West Kennet Long Barrow

West Kennet is one of the largest chambered long barrows in Britain and is more than 320 ft long and 8ft high, with a row of large, upright sarsen stones at the left end marking the entrance.

Behind these stones is the passage-grave, which occupies only one eighth of the barrow's length and runs back into the mound about 33ft. Entering the tomb beyond the forecourt there are two burial chambers either side and a larger polygonal one, 7.5ft high, at the end of the passage.

West Kennet was constructed about 3,600 BC, some 400 years before the first stage of Stonehenge. In the past, the mound has been damaged by indiscriminate digging - the first archaeologists were not so delicate in their excavations - but scientific excavations in 1859 and 1955-56 found evidence for a total of 46 burials, ranging from babies to old people of both sexes. These explorations also revealed that the side chambers are constructed within an exact isosceles triangle, whose height is twice the length of the base.

It is believed that this tomb was in use for as long as 1,000 years and at the end of this period it seems the passage and chamber were filled to the roof by the local inhabitants - known as the Beaker People - with earth and stones. Why they should do this is still open to speculation but other finds among the buried individuals include pieces of pottery, bone tools and beads

The walls and capstones of the gallery and chambers are sarsens from the Marlborough Downs, while the drystone walling that fills many of the gaps between the uprights is of oolitic limestone from the area around Calne, about 12 miles to the west.

(The above words were taken from various sites. Copyright is theirs.)

All photographs below were taken by Gloria Hazell 2004

West Kennet Long Barrow

Looking inside the Barrow from the entrance

One of the side chambers of the Barrow

The far end of the Barrow where people leave offerings such as the flowers shown.

My grand-daughter standing at the far end of the Barrow, holding 3 ears of corn from the crop circle that was just outside the Barrow.

Some of the marked stones that are at the entrance way of the Barrow.

Stones piled one on top of the other, standing in place for millenia.