[Closed] Stonehenge- how much? Too Much!

A bit like York Minster then. £10 a head. I always thought places of worship didn't charge an entry fee? We didnt bother. Might've made a donation if we'd got in without a fee. I'm sure Durham cathedral doesn't charge & its MILES better!

Did you see the dewdrops cry?
That was my favourite bit.

You can actually park in the little road right opposite the stones.
We only found this out [b]after[/b] spending an hour in a traffic jam because this idiot decided to drive past, on a whim.

Damn you whims.....

We decided to visit Stonehenge today, on a whim. Entry price was an eye-watering £17:50 each, reduced to £15:00 if you gift aided. There was a shuttle bus to ferry you to the site from the wholly awful visitor centre.

To look at a few stones shoved in a field by aliens on a job creation scheme many years ago.

To look at a few stones shoved in a field by aliens on a job creation scheme many years ago.

[Tannoy]

JHJ to the forum, please.
JHJ to the forum, please.

[/Tannoy]

😉

Go on the solstice.. Take a couple litres of cider and some cheap eckys

Better still I've got a cycling route that approaches Stonehenge from The Cursus, past the stones then cross over to Normanton Down which is an SSSI and full of tumuli. Doesn't cost a penny.

As a tourist destination.

Bit rubbish.

As a freebie, it'd be good. If there was no one else there.

When I was a young girl (two centuries ago) you could walk freely amongst them. Still Avebury has a bloomin' 'A' road cutting through the middle of theirs. 😯 If the NT could charge for that they would.

Woodhenge is where it's at!

Durrington FTW! 😀

At least it's better than the Doctor Who Experience, £50 for a family ticket - despite what they tell you, the 'experience' lasts 7 minutes and it's a rehash of 'Armageddon' at Euro Disney followed by a small meseum of costumes from the TV show, once you've sniffed Kylie's outfit there's not much else to do.

sniffed Kylie's outfit there's not much else to do.

Still, worth it for £50 then?

Photo of me back in the day when not only was it free but you could sit and climb on the stones.

OP I appreciate your pain, bit of a rip off but the stones are very popular with tourists and if they are willing to pay then I can see the logic of charging.

@essel chafing for major churches is common practice these days, here and abroad. The church is not obliged to provide free entry it was a historical precedent that their doors where open for people to pray at any time. You can generally get in free by attending a service.

Woodhenge is where it's at!

Bollocks. It's all about Strawhenge these days. That first little pig was a trendsetter.

😆

Ripon Cathedral is free, it has a 1300 year old crypt in it. Christmas is a good time to visit they have a lot of choir practises. Impressive acoustics.

Can I take my bike around Woodhenge and Durrington Wall?

Me and the (now ex) missus visited Stonehenge a few years ago. Well, we visited the car park near Stonehenge, saw the entry price and drove back to Avebury. We also walked up Silbury Hill and spent some time in and around West Kennet Long Barrow. Which were all fee free.
Ripping folk off with exorbitant entry fees shouldn't be the National Trust's remit - sadly, in my (limited) experience, it appears to be. See also Whitby Abbey and Urquhart Castle for more examples.

Yep Durham Cathedral has a donation box. Stuck a tenner in it last week, seemed a reasonable price for looking inside an amazing building. Kids enjoyed the fossilised remains of random fish in some of the granite work. Oh and the Lego Cathedral model.

In their defence Stonehenge is English Heritage, not National Trust...

Furry muff, I stand corrected.

Go on [s]the solstice[/s] an equinox

Far fewer attendees, nice atmosphere, free and you can potter round the stones

chafing for major churches is common practice these days

I thought they were trying to do away with that?

I'm not a big stone henge fan but I think English Heritage (and the NT) have a policy of using cash from very popular sites to pay for the upkeep of other sites. These othee sites may be of great value but can't be self supporting. So cash cows like SH are justified on this basis.

Callanish is free.

English Heritage is the same as The National Trust, they seem to deliberately set the entrance rates high to encourage you to become a member. All goes to maintaining their properties though.

bring back the festival, we need more running battles between travelers and the police.

As someone very local to Stonehenge, the visitors centre is a disaster. The closure of the A344 due to English Heritage's lobbying has forced all traffic through the Longbarrow roundabout which is a very dangerous situation. Foreigners who can't understand roundabouts have no idea an impatient drivers refusing to stop off the A303 are a bad mix.

The traffic backlog due to this roundabout and rubbernecking idiots on the 303 having a look at the henge, plus people turning off into the byway, make people's Sat Navs re-route them through the local villages.

It always was bad here but now it's twice as bad (I think that's the order of magnitude traffic studies have shown).

All because EH wanted to shut an ancient road and refuse to plant trees to block the view of the stones from the road.

Thankfully villagers don't pay because the stones were gifted to EH on condition it was free to locals. I would never pay EH anything after this anyhow.

