Great Britain Early Risers

Britain was a popular destination long before the arrival of William the Conqueror and the Normans. Walk through a perfectly preserved Neolithic village at Skara Brae in the Orkneys. Stonehenge is the best-known marker of Bronze Age inhabitants and pagan revelry, while nearby Avebury is a bigger, less touristed site. On Scotland’s Isle of Lewis, the Callanish Stones reveal the ancient Celtic tribes’ knowledge of astronomy, while the burial tomb of Wales’s Bryn Celli Ddu rises from the middle of a modern farm. Britain’s first empire (the Roman one) left its mark all over the landscape. Fabulous mosaics and a theater have been excavated at Saint Albans , once the capital of Roman Britannia, while Bath provided a regenerative retreat for Roman colonists. Hadrian’s Wall marks an emperor’s frustration with rebellious tribes to the north, and the nearby site of Vindolanda allows visitors to take part in an ongoing archaeological dig. Finding the light in the Dark Ages, early Christianity got its start in Canterbury, where the Church of Saint Martin is Britain’s oldest house of worship.

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