The Path to Stonehenge

Tony Robinson embarks on more spectacular walks through some of Britain's most historic landscapes in search of the richest stories from our past. In this episode, Tony heads off for a 45-mile walk across Wiltshire to tell the story of life and death in the last centuries of the Stone Age. His route over chalk downlands and Salisbury plain takes him through the greatest concentration of prehistoric sites in Europe. His route over chalk downlands and Salisbury plain takes him through the greatest concentration of prehistoric sites in Europe. From Avebury to Stonehenge and from spirituality to engineering, this is a journey through our ancestors' remarkable development in the latter days of the Neolithic Age. Windmill Hill near Avebury is the start of his route; with earthworks dating to 4500BC, it's one of the most ancient sites in Wiltshire. From here, Tony moves on through 2000 years of the 'New Stone Age', encountering increasingly complex burial sites and processional routes that have helped make this area both captivating and intriguing. As he heads south Tony can't escape the eccentric characters and weird phenomena that have accompanied Wiltshire's ancient history. Mysterious crop circles and unexplained underground energy sources enliven his visit, but his mind is firmly fixed on the extraordinary array of monuments in his path. That means listening to the fanciful notions of 18th-century antiquarians, which have a grain of truth at their heart, and grasping the cutting edge of scientific archaeology around Stonehenge, which is finally offering up some astounding answers.