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tjj wrote: ... walk out beyond the stone circle in almost any direction to experience solitude and few, if any, other people.
Exactly, go up on Fyfield Down, or the downs towards Milk Hill/Tan Hill and you'll see very few people and you can find peace and solitude, shared only with kite or kestrel, a group of deer or if you're lucky a hare or two. I've come to view Avebury very much as an end (or less frequently) start point for my visits from/to various points in the landscape rather than a self-contained site to visit in isolation. I think the wider landscape is amazing. The circle is busy, but usually in a cheerful way.
Compared to the horrible soulless and sterile cash cow that Stonehenge has been made into, enclosed behind wire and separated from its landscape by hi-viz wearers and a staggeringly enormous entrance fee, Avebury remains a brilliant treasure to cherish. If that means that at some times of the year parts of the circle need to be closed off to prevent erosion (and it does erode), it's a very, very small price to pay to keep it generally open, free and connected to its wider landscape for everyone who cares to visit.
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