@urbanprehisto @Rebecca52731232 @MartynBarber2 @TimothyDaw IT'S ROUNDABOUT STONEHENGE FRIDAY! Well done for making it this far. #StonehengeWHS #roundabouts We've only Countess Roundabout left, and the trip back up the hill (optional). So let's pick up where we left off. THREAD

This beast has many happy memories for holiday-makers and locals alike. It's 86m east/west and 105m north/south. With 3 lane inbound A303, 2 outbound. Full time traffic lights AND box junctions to prevent previous unpleasantness, especially in the summer.

In fact, let's dump the car, and walk around a bit. We coming in on a footbridge part way towards the wonderfully named Solstice Park (industrial / retail)

and looking back at the roundabout. Why do people stop on motorway and A-road bridges to look at the traffic? Because they can, I suppose. And now I'm doing it. Damn.

Going up the hill towards Amesbury next to house called Pixie Corner (I kid you not), is the Ratfyn Barrow, hiding behind someone's fence. Nice mowing, though.

There are some attractive buildings as you approach the roundabout.

with it's rather shy road sign, and less than welcoming field

So we leave Amesbury, with its bonkers attempt to appropriate Stonehenge

and glance back west. Good to see the Strawberry vendors and just back in action. And somewhere on the left a couple of hundred metres is Blick Mead, with its amazing Mesolithic finds.

I thought I'd share with you a Highways England artist impression of the Countess Flyover

Let's forget that for now and work out how to cross the road. Well, it's one of these. No idea what the green shed thing is.

Underpasses were invented to exclude pedestrians from the traffic flows. They do more than that. They render them invisible.

They can be a bit concerning: dark and confined

and you can meet people you don't elect to. But it was empty for me

But there is some natural light, and before you know it your back from the underworld, blinking in the light, on this "pedestrian friendly" route

there's an attractive, if dislocated farm house and barn on the other side. Then a twee toll house

Given this footpath follows the route of the Military Light Railway between just about every part of the WHS, I did wonder if the National Trust might revive it. It could give the Petit Train dieCarnac a run for it's money!

Next up by the 50mph sign. This person has a powerful tractor for grass cutting. If the house name seems familiar to archaeo types, its because the Woodlands Neo pottery style is named after finds made in the back garden of what was then a bungalow.

...then on the old A345 now a path. Amazing how narrow it has become since the 1960's. With deposits of earth, wood chippings, et al just before Woodhenge

with some eyes guarding the Durrington Walls

A very different scene in 1966/7, when the late Geoffrey Wainwright and the Central Excavation Unit, got his teeth into it. Some of the earliest large scale use of machinery to move soil around in UK archaeology.

another few hundred metres. And CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed Roundabout Stonehenge.

So thanks for joining me. Next week we are due to hear about tunnel. But there are lots of other pressing questions to answer. What the heck are these?

What is the AS90 gun (with a 24.7km range) outside Larkhill Garrison actually pointing at?

and did the man who painted the East Bound bus shelter such a brilliant white, miss his holiday to Santorini?
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!