Plenty more standing stones you can go and visit without the tourist crowds and for free.

I blame Spinal Tap tbsoh

£88 gets you an EH family membership for a year.

If you visit more than 3 or 4 EH sites a year it pays for itself.

I think it's good that these popular spots pay for and take the heat off other less popular sites. There are better places to visit partly because of places like Stonehenge. Snowdon has a similar effect in Snowdonia. Also the prices quotes are wrong which I suppose helps the rantiness a bit 8)

Callanish is free

Yeah, but they're tiny...

Orkney is where it's at. Stones Of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar are really ****ing massive and seriously impressive (and free). And whilst you're there there's also Maes Howe and Skara Brae (not free).

Back to Callanais next week though... 😀

The closure of the A344 due to English Heritage's lobbying has forced all traffic through the Longbarrow roundabout which is a very dangerous situation. Foreigners who can't understand roundabouts have no idea an impatient drivers refusing to stop off the A303 are a bad mix.

Don't get me started on that bloomin' roundabout! Last week, despite the 'keep clear' box an imbecile was sitting in it which meant I couldn't get around the roundabout. I totally lost it and became shouty and sweary at his stupidity.

The only good thing about Stonehenge is the cafe in the centre of Amesbury best breakfast ever and no traffic on in hat for aweful A303 with rubber neckers ,the amount of time Ive wasted there en route to Chitterine is untrue

@nickel, you are correct about my having misquoted the admission prices, I put them the wrong way round. The giftaid is the more expensive. And I notice that the EH website says that the prices are lower than they really are.

And as mentioned by others, the traffic behaviour at the roundabout is interesting. We watched as a car tried to reverse back to the exit it had missed.

they really need to put up trees by the side of the road adjacent to stone henge as everyone slows to gawp at the stones. Its traffic jam all the way to the roundabout.

An old boss took the off sump of his hire car whilst gawping but that is another story 🙂

We had a run in with the ticket man too. We'd cycled down the byway from Larkhill and stopped where it crosses the remains of the A344 to have a look at the changes. We got told we weren't allowed to be there without tickets, so I said we're on the right of way to which he replied you can't stop and will have to go back to Larkhill!

I'm really glad I don't drive on the A303 much now, but on the plus side the stationary traffic did make it quick and easy to cross over it by bike and back to Yarnbury Castle.

Ripping folk off with exorbitant entry fees shouldn't be the National Trust's remit - sadly, in my (limited) experience, it appears to be.

£8 per month for free entry and free parking at hundreds of nice places all over the country.

Seems reasonable to me. We make good use of it.

And reciprocal agreements with national trust organisations abroad as well. Ours (scottish) paid for itself in 3 weeks. Great value.

Forgot about the overseas agreements.

Scotland
Australia
Bermuda
The Bahamas
Barbados
Canada
Cayman Islands
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Italy
Jersey
Malta
New Zealand
Zimbabwe

Ripping folk off with exorbitant entry fees shouldn't be the National Trust's remit - sadly, in my (limited) experience, it appears to be. See also Whitby Abbey and Urquhart Castle for more examples.

In their defence Stonehenge is English Heritage, not National Trust...

As is Whitby Abbey. Urquhart Castle is Historic Scotland. Any examples of your limited experience that are actually National Trust?

We went to Stonehenge last week with the kids. EH members so cost us nothing. Pretty easy to make an annual membership "pay for itself" if you pop into the occasional abbey or castle ruins on your travels. I don't have a problem with a few quid going to support our history. It's less than one visit to a private sector theme park, and much better vfm imho.

you can get fairly close to the stones without paying a penny as its a byway at the side of the fence 🙂
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When I was a young girl (two centuries ago) you could walk freely amongst them. Still Avebury has a bloomin' 'A' road cutting through the middle of theirs. If the NT could charge for that they would.

Actually, Avebury has an entire village built in the middle of it, complete with pub, so apart from the main NT car park, it will always be free.
As is the pub car park, if you get there fairly early in the day, then you can explore the stones and the rest of the circle, have a walk across to Silbury Hill and West Kennet long barrow, then back to have a pint and something to eat in the Red Lion.
You can also take a walk along the Herepath up to the Ridgeway and across into Fyfield Down to see where the stones came from, or do a loop along a byway towards the A4, that joins the Ridgeway near the point it meets the A4, then back along the Ridgeway and back down the Herepath into Avebury. Much nicer than Stonehenge, really.
I do know of somewhere else just outside the village where there's enough space for two or three cars to park, which I used today, as it happens, but I don't advertise its location, for obvious reasons.

I live 20 mins west of the stones and used to commute past them daily. The new road layout is far worse than before, I'm glad I don't have to drive that way anymore. If any Stonehenge locals fancy getting out for a pedal at some point give me a shout, email in profile.

