This post is mostly pictures, I would think. But since I take a lot of photos I don’t really look at (something I realised when my family was talking about how we take holiday photos but don’t really look at them), I’m jumping at the chance to post them.

Not going to Stonehenge while he was in the UK was one of my father’s regrets. Luckily, this is a past regret, because we managed to visit last year!

(By the way, I found out that entry is timed entry + it’s cheaper to buy online. Same for lots of attractions, but my family drew the line at me pre-buying tickets to everything)

When we got to the visitor center, we picked up the audioguides for an additional £3 and got on the bus. Turns out it’s a ways from the visitor center to Stonehenge. You can choose to walk there, but it’s supposed to be a 2.1 km away, so it’s quite a bit of a walk. I did ask the bus driver to let me off halfway (it’s supposed to be an option), but he forgot so we ended up alighting near the stones.

The audio guides were really quite good! You can choose which language you want and they’ll take you through the history of the place. There were also little information boards scattered around, but most of the information is definitely in the audio guides.

This is the Heel Stone and is made of the same stone as the stones in Stonehenge. It’s called the Heel Stone because it leans to one side. Or it could be because of the Greek work Helios (meaning sun). The audio guide gave two stories and I have no idea which is the mainstream theory.

But to be honest, most of the time, we just took photos of the place. I would really recommend going at sunset because the stones look gorgeous!

If you go during winter, the last entry is basically sunset time.

Close up of the stones:

Although you can’t really go close up because they’re actually quite fragile. I think there are times during the year where you can go really close in a guided tour, but we couldn’t make it.

Since the buses to and from the stones run on a schedule, we went to the stones first and then went to the exhibition in the visitors center. There are basically two sections:

An indoors section where you can learn more about the history (or what we think is the history) about the stones and what researchers have deduced about the people who built Stonehenge.

And an outdoors section with replicas of houses from the Stonehenge era, as well as information about the food they ate. They also had information about the possible uses of Stonehenge.

They also have a gift shop and a cafe, although we didn’t get to eat there.

I had a few friends who lived in England tell me that there wasn’t much to Stonehenge, but I think it was worth a visit! It’s definitely more for people who like nature or want to learn more about history, so depending on what you want out of your trip, it might or might not suit you.