Wiltshire dazzles those who stray from the A303, from a Ministry of Defence-sealed ghost village to an ancient forest predating the Norman Conquest.
Most people who visit Wiltshire come for Stonehenge. They queue, they photograph, and they leave. A few detours to Salisbury for the cathedral. Fewer still make it to Avebury, where the same Neolithic builders created something bigger, older, and completely free to walk among.
Wiltshire is one of England’s most historically layered counties, and mainstream visitors see only a small part of it. The rest is open chalk downland, quiet river valleys, ancient forests, and villages little changed in five centuries. To locals, these places are familiar; they remain hidden only to those who stick to the main roads.
To discover Wiltshire beyond the familiar, begin with these seven sites, each revealing a different layer of the county’s history and landscape.
Region: Wiltshire, South West England
Best for: Ancient history, walking, quiet countryside, WWI heritage
Getting there: Regular trains from London Paddington to Chippenham and Salisbury (check National Rail for current timetables). Wiltshire is a large county, and a car is useful for reaching the more rural locations.
Time needed: 2 to 4 days to cover all seven sites comfortably
Imber: The Village the Government Never Returned
In December 1943, the residents of Imber were given 47 days to leave. The Ministry of Defence needed the village to train troops ahead of the D-Day landings. The residents packed what they could, left, and never came back.
Imber is still there, 8 miles north-west of Warminster on Salisbury Plain. The buildings survive: the 13th-century Church of St Giles, a handful of original stone cottages, and a scatter of concrete military training structures built around and between them. The road in is gated and closed for most of the year. The MOD opens it only on selected days. In 2026, the next confirmed access is the August Bank Holiday weekend, Saturday 29 to Monday 31 August, with the church open 11 am to 4 pm. Check imber.org.uk for any additional dates before travelling, as the schedule can change.
Standing in Imber on one of its open days is a particular kind of quiet. No traffic, no voices, no commerce. Just the wind across the plain and the occasional distant sound of military aircraft. It is one of the few places in England where you can walk down streets that have been uninhabited for over 80 years.
Where to Stay: The George Inn, Longbridge Deverill. A pub with 12 en-suite rooms on the banks of the River Wylye, 10 miles south of Imber.
Worth Knowing: The Church of St Giles at Imber has held regular services since the evacuation, even though no congregation lives within miles of it. The congregation travels in on open days.
West Kennet Long Barrow: Older Than Stonehenge, Almost Always Empty
West Kennet Long Barrow was built around 3650 BC and used as a communal burial chamber for at least a thousand years. That makes it roughly 500 years older than Stonehenge. On most days, there are no barriers, no entrance fee, and no queues. You can walk inside the stone chambers.
The barrow sits on a ridge 1.5 miles south-west of Avebury. From the layby on the A4 (postcode SN8 1QH), it is a ten to fifteen-minute walk uphill across open farmland. The path is clear, and the approach gives you time to understand the scale of the mound, which stretches 100 metres along the ridge. The site is managed by the National Trust on behalf of English Heritage and is free to visit during daylight hours year-round.
Inside the chambers, even on a warm summer afternoon, the air is cool and carries the smell of damp earth and old stone. The massive sarsen boulders blocking the entrance were put there long after the tomb fell out of use. They were only moved during excavations in the 1950s.
Where to Stay: Avebury Lodge, Avebury. A vegetarian and vegan bed and breakfast set directly inside the Avebury stone circle, with rooms that overlook the henge.
Worth Knowing: West Kennet is one of the largest Neolithic burial mounds in Britain. The excavations of 1955 and 1956 recovered the remains of at least 46 individuals from the chambers.
Savernake Forest: 4,500 Acres and No Queue
Savernake Forest stands on a chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn. It is among England’s oldest continuously managed forests, privately owned by the Earl of Cardigan and managed by Forestry England. Most Wiltshire residents know it; few visitors stop here.
The Big Belly Oak at the heart of the forest is approximately 1,100 years old, dating back to the late Anglo-Saxon period. The Grand Avenue, running dead straight through the forest for 3.9 miles, holds the Guinness World Record as the longest tree-lined avenue in Britain. In early summer, the canopy closes overhead, and the avenue becomes something like a cathedral, with light filtering green and gold through the beech and oak above. No entrance fee, no booking required, no visitor centre.
Parking is at Postern Hill off the A346, a few minutes from Marlborough town centre. The AllTrails Heart of Savernake Forest circular route is well reviewed and accessible to most walkers.
