Windmill Hill Causewayed Enclosure

Windmill Hill was established around 3675 BC and remained an important place into the later Neolithic. Three interrupted rings of ditches define its causewayed enclosure: gaps between ditch segments provided crossing points rather than creating a continuous barrier. Alexander Keiller bought much of the site in the 1920s, protecting it from a proposed wireless installation, and undertook extensive excavation. His work recovered pottery, flint implements and human and animal bones, helping establish a picture of Britain’s earliest farming communities. The large quantities of animal remains suggest gathering and consumption, although markets, festivals and ritual feasting remain interpretations rather than proven functions. A nearby rectangular enclosure has been interpreted as connected with mortuary activity. After the main enclosure fell out of use, Bronze Age barrows were built on the summit. These later monuments demonstrate continued use of the same prominent landscape for burial. Period: Neolithic enclosure with later Bronze Age barrows Grid reference: SU 08711 71462 Protection: Scheduled monument Source: Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1008446 (Open Government Licence). © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Banner photo: "Windmill Hill Neolithic causewayed enclosure etc near Avebury in Wiltshire" by Dr John Wells, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0.