World Heritage Site Activity 2025-26

The last year has seen many highlights in World Heritage Site protection, conservation and engagement. The full annual report for Stonehenge & Avebury can be found here.  The World Heritage in the UK annual report can be found here.

• In April 2025, the National Trust celebrated 100 years since the start of Alexander Keiller’s excavations at Windmill Hill – an Early Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure in the Avebury landscape.
• In spring 2025, English Heritage began constructing a new learning centre at Stonehenge, made possible thanks to the generous support of donors.
• Last summer, visitors to Avebury were invited to try a number of locative games using their smartphones  to engage in Avebury’s stories – a collaboration with the National Trust and  Bournemouth and Southampton Universities.
• In October 2025, Wiltshire Council adopted a pivotal Setting planning document for the World Heritage Site, as well as the Local Nature Recovery Strategy, including measures to maintain, enhance and create more calcareous grassland.
• In November 2025, the North Wessex Downs National Landscape Management Plan (2025-30) was launched to protect and enhance the region’s environment, including the Avebury landscape.
• A new UNESCO UK trail to inspire sustainable exploration across the South West launched in spring 2026 in partnership with Great Western Railway.
• Following severe flooding in January 2024, Avebury Manor has undergone extensive restoration and has now re-opened to the public.
• This year saw the completion of the Avebury Papers archive digitisation and further research on the material held in the Alexander Keiller Museum Archive.
• ‘Places of Joy 5 Years On’ has sought to collect further data to understand how people’s responses at Avebury may be similar or different to those during the pandemic to understand if anything has changed or whether the motivations and experiences of the pandemic have had a lasting effect on visitors.
• Looking ahead, partners are preparing to mark the 40th anniversary of inscription of Stonehenge & Avebury as one of the first seven UK World Heritage Sites.

Read the full annual report for Stonehenge & Avebury here.