What's on inWiltshire

Home to Britains most famous ancient monuments Wiltshire is a county that is defined by its place in English history. Unlike other counties however, it is the history of thousands of years ago that makes Wiltshire most famous. For amongst Wiltshires wide-open plains and green hills are hundreds upon hundreds of burial mounds, chalk figures and stone circles (as well as more and more dubious crop circles.)

A good place to start is with the hugely impressive Iron Age Hillfort of Old Sarum, on the site of the original Salisbury City. This fort was used by everyone from the Romans to the Saxons to the Normans and then grew out to become one of the busiest and most successful settlements in the medieval era. To this day Salisbury is still impressive, its fantastic cathedral boasting the tallest spire in England. In addition the city seems to be positively bursting with history, having not one but four original copies of the magna carta and the worlds oldest working clock, as well as countless elegant historic buildings.

People also use it as a base to go off and explore the other top box office destination in Wiltshire, Stonehenge. Stonehenge is one of the most famous historic sites in the world, a complex of earthworks surrounding a circle of large standing stones, built around 2500 BC and the center of a wide ranging complex of Bronze and Neolithic Age monuments as well as numerous burial mounds.

One of Britains largest Stone Age burial mounds, for example, can be found nearby at Longbarrow in Kennet. Similarly at Avebury, 20 miles north of Stonehenge is the Avebury Ring, the oldest stone ring in existence anywhere in the world (older than Stonehenge) and one of the greatest achievements of prehistoric Europe.

Other sites worth seeing include the eight white horses carved into hillsides in the surrounding countryside and part of the White Horse Trail. There are beautiful walks all over the county that pass by the historic sites and they are amongst the best in Britain. With much of the county being designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and with mystical monuments and symbols everywhere you turn, Wiltshire truly is an intriguing and picturesque county.