STAGE 2
Start: Overton Hill car park on the A4 (SU 118 680)
End: Kennet & Avon canal bridge, Honeystreet (SU 105 616)
Distance: 6¾ km (4¼ miles)
Cross the busy A4 with care and take the track directly opposite. On your right is The Sanctuary, an important element of the prehistoric Avebury landscape but very poorly presented. A waymarked path takes you over the River Kennet and into the village of East Kennet. Follow the road through the village heading south until you reach a byway on your right after the last house. The track leads to Manor Farm and you follow it for some 300m before taking a fork left onto another track climbing to Lurkeley Hill. Watch out for this turn – it is easy to continue straight ahead to Manor Farm. The ascent up to The Wansdyke is steady with some wide sweeping views back to Avebury and Silbury Hill. Keep ahead through the trees at The Wansdyke and descend towards the car park at Knap Hill on the Lockeridge/Alton Barnes Road. No need to walk along the road now since the establishment of a permissive path through the field to the west of the road. Go through a gate and bear south west up Walkers Hill. A wonderfully sited Neolithic burial mound, Adam’s Grave, tops the hill and the views across The Vale of Pewsey are spectacular. Keeping Adam’s Grave to your left, descend to a gate and a stile at the road. Taking great care, turn right on the road for 100m and then left down a bridleway into Alton Priors. Local sensitivities mean that GSW is not waymarked through Alton Priors and Alton Barnes, but a good description of the most interesting route is set out in the Cicerone Guide.
Leave Alton Barnes on the main road and follow it (with care) for about 0.5km until reaching the bridge over the Kennet and Avon canal. Descend on to the tow path. The Barge Inn is 300m to the west but unless you need refreshment you are going east.