Stonehenge
A five-thousand-year-old stone circle, seen from a path rather than from inside
- When to go
- October 12° · 16 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€price 4 of 5
- How many days
- 1days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 39 km Southampton · 44 km Bournemouth
- Right now
Stonehenge is walked on a circular path some thirty metres from the stones — you do not go inside the circle except on special early and late slots booked months ahead. Know that in advance and you will not be disappointed; turn up without knowing and you will be.
The circle was built in phases between roughly 3000 and 2000 BC. The great sarsens come from a quarry some twenty kilometres north, but the smaller bluestones come from Wales, about two hundred and thirty kilometres away — how they were moved is still an open question, and it is the most interesting thing about the site.
Admission is €32 online for adults, with a half-hour arrival window; at the gate it is about fifteen per cent more and in summer can sell out. The price includes the museum and the shuttle from the visitor centre to the stones — you can also walk, twenty to forty minutes across the fields, and that is the better version.
Salisbury is fifteen kilometres south and worth folding into the same day: the thirteenth-century cathedral has the tallest spire in Britain and one of the four surviving originals of Magna Carta from 1215. Entry is by suggested donation rather than a fixed ticket, and inside it is always empty compared with the stone circle.
What to see in Stonehenge
The stone circle
The sarsens line up with sunrise at the summer solstice and sunset at the winter one — that alignment is thought to be the reason the circle was built at all.
The Welsh bluestones
They weigh between one and almost four tonnes, brought from two hundred and thirty kilometres away — the longest known transport of stone for any megalithic monument in the world. How remains an open question.
Walking instead of the shuttle
About two and a half kilometres across the fields from the visitor centre, twenty to forty minutes depending on pace. Better than the bus, and free on the same ticket.
The solstice
The only days with free entry among the stones, around 21 June and 21 December — outside that, the circle is only reached on a paid Stone Circle Access slot. Tens of thousands turn up for the summer date.
- S
Salisbury
The cathedral with Britain's tallest spire also holds the world's oldest working clock, from 1386. Fifteen kilometres south and always quieter.
- A
Avebury
A larger circle thirty kilometres north, with a village inside it. No fence, no ticket and no crowd.
Two things you probably did not know
The smaller bluestones came from Wales, two hundred and fifty kilometres away, though each weighs up to four tonnes. How they were moved four and a half thousand years ago is still argued over.
In 1915 Stonehenge was bought at auction by one man for 6,600 pounds, by his own account because his wife liked it. Three years later he gave it to the nation.
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