Things to do
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Avebury
A henge large enough to hold a village inside it, with a stone circle wrapped around cottages, a pub and a road, and avenues of standing stones leading out across the downs. Access is free and unfenced, which allows a slower and closer visit. Sheep graze between the sarsens for much of the year.
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Old Sarum
Iron Age ramparts on a hill north of the city enclose the outline of a Norman castle and the foundations of the cathedral abandoned when the see moved down to the valley in 1220. Little stands above waist height, so the draw is the ground plan and the sweep across the plain. The site is exposed in any wind.
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Salisbury Cathedral
Early English Gothic built in a single campaign during the thirteenth century, and topped by a spire of 123 metres that leans slightly and is checked constantly. Inside are the oldest working clock in Britain and one of four surviving originals of Magna Carta, kept in the chapter house. Tower tours climb into the roof space and need booking.
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Stonehenge
Sarsen uprights and lintels were raised on Salisbury Plain around 2500 BC, and the circle is approached from a visitor centre a couple of kilometres away, with a shuttle running to the stones. A rope barrier keeps visitors at a distance; special access slots before opening allow entry into the circle and sell out months ahead.
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Woodhenge
Concrete markers now stand where six oval rings of timber posts were set within a bank and ditch, a short drive from Stonehenge and beside the Durrington Walls settlement. The site reads as a diagram more than a monument, and half an hour covers it. Taking it with Durrington Walls makes the Neolithic landscape legible.