Standing Stones beyond Stonehenge - where to go?

Hi David. My wife and I went to several standing stone sites in spring 2012. We toured Stonehenge after arriving early at Heathrow and I thought it was awesome. I'm almost certain you can arrange by appointment to arrive before or after regular hours and get much closer to the stones. Avebury is nearby, distinct, less-crowded, and you walk among the stones (and sheep droppings) along a path. We spent two nights on the Isle of Lewis and were alone at least briefly at the Lewisian gneiss Calanais Stones and at Clach An Truishal. There might be easier places to get to, but I think you'll find what your looking for on the Isle of Lewis.

On Orkney you should see the Standing Stones of Brodgar and the Ring of Stenness. I loved both sites, as well as Skara Brae, the Paleolithic archeological site. We did Orkney as a LONG day trip via tour bus from Inverness. While you don't get to see everything, you do get to Orkney and get a taste! We don't drive in Europe- especially in the UK. So we use trains, the occasional bus and take day tours.

By the way, Brodgar is probably my favorite standing stone site so far.

You definitely need to go to Orkney. You can walk right up to the stones. Also, have you read about the new excavations at the Ness of Brogdar? It is extraordinary. Go to the Scotland section of the Forum and look for my post on Orkney. There are some marvelous videos that will whet your appetite. I have made two trips to Orkney and need to go back!

Also, the Stones of Calanais on Lewis and Harris are marvelous as well. They are much harder to get to. I've flown to Orkney--London to Edinburgh, to Inverness to Kirkwall one change of planes in Edinburgh--I know that their are flights to Stornoway.

There is a wonderful book from Oxford University Press that is part of their Archaeological Guides Series, Scotland by Anna and Graham Ritchie. It will tell you where there are lots of smaller rings all throughout Scotland.

Pam

My wife and I were in Avebury on our 2013 trip and I thought it was very worthwhile. We skipped Stonehenge on that one because we had been there on our 2000 trip. I seem to recall that there are special Stonehenge experiences available, i.e. after hours, fewer people, and you get closer to the stones. You might want to look at that on Google. I did not find it underwhelming to view from some distance as a lot of people seem to think, it's a very worthwhile visit. I think they have a new visitor center since we were there, too.

There is a beautiful group of standing stones on a hill just outside of Keswick in the Lake District not far from Durham (90 min. drive). I've been there many times - the view is gorgeous over the surrounding fells and there are usually not many people there especially in the early morning and late afternoon when you can catch the sunrise or sunset. Castlerigg Stone Circle Visit the stones, have lunch in Keswick and take a walk along the shores of Derwentwater. If you join the Facebook page called "The Lakes and Beyond" you can see many pictures of the stones...one of the admins of this page is a National Trust ranger who lives in Keswick and walks up to the circle almost every morning and posts pictures.

Wales seems to have a Neolithic site on every hill.
See the website:
http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/az/ancient/index.htm
for more information.

We enjoyed searching them out and visiting.
Have fun!

We visited a few sites this past fall - Capel Garmon in Wales , Castlerigg , in Keswick , and Clava Cairns just outside Inverness . The setting at Castlerrig is truly stunning , but the intricacies of Clava Cairns were very interesting . It is a very involved and complex site , and worth some time in exploring .

Kilmartin in Argyll, Scotland is a landscape filled with stone circles, earthworks and other stone monuments. It also has a small ruined castle and an old church with a great collection of Celtic crosses in the church yard. There is a nice little museum with the inevitable tearoom (home made baked goodlies) and of course beautiful scenery. I second everything everyone has said about Avebury - a nice little village set within the circle, a tudor manor house, West Kennet Avenue (remnants of an old trail from Avebury to West Kennet Barrow) outlined by standing stones and passing by Silbury Hill. Again Avebury is more than the Circle itself, it is the surrounding landscape as well.

Friends visited the sites in Orkney last year and have not yet stopped raving about them!

Stonehenge was Microsoft, Avebury was the Apple equivalent....

Sorrry Sir Terry has taken over my lap top.

