Ash and I left Arundel and traveled 2 hours northwest on the M27 to Salisbury. We had been looking forward to this part of our trip for a while.
We pulled into a very large parking lot (payment required) and began our walk to the visitor center. The massive building seemed to protrude out of nowhere. Surrounded by miles of grassy fields, the visitor center had a completely different aesthetic than that of an ancient monument. Inside, we bought our £19.00 ticket -advance booking is recommended- and grabbed a meal from the café (Cornish pasties- our favorite!)
There are two options for getting to Stonehenge from the visitor center. You can either walk to the prehistoric stone monument, or you can take a tram. Though we would have loved the walk, we went for the tram to save time. There are so many remarkable facts about Stonehenge, that I encourage you to go online to learn more about this site, but to give you an idea of how incredible it is, here are some fun facts I pulled from their website:
From c. 3700 to 1600 BC this site was continuously being built and used.
Stones were brought from over 150 miles away.
The landscape surrounding the stones has 350 burial mounds and prehistoric monuments.
With this information in the back of our heads, seeing the structure in person was amazing. It was hard to fathom that people walked the same land we were standing on thousands of years before us. The stones themselves were massive, but roped off, so we couldn’t get too close to them. We were able to walk the circumference of the circle and see the stones from all angles. I think I can speak for both Ash and I when I say that this was one of the highlights of our trip.
We took the tram back to the visitor center where we spent some time going in and out of the huts built for their Neolithic house exhibit, and once we were tired of that we walked through the gift shop and headed back to our car.
I would highly recommend visiting Stonehenge if you have the chance. The feeling we got just being in the area is unlike anything we’ve experienced. If you have visited, we would love to hear about your time here. Please drop us a line and let us know your thoughts about this site!
I do ask that this stays a positive and safe space for readers, so please, no hurtful language or remarks about other's experiences. Thank you.
