Stonehenge

Overview: 

A stun­ning pre­his­toric mon­u­ment, the incred­i­ble Stone­henge is both an archi­tec­tur­al and mys­te­ri­ous won­der, with the famous stone cir­cle, which sits in quaint Eng­lish Coun­try­side, being not only the largest still stand­ing Stone Cir­cle but one who’s undis­cov­ered mean­ing, his­tor­i­cal impor­tance and unique beau­ty help to make it a true won­der of the world.  

Con­struct­ed to per­fect­ly align with the ris­ing Sun on the sum­mer sol­stice in Eng­land – the longest day of sun­light in Eng­land – Stone­henge is believed to have been built over 3000 years ago BC and being home to numer­ous impor­tant his­tor­i­cal archae­o­log­i­cal finds in his­to­ry  – with the struc­ture as it stands today hav­ing gone through numer­ous evo­lu­tions over mul­ti­ple cen­turies and been built through con­tin­u­ous shap­ing, carv­ing and erect­ing of the famous stone – with the con­tin­u­ous evo­lu­tions to the struc­ture reflect­ing the advance­ment in beliefs, abil­i­ty and mankind over the years.  

Yet the real unique­ness of Stone­henge is in the unan­swered ques­tions that sur­rounds its pur­pose, with the pre­his­toric struc­ture – which stands out on the flat grass­lands on which it sits – leav­ing schol­ars divid­ed over whether Stone­henge was cre­at­ed to study the move­ment of the plan­ets and the sun, whether the site was once a tem­ple to pay homage to the gods and the sun or whether some of the more unique the­o­ries includ­ing it being con­struct­ed by giants or wiz­ards have mer­it – a mys­tery which explor­er gets to pon­der when they vis­it the incred­i­ble won­der.  

Regard­less of its true inten­tion when con­struct­ed, Stone­henge today is the sight of one of the great­est fes­ti­vals on the plan­et in both the warm sum­mer sol­stice and much cold­er win­ter sol­stice – where crowds flock to the won­der to greet the ris­ing or set­ting sun that is per­fect­ly aligned with the mon­u­ment and which makes for incred­i­ble pho­tos as the mon­u­ment illu­mi­nates. 

With Stone­henge being explorable on foot or by bike – and with those lucky enough to vis­it either dur­ing the sol­stice or on a spe­cial access tour being giv­en the chance to walk among and between the incred­i­ble stone cir­cle mon­u­ment there are plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties for trav­ellers to explore, appre­ci­ate and pon­der the ori­gins of the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is Stone­henge.  

Where:

Stone­henge lies on the Sains­bury Plain in the Eng­lish coun­ty of Whilt­shire, with the near­est town to the mon­u­ment – which are vis­i­ble from miles being the love­ly towns of Ames­bury or Sal­is­bury.  

Getting there:

On account of Stonehenge’s size and it’s loca­tion it’s an incred­i­bly acces­si­ble won­der of the world – with one of England’s main motor­ways pass­ing right by it and able to drop you off at Stonehenge’s doorstep.  

By Car – For those trav­el­ling by Car, it should be as easy as putting Stone­henge into your sat nav (or Stone­henge car park as you can’t dri­ve onto the mon­u­ment) and the dri­ve is only an hour from Lon­don and 90 min­utes from Heathrow as you take the A303 up out of Lon­don and fol­low the signs to Stone­henge – for those com­ing from the North of Eng­land (unof­fi­cial­ly every­thing above Wat­ford – you can like­wise get your­self onto the A344 main motor­way and sim­ply cruise along it until you see the signs for Stone­henge until you find your­self in the main car park.  

By train – For those who don’t want to trav­el by car but wish to avoid get­ting on a tour you have the option to trav­el by Train using England’s great train sys­tem – where you can take the train direct from Lon­don Water­loo or from any­where in the coun­try and head to the town of Sal­is­bury – where you can then flag down a taxi or uber to take you to the won­der.  

By tour – Final­ly for those who don’t fan­cy dri­ving, there are mul­ti­ple tour options to get to Stone­henge. While we’d advise to avoid them if pos­si­ble – as you’ll find your­self on a packed tour bus and will miss out on the stun­ning sun­rise and be at the mer­cy of your tour as to how long you spend at the won­der, a tour pack­age offers an easy and quick way of see­ing the incred­i­ble mon­u­ment.  

