Today Stonehenge is but a shadow of its former glory, although it is still an impressive place, and even though it was abandoned some 3000 years ago, an aura of enchantment still pervades the whole site. Although there is a genuine consensus that its function was almost certainly religious, nobody who has watched the midwinter sunrise over the great sarsen stones at the winter solstice can doubt that the stones must have had some astronomical significance or purpose.
At dawn on the morning of the summer solstice white-robed descendants of the United Ancient Order of Druids (founded by freemasons in London in 1833), still come to the site to perform a ritual handed down through oral tradition, during which they play harps and trumpets, salute the Heel Stone and the sarsen stones, utter murmuring chants and wave oak leaves or incense into the air. At other times of the year access to the stones is prevented by a fence intended to protect this ancient monument from the rigours and, sad to say, vandalising tendencies of the modern tourist industry. Yet this is still a special, mystical and magical place to visit, and if you arrive here in the early morning before the ceaseless onslaught of tourist busses disgorge their cargoes onto the site, you can truly imagine the sheer spiritual beauty of a place where people came to worship at the dawn of time.
Getting to Stonehenge. Trains depart from Waterloo Station in London hourly for Salisbury, a journey that takes approximately 2 hours. You can also travel by coach from Victoria Station, a trip that takes around 2 3/4 hours.
Once in Salisbury a Wilts and Dorset bus will take you to Stonehenge, a journey that takes approximately 30 minutes.
