Prehistoric ruins and sites to visit

Britain and Ireland hold 13 of the 35: Stonehenge, Avebury and Old Sarum in Wiltshire, three sites on Orkney, Callanish on Lewis and Castlerigg in the Lake District, then Newgrange and Tara in the Boyne country and Carrowmore, Poulnabrone and Dún Aonghasa in the west of Ireland. Italy has six, four in Sardinia and two in south-east Sicily; Turkey and Bulgaria have three each, Malta and Portugal two. Most are open ground, so dress for wind and rain.

See Stonehenge for the lintelled sarsen ring, booking a timed ticket, then Avebury, where you walk freely among the stones. Newgrange is entered only on a guided tour, booked in advance, along the passage to its solstice-lit chamber. Skara Brae keeps the stone beds and dressers of its houses, Göbekli Tepe carved pillars some six thousand years older than Stonehenge, and Ġgantija on Gozo temple walls still six metres high.