It’s a cold, gray morning over Stonehenge, a gentle breeze blows across the landscape. In the fields behind, ancient mounds mark the final resting places of those who built this monument nearly 5,000 years ago.
If you turn your eyes to the standing stones, you can imagine that you are almost there, on that bleak and windswept plain, gazing in wonder at these rocks, freshly carved and transported from the western tip of Wales, some 200 miles away. . The smell of mud and grass is the same, the way the winter sun shines through the clouds is the same, the dull hum of trucks rumbling along the A303… well, wait a minute.
Standing at Stonehenge, it is impossible to see the modern world as anything other than a distraction from an ancient wonder.
At Giza, modernity is kept at a respectful distance from the pyramids; Athens’ Parthenon stands on a pedestal on its rocky acropolis above the city. Modern Rome around the ancient Colosseum only serves to chart the course of civilization.
But when it comes to Britain’s most famous ancient wonder? We achieved the worst of both worlds. Here past and future offer nothing but discomfort to each other.
For A303 drivers, Stonehenge means traffic jams from dawn to dusk; Enthusiasts slow down to view the area as the single-lane road bottlenecks. At peak times, the eight-mile journey takes an hour.
For visitors hoping to experience Neolithic wonder, it is a noisy, immersive road that bisects Stonehenge, Avebury and related Unesco World Heritage sites, cutting off access to the Normanton Down barrows and other ancient features that are key to understanding the mysteries of the Neolithic. site. Traffic accidents and even deaths occurred as tourists tried to visit the rest of the ancient monument.
This led to National Highways creating a plan to sink the A303 underground. Members of campaign group Stonehenge Alliance have challenged the project in the courts, arguing that the plan could lead to the destruction of up to seven hectares of land and even lead to the site losing its Unesco status. The group was responsible for revoking previous government approval for the program in 2021.
However, English Heritage, which manages the site on behalf of the Crown Estate, backed the plan. “I think this will greatly enhance Stonehenge,” said archaeologist Heather Sebire, the charity’s senior estate curator, who met me at the Stonehenge visitor center on the tenth anniversary. “We cannot encourage people to explore the entire area if they are risking their lives on the road. The noise is awful. There is so much misinformation out there that makes people angry. “There were people worried that the road would go directly under the fence, which is ridiculous.”
This speech sums up everything we misunderstand about Stonehenge. We have a chance to improve an ancient site, but we choose not to for fear of getting it wrong. Let’s be honest, no other country’s top archaeological attractions are as poorly managed as Stonehenge.
Now, before we start, it must be admitted that we know many things right about Stonehenge. The new visitor center is 2.6 miles down the road from where there are regular shuttle buses to the henge. This means Hengeheads can fill their boots with Neolithic goodness without hearing the clinking of teacups from the café or the sound of a big boxy building spoiling the view.
Stonehenge can also be accessed on a budget. A public bridge passes right next to the site; So if you can’t afford the £23 (frankly, extortionate) entrance fee per adult to access the official footpath surrounding the site, you can still see the main attraction for free. from just a few meters away.
Yet we seem determined to squander these positivity.
First, access. The nearest train station to Stonehenge is Salisbury, 9.6 miles away – but what if you want to go from one to the other? Nothing. I am reliably informed that the 10 minute journey costs just £25 in a taxi. You can save some money by taking a private bus; this will be £18.50 per adult please. It runs once an hour and you must make a reservation in advance.
Even the pricey Warner Bros Studio Tour is useful enough for ticket holders to catch the free shuttle from nearby Watford railway station. This may partly explain why Harry Potter receives twice as many visitors a year as one of the oldest archaeological attractions in existence.
There is so much to enjoy once you arrive at the visitor center. If you’re British, that is. Even though about 70 percent of visitors to Stonehenge come from abroad, you won’t find a multilingual information board anywhere. Even the Parthenon Museum in Athens, which exists almost solely to irritate the British into returning the Elgin Marbles, contains information filled with jokes, perfectly presented in their native language.
The exhibition inside the visitor center is reasonable if you can read English. There are a handful of artifacts to see and the history of the monoliths to ponder. But after a quick read, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Stonehenge was the first and only stone circle of its kind in the world. In fact there are many things in Scotland that are older and just as well preserved. The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney and the Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis are two of them.
Outdoors, there are five empty Neolithic huts where visitors can gain insight into how ancient Britons lived if they were truly committed to the minimalist aesthetic.
After hopping on the shuttle bus to see the stones? Well… you can see them. There’s no arguing that they’re not sitting in a field right in front of your eyes.
“I wasn’t as disappointed as I could have been,” joked a passing visitor.
If they have the misfortune to miss that day’s early morning visit to the Stone Circle Experience, visitors must be willing to be kept at a distance of at least 10 meters (33ft) at all times, sometimes even more. You have to struggle to find a place close to the monoliths where you can take a selfie. Thank goodness I brought my binoculars.
I’m not suggesting a return to the last century (which is why a fence was installed in 1977) where visitors could walk, climb to the top of the stones, and carve their initials on them. In this way lies madness, as the Colosseum discovered to its detriment earlier this year. But there is a balance to be found: With better security and control, perhaps we could be allowed to get within a meter or two of large monoliths.
Once you’ve returned from the official walking route – a muddy trail around the henge (and it’s very muddy here, don’t forget your boots) – there’s plenty more to do. You can walk to Woodhenge or Durrington Walls, where the builders of Stonehenge lived. If you can find your way, that is: I didn’t see a sign.
So he went back to the visitor center to check out the store. I may be arrogant about tattoos being on sale, but honestly, what cultural heritage doesn’t have tattoos? I was pleasantly surprised by a few tasteful choices, including a decent building game based on the Henge itself.
Then home along the A303 for one last look. It only added another 50 minutes to my trip.
Despite all my troubles, Stonehenge is amazing. A fascinating relic from a truly ancient civilization, steeped in myth and magic, full of mystery. We should be proud to have it, but it’s time we learned that to properly celebrate the ancient world, we can’t just leave it there looking impressive. Work began 10 years ago on the new visitor centre; Now is the time for us to start taking advantage of this.