Filled with awe (Stonehenge)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	Stonehenge
Date:	30/09/03 (539 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: awe inspiring

Disadvantages: covered in tourists, can't usually get to the stones.

Standing on the Salisbury plain, Stonehenge is an amazing and iconic site. No one really knows who built it, or when, or why. it was built in stages, with holes in the ground, wooden constructions and finally the stones. The place is far from pristine, with many stones fallen or missing, but even so it is a huge and impressive construction, with giant stones towering over you, casting long shadows.

The tourist experience is one that I've seen and can guess a fair amount about - you arrive by car, there doesn't seem to be any option for getting here on public transport, its a fair hike from the nearest town. The car park is large, as you'd expect with a world famous site. there's the obligatory shop with overpriced memorobelia of dubius quality -you know, the little plastic models and the tea towels sold in every tourist trap. The loos are remarkably cold. The car park does afford you some amazing views out across the Salisbury plain. Accompanied by the hum of traffic - Stonehenge is right on the edge of a road, you go under said road, and past the fence put up to protect the site from careless visitors, into the area of the circle. There's a smooth, flat path for you to walk around, suitable for wheelchairs, pushchairs and the otherwise less mobile. Even walking slowly it won't take you long to get round. You can't walk on the grass and explore the earthwork around the edge, nor can you go up to the stones. I wonder how many people are dissappointed by this.

I recall going past in a car once, seeing a large number of people walking slowly round the path. it didn't look inspiring. I gather from friends who have done this, that the expereince is not a profound one and that the atmosphere is 'lacking'.

My story is a somewhat different one. We set off from Gloucester at about half past eleven, at night, with the roads almost empty. We stopped for a while near woodhenge, to watch the first hints of dawn
touching the sky, and then went on to Stonehenge. When we arrived at the car park it was about three in the morning, it was freezing cold, and there was thick mist on the plain - through which the tumuli appeared like small islands. Other people were gathering and already there was an atmosphere of anticipation and possibility.

Throughout the year, various Pagan groups have access to this ancient site. The most famous being the summer solstice gathering when people descend in their thousands. This was a much smaller group, meeting some days after. It was starting to get light as we made our way into the stones, at first following the tourist path, and then, where we where directed, moving into the circle. It was peaceful, reverent. I walked clockwise aroud the circle, between the outer ring of stones and the smaller inner one. We chanted, we sang, we meditated and we watched the sun come up through the mist. It was one of the most awe inspiring, breathtaking expereinces imaginable. There's little traffic around that time, and the skylarks were singing in the dawn.

Would that everyone could experience the place in such a way - not as a curiosity or monument, but as a living part of the landscape, and a temple of the sun (Ok, it might not have been built as a solar temple or calander or anything like that, but watching the sun come up between the stones is dam impressive anyway.)

My advice if you go to Stonehenge during normal opening hours, is to take your time, to close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine how it would be without the cars, the tourists, the continually snapping of cameras. It is an incredible place, a place with the power to stir the soul and ignite the imagiantion. It's also a place people visit to walk round and tick off their list of places they've seen, which to my mind is a waste of any expereince, regardless of the location you visit.

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