Visiting Stonehenge

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/stone-circle-access-visits/

As to whether or not it is worthwhile, you need to make that decision. We found our private access tour fascinating. The stones look small from a distance, when you stand next to them, they are about 20 feet tall with another 10 feet buried. The mystery is how they achieved this without wheels or using pack animals.

Tours are early morning or early evening - they bookend the hours when the general public is allowed into the monument. When we went your ticket was good all day, so you could return later if you wished but not of course back inside the ring.

We did this, but it was back in 2016. It was fenced, then, and the "inner circle access" allowed us to go inside the fencing and walk among the stones (but we were not permitted to touch them). We went in mid-May, and there were both morning and evening times offered (before opening and after closing), although we went in the early morning, as that fit best with our plans.

It looks like this is still offered. We booked it directly with English Heritage and made our own transportation arrangments: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/stone-circle-access-visits/

Honestly, how can something that’s been standing for nearly 5,000 years and remains a mystery as to its purpose be underwhelming?

There’s a two foot high rope “fence” around it to preserve the grass and to deter idiots like the guy who spray painted a soccer logo on it decades ago.

Can’t comment on the tours. Never taken one.

Visited Stonehenge in the early 90’s. Grey November day. No one else there except 5 people in long white robes who stepped over the rope and walked towards the interior. In seconds guards appeared and surrounded the group. No yelling, no screaming just a slow circling and moving of the robed folks away from the stones.

Asked a guard what happened. “ They were certain they were going to be transported to another planet”

It looks like the English Heritage website is offering the special access tours every day during your visit. It may be morning or evening, depending on the day. May 2, for example, only has the evening tour available. Other days may have morning availability.

There is no “ fence” separating you from the stones if you do a regular daytime visit; it is a low rope that keeps you from getting too close. But with the special access morning and evening tours, you go inside the rope barrier and walk among the stones, without touching them.

Appreciation of Stonehenge varies, so only you and those in your party will decide if it's worthwhile.

The inner circle access is awe-inspiring if that's your thing. If not, it is a hassle getting up in the middle of the night, finding your way there in the dark, riding the shuttle bus, and standing out in the cold. (It can be really cold at 6 am even in May, when we were there, and you don't get a raincheck if rain is coming down in buckets.) We drove from Newbury; I would not have wanted to drive from London as we would have had to be up at something like 2 AM and the navigation would have been a nail biter. The shuttle bus will not wait for any latecomers.

Also, you have no control over who else will be visiting during your inner circle access. We lucked into a student group with a knowledgeable professor who guided them around (in English) and we were able to listen to her. This could have been really annoying to someone who specifically wanted to commune with the stones in silence. For us it was fine, but I'm just saying you never know.

Visiting during regular hours is a great experience, IMO, especially if you're able to hit good weather. The audio guide is superb. The visitor center has excellent exhibits indoors and out, helping you to imagine what life was like for the people who may have built the henge. (Neither of these is available during inner circle access hours, AFAIK.) You have your choice of walking from the visitor center to the henge, taking the shuttle bus, or a little of both. You can also walk along additional paths on the property. So you don't get to be right up next to the stones, but really that's not what Stonehenge is all about, IMO.

You can also drive over to Woodhenge and Durrington Walls, which provide an added perspective on the area. I THINK it's possible to walk there too from the Stonehenge campus, but you'd need to check.

They were certain they were going to be transported to another planet”

The so called “Druids” are already on another planet.,

Stones have not been standing for over 5,000 years
What you see is mainly a Victorian and later reconstruction
Never felt the need to visit them
However I do like the atmosphere of the Rollright Stones

I don’t live too far away and visited last year for the first time. I didn’t find it a particularly amazing experience but good to have done it. It’s very busy and the stones have a constantly jammed up road running really close to them which somewhat ruins the atmosphere. You get bussed up the hill from the visitor centre and follow a path around the stones.

