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Around the big places

Go to Stonehenge. Then see what's right beside it.

Everyone queues for the stones. Almost nobody walks the ground around them, where the history goes on for miles, free, with nobody else there.

By Rickie · Discover Alone

Stonehenge, seen for free from the path. Picture: geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0

The queue

People go to the big places like Stonehenge, queue for hours, shuffle round behind a rope and go home.

And they never realise that the same story carries on just down the road, if you know where it is.

What's right beside it

Normanton Down barrows near Stonehenge — The barrows on Normanton Down, a walk from the stones. Picture: geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0

Around Stonehenge there's a whole landscape: old burial mounds on King Barrow Ridge, the long bank and ditch of the Cursus, the barrows at Normanton Down, Woodhenge and Durrington Walls a short drive away, Yarnbury Castle and Old Sarum a bit further out.

No ticket office. No queue. Most of the time, nobody there at all.

Just you and what's around

A long barrow near Stonehenge — A long barrow near Stonehenge. No queue. Picture: geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0

You can walk up to it. You can put your hand on it and feel the age of the place. Nobody telling you where to stand or when to move on.

Just you, the ground, and whatever happened there a few thousand years ago.

I'm not saying don't go

Go to the big places. They're famous for a reason.

Just be aware of what else is around them. Most people drive straight past it.

Ten or fifteen things in two hours

Bush Barrow near Normanton Gorse — Bush Barrow, where one of the richest Bronze Age graves in Britain was found. Picture: geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0

Pick the main attraction. Open the map, put it in the middle, and look at what's within a few miles.

With a car and two hours you can see ten or fifteen things most visitors never knew were there. That's a better day out than the queue.

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