Qualla: West Kennet Long Barrow

West Kennet Long Barrow: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Troxx, CC BY 2.5. You can walk inside West Kennet Long Barrow. No ticket, no guide, no opening hours. A path climbs from the road near Silbury Hill, crosses a field, and arrives at a mound of chalk and earth stretching over 100 metres along a hilltop ridge. At the eastern end, massive sarsen stones frame an entrance passage leading to five burial chambers. Duck through, and you are standing in a space where the dead were laid out five thousand years ago. The air is cool. The stone is dry. The silence is absolute.

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Image: Troxx | CC BY 2.5

West Kennet Long Barrow: The First Farmers' Cathedral

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0. West Kennet Long Barrow was probably constructed in the thirty-seventh century BC, during Britain's Early Neolithic period. Its builders were among the first farming communities in the British Isles, people who had recently adopted agriculture from continental Europe and were tra...

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Image: Ethan Doyle White | CC BY-SA 4.0

West Kennet Long Barrow: A Thousand Years of the Dead

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:My another account, CC BY-SA 3.0. Human remains were placed in the five chambers over an extraordinarily long period, probably spanning more than a millennium. The earliest burials likely date from between 3670 and 3635 BC, followed by an apparent hiatus of over a century. Between 3620 and 3240 BC, the tomb was r...

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Image: en:User:My another account | CC BY-SA 3.0

West Kennet Long Barrow: Sealed with Stone

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arpingstone, Public domain. Around 2500 BC, during the transition to the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, the barrow was deliberately sealed. Enormous sarsen boulders were placed across the entrance, and a forecourt of standing stones was erected in front of it. The chambers were filled with earth, chalk...

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Image: Arpingstone | Public domain

West Kennet Long Barrow: Excavation and Openness

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Collard, CC BY-SA 2.0. The barrow was first excavated in 1859 by Dr. John Thurnam, who investigated the eastern chambers. More comprehensive work was undertaken in 1955-56 by Stuart Piggott and Richard Atkinson, who excavated the entire chamber area and the forecourt. Their work revealed the complexity...

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Image: Chris Collard | CC BY-SA 2.0