Neolithic sites

Megalithic Portal is the on-line encyclopedia.

Aubrey Burl wrote the book on circles.

The modern antiquarian is another source.

There's over a hundred circles in Aberdeenshire alone.

You will encounter sheep dung.

LOL, sheep dung we can deal with, just not strenuous hikes. Aberdeenshire would definitely be of interest. Will look at these resources, thanks so much!

You can filter sites on the megalithic portal by access ability.

The same info is available from Burl, but he's hard reading and his book costs like the dickens.

The Orkney Islands contain several Neolithic sites that are literally within minutes of each other, and we even drove past others in our limited time there. Flybe Air can get you to Orkney via a relatively quick, cheap flight. See the recent discussion under the Scotland portion of this forum. Most of those sites have a parking lot immediately adjacent to them, and involve a very short walk to reach. The impressive Ring of Brodgar has Handicap Parking along the road, closer to the stones than the regular lot, and reaching the stones involves a short uphill walk on a wide, mown track, but is clearly visible from just below, as well. Sheep happens.

A DVD collection from 2009 that we found at the library, "Standing With Stones-A Journey Through Megalithic Britain" provided a lot of information and some of the inspiration to travel to Orkney.

If you have one of Rick's guidebooks, they include a summary of a few more top sites beyond Stonehenge and Avebury. In the Great Britain book, see the map on p. 985; most of those shown are described further in the book, including Castlerigg near Keswick. In the England book, which covers some southern towns that the other book does not, see p. 473; this book covers Castlerigg as well as Scorhill in Dartmoor and Merry Maidens in Cornwall.

We love neolithic sites and have visited all of the major ones and lots of the minor ones in the British Isles.
For a short trip, I suggest you head out to the tip of Cornwall.

The Penrith peninsula has Men-en-Tol, Lanyon Quoit, the Merry Maidens, and many other neolithic sites.

There are also sites on Bodmin Moor, including the Hurlers.

The Kilmartin Glen in Scotland also has lots of sites.
If you do decide to drive to Scotland, Castlerigg Stone Circle, near Keswick is lovely.

Since you have only a short time, I strongly recommend the Cornwall sites so you don't have to drive so far.

Can your husband walk a level mile?
Very few of these sites are right beside a road, but most of them don't require long hikes.

Do you know how to arrange for private access to Stonehenge?

Assuming your trip is a few months away, you can make reservations to do that.

If you decide on Cornwall, try to get hold of a book Belerion: Ancient Sites of Land's End by Craig Weatherhill.

That book tells you exactly how to find all of the sites, which are often down tiny narrow lanes.
(Sorry about the weird formatting - this site isn't observing margins!)
Don't be surprised if you get a lot of responses telling you the stones are just a bunch of large rocks. Needless to say, we don't agree!

Wow, thanks for all of this excellent info! Although I'm sure Orkney is lovely and fascinating, we'll have to save that for another trip.

I'll certainly do more homework before we actually book, but it looks like we could do nicely with three locations: Salisbury plain (Stonehenge & Avebury) - Cumbria (Castlerigg) - Argyll (Kilmartin Glen). That would put us on a reasonably linear itinerary between arriving in London and flying home from Glasgow, and would take us to places neither of us has previously visited.

How do you book private access to Stonehenge? We would really, really love to do that! We have more than 6 months to book in advance.

Castlerigg is beautiful but will only take about 15 minutes of your time. There are lots of sites in Derbyshire, also on your route if you have decided to head north.

Cynthia, thanks so much for the English Heritage link! I've printed out the application form and saved the web link in a safe place!

I also see that outfits like Stonehenge Tours offer customized day trips around the region, though not sure we would need that. And it might not be cost effective since there are only two of us.

You are right to keep it on a low profile; I agree if they get inundated with private access requests they might stop offering that option.

P.S. you might wonder why we'd fly all the way to Britain for just a week. We're actually going to be in Europe on the continent; this is a side trip before we head home.

I've used a wonderful book from Oxford University Press. It's the Scotland volume of the Oxford Archaeological Guides. There is one for England. I would strongly recommend the series for those who are interested in finding more than the most well-known sites. I've enjoyed finding stone circles, standing stones and brochs throughout Scotland.

Pam

I like themed vacations. In three weeks we'll be leaving for our golf (Ryder Cup), castles, and Scotch trip.

We'll be driving from Scotland to York. Someone on this site suggested Long Meg and her Daughters in northern England which isn't that far off the highway. We'll be back early October and let you know what we thought. Of course I don't have anything to compare it to.

One of the finest stone circles in the north of England, the circle has a diameter of about 350 feet, the second biggest in the country.

Long Meg and Her Daughters

If you go to the Stonehenge web site you will find the access to the center area. We booked our trip for October only to find out they close the center during the winter...starting in October. Oh well, guess I'll have to make another trip...or bring a very rolly ball...hmmm. You will need to reserve a time for entry to Stonehenge online.

Wow, I didn't know the Stonehenge center was closed from October until . . . when, March or April? We were actually planning for "shoulder season," either May or Sept, so this shouldn't shut us out, but it is certainly important to know!