It struck me that it would be an excellent place to watch the sunset, you'd get a really good idea of the local topography watching the shadows change. When you read about the Avebury area, and stare at the maps, you get an illusion of familiarity with the landscape and how the monuments are set within it. But I reckon spending an hour or more up here is the way to try and get your head around it all, if only because there are no cars or crowds.
Hob Posted by Hob
30th August 2004ce

Access parked at a gate just off the A4361 to the west, more or less opposite East Farm (slightly south). Walk of maybe half a mile, uphill but not steep, and (from memory) the surface is pretty even on grass. A couple of gates to go through that were unlocked. Terrain on site is a little rough and could be muddy or slippery in the wet.

Wednesday 17 September 2003
Wow! Well worth the pretty easy walk - for the views of Silbury and Cherhill and the general Avebury landscape if nowt else*.

But there is 'else'!!! Plenty of 'else'. Barrows. Really nice barrows. Enclosure earthworks. Quite spectacular enclosure earthworks (I thought). A real sense of 'settlement' somehow, I felt - despite the surprisingly exposed and, once you're up there, kind of 'remote' position.

And of course there's the generally held assertion that this is where it all started, which somehow seemed to make sense.

*Could even just make out the Longstone Cove! (Can't see it on my photo though - too hazy....)
Moth Posted by Moth
9th October 2003ce
Edited 10th October 2003ce

The gentle rise of the hill gives you no clue as to how far up you actually are when you get to the top, and it won't make you break into a sweat either. What a great place to blow the cobwebs away! A series of earthworks, round barrows, saucer barrows and a cracking bell barrow set in a hummocky landscape and all the while one's gaze is pulled towards the looming figure of Silbury Hill.... Jane Posted by Jane
18th September 2003ce

Windmill Hill. There isn't a windmill. And to the majority of us that hurriedly guess a glance in its direction when accelerating out of Avebury, there doesn't seem to be much of a hill either. But this weekend (on my way to Jane's inspiring exhibition of paintings) I decided I'd finally pay it a visit.

Taking Julian Cope's book's advice I thought I'd walk up from Avebury. Just to save you the unnecessarily tiring confusion I suffered trying to find the footpath, let me guide you to it. I parked in the NT carpark. Just as you walk through the gate, turn sharp left and leave the rest of the tourists behind - cut down this shady footpath and at the end of it turn left onto the road. The road soon bends right, then left. By now you will have been overcome by an urge to remark on the cuteness of the village. The road turns into a path, and then into a little bridge/causeway. When it splits in two, take the right hand side, and climb over the stile to your right. Cross the field and the stiled footbridge - then you just follow the path across the fields. I'd met three people so far who cheerily answered my 'good morning's - but from this point on I didn't see a soul until I was back in Avebury.

When you finally get to it, the climb is kind of slow and shallow, but it turns into a slog - the type where you start off chatty but end up silently wondering 'aren't we there yet?' It made the walk more of a Journey really, as I had time to ponder. Arriving was quite gradual - not like the short concerted effort of getting to Adam's Grave or WK longbarrow, and there was no shock value of a sudden view. When I arrived I was alone - well, as alone as you can be amidst 100+ sheep, but they largely ignored me. It was immensely windy and cold, but sunny and clear. It should have been totally silent, but the wind was howling in my ears and I could hear a lot of noise, even though there wasn't any. If you see what I mean.

I stood on the biggest barrow and did feel at the centre of all I surveyed. Behind me the steep slopes up to the Ridgeway were enclosing, in front the Pewsey Downs pointed out to the flat landscape. I guess the hill must slope away equally on all sides, but it didn't feel like this. Maybe it was partly to do with the colours of the fields and only an illusion of this time or season.

I couldn't see Avebury for trees, but Silbury Hill stood out . Its top seemed about the same level as I was standing - again this could have been an illusion, but it was quite an interesting one.

I thought it was a strange place really - it was so empty but it must once have been a busy focus of activity. It was quite lonely really. From the top it is very much a Hill, but that's certainly not how it looked to me before I ventured up here. I suppose I'll be better equipped to pick the site out from other vantage points now? Even when I came down it didn't look like it felt, or how it was. It's quite Disguised.

Anyway, well worth it. I felt quite smug and comfy as I walked back that I'd been up there. Come back to Avebury, you should go up there too.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
13th May 2003ce
Edited 20th February 2008ce

From Avebury, the gentle rise of Windmill Hill is so slight as to barely catch your eye. And indeed, when there's so much razzle-dazzle in the great henge, this place is usually overlooked.

But it was here that the first henge was dug on the Avebury landscape. And, all these thousands of years later, if you want to find it you can still trace the three concentric rings of ditches, marking out the ritual areas.

The trick is to think BIG - the outer one is simply enormous, almost clipping the trees on the western slope.