Where to Stay: Widbrook Barns, Bradford-on-Avon. Luxury bed and breakfast and glamping on the Wiltshire-Somerset border, 12 miles west of Savernake.
Worth Knowing: Henry VIII is recorded as having hunted in Savernake Forest. The Original Queen Oak in the forest is said to have been planted to mark his marriage to Jane Seymour in 1536.
Lacock: Arrive Before the Coaches Do
Lacock is not unknown. The National Trust has managed the village since the 1940s, and it appears regularly as a filming location, standing in for various corners of period Britain. What the visitor numbers obscure is how good it feels to arrive before everyone else.
The streets are genuinely medieval. There are no modern shop fronts, no overhead cables in the main lanes, and, from certain angles, the village looks unchanged for several centuries. The village itself is free to enter at any time. Lacock Abbey charges an admission fee, but the Fox Talbot Museum of Photography on the grounds is worth visiting on your own. William Henry Fox Talbot developed the negative-positive photographic process here in the 1830s, and the museum holds some of the earliest surviving photographic negatives.
At 9am on a summer weekday, Lacock is still, and the light across the Cotswold stone has the particular quality of an English morning before the heat arrives. By 11am, the coaches are in the car park.
Where to Stay: Widbrook Barns, Bradford-on-Avon. 4 miles from Lacock, with direct access to the Kennet and Avon Canal.
Worth Knowing: Lacock Abbey is free for National Trust members. The village car park costs £5 per day for non-members.
The Fovant Badges: A WWI Memorial on a Road Most People Ignore
On the A30 between Salisbury and Shaftesbury, cut into the chalk face of Fovant Down, are nine regimental badges. They were carved by soldiers camped in the valley below, awaiting deployment to France. The first was begun in 1916. Each badge took approximately 50 men, approximately six months to complete, using up to 50 tonnes of chalk per carving.
Nine of the original 20 badges survive. They are scheduled ancient monuments and are recognised by the Imperial War Museum as war memorials. A public footpath runs below the hillside. Seen from the road in low morning light, the shadows cut deep into the carved chalk, and the detail becomes readable from half a mile away. A circular walk from Broad Chalke takes in the badges and the open downland above them. The AllTrails route for the Fovant Badges is mapped and reviewed.
The Fovant Badges Society maintains the carvings, and its website has the history of each surviving badge along with directions for walkers.
Where to Stay: The George Inn, Longbridge Deverill. 14 miles north-west of Fovant, a reliable base for southern Wiltshire.
Worth Knowing: The badges are still carved by volunteer working parties. The Fovant Badges Society coordinates maintenance and welcomes new volunteers.
Malmesbury: England’s Oldest Borough and Its Forgotten King
Malmesbury sits in the northern corner of Wiltshire, close to the Gloucestershire border. It holds a strong claim to being England’s oldest borough, with a royal charter said to have been granted during the reign of Alfred the Great. Most people heading north on the M4 pass within a few miles of it without stopping.
King Aethelstan, regarded by historians as the first King of a unified England, died in October 939 and was buried at Malmesbury Abbey. A 15th-century commemorative tomb in the north aisle marks the spot. The Abbey itself dates back to the 7th century and is still a working parish church, free to enter. Next door, The Old Bell Hotel has been welcoming guests since 1220, making it one of England’s oldest purpose-built hotels. The building is Grade I listed and parts of the fabric date to the 13th century.
From the market cross at the centre of town, the Abbey bell marks the hour. In a market town this quiet, it carries clearly across the rooftops in a way that feels out of step with the rest of the day.
Where to Stay: The Old Bell Hotel, Malmesbury. Established in 1220, Grade I listed, adjacent to the Abbey, 34 rooms including two townhouse suites.
Worth Knowing: A few miles south-east of Malmesbury, Bremilham Church holds the Guinness World Record as England’s smallest working church. The building measures 4 metres by 3.6 metres. One service is held here each year, on Rogation Sunday, with standing room for a maximum of ten people. It sits in the middle of a working farm.
The Deverill Valley: Five Villages and High Chalk Downs
South of Warminster, the River Wylye rises in the chalk and flows through a string of five linked villages: Kingston Deverill, Monkton Deverill, Brixton Deverill, Hill Deverill, and Longbridge Deverill. The Deverill Valley has no visitor infrastructure. No visitor car park, no café beside the footpath, no interpretation boards. The villages are in the Domesday Book, and they look as though very little has been asked of them since.