Once at the won­der you’ll arrive at the main vis­i­tor cen­tre, and after spend­ing some time get­ting famil­iar and explor­ing the mys­ter­ies and con­struc­tion of the won­der at the exhibits you’ll get the chance to walk around the incred­i­ble won­der on foot on the 260 hectares of quaint Eng­lish land and cir­cum­nav­i­gate, explore and pon­der the won­der of the world that is Stone­henge.  

Best time to Visit:

Giv­en the Eng­lish weath­er – we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing time to vis­it Stone­henge between late spring to ear­ly Autumn – with the sum­mer months often giv­ing warm and breezy days and ide­al con­di­tions to see the won­der and being the sum­mer sol­stice undoubt­ed­ly being a much more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence that the win­ter sol­stice where the cold days can ebb away at your enjoy­ment — regard­less of then you vis­it we’d rec­om­mend to bring a coat and Cagoule to make sure you don’t get caught in a show­er burst.  

We’d also strong­ly rec­om­mend get­ting up ear­ly for either a stone cir­cle expe­ri­ence tour or mak­ing your way to a view­point to cap­ture the stun­ning sun­rise over the won­der – where the glit­ter­ing sun­rise offers incred­i­ble illu­mi­nat­ed views of the mon­u­ment – arriv­ing ear­ly or in the late after­noon is also a good time to vis­it as it’ll allow you to steer clear of the bus loads of tourists that flock to the won­der on day trips from Lon­don – just be sure to book your tick­ets in advance to avoid miss­ing out as there are crowd con­trol lim­its in place.  

Explore: 

Stand­ing as a pre­his­toric mon­u­ment a trip to Stone­henge is both about admir­ing and explor­ing the incred­i­ble stone cir­cle won­der and also about appre­ci­at­ing it’s con­struc­tion more than 3000 years ago BC, while pon­der­ing and reflect­ing upon it’s mean­ing and pur­pose – which still remains a mys­tery to this day. 

While archae­o­log­i­cal evi­dence points to Stone­henge once being used as a gravesite – on account of the human remains dis­cov­ered beneath the site, oth­er spec­u­late it once exist­ed as a trib­ute to the gods, whilst oth­ers have point­ed to it being an ancient sun­di­al on account of it’s unique posi­tion for sun­rise and sun­set.  

Yet while you pon­der on its true pur­pose your­self, it’s also worth tak­ing a moment to reflect on its con­struc­tion – which is believed to have tak­en cen­turies as large pieces of stone were carved, trans­port­ed, and erect­ed as human­i­ty and the mon­u­ment evolved.  

While we’d encour­age you to explore Stone­henge at your own pace and in your own unique way (although you’ll need to buy tick­ets in advance) the below are out top rec­om­mend­ed sights and ways to explore the incred­i­ble won­der of Stone­henge: 

Stonehenge (Stone Circle)

Begin­ning on foot and hav­ing got your­self a tick­et into the won­der, you’ll be upon 260 hectares of land, with the incred­i­ble stone cir­cle lying almost a mile away from the entrance point.  

At first glance you’ll notice the sheer size and thick­ness of the stone, as you get the chance to walk along­side them and view this pre­his­toric mon­u­ment in all its glo­ry. One thing that often sur­pris­es vis­i­tors who vis­it Stone­henge is that on a nor­mal walk­ing tour dur­ing the day you won’t actu­al­ly be able to walk amongst the stones – as they are pro­tect­ed by a small rope – but you can get with­in 10 foot of them – but you will have the chance to walk along a well-defined cir­cu­lar path­way com­plete with a free audio tour that will tell you about the stun­ning stone and both their con­struc­tion and pos­si­ble pur­pose.  

A walk around the won­der also allows you to step back in his­to­ry through the cen­turies to the stone’s cre­ation and envis­age and under­stand what an awe-inspir­ing and spir­i­tu­al place was once for so many peo­ple across Eng­land. AS you jour­ney round the incred­i­ble won­der you’ll also notice the dif­fer­ing rock types that make up the stone cir­cle – with the larg­er and arched rocks being made of local­ly found sand­stone – and the small­er stones being Blue Stone – which are believed to have orig­i­nat­ed from neigh­bour­ing Wales giv­ing you a true idea of the archi­tec­tur­al and engi­neer­ing inge­nu­ity that helped cre­ate this stun­ning won­der of the world.   

