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New: Article on the Medieval minsters of Beverley, Rippon and York, submitted by Stuart Sharp.

We now have an RSS feed so you can stay up to date with the latest news here.

We've added lots more images. Check out the new photos on our Roman history site, such as Hadrian's Wall. Great new photos of Stonehenge and Avebury are on megalithic sites

Castles

Our castles pictures and notes have been updated with Farleigh Hungerford Castle. A full list of the historical galleries we have on line is also available now.

British megalithic sites

Avebury - Neolithic World Heritage SiteAvebury is second in the standard UK megalithic league table. Make every effort to visit it. It is absolutely fantastic. A series of stone circles that partly enclose the village of Avebury (which is charming enough in itself - with lots of thatched cottages.) The Avebury construction is so massive that it doesn't feel swamped with visitors even on a beautiful summer weekend.

Avebury - Neolithic World Heritage SiteAs well as the large stone constructions around the village, there is a huge ditch. The physical size of some of the stones is breathtaking and the scale of the whole thing defies belief. Becasue of the unfeasible scale, the Avebury circles never feel like a tourist trap. The casual location of the stones, among farmers' fields and houses, somehow makes it easier to conceive of the real people who built it.

The area around Avebury is a favourite place for crop circle hoaxers, with the crop circles drawing possibly as many visitors as the stones. At least, you can buy as many postcards of crop circles as of Avebury. (The shops where you can buy such things are pretty unobtrusive. The village is basically like any small Wiltshire village.)

Silbury Hill - Ancient Monument - Viewed From West Kennet Long BarrowAvebury is part of a huge set of megalithic relics that cover miles of territory. These include an "avenue" of widely spaced stones leading from Avebury towards West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.

Avebury - Neolithic World Heritage SiteSilbury Hill is an astonishing construction, a sort of earth pyramid. It has been excavated and restored on two occasions but yielded little information except about the nature of its construction. It is crying out to be climbed but you can't get any closer than a designated viewing point. This is certainly a very good thing in terms of protecting the hill but it feels mean to the visitor

Resources

Events

Etrusia is in the process of compiling a list of national events. If you are organising, supporting, publicising or simply know of an event related to any part of the UK history then let us know and we will add it to our list.

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