Want to catch the summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge this year?

This years (2015) summer solstice celebrations will be on Saturday 20th June and Sunday 21st June.

English Heritage will be providing Managed Open Access to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice Celebrations on 20th – 21st June 2015. 

Please help them to create a peaceful occasion by taking personal responsibility and following the Conditions of Entry and guidelines set out on these pages.

The Summer Solstice this year occurs on a Saturday/  Sunday, the roads around Stonehenge will be very busy. We strongly advise visitors to leave their cars at home and travel to Stonehenge using public transport.   The nearest train station is Salisbury and there will be a regular bus service from Salisbury to Stonehenge.

TRAVELLING TO STONEHENGE FOR SUMMER SOLSTICE

Stonehenge is located approximately 2½ miles (4 kms) from the town of Amesbury.  The nearest bus and railway stations are in Salisbury, which is 12 miles (19 kms) away from Stonehenge.

A high volume of traffic is anticipated in the Stonehenge area on the evening of Saturday 20th June.  The Summer Solstice parking facilities close to Stonehenge, although fairly extensive, are also finite. Traffic may be slow, as you approach Stonehenge, but please do not be tempted to abandon your vehicle and park it either on the A303 or other neighbouring roads and public rights of way.  Cars parked illegally or causing an obstruction will be towed away.

The local bus company, Salisbury Reds, will be running a special service from Salisbury railway station and Stand U in New Canal, to a drop-off point near Stonehenge.  The buses will also stop at any recognised bus stop along the line of the route, which is via Amesbury. Find out more about the Salisbury Reds solstice bus service.

Solstice Events UK will be offering their usual small group guided tours from London and Bath.

The Stonehenge Tourist Guide

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Stonehenge souvenirs chart tourism history. New English Heritage Exhibition.

Souvenirs of Stonehenge - ranging from the tacky to the tasteful - are due to go on show at the World Heritage site.

The exhibition includes stamps, souvenirs and guidebooks charting the
monument's rise from isolated ruin to world famous tourist attraction

The exhibition, opening on Friday, charts Stonehenge's rise from isolated ruin to famous tourist attraction.

Postcards, china, stamps and souvenir books are among the "Stonehengiana" going on display, amassed by curator and archaeologist Julian Richards.

Mr Richards said the exhibition showed that visiting the stones was "part of a long tradition".

The exhibition, called Wish You Were Here!, begins with the Victorians and traces the Neolithic monument's development into one of the world's most visited sites

Managed by English Heritage, the ancient circle attracts more than a million visitors a year.

However, the organisation said Stonehenge may have been considered a tourist attraction as early as the Roman period.

The crumbling curiosity also proved a draw for the Victorian tourist who visited in sufficient numbers to warrant the first guidebooks and souvenirs.

By 1901, the rise in visitor numbers and damage to the stones saw an admission charge introduced to pay for a police constable to protect the site.

Postcards went on sale in the early 1900s, and, from the 1970s onwards, growing international recognition saw Stonehenge feature in an eclectic mix of art, music and popular culture from spoof rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap to the Thor comic books.

"I am fascinated by how Stonehenge has been experienced by visitors over the years and the way in which it has been used as an inspiration for art and music," said Mr Richards, who picked up many of the artefacts on the auction website eBay.

"The 1823 guidebook shows that even 190 years ago there were enough people fascinated by Stonehenge to want to visit it and for a book to be written about it."

The exhibition runs until 31 August.

Article source - BBC NEWS

Stonehenge Tourist Guide

New Stonehenge Discovery: Misaligned Stones Reveal Previously Unknown Purpose Of Mystery Megalith

A new discovery about Stonehenge sheds a whole new light on the purpose of the mysterious, 5,000-year-old megalith — literally. While archaeologists have long been certain the ancient monument was created as a religious altar for worship of the summer sun, the new discovery shows that the winter sun was just as important to the long-lost civilization that built the strange structure.

The discovery relates to the tallest stone in the semi-circular structure, a stone that most researchers have long assumed was aligned incorrectly, because while the rest of the massive stones that make up Stonehenge align with the sun at the summer solstice, that particular stone does not.

But according to researcher Tim Daw, who is also a groundskeeper at the ancient site, just because the stone does not align with the mid-summer sun doesn’t mean it isn’t in the right place.

By 1901, the stone had mostly fallen. At the time, it was raised back to what was believed to be its original position. But the stone did not line up with the summer solstice, so Stonehenge experts simply assumed the 1901 restoration job was carried out poorly — and the stone was in the wrong place.

But Daw’s findings say that the stone was in the right place all along. The 1901 restoration workers did not make a mistake. In fact, the stone lined up not with the summer solstice, but the winter solstice — as did five other stones around it, which have long since fallen and were never restored.

“My research shows that not only was the standing stone out of symmetry with the central solstice alignment originally, but that its now fallen partner had also been, and so were surrounding stones, including the Altar Stone,” Daw said.

“The stones point to the midwinter solstice sunrise and midsummer sunset. This alignment had been missed by previous investigators,” Daw said. “This isn’t some nebulous sighting line on a distant star. This is 100 tons of stone deliberately pointing to the major event at the other end of the day the rest of the monument celebrates. One stone out of line might be a coincidence but that it is five of the major stones, at least, shows it was a designed feature.”

Daw is the same researcher who made headlines last year when he discovered, largely by accident, impressions in the ground that proved Stonehenge was originally a full circle, not just a semicircle. But what happened to the rest of the stones remains one of the many mysteries of Stonehenge.

Article source:  http://www.inquisitr.com/2038760/new-stonehenge-discovery-misaligned-stones/

Stonehenge Tour Guide