 A trip round the won­der, com­plete with audio­book and as many pho­tos as you can muster should take around an hour and will give you plen­ty of time to con­sid­er the mean­ing of Stone­henge and appre­ci­ate its beau­ty as you explore and dis­cov­er this icon­ic pre­his­toric and stun­ning Eng­lish mon­u­ment.  

Stone Circle Experience 

For those who want to get tru­ly up close and per­son­al to the Stone­henge mon­u­ment, you have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to walk amongst the incred­i­ble stones and tru­ly dis­cov­er its beau­ty through the Stone Cir­cle Expe­ri­ence.  

This expe­ri­ence – open to only 30 peo­ple a day so you’ll have to be quick and book well in advance, allows indi­vid­u­als to not only tour the incred­i­ble won­der and walk amongst the stun­ning Stones for a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence, but also arrive to the mon­u­ment out of hours – par­tic­u­lar­ly at sun­rise and sun­set – where you will have the chance to cap­ture stun­ning pho­tos of the incred­i­ble mon­u­ment as the ris­ing or descend­ing Sun illu­mi­nates the incred­i­ble Stone Cir­cle cre­at­ing a glow­ing and daz­zling effect and allow­ing Stone­henge to shine in all its glo­ry.  

For those who aren’t see­ing the won­der as a day trip and wish for a unique and off the beat­en track expe­ri­ence the Stone Cir­cle Expe­ri­ence is the one for you – allow­ing you to not only walk amongst the incred­i­ble won­der but also see it at its most beau­ti­ful.  

Summer solstice:

Along­side both walk­ing round the incred­i­ble won­der, and get­ting an up close after hours expe­ri­ence a tru­ly unique way to see the incred­i­ble mon­u­ment is by vis­it­ing it at either the sum­mer (21st June) or Win­ter (21st, 22nd or 23rd Decem­ber) Sol­stices where crowds of peo­ple flock to the won­der and walk amongst the stone to mark either the longest (sum­mer) or short­est (win­ter) day as the Earth’s pole reach their max­i­mum tilt.  

Offer­ing anoth­er and some­what bizarre way of expe­ri­enc­ing the won­der, you’ll also find that not only can you walk amongst the Stones freely – but per­haps best of all there is no entrance fee to get into Stone­henge as a part atmos­phere takes hold of the Mon­u­ment in the form of a reli­gious and his­tor­i­cal fes­ti­val that has been cel­e­brat­ed for years and which fea­tures a full night of par­ties, spir­i­tu­al awak­en­ing per­for­mances, reli­gious cer­e­monies – and dance and music.  

Best of all the Sol­stice – and we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend going for the sum­mer sol­stice on account of the Eng­lish Win­ter being par­tic­u­lar­ly cold also offers a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to grab some incred­i­ble pho­tos at the moment – with the sun­rise and sun­set – which line up per­fect­ly against the stun­ning stones mak­ing for an incred­i­ble pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ty.  

While a lit­tle uncon­ven­tion­al and an expe­ri­ence that will see you mix with mul­ti­ple crowds and bear a win­ter night, the chance to watch the sun­set and rise at this incred­i­ble mon­u­ment as well as walk amongst the stones is a tru­ly unique expe­ri­ence and an incred­i­ble way to see this won­der – just be sure to bring a few extra lay­ers to cope with the weath­er.  

Along­side the mon­u­ment itself, the area of Stone­henge fea­tures a range of his­toric and sto­ried mon­u­ments and sites that are well worth check­ing out and give you a chance to explore the incred­i­ble Eng­lish hill­side and offer unique views of the Stun­ning Stone­henge. While Sal­is­bury itself is a tru­ly beau­ti­ful town wor­thy of spend­ing a few days explor­ing the below are our top picks in the Stone­henge park that can help enhance your expe­ri­ence at this tru­ly stun­ning mon­u­ment:  

Visitor Centre & Exhibitions:

Begin­ning per­haps with the most obvi­ous spot, the Stone­henge Vis­i­tor Cen­tre is the first port of call for most trav­ellers and is a great place to learn about both the con­struc­tion of the won­der and pon­der upon its pur­pose.  

