One of my England bucket list items has been to see Stonehenge. Since it was only a 40-minute drive from the small village of Highclere where we spent the weekend, we made the trek.
I figured it was Easter Sunday morning, who would go to Stonehenge on Easter Sunday? Sadly, thousands of other tourists thought the same thing. Although I must admit, the way the walk around Stonehenge is set up, you get good photographs of the neolithic monoliths and thankfully the hoards of selfie-stick wielding tourists remain out of shot.
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| Barrow |
After waiting in a Disneyland-style line at the car park, we picked up our pre-purchased entrance tickets and made our way to the bus. We opted to exit the bus half-way to Stonehenge (only about a half mile) to walk through the fields the rest of the way.
Along the way we spotted several of the ancient barrows, large burial mounds which date back to as far as 2300BC. The older, oblong-shaped Neolithic barrows were group burial sites, whereas the smaller, round Bronze age (circa 2100BC − 1500BC) barrows were the burial mounds of individuals. Gotta admit, it's a bit weird walking a path up and over an ancient burial mound. Good thing there wasn't a TV nearby, I don't want to get sucked into the otherworld like Poltergeist's Carole-Ann!!
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| Stonehenge |
The stones are bluestones and their origins have been traced back to Wales. How the Celtic people moved them all the way from Wales to their current location 4,000+ years ago, I have no idea. There are many theories as to what the structure was used for and why it was built, but I like the mystery of it all, myself.
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| Stonehenge |
The stones that are still standing are quite large and impressive. I can only imagine how it looked and how such a formidable structure would elicit awe in all who saw it when in its heyday.
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| I'm really there! |
I only wished we were able to view Stonehenge without the screaming hoards all around us. It really distracted from the experience. I grew up reading celtic-inspired fantasy novels and had such an image in my head of how magical and mystical it would be to actually see Stonehenge with my own eyes. Unfortunately the actual experience included queues, ticket takers barking at you to get in line, cranky tourists bumping into me trying to get a better view, and the ubiquitous exit through the gift shop.
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| As seen from afar |
After visiting Stonehenge we drove another 40 minutes to see a lesser-known henge located in the village of Avebury. This henge is larger in scope, several concentric circles of varying sized stones, but not as compact as Stonehenge, nor are any capstones (if there were any) still in existence.
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| Avebury Henge |
We had ourselves a little car picnic of cheese and crackers, then set off to hike around the village to check out Avebury Henge. It was a beautiful day and all the visitors seemed to be locals enjoying a nice day out — a far cry from the maddening crowd at Stonehenge!
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| Stones of Avebury |
The historians suggest this henge was also built during the late Neolithic period, dating back to about 2600BC. The stones are very large and set fairly far away from each other. You could get right up to the stones here, even touch and/or climb onto them. And for all you Outlander fans, I didn't fall through a vortex of time and find myself in medieval Scotland!
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| Large stones of Avebury |
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| Even more Avebury stones |
We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon at Avebury and highly recommend it. Yes, if you come to England, see Stonehenge, but don't miss Avebury either!
After a last night at our little pub in Highclere, we headed back North to our Yorkshire home. But we took one last detour to see another ancient item, the Uffington White Horse.
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Uffington Horse - NOT MY PHOTO
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The horse was probably built either in the late Bronze age (1000–700 BC) or early Iron Age (800 BC–AD 100) and is assumed to be tribal symbol. I had hoped we would get a view like the picture above, but apparently that view can only be seen by air. Hmmm.... could they have been helped by ALIENS!?!? :-)
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| Uffington Horse |
We hiked up and down and all over that G-D hill, but the pictures above and below are the best views we were able to see.
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| Can you kinda, sorta see it? |
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