A lovely feature that messes with the modern mind is the cetring of the areas. It's slightly off-centre, going down the north side. Despite what Cursuswalker's notes suggest, this cannot have been an accident. The ancients weren't stupid, and they could feel gravity just as well as we can.

No, like the siting of long barrows and other monuments of the earlier part of megalitihic times, this is from a time before we were needing to bo the biggest, highest, grandest.

And although the hill looks like nothing from Avebury, once up here the view is a commanding one out to the henge and Silbury.

There are two massive Bronze Age barrows on the eastern side, and a bit further out, just outside of the National Trust land, two more are under the plough and getting smaller every year.

The lump on the northern side that looks like a barrow with a tree growing out of it is actually a mini reservoir.

Visiting this and proplerly figuring it out for the first time has given it a place in my understanding that East Kennett long barrow has just acquired. Both looked so trivial from the viewpoints I'd seen them from before, but once you've walked round the other side, and once you've been up here and seen the view from the top, its place on the landscape becomes paramount.

Try walkin the Ridgeway south past East Kennett long barrow. Try walking the path west out of Winterbourne Monkton and see how Windmill Hill looms and broods at everything.

Going out to West Kennett, Windmill Hill just covers the backdrop of the view. Getting up in the morning when camping at Avenue Farm I will always look for a moment at the earthworks up here.

Incidentally, what a shame Cursuswalker hasn't put more posts up on this site - the notes for Windmill Hill are superb; historical, intuitive, personal, informative.

(visited 5 April 02)
Posted by Merrick
12th April 2002ce

The water-pump on our old camper blew (unbeknown to us) when struggling up here.
Nice causeways on the enclosures though.
Posted by RiotGibbon
9th August 2001ce
Edited 9th May 2003ce

I can understand why there are no reports for Windmill Hill as yet.
Frankly, Avebury is nearby and far more accessible and spectacular, whereas Windmill Hill is relatively unknown outside archaeological circles, a bit of a pain to get to and once you get there there isn't too much to see.

However...

It WAS the forerunner to Avebury, being of the earlier Causewayed Enclosure type that was the style of sacred circle that led to the Henge. It is also the site from which the entire Causewayed Enclosure building culture of southern Britain is named. In all the aerial photographs of it that you are likely to see, from about 1950, there has been a recent archaeological dig, so the three rings look quite prominent. When I got there one could barely make them out.

The one section of ditch that looks most spectacular is actually a more recent quarry on the north eastern side, but the rings CAN be traced, possibly more easily if the grass is cropped close, and there are two impressive Bronze Age round barrows on the top of the hill, inside the enclosure. This is typical of the later Bronze Age peoples, who seemed to see Neolithic sites as places of death, where it was auspicious to bury their chieftains.

Strangely the centre of the enclosure is not upon the top of the hill, but offset to the northwest. I like to imagine the first arrivals trying to determine where the centre should be, while the place was still forested. Being such a low hill this would not have been easy necessarily, and the centre just misses it. But who knows? Perhaps it was deliberate.

It IS a very peaceful place. The place from which those who first decided to create permanent meeting places in this landscape would have viewed the land around them as the tree cover was stripped away from the hill over the years. Sitting on the hill, looking in the direction of Avebury, it is easy to imagine a person in about 3000BC, whose name we will never know, first thinking up the idea of a more ambitious project in the shallow valley below, and the site of the future Silbury Hill is clearly visible.

You are guaranteed peace on this hill, and I look upon it as Avebury's "quiet room", as the tourist trail doesn't go near it. But it does also seem a slightly sad place for all that. As I traced the circles I felt quite sombre, yet safe and welcome there.

This was on Tuesday 16th February 1999. Immediately after walking to Windmill Hill I visited my last remaining grandparent in nearby Swindon. He unexpectedly died two weeks later, so Windmill Hill will always have a certain association for me.

To sit upon its highest point in silence, with a gentle wind sending waves through the grass around you, is to feel a real connection with a way of life and a culture that has now passed, yet which gave birth to the culture which created our best known sacred sites.
Cursuswalker Posted by Cursuswalker
6th July 2001ce
Edited 23rd November 2003ce

Miscellaneous

Add miscellaneous Add miscellaneous
An extra little bit of information: the big barrow within the camp is called 'Picket Barrow'. Its ditch was excavated in 1939, and in it were discovered a number of stone axes. At the summit of the barrow they found a bronze age cremation in an urn (which had been disturbed by industrious rabbits). Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
5th June 2003ce

Links

Add a link Add a link

Pastscape


moss Posted by moss
8th January 2013ce

Multimap Image of Windmill Hill


This one shows the whole enclosure, which the plug-in doesn't quite.
Check out those plough marks in the surropunding fields...
Cursuswalker Posted by Cursuswalker
8th March 2004ce
Edited 9th March 2004ce

British Archaeology Magazine


Recent article on Windmill Hill
fitzcoraldo Posted by fitzcoraldo
28th November 2002ce