Fea­tur­ing a series of exhibits which tell the sto­ry and con­struc­tion not just of the won­der but also the neigh­bour­ing town, the vis­i­tor cen­tre and its encom­pass­ing muse­um fea­tures dis­plays on the stones, land­scape and a series of films that depict life at Stone­henge dat­ing back through the cen­turies – with our favourite bit being the recre­ation, based on fos­sils and bones found at the site, of the face of mod­ern man when Stone­henge was at his peak thou­sands of years ago.  

Offer­ing the chance to stand – and with a clever green screen – have your pic­ture tak­en inside the famous Stone­henge cir­cle, the vis­i­tor cen­tre and its muse­um gives you a real feel­ing, under­stand­ing and his­to­ry for the incred­i­ble won­der before you – and if that’s not enough for those of you vis­it­ing Stone­henge on a cold Eng­lish day fea­tures a great café with tra­di­tion­al Eng­lish muffins and tea – for a tru­ly warm­ing expe­ri­ence – and one not to be missed at the won­der. 

King Barrows Ridge

A spot for those who want to get a great shot of the inner cir­cle of the Stone­henge bowl – but who don’t make it onto one of the Stone Cir­cle tours, the Kings Bar­rows ridge is a small ridge on an Avenue that links Stone­henge to the near­by riv­er Avon and gives you an ariel view of the won­der down below you – it’s a par­tic­u­lar good spot to observe the cel­e­bra­tions and sun­rise of the Sol­stice.   

Stonehenge Cursus 

Often over­looked on account of the stun­ning mon­u­ment of Stone­henge being so close buy, the Stone­henge Cur­sus is a one-and-a-half-mile long earth work mon­u­ment that actu­al­ly pre­dates Stone­henge. As an earth­work it is hard to ful­ly cap­ture the unique­ness of the Cur­sus as it fea­tures a ditch and a bank, but it’s believed to have been used as a place for ancient gath­er­ings both before and after the cre­ation of Stone­henge – and is a great spot for the his­to­ry buffs who vis­it Stone­henge.  

Woodhenge

A wood­en ver­sion of Stone­henge – Wood­henge was once a sim­i­lar mon­u­ment to Stone­henge aligned to meet the ris­ing sun on the sol­stice that lies a mile away from the still stand­ing Stone­henge. 

Offer­ing a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into the rev­er­ence of which Stone­henge held, unfor­tu­nate­ly the wood­en Stone­henge no longer stands – and all that remains of this once dom­i­nant struc­ture are a series of con­crete slabs that work where the pil­lars once stood.  

Still for a unique expe­ri­ence that offers fur­ther insight into both the his­to­ry of the area and the mys­tery of Stone­henge, the chance to see where it’s wood­en sis­ter — that is believed to be con­nect­ed to Stone­henge — once stood is well worth a vis­it. . 

Cycling trip

Final­ly for those who seek a bit more soli­tude and want to soak in all of the majes­tic scenery as well as the Cur­sus, Wood­henge and Kings Bar­rows Ridge, there are a range of tra­di­tion­al quaint Eng­lish Cycling Paths that run round the out­er skits of the Stone­henge park and take you through small vil­lages up to the Wood­ford Val­ley and to the won­der.  

While you’ll have to dis­em­bark off your bike to actu­al­ly see the won­der, cycling through Sal­is­bury and up to the won­der is a cheap and tru­ly scenic way of see­ing the won­der at your own pace and gives you a chance to retreat the roads like­ly walked by those who con­struct­ed this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

How long to stay: 

Unless attend­ing for the sol­stice – where you’ll need to bud­get a whole evening for the fes­ti­val and trip to the won­der – we’d rec­om­mend bud­get­ing half a day to see Stone­henge – with the half day hope­ful­ly giv­ing you enough time see the incred­i­ble sun­rise and then spend enough time walk­ing around or with­in the incred­i­ble mon­u­ment – with you like­ly to spend time pon­der­ing both the beau­ty and mys­tery of Stone­henge long after you’ve left the incred­i­ble mon­u­ment.  

