Behind the scenes at Stonehenge

All About You online 19.12.2008

Winter is a great time to visit this ancient monument, especially if you're on a private visit... By Adrienne Wyper

Stonehenge from outside the stone circle You may have thought, as I did, that only druids have access to all areas at Stonehenge, and then only at the summer solstice. However, that's not the case: anyone can arrange a visit to inside the circle.

A Stone Circle Access Visit (details below) takes place outside normal opening hours and you're allowed to wander at will inside the very centre of the circle.

Whatever its original purpose - and the theories are many and varied: from healing centre to astronomical calendar, sun-worship centre to homing beacon for extra-terrestrials - there is a certain energy that can be felt when you're standing close to the stones. Whether it's focused by the stones or emanates from them I don't know... Acoustically, the centre sounds as if you're in an enclosed space, rather than the middle of a field.

Although the circle looks smaller than you might imagine from a distance, once you cross the perimeter fence and approach the stones, you realise just how impressively massive they are, and how much hard work and engineering skill was put into erecting them. The stones' surface is weathered and worn, dotted with lichen, and home to nesting jackdaws.

Its purpose may be up for debate but what we do know about Stonehenge is that it was constructed between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC, using stones carried for hundreds of miles across land and sea.

The arrangement we see now is the third in a series. The first was a circular bank and ditch with a ring of 56 wooden posts, the pits for which are now known as Aubrey Holes. Later monuments all used and reused the stones that stand today. The final phase was an outer circle of standing stones - super-hard sarsens, from the Marlborough Downs. These were topped by lintels, forming a ring. Inside this stood a horseshoe of five pairs of uprights with lintels. All the stones were connected using mortise and tenon joints. Smaller bluestones, from the Preseli Mountains in South Wales, were arranged in a ring and a horseshoe, within the great circle and horseshoe of sarsen stones.

As you walk around this World Heritage Site, the changing light reveals new textures and, sometimes, words and pictures carved into the rock, which you just can't see from the usual path outside the stones.

axe and dagger carvings at Stonehenge These carvings (left) are of a dagger and an axe, and were discovered around 50 years ago - but made considerably earlier! Other carvings are not quite so ancient.

Wren inscription at Stonehenge This one (right), which says 'X Wren', is rumoured to have been made by Sir Christopher Wren, who grew up in a nearby village. Needless to say, such acts of vandalism are forbidden today!

So to experience the thrill of getting up close to this iconic monument, with time and space to perhaps formulate your own theory of why it was built, avoid the crowds and go in winter.

Further information

Stone Circle Access visits take place outside normal opening hours, and last for one hour. A Stone Circle Access visit costs £12.70 for adults; £5.90 for children. Click here to apply for Stone Circle Access visits. Normal entrance fees are £6.40 for adults; £3.20 for children. Entry is free to English Heritage members. Visit the English Heritage Stonehenge website for more details.

Now watch the video I shot on my visit (apologies for the shaky camera-work!)