Whilst I was at Bath, I embarked on a half-day tour to Stonehenge, visiting for the very first time. We travelled with Scarper Tours. Their distinctive purple minibuses are easy to spot and the whole trip took four hours. It allowed two hours at the site, which was ample time to see the monoliths and the museum. The whole trip cost £40 per person, which included entry. As we don't drive, this made our trip easy and hassle-free and, I think, was good value for money.
We picked up our bus from outside Bath's Abbey Hotel...
Our tour bus was punctual and our guide, John, very friendly, taking the time to point out significant landmarks to us.
Here is a PDF of the Westbury White Horse- I couldn't get a decent photo whilst on the move!
The first Stonehenge, consisting of a circular ditch and bank, with maybe some timber posts or stones, was built over 5000 years ago, in a period known as the Neolithic age. It was a temple- a place of burial, ceremony and celebration. In 2500 BC more and much larger stones- huge sarsen stones from north Wiltshire and smaller bluestones from west Wales- marked the beginning of over 800 years of construction. This would have seeped over into the Bronze Age, when the first metal tools and weapons were made.
Salisbury Plain is vast and covers 300 square miles. The Ministry of Defence owns roughly half of that land, and it is used as a military training area. Some of the area is agricultural, and we saw both pigs and sheep being farmed.
Burial mounds in the area, such as these on the horizon below, date from around 2300 BC and contain an individual. Some were buried and some were cremated, but they were accompanied into the next world with a variety of personal possessions; such as jet, amber and gold jewellery, and tools of stone, bone or bronze. These people would have been considered very important during their lifetime.
The museum and shop are right near the car park, then you have to take a five minute bus ride to the site. Here is our first glimpse...
Although an admission fee has been charged since 1901, members of the public were allowed to roam freely for many years after this. In 1963 the area was gravelled to reduce erosion. But by 1978 there were so many visitors that a decision was made to restrict access to the stones during the normal opening period and the centre was grassed over.
You can walk around the stones, behind the fence, in the recommended clockwise direction. We, of course, didn't realise this and set off in an anticlockwise direction. Oh well, whichever way you go, it's still the same!
Some sarsens are grouped in threes, consisting of twin vertical stones with a horizontal boulder on top, and are called trilithons. Each trilithon consists of a well-shaped stone paired with one that is rougher. This appears to be deliberate, but what's its significance? Maybe male and female? We will probably never know.
The trilithons graduate in size: from the shortest, which face each other across the open horseshoe, to the tallest, which was the Great Trilithon (the stone with the point on the top) which faced the enclosure entrance. This was the only trilithon which had a back as smooth as its front.
The horizontal stones of the trilithons are called lintels. The single standing part of the Great Trilithon clearly shows the tenon on top of the upright. This peg would have fitted into a corresponding hole- or mortise- dug into the lintel.
The Altar Stone lies under the wreckage of the fallen upright of the Great Trilithon and its lintel. As no attempt has ever been made to move these stones, it is uncertain whether the Altar Stone always lay flat or once stood vertically.
We walked around and took in the view from a bit of a distance. There are Aubrey Holes close to the inner edge of the bank. They originally held metal and stone markers and were named after antiquarian John Aubrey (1626-1697). His ideas were taken up by William Stukeley (1687-1765), a doctor and field archaeologist who also coined the term trilithons (taken from Greek and meaning 'three stones.')
You can see a crowd to the left- although visitor numbers are restricted, the attraction receives more than 1 million people per year. A henge is literally a circular or oval shaped bank with a ditch and a flat surface over the middle. There is no evidence that henges were occupied.
We were very near the A303, visible in the background...
Flossie came over to say hello!😁
The stones outside the trilithons are called Station Stones. There were originally four, but only two survive. They mark the corners of a perfect rectangle; its central point the exact centre of the monument.
Coming round Stonehenge and the Heel Stone is now visible, to the right of the photograph. 'Friar's Heel' is its older name. Most of the sarsens are thought to have been transported here, but the heel stone may have always been here and was simply raised upright.
This is the view from the Heel Stone... 
The Heel Stone is an unshaped boulder. It is from behind this stone that the sun rises- assuming that you're standing in the middle of Stonehenge- on Midsummer's Day each year, in perfect alignment...
The Heel Stone and the rest of Stonehenge. The Slaughter Stone can be seen, flat in the grass.
The Slaughter Stone originally stood upright and was flanked with other stones that are now missing. This horizontal stone gets its name from the water that rests in its shallow depressions. The iron ore in the rock causes it to turn a rusty red. This was thought to be evidence of sacrifice; but that idea is really only the product of overactive imaginations.
The smaller, central bluestones include a variety of different types of rock. Generally speaking they were unshaped, apart from two which appear to have been part of a trilithon.
It was very chilly, and time to return. In the museum, you can stand in the centre of this large mock-up and experience the sun rising and setting over Stonehenge for yourself...
This skeleton was found nearby, and is of a man who lived 5000 years ago. He would have known the area well...
A model of Stonehenge as it is. It was once thought that Stonehenge was built by Druids- who were priests and soothsayers- but the Druids did not, in fact emerge until 1000 years after Stonehenge was thought to be abandoned.
...And maybe as it was? It raises the questions: Why was Stonehenge built? When was it abandoned and was it actually completed? What was it actually for? We will never know for sure, but to me it's some kind of calendar. I also think that it could have been used as a place of worship at certain times of the year.
Some of the sarsens weighed over 35 tonnes, and it was thought that they were transported on platforms like this, by up to 200 men at a time. Sarsen and bluestone could only have been shaped using stone tools. Round sarsen balls known as mauls or hammerstones have been found at Stonehenge. They varied from the size of an orange, to the size of a football.
Outside the museum are a selection of huts. The builders of Stonehenge probably lived nearby, and in homes like these...
Inside the hut...
Would I visit again? Yes, but not in a hurry. I'm glad I went, but what I would REALLY love to do is walk between the stones. This is only allowed during Special Access visits, when up to 26 people can walk beyond the barriers and into Stonehenge, for one hour at a time.
Count me in!
TTFN
The Miss Elaineous
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