The Neolithic loo...tourists use 5,000-year-old stones as toilet
TOURISTS are being forced to relieve themselves on a 5,000year-old monument because the National Trust shuts its toilets shut too early in the day.
The towering slabs of 40-ton stone at Avebury provide the perfect cover for gentleman visitors who find themselves caught short.
But villagers claim the National Trust is to blame for the ‘revolting problem’ because the site’s facilities are only open between 10am and 4pm. The village’s Red Lion pub and B&Bs say they are overrun with requests to use their toilets from tourists with nowhere else to go.
Parishioners have called for facilities in the Wiltshire village to be open for longer, and for another toilet block to be reopened after it was shut due to poor conditions.
Councillor Jemima Milton, who represents Avebury, said: ‘This is a really revolting problem to have. If something is not done, this will continue to plague this beautiful heritage site. I’ve heard about people relieving themselves up against the stones, especially men who want somewhere to hide behind if they are desperate.’
Jon Campbell, who is on the parish council, said it is was embarrassing that a World Heritage Site can’t provide basic amenities, while another villager said they had also found bits of tissue roll dotted around the area. Avebury has seen visitor numbers soar to some 350,000 a year after it was voted the world’s second best heritage site – beating the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal. The three stone circles – one of which is the largest in Europe –
also have religious significance and are a place of pilgrimage for pagans at the summer solstice. The National Trust said it ‘had not seen or heard any evidence of people using the henge as an emergency toilet’ but is considering a parish council proposal to help fund the facilities.