---
node: dest_stonehenge
type: destination
slug: stonehenge
title: "Stonehenge"
lead: "Stonehenge is the most famous prehistoric monument in Europe, a ring of giant standing stones on Salisbury Plain. Raised some four to five thousand years ago, its purpose is still debated and its silhouette instantly known."
published: 2026-08-10
updated: 2026-08-10
image_file: stonehenge.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stonehenge,_Condado_de_Wiltshire,_Inglaterra,_2014-08-12,_DD_09.JPG"
image_author: "Diego Delso"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

Built in stages across the late Stone Age and Bronze Age, Stonehenge is a circle of huge sarsen and bluestone blocks, some brought from far away and raised with astonishing effort. It stands alone on the open chalk downland of Wiltshire, aligned to the rising and setting sun at the solstices, part of a wider landscape of ancient burial mounds. A World Heritage site and one of Britain's most visited, it is an easy day trip from Bath, Salisbury or London.

## Highlights

The stone circle is viewed on a path that loops around it, with the visitor centre explaining the builders and the wider Neolithic landscape. The alignment with the solstice sunrise still draws crowds each midsummer. Nearby lie the great henge and stones of Avebury and the medieval cathedral of Salisbury, often combined into a day.