Recommend me a henge

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I'm off to the UK next July for a 3-week holiday with the family.

I'd like to visit a henge or two but am not so keen on Stonehenge due to it being so busy and also the fence keeping you from getting too close. I'm keen to take my wooden flutes and commune with Gaia in my henge:lol:

Can anyone recommend me a cool henge to visit?

[pfitzgerald]

Here are a couple of starters for you to investigate further.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callanish_Stones

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlerigg_stone_circle

If you change your mind about Stonehenge - get there as early as you possibly can to opening time to avoid the busloads that arrive from midmorning on.

Paul

PS I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to visit all three.

[pluto]

I thought the Avebury Henge was nice, and a nice little village there too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury

[julianh72]

+1 for Avebury. We visited it on the winter solstice a few years ago, and had no issues whatsoever with crowds. You can literally walk up and touch the stones and walk in the ditches and mounds (unlike Stonehenge).

(The Visitor Centre did a fantastic Port & Stilton Soup the day we visited - which was EXACTLY what you wanted for lunch after walking around in the sleet for a couple of hours!)

There are lots of neolithic sites worth visiting in the area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge,_Avebury_and_Associated_ Sites - in particular, don't miss Silbury Hill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbury_Hill and take in a couple of the barrows (tombs) such as West Kennet Long Barrow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Kennet_Long_Barrow

[Wavytone]

Have visited a few others which you might like. You're never far from a village in the UK.

Castlerigg near Keswick in the Lake District, very dramatic setting;
Easter Aquhorthies,
Loanhead of Daviot.

Up north there are lot of interesting stones tucked away in odd places, do some googling and you'll find them.

Extensive list with details
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stone_circles#Scotland

We tried to travel to Orkney for the Ring of Brodgar and Standing Stones of Stenness but the weather was too rough and all ferries cancelled - this has to be timed carefully with the weather forecast both to get there, and back.

[TheCrazedLog]

On our honeymoon my wife and I went to see Stonehenge. It was one of the most underwhelming things I have ever laid eyes upon. We bought the audio tour and wandered around the circle all the while listening to some talk by some person explaining how this or that thing may mean this or that but that at the end of it all, no one knew anything for sure, to which any sane man would question why he got the audio tour in the first place. Perhaps in a thousand years new artefacts will be discovered at the base of the stones with the arcane symbols "AUDIO TOUR" written upon them.

Perhaps I'm too used to bigger things but it was hard to escape the thought that while this lot of harp playing club-draggers had finished putting one rock across another two and were (probably) hooting and hollering at their success, the ancient Egyptians were looking at one great big stonking pyramid (which, by the way, they'd lined up with the stars) and were thinking "Y'know what'd look really good here? Another two of these and a cat with a dude's head on it!. Where's the architect?"

In case you didn't pick up on it, I was a little disappointed with Stonehenge. The fault is likely mine but I do feel it is a little overhyped.

[lazjen]

I'll add my vote to Avebury, but I thought Castlerigg was better.

We skipped Stonehenge because of the tourism hype.

Although not a henge, Hadrian's Wall is worth a visit too and ties in pretty well with Castlerigg.

[Wavytone]

First time I saw Stonehenge was as a kid when you could walk up to the stones - no visitor centre, no fences or ropes, no barriers - and you could even find you had it to yourself.

It is this memory I still have of it (and some old photos) and in this respect imho it is a monumental achievement in its era.

It is unfortunately in this era of instant gratification it is now so loved to death by the tourists and the lunatic fringe that ultimately I’m fairly sure it will end up completely fenced off to protect it.

[TheCrazedLog]

+1 for Hadrian's wall: We went and saw that up at Carlisle. That was very cool. Bath is great for Roman ruins as well and I do recommend the free town tour they do: I found that very interesting.

[pfitzgerald]

+1 for Hadrian's Wall.
+1 for Bath (Relatively close to Stonehenge)

Also add in Vindolanda, Housesteads & Birdoswald.

[lazjen]

And jumping in again, Bath gets a nod from me as well. You can also drop into Herschel's house there as well. Small museum.

[LewisM]

For me, it was finding stone circles etc in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish moors or along the lochs, as well as all the obscure, rarely over-visited "pile of rocks" that my family used to call them (heathens, the lot of them!).

The usual suspects held very little interest for me, though Rait Castle held a lot of interest to me.

[rrussell1962]

There is a very interesting site near Rothbury in Northumberland. I went there quite a few times when I was a student at Newcastle University. It's a Neolithic Hill Fort, the outlines of which are (were) still visible.

[inline_online]

Great, thanks for all the suggestions.
I will find myself a lonely henge somewhere. I'll post a photo next July when i return.

[graham.hobart]

If you get a chance to pop across the channel, there are extensive Neolithic standing stones around the Carnac area in France.
A good reference source is :The Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope.

[inline_online]

Thanks Graham.
Not sure we'll get the chance to do that as time will be in short supply. I'd be keen to see a stage of le Tour if I did go to France.