Save time and money when visiting Stonehenge.

Avoid any queues for Stonehenge audio guides onsite and use your own device and headphones to explore the most famous prehistoric monument in the world and the ancient landscape that surrounds it.  This will also save you £2 per person:

Audio guide: £2.00 (subject to availability).
Family audio guides (2 adults, up to 3 children): £6.00

Download the free English Heritage Stonehenge Audio Guide.

The free audio tour is in English and can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play store. Free WiFi is available at the Stonehenge visitor centre. For a small fee at Stonehenge, audio tours are available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Dutch and Polish. There is also a family audio tour in English.


ADVANCE STONEHENGE BOOKING REQUIRED
Last admission time is 2 hours before the advertised closing time.

Entrance to Stonehenge is now managed through timed tickets and advance booking is the only way to guarantee entry on the day and time of your choice. By booking in advance you will also benefit from an advanced booking discount.  Visit the English Heritage website for current opening times and tickets

Joining a Stonehenge Tour means you get priority entrance at Stonehenge and the expertise of a professional tour guide.

Stonehenge Tourist Guide

Winter Solstice celebrations will take place next week at Stonehenge

WINTER Solstice celebrations will take place at Stonehenge next week.

King Arthur Pendragon at a previous winter solstice

English Heritage will welcome people to the stones on December 22 to celebrate the first day of the winter season.

Many people believe that the Winter Solstice always falls on December 21. But the celebration of the winter solstice at Stonehenge is not fixed to a specific calendar date because of a mismatch between the calendar year and solar year.

Sunrise is just after 8am on Tuesday December 22 and visitors will be able to access the monument field as soon as it is light enough to do so safely. Entrance is free and will be available from roughly 7.45am until 10am, when the site will close before re-opening as normal.

Kate Davies, general manager of Stonehenge, said: “We are delighted to offer people a warm welcome to Stonehenge this Winter Solstice, and once again we have worked closely with the druid and pagan community to ensure that access is a success.
"If you are planning on coming, please consider travelling by bus or shared transport, dress very warmly and be prepared for wet weather.
"We do ask all those attending to please respect the stones and the people celebrating solstice with you.”

Senior druid, King Arthur Pendragon, who will be in attendance at the solstice, said: "From our point of view, it's one the very special moments because we think the ancients were more concerned about winter than summer. From Tuesday the days get longer, so it's about hope and renewal. It's very important to celebrate the winter solstice as it's the return of the sun.

"All are welcome to join me afterwards at a second ceremony by the Hill stone where we'll have poetry, music and song, and anyone is welcome to bring along their own song or guitar"
Parking is limited and there is in excess of a thirty minute walk, in low light, from the parking areas to the monument. People planning to attend should bring a torch and strong, waterproof footwear.
A limited number of Blue Badge permits will be available for disabled parking and there will be dedicated accessible transport to the stone circle which will begin just prior to the opening of the monument field. Please apply to Sandra.Ross@english-heritage.org.uk for permits.

Salisbury Reds will be running a shuttle bus service from Salisbury to Stonehenge from 6.30am.
For traffic, weather and news updates on the morning of solstice, please follow @eh_stonehenge and #wintersolsticeSH on Twitter.

Story by Rebecca Hudson Salisbury Journal

Stonehenge Tourist Guide

Was Stonehenge moved by glaciers - or our prehistoric ancestors?

In the report, experts describe a number of different landforms and sediments which can be related to the events of the Ice Age.

The famous rocks of Stonehenge were not dragged by pagans but moved by glaciers, according to a team of Welsh academics.

Previously, a team of experts from University College London (UCL) claimed to have resolved the archaeological enigma, confirming that the stones were excavated and transported from two sites in Pembrokeshire by our prehistoric ancestors.


Sunset at Stonehenge the day before Summer Solstice  Photo: Paul Grover/The Telegraph

The team of archaeologists and geologists said Carn Goedog and Craig Rhos-y-felin, both in the Preseli Hills, had definitely been quarried for the mysterious stones.

They believe that between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago, rocks were taken from the Welsh mountain range by people and dragged away to where they currently stand, in Wiltshire.

But in a recent conflicting report, scientists have refuted UCL’s findings.

Dr Brian John, Dr Dyfed Elis-Gruffydd and John Downes have published their own research in the Archaeology in Wales journal, claiming there are “no traces of human intervention in any of the features that have made the archaeologists so excited”.

The group does not accept the idea of a Neolithic quarry in the Preseli Hills and says the supposed signs of ‘quarrying’ by humans at Craig Rhos-y-Felin were entirely natural.
They also believe that the archaeologists at UCL may have inadvertently created certain features during five years of “highly selective sediment removal”.
And while the team of scientists – including researchers from UCL, University of Manchester, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton, National Museum Wales, and Dyfed Archaeological Trust - believe their evidence, published in the journal Antiquity, presents detailed proof of human involvement, this latest study suggests Stonehenge’s famous bluestones were moved by glaciers, not people.
• Huge ritual monument found hidden near Stonehenge
• Stonehenge: that's a right mess the builders left
UCL’s report said evidence proved quarry workers cut out rocks for the bluestone settings at Stonehenge.
But Dr John and his team are convinced that the debris at Stonehenge comes from glaciers which transported rocks east towards Salisbury.
In the article, Dr John and his team describe a number of different landforms and sediments which can be related to the events of the Ice Age, and in particular to the last glaciation of this area which occurred around 20,000 years ago.
The report accepts that there might have been a prehistoric camp site at the rocky crag in Wales, but suggests it was used by hunters rather than by quarrymen.
In his paper written with Dr Dyfed Elis-Gruffydd and John Downes, Dr John says: “There is substantial evidence in favour of glacial transport and zero evidence in support of the human transport theory
“We think the archaeologists have been so keen on telling a good story here that they have ignored or misinterpreted the evidence in front of them.
“That’s very careless. They now need to undertake a complete reassessment of the material they have collected.”
By Lucy Clarke-Billings (The Telegraph)

Stonehenge Tourist Guide