A guide to the events taking place across the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site.
At Avebury
- Throughout July and the Summer Holidays, the National Trust in Avebury will be hosting a Summer of Play programme for visitors of every age to get active and creative.
- During Wiltshire school holidays right up to November, the National Trust in Avebury will be running Family stone circle tours every Wednesday and Sunday at 11.30am and 1pm. Please note, there is limited capacity per tour and tickets are offered on a first come first served basis.
- On Saturday 6 July, The National Trust in Avebury is hosting a Summer foraging course. Discover nature’s wild food secrets on this foraging course with expert Fred Gillam. Enjoy a walk through Avebury landscape as Fred teaches you how to identify plants growing in our hedgerows, fields and woods. Booking essential.
- On Tuesday 23 July, The National Trust is hosting a Landscape walk around the east of Avebury, which takes in part of Avebury Stone circle, prehistoric round barrows and West Kennet Avenue.
- As part of the national annual Festival of Archaeology, the National Trust in Avebury is hosting an Afternoon with an Avebury Archaeologist On Thursday 24 July (between 2-4pm). Attendees will be able to learn about the Avebury World Heritage Site’s history, archaeology and recent digs. Booking is not required.
At Stonehenge
- Between Saturday 20th July and 1 September, English Heritage is hosting a Kids’ Dig at Stonehenge. Young budding archaeologists can try their hand at unearthing the past in special Stonehenge sandboxes. Artefacts from across the centuries are ready to be excavated, giving children the chance to learn more about the history of Stonehenge through the things that have been left behind.
Nearby
- On Wednesday 14 July, visitors to Amesbury History Centre (4 Church Street, Amesbury SP4 7EU) can join experts from Wessex Archaeology for a series of free archaeology activities for all ages as part of this years’ Festival of Archaeology. There will be opportunities to get hands on with artefacts, have a go at environmental sampling with soil and magnifying glasses and try out a 3D Virtual Reality headset. Experienced archaeologists will share their expert knowledge and offer insights into some of the local projects undertaken in the Amesbury area.
- At 7pm on Tuesday 16th July, Andy Burnham of the Megalithic Portal Society will present a lively and highly illustrated online talk on themes and new discoveries presented in a new book on The Old Stones Megalithic Sites. Book here.
- From Saturday 27 July to Sunday 28 July, The Salisbury Museum will be hosting its own Festival of Archaeology 2024. This free-to-attend event will take over the museum and its garden with a packed showground alongside a demonstration marquee and talks. At 2pm on 28July, archaeologist Matt Leivers from Wessex Archaeology, will be providing a talk on What Was Stonehenge For? , exploring the fascinating connected landscapes within the wider Stonehenge Heritage Site landscape. This event is free and booking is not required
- Running until 1 September, The Wiltshire Museum has an exhibition entitled A Wiltshire Thatcher – a Photographic Journey through Victorian Wessex. This exhibition celebrates the work of Ernest Farmer, who today is little-know but was a leading figure in the development of photography as an art form. The exhibition features three views of Stonehenge from 1892.
Dates for your diary
- Wiltshire Museum will be hosting one of it’s popular ‘outings’ to the Stonehenge landscape on Wednesday 18 September. The afternoon walk from Durrington Walls to Stonehenge will be led by Museum Director, David Dawson. Pre-booking essential with limited places.
- On Thursday 12 September, The Salisbury Museum will host an evening lecture by art historian, Sara Radice on Landscape, Man & Memory. This lecture will examine man’s physical and spiritual encounters with nature and explore art in connection with time and place; how artists think about the elements – earth, wind, fire and water – and their role in both forming the earth beneath our feet and these works of art. Booking required.
- From Wednesday 18 September to Wednesday 23 October, The Salisbury Museum is running a 6 week course on Beliefs, Monuments and Landscapes: A Sense of Place. The course will explore values and activities in the landscape that reach beyond the simply economic and which relate to culture, aesthetics and religion with specific reference to the British Isles. Pre-booking essential.
Enjoy at any time
Together, the Stonehenge and Avebury landscape forms one World Heritage Site celebrated for its Neolithic and Bronze age monuments spanning 5000 years of history. To plan to visit Stonehenge see English Heritage‘s website and to explore Avebury see National Trust‘s webpages.
The collections of The Salisbury Museum , Wiltshire Museum in Devizes and Alexander Keiller Museum in Avebury contain many treasures discovered from Stonehenge and Avebury, giving insight into the people who lived here thousands of years ago and how the monuments were constructed.
Discover monuments, encounter wildlife and enjoy beautiful views on one of the many walking routes through the World Heritage Site landscape. Here are just a few examples:
Stonehenge landscape circular walk | Wilts | National Trust
Secrets of Stonehenge walk | Wiltshire | National Trust