Using our English Heritage membership whilst on holiday down this way.

Most people I’ve met say it’s a waste of time visiting, “used to climb on them when I were a lad”, can just see it from the road, etc – I thought the stones were very impressive from our visit. The pathway winds around them and closes in closer towards the exit, and it very wide so you can stand out the way of the photographers to take it all in, picnic etc.

I didn’t realise it was a decent walk from the car park, though there’s regular shuttle busses ferrying people to and from the visitor’s centre. All in all, really enjoyed it and think they’ve done well to try and preserve the site, given there were a few thousand there today wandering around.

by byjimini

30 comments

  5. A foreigner with roots back to somewhat near the area, in the early 1980s I had a company car and headed to Bath from Crawley along the back lanes… the evening was setting in, perfectly clear with a wide open azure horizon over that vast open plain. A few stars were emerging in the sky. No tour buses or any others around, in fact I don’t recall a visitor center though there could have been, but walked from the highway across (under the roadway?)… they were surrounded by a roped area, easily transgressed if you wished, but I just sat and stared mesmerized at what my ancestors a few thousand years ago must have seen. Truly transcendent. Especially impactful since raised where most everything is relatively recent, modern, rarely primitive let alone prehistoric. Truly an unforgettable experience. And I am glad you were able to visit and enjoy them.

  6. In ancient times,

    Hundreds of years before the dawn of history

    Lived a strange race of people, the Druids

    No one knows who they were or what they were doing

    But their legacy remains

    Hewn into the living rock, of Stonehenge

  7. I was one of those that visited, as a child, in the 70’s.

    Yes, we were permitted to clamber over them. I don’t think we paid to visit the site either.

    And I firmly believe they’re best viewed from a distance.

    I remember us doing Avebury Henge, and stone circles in the same day.

  9. Not one tree hugger in sight.

    Also, not a henge. I love that fact for how British it is.

  10. National trust have destroyed it unfortunately imo. Avebury is better and less crowded.

  12. If you go on the summer solstice then its free and you can stand in the stone circle to watch the sun rise

  14. I live within walking distance of stone henge. Been up there as the sun is setting and hardly anybody about. Really nice.

  15. People that are not impressed by Stonehenge mystify me. Stone Age man hewing the stones, transporting some more than 100 miles and over several large rivers, how we do not know, to create a form of calendar and ritual place. How they lifted the large lintel stones? So many questions. It must have been an enormous investment by a large community.

  17. Still there then? I heard they had been irrevocably damaged by environmental protesters.

  25. In another life I went to Stonehenge a few times during the summer solstice. With my old friends and even with a ex girlfriend.

    Good times and lovely memories. Albeit a little painful if I’m honest, thinking back to easier more carefree days.

    But I’m happy it happened, I’ve touched the stones and danced to drums in the circle and cheered as the sun came up with everyone there. I watched my mate get knighted by one of the druids, with the sun behind them, him kneeling. Beautiful really.

  26. I was evicted from Stonehenge about 15 years ago. As a keen photographer, I wanted to capture sunrise through the stones. As it doesn’t open until about 10am, I thought I would hop the fence and take some photos, what harm could it possibly do? Within ten minutes I had a big dude with a high-vis jacket either side of me, politely but firmly telling me to fuck off! Now I’m a hardened criminal so I enjoy the stones from the public footpath

  27. It’s best to go there at solstice because you can get in among the stones, the winter solstice is quieter.

  28. A lot of people skip old Sarum which is close by and IMHO has better views than Stonehenge .

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