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Top 10 Interesting Facts about Silbury Hill

Silbury Hill in the landscape by Stevekeiretsu from

Silbury Hill, located about a mile south of Avebury Henge, is a large artificial mound constructed mostly of chalk rubble and now naturally covered in turf. The Silbury Ditch encircles the mound. On its eastern and northern sides, the ditch is cut deeply into the chalk bedrock, but it extends to become nearly rectangular on its western side. Two causeways connect the roadside roadway to the mound on the south side, separated by a short ditch. Silbury lies near the end of a spur that runs northeast from Thorn Hill; a part of the spur may be seen just beyond the ditch.

Silbury Hill is Europe’s biggest manmade ancient mound. It is one of the most fascinating monuments in the Avebury World Heritage Site’s ancient landscape, perhaps created between 2470 and 2350 BC. We don’t know what it was used for or what it meant to the late Neolithic people who constructed it, but its continuing presence in the environment has spawned myths and stories as people have tried to explain what it was used for. Here are some interesting facts you’d be interested in knowing.

1. It took 18 million man-hours

Silbury Hill by Gerd Eichmann from

The hill was built in phases between c.2400–2300 BC, demonstrating enormous technical expertise and long-term control over labour and resources. Archaeologists estimate that it required 18 million man-hours, or 500 men working 15 years, to dump and sculpt 248,000 cubic metres (324,000 cu yd) of dirt and fill.

According to Euan researchers, no simple late Neolithic tribal system as often envisaged could have supported these and related undertakings, and he envisions an authoritarian theocratic ruling elite with extensive authority over southern Britain.

2. The base of the hill is circular and 167 metres

The hill’s base is round and 167 meters (548 feet) in circumference. The peak is flat-topped and 30 meters (98 feet) across. A smaller mound was built originally, and then it was greatly expanded in a later period.

The earliest constructions at the hill’s base were completely circular: measuring indicates that the flat top’s centre and the cone’s centre, which depicts the hill, are within a metre of one another. [6] There are signs that the top used to have a circular form, but it was flattened in the medieval period to create a foundation for a building, possibly for defensive purposes.

3. The first clear evidence of construction, dated to around 2400 BC

A gravel core was surrounded by a revetting curb of posts and sarsen stones. On top of this, alternate layers of chalk rubble and earth were laid: the second phase comprised dumping more chalk on top of the core, using material extracted from a series of surrounding ditches that were gradually refilled and recut several metres further out.  

The stair around the top was built in this era, either as a precaution against slippage or as the remains of a spiral road climbing from the base, used during building to hoist materials and afterwards as a processional route.

5. There have been several excavations of the mound

Caterpillar by Steven Baltakatei Sandoval from

The site was initially depicted by the seventeenth-century antiquarian John Aubrey, whose observations were published in the form of Monumenta Britannica between 1680 and 1682. Later, William Stukeley stated that a skeleton and bridle were unearthed on the peak during tree planting in 1723. This was most likely a later, secondary burial.

In October 1776, a crew of Cornish miners led by the Duke of Northumberland and Colonel Edward Drax sunk a vertical shaft from the summit. [12] A tunnel was excavated horizontally from the perimeter into the centre in 1849. Other excavations were carried out in 1867 and 1886.

6. Flinders Petrie investigated the hill after the First World War

Flinders Petrie by Unknown author from

Professor Richard J. C. Atkinson worked in Silbury from 1968 to 1970, and his work was featured on BBC Television. This dig uncovered the majority of the environmental evidence known about the site, including the remnants of flying ants, indicating that Silbury was founded around August.

Atkinson excavated multiple trenches and reopened the 1849 tunnel, where he discovered material indicating a Neolithic age, however, none of his radiocarbon dates are regarded trustworthy by modern standards. He said that the hill was built in steps, with each layer filled in with packed chalk and subsequently smoothed or weathered into a slope. Atkinson recorded the C 14 date for the turf’s basal layer, and degraded material suggested a revised date.

7. A collapse of the 1776 excavation shaft caused a hole to appear at the summit of the hill during heavy rains in May 2002

Professor Richard J. C. Atkin taught from 1968 to 1970. A collapse of the 1776 excavation shaft caused a hole to appear at the summit of the hill during heavy rains in May 2002. English Heritage conducted a seismic study of the hill to assess the damage caused by previous excavations and the hill’s stability.

Although repairs were made, the property remained inaccessible to the public. English Heritage excavated two further tiny trenches at the top as part of this restorative work and discovered the significant finding of an antler piece, the first from a secure archaeological setting at the site. A radiocarbon dating of around 2490–2340 BC places the mound’s second phase firmly in the Late Neolithic.

8. Silbury is said to be the final burial place of King Sil

Silbury is said to be the final resting place of King Sil, who is shown in a lifesize gold figure on a golden horse. According to a 1913 local tradition, the Devil was bringing a sack of earth to drop on the people of Marlborough when he was prevented by the monks of adjacent Avebury.

Every Palm Sunday, hundreds of people from Kennet, Avebury, Overton, and the surrounding towns flocked to Silbury Hill, according to reports in 1861.

9. The hill’s vegetation is species-rich chalk grassland

Silbury Hill by Dickbauch from

The vegetation atop the hill is species-rich chalk grassland, dominated by tall brome and false oat-grass but including many species typical of this environment, including a large population of the uncommon knapweed broomrape.

This vegetation has resulted in the designation of a 2.3-hectare (5.7-acre) portion of the site as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, which was first granted in 1965. The location is unusual in that its slopes have 360-degree perspectives, allowing comparison of plant development on the hill’s different-facing slopes.

10. Silbury Hill is referenced in the Damon Albarn song ‘Apple Carts’

Damon Albarn’s song ‘Apple Carts’ from Dr Dee: An English Opera and its related soundtrack CD refers to Silbury Hill.

In case you’d like to visit Silbury it is important to note that you cannot climb this hill but there is a useful information board situated in the viewing area just off the free car park.