Join English Heritage through Tesco club card points for £30 or so, bit of a bargain for a years use.

I appreciate that it's not nothing, but GBP15 per head for entry to a major attraction isn't insane.

An adult ticket to visit the SS Great Britain in Bristol is GBP14.
Imperial War Museum Duxford is GBP16
Cheddar Gorge is GBP16
Beamish open air museum is GBP18
Ironbridge Gorge is GBP28 (which is an annual pass, if you need to go repeatedly for some reason)

A pint of beer is GBP4.
A Santa Cruz Nomad C is GBP4,600, etc.

🙂

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Another way of getting close without paying. Taken from a baby Cessna in 1999 🙂 The whit object is the wing.

Unfortunately I have to travel the A303 quite often. The longbarrow roundabout is a disaster. Lane discipline is none existent.

the NT/EH don't care about Avebury, because it's entirely made up, the stones were re-arranged as you see them today by the first groups of archaeologists 😀

£17.50 is one week budget for my food.

Anything more than £10 is expensive for looking at few bricks or stones ...

Me mate has joined the English Heritage membership by paying online at a price of less than £50 (think that's the amount) for free entry to all sites, so started dragging me around to visit historical sites ... so far I have paid £6.50 and £9 for entry.

He wants to maximise his investment in the membership ... but I drove him around, paid for my fuel, paid for my food and not even a coffee in return. But I don't mind so long as the place is interesting. 😮

Mixed feelings on this.

That’s an awful lot of money (how much would a family end out paying?), and I’m naturally inclined agin EH since they did away with free entry for locals at Chysauster iron-age village, my local antiquity of interest. At the same time, it is a seriously impressive site (as epitomized by Jerry’s pic), and if it generates the income to preserve some less popular sites then I can see the benefit.

As for the National Trust, I’m warming to them, especially since they’ve started to be more mountain bike friendly round here. They’ve put in a graded run at their Lanhydrock estate as well as upgrading a load of footpaths to new bridleways at Penrose (near Helston), so I find myself wavering, in spite of their hunting / Countryside Alliance connotations.

But as other posters have suggested, there’s loads of free-to-access sites around the country. Have a look [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stone_circles ]here[/url]. It’s just a shame for most people (and a benefit for those of us on the fringes) that the various owners tend to exploit their location if there’s a chance of some income generation.

I should add that the only time I’ve visited Stonehenge was back in the day and I remember leaning up against and trying to climb onto the stones.

esselgruntfuttock - Member

A bit like York Minster then. £10 a head. I always thought places of worship didn't charge an entry fee? We didnt bother. Might've made a donation if we'd got in without a fee. I'm sure Durham cathedral doesn't charge & its MILES better!

I am sympathetic with places of worship asking for a fee under [i]certain[/i] circumstances, but if you are religious at all, you could always just ask if you can go in to pray. That tends to be seen as a reasonable ground on which to gain free entry. That said, it is nice that Durham only asks for a donation. It is, as you say, better than the Minster.

@Ambrose: are you not back in term? Or have you got out of the business? 😕

Yup- still teaching and TBH feeling pretty chuffed with my results this year. The trip out to that there scary Englandshire was at the behest of my brother in law.

nickc - Member
the NT/EH don't care about Avebury, because it's entirely made up, the stones were re-arranged as you see them today by the first groups of archaeologists

Really? Do you have facts to back this statement up? The first 'reconstruction' was carried out by Alexander Keiller, and he put the stones, or at least the ones that hadn't been destroyed over the previous three or so centuries, back as close as possible to their original position, in the original socket.
There has been very little actual archeological investigation carried out, and as far as I understand, from talking to NT people, those stones still upright after all the previous vandalism have been there from the beginning, like the second biggest stone in the henge which hasn't moved in 5000 years. There are still a whole bunch of stones in the south-eastern quadrant which are still buried, the NT refuses to touch them for fear of spoiling the archeology, but if they don't investigate what has only been where it is for three hundred years, how can they know what lies underneath.
There is a deliberate policy of leaving Avebury as uncontaminated by commercialism as possible, which is clearly not the same as not caring, the continuing and ongoing erosion control shows that.
There are only two shops in the whole village, one is the NT shop near the Tythe Barn, the other is the Henge Shop, both do the typical stuff, craft/New Age tourist things, but keep just the right side of the sort of tat you see elsewhere.
Speaking as someone who is in Avebury probably a dozen or more times a year, including this Sunday just gone, I think NT/EH have the balance spot-on, visitors can go pretty much where they please, touch the stones, in one instance slide down it, very popular with kids, that particular stone.
It's as original as any monument can be after 5000 years of human interference, particularly during the last four hundred, and if those remaining stones raised back into place by Keiller aren't exactly as first raised, they're pretty damned close; claiming it's all made up shows a degree of ignorance of the history of the whole site.

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