There’s an interesting museum there but I think the experience really just suffers from being so busy and regimented. I prefer smaller sites like Avebury stone circle where you can do your own thing.

I must admit I was underwhelmed by Avebury .... It is a big circle but I was disappointed the stones weren't very big! I always feel the best views of Stonehenge are from a distance when it is silhouetted against the skyline. The inner access tours are good as they get you close up to the stones when you can really appreciate their size and also you avoid the crowds during the rest of the day.

Rollright Stones - chances are you will have the place to yourselves and the history and mystery are interesting...

Hello from Wisconsin,
I am a big fan of prehistoric megalithic monuments. Stonehenge is probably the most famous. I was lucky to visit it before it was roped off for fear of the IRA damaging it. Oh, and of course tourists had a habit of trying to chip off pieces with hammers.

The last time I visited it and first time for my wife, we just did a drive by. The whole thing has lost its magnificence since the 'control of visitors'. Huge parking lots, Busses to get you to the site...gawkers (us) from the nearby road.

Now that sounded unpleasant. Let me assure you there are standing stones, and stone rings all over Europe. The size of the stones has had little to do with our enjoyment of the site. What makes it magical is to visit these places when no one else is around. Usually the sites are special in their own right, stones or no stones.

Avebury is huge with what they call a village partially inside the ring. It has many tourists but is not as controlled as Stonehenge by any means. In addition to the ring there are earthen works very near the ring that are impressive.

All of this, Avebury and Stonehenge, is near Salisbury which has a pretty amazing cathedral. Maybe a tour of the cathedral which has a copy of the earliest Magna Carta and Avebury is possible. I bet there is good train service London to Salisbury and tour agencies there.

wayne iNWI

If we decided to go to Stonehenge from Bath, are there options besides hiring a car if we wanted to see it in the early hours or late hours. This would be in May.

If your plans work so you can spend 1 or 2 nights in Salisbury during your time frame, here is a link to a guide from Salisbury who specializes in Inner Circle tours. His name is Pat Shelley. I did a Salisbury walking tour with him one time and he was excellent.

http://www.stonehenge-tours.com/stonehenge-special-access-tours.html

mlstimetotravel, it's outside your date range but for others, Mad Max in Bath does tours for a limited number of evenings in the summer.

https://www.madmaxtours.co.uk/tours/tour-3-special-access-stonehenge-tours

We did the inner circle tour in September and it was well worth the extra money and the early time. I get it when people say they were underwhelmed by the stones if they only viewed from the roped area. Being right underneath the stones gave us a better sense of the sheer size and we could also see the detail of how they were put together.

*Wear waterproof shoes. I don't know what May will be like, but in mid-September the grass was dewy. I was fine, but my wife's feet were soaked.

What we did was to book a B&B in Amesbury. We booked a local taxi to pick us up in Salisbury, take us to our B&B the day before (it was actually a little more involved in our case, but that wouldn't necessarily apply to others), pick us up early in the morning at the B&B and take us to Stonehenge, return and take us back to our B&B for a hearty breakfast after our time at the stones, and then pick us up again from our B&B and take us to the train station in Salisbury for our onward trip to Exeter. This worked out beautifully. The taxi was Stu's Taxi, and the B&B was Fairlawn House.

@rogerbrown

“Stones have not been standing for over 5,000 years. What you see is mainly a Victorian and later reconstruction”

Care to share documentation proving your statement.

I wonder if he's getting at the restoration work that was done from about 1901-1958 to pick up some of the fallen stones and put them back in place. Some were even removed from site during archeological excavations and then put back and reinforced from below with concrete. I'm reading this in the English Heritage Guidebook that I picked up when I visited in September.

"Care to share documentation proving your statement. "

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/1901-stonehenge-photos-shows-victorian-renovation/

Thank you Laughing Spam…..sigh.

The 1920s "restorations" were probably the most damaging, "repairing" numerous cracks with concrete. This was replaced with a soft mortar in the last exercise. They were in public hands too by then.