The Ramblers list circular walks from the valley that climb to the chalk downs above the villages. From the ridge, the views extend far across southern Wiltshire, and the terrain feels genuinely remote within a few hundred metres of the valley floor. The sounds up there are lapwings and wind. The walks return through the village lanes to the river.
The George Inn at Longbridge Deverill sits on the River Wylye and has created three local walking routes with the pub as the starting point. Stourhead is 20 minutes by car.
Where to Stay: The George Inn, Longbridge Deverill. 12 en-suite rooms, riverside setting, walking routes from the door.
Worth Knowing: The five Deverill villages all appear in the Domesday Book of 1086. The valley formed part of the estates of the Bishops of Sarum through much of the medieval period.
Practical Tips
- Imber is only accessible on MOD-approved open days. The next confirmed dates in 2026 are the August Bank Holiday weekend, 29 to 31 August. Always check imber.org.uk before travelling as dates can change.
- West Kennet Long Barrow has no on-site parking. Use the layby on the A4 (postcode SN8 1QH) and expect a 10 to 15 minute uphill walk on an uneven path. Sturdy footwear is worth the effort.
- Use the AllTrails app for mapped and reviewed walking routes across all seven sites, including Savernake Forest and the Fovant Badges circular from Broad Chalke.
- Savernake Forest is freely accessible year-round. Park at Postern Hill off the A346, signposted from the centre of Marlborough.
- Malmesbury Abbey is free to enter. Check opening hours at malmesburyabbey.com before visiting.
- Lacock village car parking costs £5 per day for non-National Trust members. Arrive before 10am in summer.
Responsible Visiting
Imber is an active military training area for most of the year. The road is closed, and entry is not permitted outside official open days. Do not attempt access on unlisted dates.
At West Kennet Long Barrow, do not remove stones, chalk, or any material from the site. Leave the chambers as you find them. Fires lit inside the chambers in the past have damaged the stonework.
At the Fovant Badges, keep to the footpath. The chalk surface of the carved badges is fragile, and direct foot traffic accelerates erosion.
Reader Q&A
Can you visit Imber village at any time? No. The road into Imber is controlled by the Ministry of Defence and closed except on designated open days. In 2026, the next confirmed access is the August Bank Holiday weekend, 29 to 31 August. Check imber.org.uk for the full and up-to-date list of dates.
Is West Kennet Long Barrow free? Yes. It is open during daylight hours year-round, free of charge, and managed by the National Trust on behalf of English Heritage. You can walk inside the stone chambers. There is no booking system.
Do I need to book Lacock Abbey in advance? No. Tickets are purchased on the day at the visitor reception. The village of Lacock is open to visitors at any time, without a ticket or booking.
Is Savernake Forest free and open to walkers? Yes. Despite being privately owned, Savernake Forest is freely accessible to walkers year-round. Park at Postern Hill off the A346.
What is the best base for visiting all seven sites? Salisbury covers the southern sites: Fovant, Imber, and the Deverill Valley. Chippenham or Bradford-on-Avon covers the northern sites: Lacock, Malmesbury, and Savernake. Marlborough is the best base if you want to roughly split the county in half.
How do I find the Fovant Badges walk? The AllTrails route for the Fovant Badges starts from Broad Chalke and takes in the badges and the surrounding downland. The Fovant Badges Society website at fovantbadges.com also has walking directions and a history of each badge.
Where to Stay
The Old Bell Hotel, Malmesbury. England’s oldest purpose-built hotel, established in 1220, Grade I listed, and adjacent to Malmesbury Abbey. 34 rooms.
Avebury Lodge, Avebury. A vegetarian and vegan bed and breakfast set inside the Avebury stone circle, with rooms overlooking the henge. Well-placed for West Kennet Long Barrow.
The George Inn, Longbridge Deverill. A pub with rooms on the River Wylye. 12 en-suite bedrooms. Walking routes from the door. Central for Imber, Fovant, and the Deverill Valley.
Widbrook Barns, Bradford-on-Avon. Luxury bed and breakfast and glamping on the Wiltshire-Somerset border. Convenient for both Lacock and Savernake Forest.
The chalk has been worked here for five millennia, and what survives in it, beneath it, and carved into it says more about this county than any signposted heritage trail ever will.
