Visiting Avebury for Summer Solstice

Public transport

Due to the number of expected visitors, parking at Avebury will be extremely limited over the Summer Solstice period. Please use public transport, or arrange to be dropped off, if you are planning to visit Avebury on 20 or 21 June.

Avebury is served by two bus routes, which include regular services from Swindon, Marlborough, Devizes and Calne.

Full timetables for the routes are available to download below:

• Stagecoach Route 49 (Swindon – Devizes, via Wroughton, Broad Hinton, Avebury, Bishops Cannings)
  
• Swindon Bus Company Route 42 (Marlborough – Calne, via Quemerford, Lower Compton, Avebury, Fyfield)

Both routes drop off and pick up passengers outside the Red Lion in Avebury.

Camping

Every year, the number of people wanting to stay in the temporary camping area at Avebury for summer solstice far exceeds the number of available spaces. This causes frustration and uncertainty for visitors, as well as queues in our main car park and on surrounding footpaths.

To help visitors plan their solstice visit this year, the free spaces were made available to book through our website, allowing visitors to head to Avebury knowing whether they can camp or not.

All permits have now been booked, and anyone arriving at Avebury without a pre-booked permit will not be able to camp.

Any cancellations will go back onto the permit booking page.

The campsite opens at 10am on 20 June and closes at 2pm on 21 June. If you are parking in the visitor car park, you will need to pay for parking during your stay at Avebury.

Car parking

Our main visitor car park will open at 9am on 20 June for as long as capacity allows. It will be exit only after 10pm. The visitor car park will reopen for sunrise on 21 June if there are spaces available.

Car parking charges are £8 for all day and £5 after 3pm (parking is free for National Trust and English Heritage members).

Limited space will be available for camper vans in our main car park, but there will be no parking for buses or coaches, including tour parties, between 20-21 June.

Please note that there is no on-street parking available in or around Avebury and a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order will be in place on Avebury High Street.

Updates on parking will be posted to this website and our Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram accounts. Please check for the latest information before travelling.

Food

Circles Café will be open as normal (10am-5pm) on 20 June and will reopen from 8am until 4pm on 21 June.

Additional hot drinks and snacks will be available from the Coach House Café on Avebury High Street from 6pm on 20 June until 8am on 21 June.

Free drinking water will be available 24 hours a day from outside Circles Café in the farmyard.

Toilets and Welfare

There are toilets available behind the Coach House Café in the High Street – these will remain open overnight on 20 June.

There will also be portable toilets (including accessible facilities) and waste and recycling bins available in the High Street and in the campsite until 2pm on 21 June.

A St John Ambulance treatment unit will be located in Green Street and Wiltshire Police will be on site if needed.

We ask that you are considerate to residents in Avebury over the solstice period by keeping noise to a minimum. Because of this, and for the comfort of other celebrants, we do not allow amplified music on National Trust land, including the stone circle and campsite.

We also ask that all drumming, including in the campsite, finishes by 11pm.

Protecting the monument

Please note: to protect the monument, the following items and activities are not allowed:

• No climbing on the stones
• No open fires, barbecues, fireworks, fire poi, Chinese lanterns, fire-breathing and associated accelerants
• No tents, windbreaks, shelters are allowed on NT land (including the stone circle and henge)
• No drones are allowed to fly from National Trust land (see ‘Flying drones at our places’ for more information)