Stonehenge is renowned for its remarkable and uniquely carved rings of stones, cared for by English Heritage. But the World Heritage site on Salisbury Plain is far larger than this and the National Trust manages a rich archaeological landscape surrounding the stones.
Our Stonehenge estate contains many important Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial monuments - it is an historic environment which was gradually created over a 2000 year time period from about 3500 BC until 1500 BC. The Trust acquired its first piece of land here in 1924, and with the addition of Durrington in 2002, now owns almost 800 hectares.
Sustainable conservation
Managing this fragile archaeological environment is a constant balancing act. Regular work includes monitoring sheep and cattle grazing, erosion control, scrub management and protecting buried remains from burrowing animals.
Long barrows
The earliest monuments are the Neolithic communal burial places known as long barrows. One lies at the east end of a 3.8km long Middle Neolithic earthwork known as the Cursus. It was named by its discoverer William Stukeley who in the 1720s thought it looked like a Roman chariot racing track. Its true function is still not known.
The Avenue
Another key earthwork is the Avenue, that appears to have functioned as a ceremonial approach to Stonehenge from the north-east where the mid-summer sun rises. The Avenue provides an angle of approach that enables the observation of the midwinter sunset as it passes between the highest stones of the inner sarsen horseshoe of Stonehenge. This final straight approach to the stones is dated to 2200BC but the Avenue was extended in the later Bronze Age to curve round to the south-east down to the river Avon.
Durrington Walls
The National Trust has recently acquired a large part of another important part of the Stonehenge landscape, Durrington Walls. This roughly circular earthwork is about 500m in diameter and lies beside the River Avon 3km north-east of Stonehenge.
It is classified as a Late Neolithic henge consisting of a great outer bank and internal ditch, similar to Avebury but without evidence of inner rings of stones. Instead, rings of post-holes have been recorded that once held massive timber uprights. These may have formed large communal and/or ceremonial buildings but once again only dates and structural details can be discovered not functions or the belief systems that generated them.
Surrounding these great monuments are over 150 Bronze Age burial mounds containing the remains of the community that once understood and revered the ceremonies of the landscape. Many of these barrows were excavated by Sir Richard Colt Hoare of Stourhead in the early 19th century. His response to Stonehenge is still echoed by our own generation:
'How grand! How wonderful! How incomprehensible.'
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