Top Tip:

Along­side mak­ing sure you get your tick­ets in advance and poten­tial­ly com­bin­ing your trip to the won­der with both the stone Cir­cle pass and Sum­mer Sol­stice cel­e­bra­tion for a tru­ly unique and up close expe­ri­ence with the won­der – we’d advise mak­ing sure that you allo­cate a bit of time to browse not just the main won­der but also the incred­i­ble vis­i­tor cen­tre which can help you unlock the true mys­tery of Stone­henge.  

Along­side this be sure to time your vis­it at either ear­ly morn­ing or late after­noon to avoid the crowds of tourists who are reg­u­lar­ly bussed up from Lon­don to the won­der and who can take the edge of your expe­ri­ence. 

Final­ly giv­en the unpre­dictabil­i­ty of Eng­lish Weath­er – regard­less of the sea­son you vis­it be sure to come pre­pared with a coat and cagoule on the off chance that a tra­di­tion­al Eng­lish show­er hits when you’re tour­ing the won­der ! 

Cost:

Giv­en the pop­u­lar­i­ty of Stone­henge – and the numer­ous tour group that shut­tle peo­ple to the won­der from Lon­don, entry to Stone­henge now oper­ate on a timed entry-based sys­tem in order to avoid over­crowd­ing – and Adults can expect to pay £21 to enter the won­der. 

Giv­en the time-based sys­tem we’d also high­ly rec­om­mend book­ing your tick­ets online for a much eas­i­er expe­ri­ence and to avoid miss­ing out on a vis­it to the won­der – with tick­ets avail­able at [https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/plan-your-visit/ticket-options/] – just be warned that dur­ing win­ter the open­ing times are 9:00am to 17:00 am which extends to 19:00 in sum­mer – and last entry is 2 hours before it clos­es, so for those jour­ney­ing to the won­der from Lon­don be sure to time your vis­it to meet these dead­lines.  

While nor­mal entry to the won­der will give you a chance to explore and pon­der upon the beau­ty of Stone­henge, for a tru­ly up close and unique expe­ri­ence you have two fur­ther options – the first of which is to get a Stone Cir­cle Access Pass which will set you back £49 and which will allow you to arrive at the won­der at sun­rise and walk with­in it – and which are very pop­u­lar so you’ll need to book well in advance.  

The sec­ond option is to com­bine your trip to the won­der with one of the great­est fes­ti­val on the plan­et in the Sum­mer Sol­stice at Stone­henge where you can wit­ness both sun­set and sun­rise at the won­der and walk and par­ty amongst the incred­i­ble mon­u­ment – just be pre­pared for the occa­sion­al show­er  and cold weath­er and for your view of the won­der to be hin­dered by the huge crowds who come to greet the mag­i­cal sun­rise.  

Fun Fact:

While there are many inter­est­ing the­o­ries about why Stone­henge was built and it’s exact pur­pose – one of the more inter­est­ing ones is that orig­i­nates from Medieval times is that it was cre­at­ed by the famous Eng­lish Wiz­ard Mer­lin – as his lair, although how he man­aged with the tra­di­tion­al Eng­lish rain in win­ter giv­en its open top design is anoth­er mys­tery.  

On a more seri­ous note, while the pur­pose of Stone­henge still remains dis­put­ed, what is estab­lished is the inge­nu­ity and genius used to first cre­ate it — with the rocks first being cut using makeshift ham­mers that involved feed­ing water into wood, then being trans­port­ed to the site over riv­er and land and then erect­ed using a series of rope and rock cranes – which giv­en this all hap­pened some 3000 years ago BC – makes the cre­ation and won­der of Stone­henge all the more impres­sive.  

Best photo spot:

While catch­ing Stone­henge on a sun­ny Eng­lish day is always spec­tac­u­lar – watch­ing the sun­rise over this incred­i­ble mon­u­ment makes for an absolute­ly stun­ning pho­to as the morn­ing sun illu­mi­nates the full beau­ty of the stones and cre­ates a daz­zling and majes­tic site – so while you may need to be there in the ear­ly hours or time your vis­it with the Sol­stice if you man­age to grab a shot of the sun ris­ing over Stone­henge you’ll get an immac­u­late shot of the this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.