Are you interested in dolmens, circles, or standing stones. They are spread across Great Britain, Ireland, and France. And beyond. In GB and Ireland they tend to be restricted to the 'highland' zone, draw a line from Portland (Weymouth) (most grand buildings in London are Portland stone) (William III's boyfriend was made Duke of Portland) (his descendant is the Duchess of Rothesay) to the Humber (Hull) (border of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire depending on map). most stones are north of that in the Highland zone rather than south, the lowland.

Stonehenge and Avebury are in the lowland zone which proves arbitrary lines on a map sometimes are more of a hindrance than a help!

I forgot to mention a real rival to Stonehenge.
Carnac, France.
Very easy to get there.

See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnac_
for more information and to start research.

We had a marvelous time in this area.

Near Avebury, visit the West Kennet Passage Grave

Hi David
Great to hear that you are visiting the UK this summer. In response to your request for
"Places where I can get photos without strangers in them, big extra points for sweeping, evocative landscapes and places that make you feel disconnected from modern life."
I recommend you slow down as you go past Newcastle upon Tyne and turn West and visit Hadrian's Wall.
There are lots of sites giving you information about the Roman Wall one of which is
http://www.yournorthumberland.co.uk/area-guides/hadrians-wall
If you look on this site you can see Sycamore Gap (made famous in the film Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. Robin rescues a boy hiding in that tree from the Sheriff of Nottingham's men...I think they must have been a bit out of their jurisdiction!)

My tip is to go to a car park near Steel Rigg (you will need change for the car park around £2 or £3 ) and walk East along the footpath that follows the wall. You can walk to Sycamore Gap and then if the path is a bit too much you can walk back along another footpath that runs a few meters to the south and doesn't rise and fall as much. The views South to the Pennines and North to the Cheviots are lovely, not majestic, but bleak and open and sweeping with very few houses visible and if you go midweek and early or late in the day there will be very few other walkers on that stretch. Morning mists or golden sunsets compliment the ruggedness of the Wall and the crags and loughs it was built on.
When I walk there I can almost hear the grumbles of the soldiers manning the wall, they came from Hungary and Spain as well as Italy and were probably freezing up there in their leather skirts. Trousers are called feminare in their language... only women were soft enough to wear them! Brrr.
If you want to see or experience more Roman stuff then of course a visit to Housesteads is interresting but not as wild and open. There is also a brilliant free museum and rebuilt Roman gatehouse and Commanders and soldiers accommodation at Arbeia in South Shields http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/arbeia.html but that is back on the coast to the East of Newcastle.

Oh and most of the coast between Newcastle and Edinburgh is lovely and has some wonderful castles, beaches, cliffs, seabirds all the wildness and remoteness you could wish for. Or you can drive up to the Cheivots through Kielder forest, the biggest working forest in England with the largest man made lake in Northern Europe. Plenty of wild places to stop there but not as many sweeping views as the hills aren't as high and the forest is in the way. I think Kielder has just got Dark Skies status, it certainly has amazing stars at night. Be warned though, if the day is still the midges are bad in the summer especially in the morning and evenings, wind keeps them at bay. http://www.visitkielder.com/visit The Cheviots are remote and it's a great drive north through them to Edinburgh if you decide to use that route.

By the way, I have no connections to any of the links I've offered. I'm just a local who loves where I live.

Have a GREAT trip.
Regards
Hilary

We've been to the UK several times and always seek out the standing stones. First of all, sign up for private access to Stonehenge ASAP. Private access is either early A.M. or late evening. It is not available in late June because they need to let the grass recuperate from the Solstice crowds. You would probably want to stay in Salisbury for one night. Avebury is nearby.

There's a large concentration of stones on the Penrith Peninsula, way out at the tip of Cornwall. There are several rings in the Peak district, but they are a bit difficult to get too. Castlerigg at the north end of the Lakes District is beautifully situated.

Heading into Scotland, there are several sites in the Kilmartin Glen. The Callinish stones on Lewis are magnificent and you will often have them to yourself. Orkney also has several sites. With the exception of Stonehenge, all of these sites were open access and you probably won't encounter a lot of other visitors. By the way, DH has had pretty good luck photoshopping out the people at Stonehenge.